Religion, Day 6 - Class Recap

The streets of Kathmandu at night are really something. The prayer flags lining the streets in Thamel are a nice touch. I have obviously been thinking a lot about my time in Nepal over Spring Break, since the enormous earthquake that killed 4,000+ people over the weekend. Photo taken in March, 2015.

Dear class,

Today was a lot of talking about many different types of beliefs, again! The last day of new notes for the Religion unit! Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Knowledge LT 22: I can explain how religious ideas impact the shaping of societies.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

Soundtrack: "Mustt Mustt" by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Selected because this is a representation of Sufism (some consider this to be a branch of Islam), Explanation of the song can be found here.

AGENDA 4/29/15:

News Brief – Alex D.
ISIS and Sunni/Shia
More Religions/Atheism
Vocabulary Guide

Homework: Read the blog! Study the religion vocabulary! Know your grade and how to improve it - Russian Revolution (found on this post), World War I work (found on this post) and finishing Historical Investigation if you have not - revisions needed, as well (if you want to turn in a revised copy, please give me the original graded copy for review, as well). Next news brief: Zachary V.

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News Brief: Alex D. had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - NASA: Russia seeks contact with craft bound for International Space Station. We found Russia on our world maps and talked about the ISS for a bit, too.

We also watched VICE News for the day, before moving on.

The next news brief was assigned to Zachary V.

ISIS and Sunni/Shia: To start this section, I asked the class to brainstorm what we knew about ISIS, especially as we have been talking about the group in our news briefs for the entire year so far. I wanted to hear what we remembered and also maybe some assumptions. Next, I asked students to get out paper for notes on the rest of the class and I played this video from the New York Times: NYTimes.com - The Evolution of ISIS. I also talked a bit about the demographics in the Middle East. Specifically, I wanted to look in depth at the central role that the two main sects of Islam have in conflict, by watching this video:

One of my main points with this is that we cannot stereotype "all Muslims" in many of the conflicts that the world is in, just as we cannot stereotype "all Christians" or any other religion. If you are really interested in learning a lot more about ISIS, I encourage you to read through this lengthy article: TheAtlantic.com - What ISIS Really Wants.

At the end of this section, we watched the short video called FIVE, looking at children in the five major religions we talked about with the PowerPoint slides:

Five from The Mercadantes on Vimeo.

More Religions/Atheism: Next, we did a sort of blitz through a few other religions that students wrote to me they identified with (I think these are important to cover), along with Atheism (belief that there is no God or gods at all).

Here are the resources we looked at as a class, as students took brief notes (there will be a few questions about these on the test):

Shintoism (based in Japan, focused on ancestral spirits).

Jainism (based in India, focused on nonviolence and sanctity of life).

Taoism (mostly found in China, based on concept of yin and yang).

Sikhism (based in India, focused on one God, rejection of caste system).

Finally, we ended by watching part of this video about Atheism, which is the belief that there is no God or gods, and that faith, being unscientific and not testable, is impossible to prove:

I thought the above videos and articles did a pretty good job explaining the points of view of some important philosophies in a short amount of time. Thanks for hanging in there with me as we looked at all of these!

Vocabulary Guide: At the end of class, I passed out a vocabulary sheet to study for the quiz. Please note that there will also be a question or two based on some of the religions we talked about today in class, too! This guide is intended for you to help review your Religion PowerPoint notes. Here it is:

Google Drive: Major Religions Vocabulary Study Guide

Be aware that Google Drive makes the sheet two pages, whereas the copy I passed out in class is just one page. Study the vocabulary and your notes from the beliefs we went over today! Next class, we will play PowerPoint Jeopardy to review, then take the religion test next week.

Religion, Day 5 - Class Recap

Arabic calligraphy that surrounds the entrance to the Taj Mahal, in India. We learned about Islam today in class - this is a famous example of Islamic architecture in the world! Photo taken over Spring Break, 2015. 

Hi everyone,

I hope you enjoyed the long weekend! I did a ton of grading on Friday and felt very accomplished at the end of a long day here at Westview, then really enjoyed my time at the Oregon Coast with my girlfriend the rest of the weekend. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Knowledge LT 22: I can explain how religious ideas impact the shaping of societies.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

Soundtrack: "Spirit in the Sky" by Norman Greenbaum. Selected for today because of our ongoing religion unit. The lyrics also mention Jesus, who we talked about today and last class in regards to Christianity.

AGENDA 4/27/15:

News Brief – Anju
Is America a Christian Nation?
The Pluralism Project
Islam

Homework: Read the blog!  Know your grade and how to improve it - Russian Revolution (found on this post), World War I work (found on this post) and finishing Historical Investigation if you have not - revisions needed, as well (if you want to turn in a revised copy, please give me the original graded copy for review, as well). Next news brief: Alex D.

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News Brief: Anju had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - Nepal quake: Death toll passes 3,200 as nation struggles with devastation. This story has dominated international news, and I obviously feel a personal connection to this, as I was just in Kathmandu, Nepal last month for Spring Break. I showed this article (which has some stunning before/after images) in class, to talk about the religious impact of the earthquake: CNN.com - How Hindus and Buddhists view Nepal's devastating earthquake. I also showed some Facebook posts, of places in Kathmandu that I stayed or went to - it seems like the people I interacted with are fine, but the devastation is extreme.

We also watched VICE News for the day and talked about our weekends, before moving on.

The next news brief was assigned to Alex D.

