Welcome to your summer! This is a picture I took last winter at Malibu Beach, California. I really hope that everyone does some traveling this summer and experiences the wide world around us!
Hello former students!
This is seriously so strange! First, this is the first time I have written a class recap blog days after the actual class. It was just insanely busy there for everyone at the end of the week. Secondly, I have no idea who is actually going to read this, considering there is no real reason to unless you are interested about what happened in class or what I am up to. Anyway, here goes! Please let me know (as always) if you have any questions or comments!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? How did the concept of nonviolence develop and become implemented?
Soundtrack: What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. Lyrics here. As I said in class, this is one of my favorite songs ever, and the one that I picked to best describe myself when I was a sophomore in high school. A great one to end out the year of Global Studies!
AGENDA 6/11/09: News Brief What We Want to Be Class Reflections Travel and Thrive
Homework: Have a wonderful summer! Read the new blog, if you like! Stay in touch!
After going over all of the stuff written on the board, I gave everyone my personal e-mail address (because I lost my Beaverton one at midnight last night), which is: LukeFritz@aol.com.
I am very serious when I say that I want you to stay in touch! Send me updates on what is going on! Need me to proof read a paper? Send it my way! Have a question about something going on around the world? E-mail me!
I also pointed out that I have started a new class blog for all of my Global Studies students to keep in touch with each other, which can be found here: http://westviewgsalum.blogspot.com/. I have already e-mailed everyone I could find addresses from to become authors on there - please let me know if you did not get one and want an invite! It looks like Haze posted a comment DURING CLASS, to start us off, haha. I am guessing that this new blog will only be as good as you help make it. If I see that nobody is actually reading it, I am sure that it will die off soon. I really do not want that to happen! Please favorite it and come back every so often to check in - if you have something especially cool to post, let me know, and I can give you a screenname to post on the blog with, anytime you want!
News Brief: Again, this is a little strange, because a lot of this happened a few days ago, but here goes.
Sam was going to mention for his news brief (before someone else mentioned it first) the shooting on Wednesday at the Holocaust Memorial in Washington D.C. Here is a recap of what happened: CNN.com - Guard killed during shooting at Holocaust museum. I was also blown away to hear how truly hateful this 88 year old man is. Hopefully this will show you one of the reasons why the United States supports Israel so much - for whatever reason, there is a LOT of hatred for Jewish people (which is called being an Anti-Semite) out there in the world. Here is a great article about responding to hate and intolerance in this case: WashingtonPost.com - Stepping Up to Defy Intolerance. A great quote, that reminds me of so many things we have talked about in class this year:
For many visitors, the reopening yesterday was an opportunity to make a statement of defiance against intolerance.
"We can't let hatred win," said William Dailey, a teacher at Jefferson Junior High School in Toledo who was chaperoning a school trip.
Toward the head of the line was Tammi Miller, 17, visiting Washington with her family from South Florida. Miller was in the museum Wednesday and was evacuated by way of a fire escape when the shooting began.
"It's important to come back, because if you don't, they win," she said. "It's a form of terrorism."
Really interesting and tragic at the same time. It is a sometimes brutal world out there!
This story was also mentioned in class (a topic that we had talked about a lot in the last couple of months): Yahoo! News - WHO: Swine flu pandemic has begun, 1st in 41 years. As it mentions in the article, the term pandemic basically means an epidemic all over the world - in this case, it is still something to be concerned about, though it does not seem even as close to as deadly as originally feared.
Thank you for your interest and attention in the news brief section all year! I love how the class brought such interesting things in to talk about and keep me on my toes!
What We Want to Be: As I pointed out, I got very little sleep last night because of grading your papers, so I did not get to do anything fancy with your "be the change" assignment that I had you do last class - as in a PowerPoint or something. However, I think it was almost as good just to be able to read them aloud and have you write about what your fellow classmates said. Here is a picture of what we came up with as far as noticing what everyone said:
I know this may have been a little boring, but I really thought it was cool to see what everyone said. Stay true to your hopes and dreams! You all are seriously amazing!
Class Reflections: See, it would have been nice to have had time for this earlier in the week so that I could talk to you about what your class wrote, but here goes. I selected a few comments to post that I especially liked (obviously, there were great comments about how to get better, too):
"That you are very nice and always come with a big smile on your face - I get happy too!"
