Friday, June 12, 2015

Semester Finals - Class Recap


Sunset over Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was a great semester, everyone! Thank you for your hard work! Photo taken in 2011.

Hi everyone,

Today was our last day of class for the year. We had our final Israel-Palestine Peace Conference, reflection on the year, and then talked about life and what is coming up for a while. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Communication LT 2: I can use language and style that is appropriate to the content area.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.
Knowledge LT 10:  I can explain demographic changes in the world and their effects.
Knowledge LT 20:  I can explain the impacts of nationalism and revolutionary movements. Knowledge LT 22:  I can explain how religious ideas impact the shaping of societies.

Soundtrack: "Thankful" by Kelly Clarkson. Selected for today because I always choose this song for the last day of class, since I am so thankful to get to teach you all. Especially this year, which was a pretty challenging one, with my dad being killed - it was so helpful to be able to come to class and work with you. Thank you! Lyrics (some of which I read aloud in class) are here.

AGENDA 6/12/15:
News Brief – Bhavya
Peace Conference/Final
Pictures/Stories
Happy Summer!

Homework: Read the blog (if you want)! Have a great summer! Let me know if I can help you at any point in the future! :-)
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News Brief: Bhavya had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: TheGuardian.com - Israel exonerates itself over Gaza beach killings of four children last year. This was perfect, as it directly related to our final project for the year. Thanks, Bhavya.

We also watched VICE News for the last time today. If you want to stay up to date with these, look at the VICE News Playlist on YouTube - they are updated every weekday!

I talked in class about the importance of following the news and trying to stay up to date with what is happening in your city, state, country, and world. Knowledge is power! Try to stay plugged in to what is going on, if you can!

Peace Conference/Final: As promised, this was the Israel and Palestine Peace Conference. First, we had speeches (students that needed to demonstrate a Communication grade) that explained various aspects of the conflict and proposed possible solutions. Then, I led a discussion based on the different issues. I tried to ask everyone for their thoughts at least once. Generally, I thought this was quite good, and students seemed to know their stuff. Thank you for your effort on this! I look forward to reading your papers, as well.

The last part to the final was a reflection short answer about how the year went in Global Studies - what you learned, what you will put into practice in your life, and what you will remember five years from now. I look forward to reading these!

There is a fair amount of work involved in grading the finals, as well as late work that I need to grade. So, I anticipate having the grades submitted on Monday, but it could possibly be earlier.

Pictures/Stories: The end of class was set aside for some time to talk about summer (and collect pictures from the back wall, if students remembered). There wasn't a whole lot of time, but I did want to show this video (which was interrupted at the end) to encourage you to get out and explore the world this summer and in your lives:


Happy Summer! Thank you all so much for being so wonderful to work with. I truly loved teaching each and every one of you, and I hope you know that I care about you and want you to be successful in the future. Take care of yourselves and I hope to see you around! Have a great summer! :-)

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