Geography, Day 1 - Class Recap

The ball of yarn that we used in class today for the Class Unity Activity! Thanks for participating in this!

Dear class,

I enjoyed getting to know you all a bit better today! We had a productive time with the yarn activity and learning more about what is going on in the world at the end of the class. I also loved seeing your photos and having them put up on the walls!

Learning Targets Addressed: 

Behavior LT 3: I can communicate and work effectively within a team or group.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Knowledge LT 6: I can demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of locations and regions.
Knowledge LT 7: I can demonstrate the ability to use geographic tools.

Soundtrack: "Comin' From Where I'm From" by Anthony Hamilton. Because today, we talked about where we are from and how we got to be at Westview, via our family background. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/16/15:
News Brief - Christian L.
Photos/Finish Fear
Class Unity Activity
The Summer

Homework: Read the blog and post a comment (if you have not already). Bring a photo if you have not already! Many people in the class did not today, so please do this! The next news brief is assigned to: Madi.

News Brief: Today's news brief was brought in by Christian L, who selected an article about this story: CNN.com - North Korea warns U.S. it's ready to use nuclear weapons 'any time'. This is certainly a scary sounding story, for sure. I talked in class about the current capabilities of North Korean missiles, making it impossible to hit the U.S. mainland from North Korea at the moment, and also how destabilizing it is to have a country in Asia threatening others. Some say that this is so that China will provide more aid and tell the North Koreans to tone it down a bit.

Madi was randomly selected to do the next news brief.

We also watched VICE News for the day:

Photos/Finish Fear: After the news, we heard from students who remembered to do their homework and bring in a photo from a place they have been, a place they want to go, or a picture of their family. I really enjoyed this, and it was so cool to see everyone's photos and hear stories! If you did not bring in a picture, please do so next class.

We then shared a bit about the "fear" stories I had the class write last time, because I talked about how the U.S. felt a lot of fear after September 11th. It was interesting to hear the stories that were shared out - lots of paintball related ones, it seemed like!

Class Unity Activity: I always love this, for many reasons. One, because I love hearing about how everyone came to be in our classroom. Two, because of how the yarn connects us all. Three, because it helps the class (and me) learn names and a little about each other! Thank you for participating in this. It can get lengthy, I know, but I value it so much more than just lecturing for that time.

The Summer: At the end of the class, I asked students to get back into the groups from analyzing the pictures from last class and then asked what happened in the world over the summer. We came up with a pretty good list as a class. Next time, we will analyze this a bit more and talk about it!

We finished with that. Please be ready to discuss next class. Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks!