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! :-)

Period 2: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 14 - Class Recap

One of the promotional images for the film Promises that we are watching in class. Found on the official website, here.
Dear Period 2,

Thank you for the class today! I think that it went well, though I did notice a little lack of focus at times on the film - which is made all the worse because there is no way that you will be able to understand what the people are saying unless you can have your head up to see the subtitles! Anyway, I liked how it all went.

Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? What are the factors to consider in the development of a Palestinian state?

Soundtrack: "Dear Mama" by 2Pac. Lyrics here. Chosen because it is Mother's Day on Sunday! This is an excellent song - it is the ringtone for when my mom calls me! :-)

AGENDA 5/8/09:
Mother's Day
News Brief
Promises, Part II

Homework: Bring presentations and papers for Tuesday (for real)! Read blog recap!

As I said in class, next week we will be doing the presentations. As you could hopefully see, showing the film Promises was a great way to lead in to getting people to work together. There was a lot of it in the movie! Now I want to see your takes on it! Remember, both your final paper and presentation should be ready to go by Tuesday. Also, I want you to bring back your completed film notes (I am guessing there are about 2 more minutes to watch, so we will probably do that and then get on to the presentations). Thanks!

Mother's Day: At the start of class, I went over the essential questions, soundtrack, and agenda, which led into talking a little bit about what people were doing for Mother's Day. Please be good to your mom! She helped shape you into the person you are today! :-)

News Brief: After talking for a minute or so about the importance of mothers, we got to hear a little bit about what is going on in the world! Someone noted that the Statue of Liberty is finally reopening. They have that planned for July 4th! I would highly encourage you to check it out if you are ever in New York City. Very cool place. Source: CNN.com - Statue of Liberty's crown to re-open July 4.

Stephen asked about why the United States gives Israel 3 billion dollars a year. Here's at least one perspective: Israeli-United States Relations. A quote:

U.S.-Israeli relations have evolved from an initial American policy of sympathy and support for the creation of a Jewish homeland in 1948 to an unusual partnership that links a small but militarily powerful Israel, dependent on the United States for its economic and military strength, with the U. S. superpower trying to balance competing interests in the region. Some in the United States question the levels of aid and general commitment to Israel, and argue that a U. S. bias toward Israel operates at the expense of improved U. S. relations with various Arab states. Others maintain that democratic Israel is a strategic ally, and that U. S. relations with Israel strengthens the U. S. presence in the Middle East.

I mentioned that the U.S. also provides a lot of aid to Pakistan (in order to help it fight the Taliban and other Islamic extremists in the country), and that last summer a report came out about some of the wasteful spending. Specifically, I mentioned a fleet of cars that Pakistan bought with U.S. money. Here is a great article talking all about that: WashingtonPost.com - U.S. Funding to Pakistan Plagued With Problems, GAO Report Says. A relevant quote:

In one example, the report cited monthly payments averaging $19,000 per vehicle for 20 passenger vehicles used by the Pakistani navy that appeared to contain "duplicative charges," the GAO said. The Pentagon often did not document its basis for evaluating claims and did not check Pakistan's currency conversions, which could have led to overbilling, the report said.

Look, this is not to say that all the aid the United States gives to Pakistan is being spent terribly. I tend to disagree when people make the argument that all the money being put forth to a particular purpose must be not worthy because of individual specific cases of inefficiencies, where money is spent badly. That is the same sort of argument that some people use to say that schools should get less funding, because they waste a lot of money on bureaucrats, or other individual aspects. It just makes no sense in the grand scheme of things.

In fact, check out this current article from just this last Monday: CNN.com - Legislation would triple U.S. non-military aid to Pakistan. Currently, we provide 500 million dollars a year to Pakistan. This bill would up that to $1.5 million. Again, a HUGE reason why paying attention to the Middle East is important. These are our tax dollars! We need to know what is going on, in order to be well informed about why our money goes where it does!

Suzie brought in this article to talk about: NYTimes.com - Swine Flu Cases Worldwide Exceed 2,300. I noted that this is something to be still really careful about, especially because really deadly flu viruses tend to start slow and then evolve into something really dangerous. The 1918 flu epidemic killed millions and millions of people and started just this way.

Thanks for the article Suzie! Luke, you are up for next class. Any current article about anything going on outside the United States.