"I have no advice, but as a comment, I liked the effort you put into our classes. No other teachers do that." - As an aside here, I am confident that your other teachers work just as hard if not harder than I do - you probably just noticed it more because I was new to it all.
"I will remember this class by all the inspiring stuff we learned."
"Thanks a lot Mr. Fritz, for teaching me Global Studies, not just textbook worksheets, but videos and researching that helped me a lot."
Thank you for all the valuable information and thoughts!
Travel and Thrive: The "Travel" section of this part of the lesson was geared around watching about a 10 minute clip from near the end of movie Elizabethtown (2005). The rest of the movie is pretty good too, but the particular sequence that I showed you I just LOVE! It is all about just exploring the country and talking to others and making connections (even with the character's dead father). I made this relate to class because Orlando Bloom visits the place where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot to spread some ashes. Really one of my favorite sequences (I love the music too) of traveling that I know of. My other favorite movie about traveling is Lost in Translation (2003) which is downright fantastic (however, please wait until you are 18 for that one please)! In fact, it is my eighth favorite movie of all time (ask me sometime if you want to know the top 10). :-)
The "Thrive" part of this was watching one of the most inspirational speeches that I have ever seen:
This was former North Carolina State basketball coach (and National Championship winner) Jimmy Valvano, who at the time was dying of cancer. A few months after this speech, he passed away, but wow, what a legacy to leave behind! You laugh, you think, and you cry, that is a heck of a day. Yes it is!
Anyway, after this clip, we had a short discussion about where people were traveling to this summer, if they were. Many of you were going to really amazing places! Please, please take notice of how amazing the world is around you, where ever you go! Take pictures, breathe it in! One of my favorite things to do when I am traveling is to sit down, close my eyes, and simply just listen. That would have been the activity we would have done outside, by the way - with some creative writing attached to it. Soak in life!
One final class related note: please RECYCLE your papers that you know you will not need in the future. I would feel terrible if we you spent an entire year in Global Studies and then threw your paper into the trash, to make even bigger piles of garbage around our planet.
That should just about do it, everyone! Make sure to keep checking in and getting on the alumni blog, which I have some big plans for! Seriously, I will be so disappointed if you do not! Have a fantastic few months off, and let me know what you are up to! Also, barring me being on another continent or something, I will definitely be coming back to see everyone graduate in three years (though obviously, I want to come back tons of times before that too). Just know that you have that to look forward to. I will never ever forget everyone in this class. Until the next time our paths cross, this is Luke, signing off. :-)
At my Lewis and Clark graduation on Sunday! From left to right, my dad, my brother, Mrs. DeFrance, me, my mom, my grandma, and my grandpa (my dad's parents). Fun times! It was a way too fast weekend! Time to finish out the end of the year!
Hello everyone!
Oh my goodness, we only have one more class together! This is all coming to an end really fast. I hope you enjoyed today's class - thanks for the attention, even with multiple things going on during the lesson. Please remember to finish out the year strong with the paper and any revisions that we asked you to do. Also, come see me or e-mail about any late work you may have to do! Let's go out on a high note!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? How did the concept of nonviolence develop and become implemented? - We looked at multiple angles of the answers to these questions today!
Soundtrack: "If You're Out There" by John Legend. Lyrics here. The verse that I especially wanted to highlight is:
If you're ready we can save the world Believe again, it starts within We don't have to wait for destiny We should be the change that we want to see
Great song! :-)
AGENDA 6/9/09: News Brief Be the Change/Revisions Letter to Self (Outside?) Class Reflections
Homework: Finish any late work – REVISE your papers, if needed! Read the blog and ask questions!
Seriously, either Mrs. DeFrance or I would be happy to have you revise the paper - please make your best effort! If you have not given me a copy of your paper (at all), you definitely need to be e-mailing it to me ASAP. I hope everyone is clear on this. Thanks!
Sam, you are up for the last news brief of the year on Thursday. Any article about anything currently going on around the world outside the United States. Thanks!
Be the Change/Revisions: After the news brief, I wanted everyone to really be thinking about how they want to have a positive effect on the world. To get you thinking about this, I showed this video (one of the most popular on YouTube):
I then asked the class to write about how you want to be the change you wish to see in the world (a Gandhi quote). How are you going to leave a lasting positive impact? I then left you to be writing as Mrs. DeFrance and I checked in with everyone about the revisions we requested for your paper. This took much longer than we were anticipating, so I am sorry if you were finished with your positive life story and had nothing to do. Sometimes class just works out like that!
