Culture, Day 6 - Class Recap

A pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This was right across the street from where my friend Clarke lived for a while. Photo taken in 2011.

Hi everyone,

Today, I introduced the Culture Project to the class (probably due at the end of next week) and we continued the Time For School series of videos. Here's the recap for today:

Learning Targets:
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Critical Thinking LT 1: I can explain multiple perspectives and viewpoints.
Knowledge LT 15: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.
Behavior LT 1:  I can manage my responsibilities as a student.

Soundtrack: "Rhapsody in Blue" by Leonard Bernstein. Selected for today because a student in Period 1 suggested it, as an example of American culture, due to being in Fantastia, by Disney. No lyrics, but listen here.

AGENDA 10/27/15:
News Brief – Gabe
Culture Project
Time for School 3
Work Time

Homework: Read the blog. Continue working on the Culture Project! Next news brief: Jonathan B.

News Brief: Gabe had the news brief today and talked about this story with the class: CNN.com - 5 dead, 1 missing after whale-watching boat sinks off British Columbia. We found Canada on our world maps (in North America) and talked a little bit about what happened - this event was very close to home! Jonathan B. was selected to do the next news brief.

We also watched the one minute BBC World News update (shout out to Lucy Hockings for the reply on Twitter!). Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

BBCNews.com - One-minute World News

Finally, we checked in about the weekend (I am still quite sore from my half marathon!), and anything else that was happening, as well.

Culture Project: This is one of the main assignments for the culture unit, and I hope it is interesting for students to work on! There are a lot of options of what to do - it could be writing, a visual, a presentation, or something else. Here's the assignment:

Google Drive - Culture Project Assignment

This will be due in class next week (probably Thursday), so be working on it at home, bring work into class to do, and ask questions if you need help!

Time For School: We continued Time For School 3 today. If you missed class and the handout, here it is:

Google Drive - Time For School Documentary Handout

Again, the point to this was to analyze how we see surface culture and what deeper culture is like in different areas around the world.

Here are both parts to the documentary. I stopped Part 2 at about 18:30 in, when it finished talking about Nanavi.

PBS.org - Time For School 3 (Part 1) Documentary

PBS.org - Time For School 3 (Part 2) Documentary

Next class, we will finish with this and continue working on the culture project.

Work Time: The rest of class (about 20 minutes or so) was devoted to starting up the Culture Project, as I went around the class and answered questions about it, or brainstormed ideas. Please continue to be working on this at home! See you next class. :-)