Is America A Christian Nation?: This was not meant as a debate question in class, but rather a look at how religion impacts and shapes our own society (relating, as always, to the learning target for the unit). I had students create a YES/NO t-chart on a piece of paper to look at both sides of this. To start with this, we watched the video clip from this story from nearby in Washington:

KGW.com - Clark County building will display 'In God We Trust'

This was meant as a call back to earlier in the year, when we had a Forced Choice debate on whether or not the phrase In God We Trust should be removed from our currency. It was also meant to show how fired up both sides were, and how religion impacts our society.

Next, we watched a short clip of President Obama saying that the United States is no longer a Christian nation, which upset a lot of people at the time.

Then, we watched this debate on the TV show Hardball in 2009, between an Atheist and a Christian, talking about the origins of the United States government and the role religion should play in our lives (again, students were supposed to note both sides of the debate):

Finally, I showed some more Pro/Con quotes. Again, this was not a debate we had in class - I just wanted everyone to see that it IS a debate, and be able to identify some different perspectives.

The Pluralism Project: Next, I passed out this in-class assignment, which is a reading and some questions on the back:

Google Drive: Harvard University - The Pluralism Project

The point here was to see that there are a variety of different religions (and people who don't believe in religion) in the United States, which the article makes the case is a reason our society has been shaped (get it - the learning target again!). Students were expected to read the article and answer the three questions on the back. I called on students randomly to talk about the answers. As part of this, we looked at the U.S. Census Population Clock to see how many people are in America.

Christianity: Next, we continued with the religion notes, using the Cornell Notes format. Here is the PowerPoint again:

Google Drive: Major Religions of the World PowerPoint

Today, we finished the last religion in the PowerPoint - Islam. I appreciated your focus on it! I enjoyed, as always, explaining and trying to answer questions from the class. It was also great to have students be able to share and explain more about their own faiths!

Thanks for your continued hard work! Only six more weeks left until the end of the year! Let's keep at it!

Religion, Day 4 - Class Recap

We took notes about Christianity today in class. This is a photo from the top of a mountain overlook Cabo San Lucas, at the tip of Baja California in Mexico. Taken over Winter Break, 2014.

Dear class,

What a relief for me to be able to pass back your graded Historical Investigations today! Whew! They definitely take a ton of time to grade. It was also nice to be able to continue looking at how religion impacts society, and with taking notes on a new religion. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Knowledge LT 22: I can explain how religious ideas impact the shaping of societies.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

Soundtrack: "Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor" from The Pianist (Wladek Szpilman). Selected for today because of the story of Szpilman, who was a Jewish pianist that survived the Holocaust. No lyrics, but listen to the song here.

AGENDA 4/22/15:

News Brief – Braydan
Historical Investigation Grades
Israel and Religion
Christianity
Grade Check

Homework: Read the blog! Know your grade and how to improve it - Russian Revolution (found on this post), World War I work (found on this post) and finishing Historical Investigation if you have not - revisions needed, as well. Next news brief: Anju.

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News Brief: Braydan had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - Drone with radioactive material found on Japanese Prime Minister's roof. Woah! What a story! How is this not a bigger deal? When Braydan told us about this story in the morning, I almost couldn't believe it! It's like the plot of a movie!

We also watched VICE News for the day, before moving on.

The next news brief was assigned to Anju.

Historical Investigation Grades: I spent about 8-9 hours the last couple of days, grading. The result was getting your class graded.

I cannot promise that your revisions on this will be graded by progress reports, if you give them to me by Thursday, because I still have the first editions of the other two classes to go through. But turning in revisions would wipe out the current N grades on the project, which would be massively helpful in improving your grade.

Please see my extensive comments in the text of your paper, along with the grading sheet comments, to determine what you need to do. If you have not turned anything in to me yet, that needs to happen ASAP to avoid a bad grade on your progress report.

Israel and Religion: To focus on how the Jewish religion impacts and shapes society, it is easy to point to the only country in the world where Judaism is the main religion: Israel. To start this section, I played this video that my Period 3 student Orel sent me, which is about the Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel, and stopping everything for a minute to reflect:

הדקה הזאת...
Holocaust Memorial Day - יום השואה
Posted by ‎ערבות‎ on Thursday, April 16, 2015

What an incredibly powerful video! Thank you for sharing it with us, Orel!

The next document I showed the class was this recent survey of Americans about their attitudes towards Israel: Gallup.com - Seven in 10 Americans Continue to View Israel Favorably. I showed this to demonstrate that there is still huge support for Israel here in the United States, and I talked about the reasons why this might be - again, how religion impacts society.

Finally, I showed this video from the New York Times: NYTimes.com - Israelis Split Over Service. This was to show the conflict within Israel between Ultra-Orthodox Jews and the military, who mandates that people of the country serve when they turn 18.

After the video, I asked the question of whether or not students thought the Jewish people in the video should be forced to serve in the military, and we had an interesting discussion about it.

Christianity: Next, we continued with the religion notes, using the Cornell Notes format. Here is the PowerPoint again:

Google Drive: Major Religions of the World PowerPoint

Today, we finished the fourth religion in the PowerPoint - Christianity. I appreciated your focus on it! I enjoyed, as always, explaining and trying to answer questions from the class. :-)

Grade Check: The rest of class was devoted to working on improving your grade if at all possible! I talked students that I had specific concerns about for grades on this upcoming progress report, and my message was largely that you can still save yourself by getting credit for the year, even if you have an F. There is lots of work to do, but it is not too late! I have updated your grades online to reflect the Historical Investigation, as well. Let me know if there is anything that I can do to help!