Letter to Self: For this portion of class, I handed back the letters that you wrote to yourselves from the beginning of the year as well as a reflection piece to do on them. I know that most of you did not have the time to finish this in class, so please read your paper over again and write out your reflections! We are really interested in what you have to say!
Class Reflections: We did not get to these because of the timing issues with the class, but I hope to have some sort of reflection on the year from you guys during next class - our last of the year! Ahh! So crazy! ---
Have a great night! I have a million things to do: grading, blog writing, football practice, more grading, lesson planning, dinner, and possibly (hopefully) sleep at some point. Thus, please do not be offended if I can't post your comment right away. I will promise to read and respond to everything that you send me though! Please keep working hard through the end of the year! :-)
Gandhi advocated living simply (as you saw today). This is a picture I took last fall of a farm by Lake Oswego, about five miles away from my house. It reminds me of simple times.
Good afternoon Period 2!
I am so sad that today was our last Friday together! I hope that we made the best of it, though I must say, that was one of the longest periods I have ever had! We started at 7:45 and finally let out (due to the long assembly for the seniors) at 11:10. Crazy times. On to the class recap!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? How did the concept of nonviolence develop and become implemented?
Soundtrack: "Comin' From Where I'm From" by Anthony Hamilton. Lyrics here. Chosen for today because we are continuing to talk about empathy and nonviolence. That, and it is an excellent song.
AGENDA 6/5/09: News Brief – President Obama/Tiananmen Square Example Paper Talking Gandhi
Homework: Finish and turn in any late work! Read the blog and ask questions!
For those that did not turn in your final paper today, please e-mail me at luke_fritz@beavton.k12.or.us as soon as possible. Thanks!
News Brief: We talked about the enormous lightning storm that happened in Portland last night! It was certainly something to take notice of. I was inside watching the NBA Finals. Good times.
We talked a little bit about the Air France Flight 447 disaster and trying to find the debris (an article on that can be found here: CNN.com - Brazilian air force says debris was not from Air France crash) and Diana asked about the Bermuda Triangle - which is a close, but not exactly where the plane went down. Interesting information at the Wikipedia site! I think what I was talking about in class as far as geysers and such that might be part of the reason for the strange activity in that region are Methane Hydrates.
I mentioned that I will be "graduating" (we still have two more months of classes after this) from Lewis and Clark this Sunday, at 10:00 AM. You can see all of my teaching friends and me! Woo hoo! Here is a link to watch the ceremony live online: Lewis and Clark Commencement 2009. Apparently, the webcast launches at 9:45 AM and changes to live feed at 10 AM. Let me know in the comments if there is a consensus about a signal I can do for you guys! I suppose I could do the touching the nose thing if all else fails. If you don't know when I will be coming up, it is alphabetical by degree. I will be getting my Masters of Arts in Teaching. :-)
I also wanted to point out that the NBA Finals starts tonight, and if you want Mr. Hardin to be sane tomorrow when he is teaching you guys, you had better be rooting for the Lakers. That will air at 6:00 PM on ABC.
As Amy mentioned for her news brief article today (which you can read here: NYTimes.com - Addressing Muslims, Obama Pushes Middle East Peace) President Obama had an enormously big speech yesterday in Cairo, Egypt. He was talking to Muslims in the Middle East. Some of it was almost EXACTLY the same as what you guys did for your Israeli-Palestinian project! Specifically, I wanted to show the class what he had to say about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and nonviolence (tying the last two units together):
I also showed the end to the speech, when the President tried to say that Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all had the goal of promoting peace in the world. This was very much like Sarah's presentation for the Israeli-Palestinian unit! The video we watched can be found here.
Finally, I wanted to make sure to note that today was the 20th Anniversary of the Tienanmen Square protests being broken up. Read all about the event here. This is the video I showed in class (just the first part, until the credits roll):
After this played, I showed this video of the unknown "tank man" standing up to block the Chinese military. A very important date in history!
Thanks for indulging me in all these videos! I hope you found it interesting!
