World War I, Day 2 - Class Recap

My Great-Grandfather, Joseph Herbert "Bert" Frank, who was a medic for Great Britain during World War I. Photo courtesy of a conversation with my grandmother in 2007!

Hello everyone,

Thanks for another great class! I appreciate your willingness to listen and participate in what is going on! Here's what happened today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Critical Thinking and Analysis LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems, and concepts.
Knowledge LT 20: I can explain the impacts of nationalism and revolutionary movements.

Soundtrack: “Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer. Selected for today because the world definitely changed as a part of World War I. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 2/5/15:
News Brief - Maddy/Jacki
Review Cornell Notes
Europe Explodes
My Connection
Life in the Trenches

Homework: Read the blog! Next news brief: Jillian

News Brief: Maddy had the news brief today and selected this article to talk about: CNN.com - Jordan executes prisoners after ISIS hostage burned alive. What a terrible story this is. I was just in Jordan for a day this past summer, and I have to say that I really loved my time there (aside from a bout with food poisoning). We talked about the ongoing conflict with ISIS and why they killed the Jordanian pilot. Jacki came in a bit late and talked about the plane in Taiwan crashing, then we moved on to watching VICE News for the day.

Review Cornell Notes: This was the part of the process for Cornell Notes, in grouping terms, adding questions about the material, and summarizing what the presentation was about (on the MAIN causes of World War I). Thanks for your participation on this! I think it will help you remember!

Europe Explodes: During this section, I showed the class the map animations slideshow for the start of World War I here: PBS.org - Europe in 1914 and here: PBS.org - The Great War. I asked the class to take general notes about what the maps dealt with - especially in regards to the "Western Front" and "Eastern Front" relating to Germany. These are two very famous terms that you will hear about later in life, I am sure. It is important to learn about all of the different "dominoes" that fell in terms of alliances at the start of the war, as well.

My Connection: This section was a short and sweet (I hope) presentation about my great-grandfather's involvement in World War I as a medic. I did not ask the class to take notes. In case you missed class, or wanted to see the pictures again, here it is:

Google Docs - Mr. Fritz's Connection to World War I PowerPoint

I hope it was interesting, and I hope that you ask about your own family history! It was fascinating for me to learn about it from my grandmother over tea. :-)

Life in the Trenches: This section consisted of two parts. First, I showed the class a few minutes of a documentary on World War I (in color!) that talked about how awful the war was from the perspective of those who fought in it. That video can be found here (I started it at 7:49 and stopped it about 11:30 or so into it):

After watching the video clip, I talked a little more about conditions in the trenches, which were long lines dug out in the ground, not far away from each other. Over the course of the war, not much progress was made in the battles, since any advance by the opposition was fairly easy to stop. I believe I called the whole idea "stupid" quite a bit in class. It totally was.

I handed out a worksheet of letters home from soldiers on in the trenches, and then had the class imagine they were in the same position. This was what the work was for the rest of the class - making up your own letter on the back of the worksheet. If you missed class, you can download the worksheet and create your letter here:

Google Docs: Life in the Trenches - Letters Home Worksheet

Thank you for your work on this. It will be fun to go over them together next class!