Period 2: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 15 - Class Recap

Faraj Adnan, one of the people in the movie Promises that we finished today. The picture can be found here. Also, here is a site that tells you a little bit about what happened right after the movie. Faraj is now 24. Should you feel so inclined, here is Faraj's MySpace, and here is his FaceBook. Also, while you are at it, here is Yarko Solan's FaceBook. I wonder if they are friends? Certainly something that connects cultures and countries - social networking sites! :-)
Good afternoon students,

I must say, I REALLY liked your presentations and creative products today. I now know that I made the right decision in putting them off until today. That extra time, as well as making it really explicit how I wanted you to relate your product to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, paid great dividends. Thank you for your hard work, those of you that went today! We will finish these up next class and then move on to the next unit.

Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? How can the Middle East be stabilized?

Soundtrack: "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith. Chosen because today had a lot to do with the emotional pull on people, and because it is a great rock song.

AGENDA 5/12/09:
News Brief
Finish Promises
Student Presentations

Homework: Finish any late work – be prepared for next class! Read blog recap!

Also, because I understand that the internet was down at school this morning and nobody that wanted to print out their explanation papers before class, please either e-mail me it or bring in a hard copy for me on Thursday - regardless of whether or not you presented today. I was going to make everyone turn in the paper today (thank you to those who did after their presentations), but I think this way makes more sense now.

News Brief: After going over the essential questions (and pointing out Allie's excellent find that relates in the comments on the last blog post), soundtrack, agenda, and homework, I asked a little bit about what everyone did for the weekend. I hope you were good to your mom's!

Mary started out the news from around the world section with the really interesting topic of the search for Earth-like planets in the universe. Here is an awesome article detailing the current quest: WashingtonPost.com - Science Digest, April 27, 2009. As I pointed out in class, there are so many stars and galaxies in the universe that it is probable that there are other places out there that are capable of having the right conditions for life.

For the news brief today, Luke talked about the recent diversion of a plane because of swine flu fears. Here is an article about this: Boston.com - Flight diverted to Boston after passenger complains of flu-like symptoms. Really, people get spooked by this sort of stuff. A great article recapping why the idea that airplanes just recirculate air and infects everyone on the plane is completely untrue can be found here: Salon.com - Ask the Pilot, May 8, 2009.

Furthermore, as I was trying to point out using the map, and subsequently made it crash and fall to the ground, the shortest distance between two points on the globe is very rarely a straight line because of the curve of the globe. The website Great Circle Mapper is an excellent representation of this. Check out what the flight path between Portland and Beijing, China if such a flight actually existed (it does not, currently): Great Circle Mapper, PDX-PEK.

Interesting stuff, right? Thanks Luke! Yesenia, you are up for next class please! One news article about anything currently going on outside the United States!

Finish Promises: I'm glad everyone participated in this! Even more so, I was really excited to hear your thoughts about all of it, especially about the innocence of children and the circumstances that they were born into. This was so related to the rest of the movie and the overall point!

By the way, now that the film is done, here is the trailer for the movie, and you can also watch the entire film on YouTube in 10 parts. That playlist can be found here.

I am very interested to see what you did with these conversations! I think it was a good way to approach watching the film. It is possible that we will do something next class with these as well. Again, thank you for your participation!

Student Presentations: After wrapping the movie went, we went on to your presentations! I asked the class about elements to a good presentation, which I wrote on the board. I also wanted everyone in the audience to write about what was interesting/good about each presentation, as well as how it made you feel. With that, I turned it over to you guys! We had Amy, Corri and Brian, Aaron and Dylan and Logan, Nasser and Jaye, Suzie and Ariel, Diana and Breanna, Sante and Haze, Iris, Sam and Stephen, Sarah, and Juliet go today. Thank you! To everyone not on that list, please be ready to go tomorrow!

I am attempting to upload Dylan, Logan, and Aaron's video creation on YouTube - I will post if it is successful.

Overall, as I said above, I think that these were fantastic. A lot of thought and effort went in to most of your presentations! Thank you! We will continue with the presentations next class, then move on to the next unit.
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Have a fantastic afternoon! Thanks for being such great students! See you on Thursday! :-)