Example Paper: After this extremely long news brief section, I showcased an example of a really good research paper, done by Sarah. It was all about chocolate, and how it has an impact on the economy, health, and happiness! See, that is the power of a thesis statement - I didn't even have to look that up. Because Sarah had a really memorable thesis and paper, it is easy for me to recall what she was talking about. Hopefully, showing her paper to the class was something that everyone learned from - I was really glad to hear the clapping at the end too! It was a great paper! Thanks for the hard work on it Sarah! :-)
Talking Gandhi: Because the class was shortened, this section was not as long as I had hoped that it would be, though I am glad that we got to talk a little bit about the magazine article I had you read last class. I asked everyone to volunteer a few things that Gandhi tried to do in order to better society through nonviolence. The class mentioned his hunger strikes as well as resisting temptation. This was good! After a brief discussion, we watched a biography (if you can call a three minute video a biography) of Gandhi and his philosophy on nonviolence, which you can watch again here.
When the video was over, so was the class! We then voted on a movie to watch as the senior assembly was going on (the freshmen were not allowed to go because of a lack of seating in the gym). The rest of our time was spent watching the movie and/or doing whatever quiet activity that you wanted, until the senior assembly wrapped up about 40 minutes late, giving you roughly 15 minutes in your Period 4 class. Fun times! ---
Please remember to be e-mailing me your papers if you did not hand me a copy today or had a copy previously accepted! We will be going over your grades on these on Tuesday.
Have a great weekend! Watch me graduate if you want, and the NBA Finals, and the French Open finals! Please remember to finish out the year strong - this is your last weekend of having school after it! Make the best of it! :-)
An Air India 747-400 at Newark International Airport on Memorial Day weekend. If not for Gandhi, it is possible that Air India would not even exist today! Picture by Mr. Fritz.
Hello and welcome to another class recap!
I think that today was great - it was good to check in with everyone and see your papers. Hopefully, we gave you some good feedback about revising them. I also was excited that we finally got to talk a little bit about Gandhi and his philosophy. Look for that to continue next class!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? How did the concept of nonviolence develop and become implemented?
Soundtrack: "Get Up, Stand Up" by Bob Marley. Lyrics here. A fantastic song for thinking about civil rights!
AGENDA 6/3/09: News Brief Who Was Gandhi? First Draft Check-In The Old Man
Homework: Finish and turn in any late work! Read the blog and ask questions!
This includes any work on the paper that either Mrs. DeFrance or I gave you to revise!
News Brief: Sometimes we spend a lot of time on this section of class, talking about what is going on in the world. I am sorry if this gets boring for some of you, but I really like talking about everything that is happening! It is a good way to stay connected to what is happening. Today we had:
Nasser started a really interesting talk about black holes in space. I talked a little bit about the effects that black holes have, like warping time. Here is a video about how this is theorized to happen: Space.com - Black Holes: Warping Time & Space.
Also, we talked about Osama bin Laden coming out with a new audio tape that just aired this morning (or we got news about it). This is a recap of what we currently know about that all: NYTimes.com - Message on Obama Attributed to Bin Laden.
Really interesting stuff right? Juliet continued this section by bringing in her news article, which was this one: BBC.co.uk - Al-Qaeda 'kills British hostage'. Sadly, this sort of stuff happens all the time. People will kidnap others to try and spring their own friends out of prison. In fact, this is exactly like the plot of the movie Air Force One (1997).
Thanks for sharing the article Juliet! Amy, you are up for next class. A current news article about anything going on outside the United States. Thanks!
Who Was Gandhi? For this section, I had you write for a little bit (as I passed out an article) about what you would do for a "bucket list" if you knew you only had six months to live, to somehow better society. I really liked the responses that I heard, and I want to hammer home the point - why don't we live like this more often? Why aren't we more eco-friendly, for instance? I think a large part of it is that almost everyone is afraid that they will die and wants to deny that they eventually will. Part of coping with this is that we do not realize how we can truly have a long lasting positive impact on the world! Leaving a good legacy!
Gandhi was someone that definitely did leave a long lasting legacy. I had you read this article on Gandhi and look for ways that he tried to have an impact. It is a really interesting (but long, I know) article, so I hope you liked it! We will be talking more about it next class. TIME.com - Person of the Century, Runner-Up - Mohandas Gandhi.