Promises, Part II: I did not get to stop this as much as I wanted (and there are still a couple of minutes left) but generally, I liked this. Again, hopefully you can see now why it is so important to find common ground between people! This is what your presentations should be all about. I am super excited to see what you bring in on Tuesday! :-)
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Thanks go out to Haze, Krishna, and Stephen for playing hoops at lunch, and Iris for coming and watching. That was fun! Also, thanks go out to the rest of you as well, for being such amazing students!

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy Mother's Day! I will be unavailable to post and respond to comments from 4-10 tonight (Friday), but other than that, I should be able to get back to you fairly quickly. Have fun in the sun! :-)

Period 2: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 13 - Class Recap

Another one of the pictures that I took in downtown Portland over Spring Break. I'm going to make this relate by saying that rivers, railroads, bridges, and even planes (look at the top of the picture for the light) all connect cultures and countries.
Hello class!

I'm wondering if I will have any extra people on here reading this, due to the events of the class today! Let's hope. Generally, I really liked what we did today, and I am glad that I changed up what we were going to do. Yes, I think most of you guys were ready to do these presentations and would do a fantastic job. However, as I said in the last blog, I think that by switching it up, I can give you an even better idea of exactly what I am looking for with this. Anyway, I'm glad that I am able to do things like that and have everyone buy in to it! Thanks!

Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? What are the factors to consider in the development of a Palestinian state?

Soundtrack: "You Can't Hurry Love" by Phil Collins. Lyrics here. Really an excellent song about having patience, which I was asking you to do with these presentations. Also, a great song for looking at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well.

AGENDA 5/6/09:
News Brief
Calling an Audible
Promises

Homework: Continue to work on final project (paper and creative product)! Read blog recap!

This should hopefully be made much more clear by the recap about everything, so read on!

News Brief: I know that we had a good conversation, as always. I remember that Iris and Diana have a lacrosse game at 6:30 on Thursday, here at Westview. Other than that, I'm not entirely sure that I can remember what we talked about, besides:

The swine flu! What a surprise! :-) Stephen noted (which was the story that James was going to use for his news brief) that the first American died of the swine flu (or at least, had the swine flu and later died). The story about that can be found here: CBSNews.com - First U.S. Resident Dies Of H1N1 In Texas.

We had some more good discussion about this, but quite honestly, it really isn't that interesting at this point. There are plenty of other things going on in the world - let's try to focus on those please! :-)

James, thanks for having that topic of discussion ready. Suzie, you are up (I know, I'm sorry) for next class on Friday! I'm excited! Any current news article about anything going on outside the United States.

Calling an Audible: I asked the class if you knew what an "audible" meant - I loved hearing the very deep "yes" from the guys. Here's a great definition for everyone. About.com - Football Glossary - Audible. Basically, I wanted to switch things up, because I believe it makes a whole lot more sense logically to end the unit by first watching the movie Promises, and then going on to the presentations that will aim to bring people together. So, I did that.

Before this, however, I asked everyone to get out their explanation papers, so I could check them off to make sure everyone that actually did them on time got credit for it. Please e-mail me the paper ASAP if you were not able to show me in class.

Another reason why I wanted to flip things up was because I got the feeling that your papers weren't going to really touch on the ideas that I was asking you to. To help you out in revising, I read four samples from my Period 1 class that I thought were particularly well done. The common thread between all of them were:

- Facts about the conflict: Who, what, when, where, why.

- Sides to the debate.

- How your presentation is going to address this and bring people together. What is your decision about a possible way for this to happen - a solution?

Please revise and update your papers accordingly. Like I said in class, I am not expecting this to be a major production. However, I want to make EXTRA sure that you can really explain what your presentation is going to do. I may even have you read it before your presentation, so that we can see what your thinking was.

Promises: We watched about 35 minutes of this movie, pausing from time to time to write down thoughts and questions to the children in the film. From what I could tell, everyone knew what was going on, was actively involved in watching the film, and had some incredibly interesting thoughts to share. I am really excited to finish this up next class! Please bring those conversation pieces to class to continue!

Like I said in class and before on here, I am sorry about unexpectedly flipping everything up. I think by the end of the film that you will agree that it makes way more sense to do it this way though. Thanks for being willing to work with me!
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I think that should just about do it! Please get in touch with me if you need any help at all, or have questions about anything. Or, just post comments about whatever. That works too. :-)

The Office is on tomorrow night (Thursday, 9:00 PM, NBC), and it is always funny. Other than that, please continue working on your papers and projects, and come ready for class on Friday!

Have a wonderful afternoon!