First Draft Check-In: During the time when you were reading the article, Mrs. DeFrance and I were checking papers and asking many of you to continue revising. If we asked you to do this, please bring your revised copy to class on Friday, thanks!
The Old Man: With about 20 minutes left in class, I showed the Seinfeld episode "The Old Man" because it talks about having an impact through volunteering, and about Gandhi for a little bit. It is also really funny and I thought it was a good reward for all of your hard work so far on the paper. Keep it up! ---
Remember that there is Nike SPARQ testing after school today from 3:00 to about 4:30. Also remember that I am crazy busy these last few weeks, so I might not be able to post and respond to your comments on the blog instantly. Please be sending them though! I love hearing from everyone, and helping as much as I possibly can!
Have a great evening, thanks for being so awesome!
A "peer review" by sea lions at the Oregon Zoo, last summer. Picture by Mr. Fritz.
Dear Period 2,
I really hope that today was a productive one for you in getting great feedback about your rough drafts from your peers! If you had no rough draft to work on, I am counting on you to have a wonderful first draft to turn in to me on Wednesday. Remember to continue to be asking questions and letting me know how I can best be helping you out!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? What are civil rights? - Wow, we have been seriously neglecting the essential questions, but I am really hoping that we will be able to come back to them at some point!
Soundtrack: "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado. Lyrics here. I'm not sure if anyone really knows what this song is about, including Ms. Furtado, but man, is it catchy. As I said in class, it reminds me of a California road trip I took in 2007! Chosen for today because I searched my iTunes for "right" and this was the best song that came up.
AGENDA 6/1/09: News Brief Peer Review/Conferences Gallery Walk (?)
Homework: Paper Due (first draft, typed with bibliography)! Read the blog and ask questions!
To be clear about this: your historical investigation paper is due to be turned in next class.
Everyone should have a very clear idea of what we are looking for, since either Mrs. DeFrance or myself had a conference with everyone in the class. If you are uncertain about anything, please post comments on this blog entry and I will get back to you ASAP!
News Brief: Two stories that I wanted to highlight this morning as items of interest that everyone should know about were these - AVHerald.com - Crash: Air France A332 over Atlantic on June 1st 2009, aircraft lost. Check out that second picture of the extreme weather patterns in the area. As I mentioned in class, it would be hard to pick a more remote place in the ocean. I also said that I would upload a picture of the "black box" or flight data recorder that is virtually indestructible and can be used to help determine what happened in an accident. Here is one from an Evergreen International Airlines 747 that I worked on two winters ago:
Really a horrifying event. Though for any of you that are concerned about flying, know that you have a way higher chance of dying from a car accident on the way to the airport than you do the actual flight you are on. Flying is really one of the safest modes of transportation in the world. It just so happens that every so often, things go terribly wrong.
The other story I wanted to point out was this: CNN.com - GM bankruptcy: End of an era. Really an incredible day. General Motors was the biggest car company in the world for something like 90 straight years before losing its position to Toyota. Many people and dealerships will be out of jobs, though the company is expected to remain mostly intact through the bankruptcy (as it tries to get rid of the huge debt it has).
Finally, Ismael brought in this story: BBC.co.uk - US deaths in Iraq rise sharply in May. From the article, about 4,300 Americans have died in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. Really incredible. As I pointed out in class, it is not often that we think about how our country, the United States, is at war in two other countries (Iraq and Afghanistan) at this very second. Say what you will about the actual wars, but everyone should respect and honor the service that these men and women give to our country, no matter what your opinion is of how they are used. It is a job that I hope that I never have to find myself doing.
Juliet, you are up for next class. Please bring in a current news article about anything going on around the world outside the United States. Thanks!
Peer Review/Conferences: At this point in time, I handed out papers to peer review your rough drafts. We went through and read exactly what I was looking for in regards to the paper, and how everyone could be helping each other revise. I trust that this section was helpful for everyone!
In the meantime, Mrs. DeFrance and I finished up our conferences with everyone in the class. These were really nice for me to be able to do, and I know that Mrs. DeFrance feels the same way. Hopefully this cleared up any questions you may have had about your grade or your research paper.
I was a little concerned about the class not using the time in class to actually be quietly reading and peer reviewing, or working on your rough draft (if you did not do your homework). I expect that when I give you time in class to work, that you use that time. For the most part, I think you did, but I know that there is just no way that this can be happening when there are multiple people talking.
Again, I just want to help you succeed in this class and on this paper as much as I can! Please let me know how I can best be doing this! :-)
Gallery Walk (?): We were not able to get to this because I wanted to give you as much time as possible to peer review. I guarantee that we will get to it next class, barring any sort of huge change in the lesson planning. Look forward to it! ---
I will be at a ton of Westview football-related meetings and practices this week in the afternoon, but should be easily available to post comments and questions in the evenings.
Other than that, continue to be working hard on this paper! Thanks so much for the effort!
As good as a poster as any for "Takin' Care of Business" today. This has been hanging over my bed at my house since Middle School. Even if you are not doing well in this class or with this paper, please keep trying! You will be rewarded!
Dear class,
Thank you for the excellent questions and engagement in what we were doing today! I really thought it was fantastic and hopefully we are all cleared up about what I am expecting you to do this weekend. I also liked how Mrs. DeFrance and I got to chat with most of you about how things are going in the class with your research paper and overall grade. Please remember to keep in touch and ask questions!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? What are civil rights?
Soundtrack: "Takin' Care of Business" by Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Lyrics here. Selected for today because we really needed to take care of business when it came down to this paper and with finishing the year strong.
AGENDA 5/28/09: News Brief Paragraphs and Citing Sources Conferences
Homework:Rough draft of paper due for peer revisions! All notes and bibliography due! Read the blog and ask questions!
For those that do not have the original handout about what we are asking you to do with the historical investigation, here is that to download:
The research paper is really built on all of the various handouts that we have given you in class to put in your folder, as well as your own personal research question and sources. Hopefully everyone has all of that and will make it make sense!
Please, please do not stress about the paper, but please also get it done. I will help you out as much as possible, so comment or e-mail if you have questions!
News Brief: For this part of class, after going over the essential questions (which did not get much love today), soundtrack, agenda, and homework, I passed back your grades for the Israeli-Palestinian presentations. Seriously, these kept me up until 1:30 AM last night, and I do put a lot of effort into grading each one, so please read all of my comments! If you are missing aspects of the project (like the explanation paper, skills packet, or presentation notes), please come see me ASAP! Remember that you can always revise if you need to as well.
That being said, I really do not remember much about the news brief today. Partially because I am really tired, and partially because I am not sure that we had much to say about what was going on around the world. Helpfully, Allie brought in this article to talk about: CNN.com - Report: Would-be suicide jumper pushed off bridge. This is really a crazy article! As I pleaded with everyone in class - please don't even think about suicide! Life is so worth living! :-)
Thanks for that article Allie. Ismael, you are up for next class on Monday. Any current news article about anything going on around the world, outside the United States.
Paragraphs and Citing Sources: We talked about how to write a body paragraph in Social Studies, with an Introductory Statement, a Concrete Detail, another Concrete Detail, a Commentary, and a Concluding Statement. There was a really fantastic discussion about the finer points of citing a source and how we want you to write the paper, which would be impossible to entirely recap on the blog. However, if you were paying attention in class, I feel pretty confident that you understand what is going on. If not, please ask questions in the comments about how to construct a paragraph and cite a source! Remember, we do not want you using a ton of direct quotes. Pick a couple really key ones, and summarize the rest! You still have to cite them, but now you are showing me what you think about your research!
Mrs. DeFrance talked about her own investigation and body paragraph, which she did as an example on global warming. Hopefully that was good for you to see how to construct each part of the paragraph.
"Westview is the coolest school ever." (Fritz, 3) - In this case, I am citing myself! Remember that it goes (Author, page number). If you do not have the author of the article, it needs to be ("Title of Article"). If you do not have the page number, do not put anything in.
Thanks for this section! It was fun, even though it lasted for a long time! :-)
Conferences: At this point in class, I had everyone get into base groups to conference on how the paper is going, what help you need, and finally, to really be writing the paper. I am not sure how well you used this time to actually be writing, but I am sure everyone is on top of this paper.
Until the end of class, Mrs. DeFrance and I tried to do a one-on-one conference with everyone. We did not get to some of you, but I do know that it was really awesome to get to talk to the people about how everything was going! We really tried to help you out with a research question and tell you exactly how you were doing in the class, along with possible ways to improve your score. Again, if you are at all interested in keeping in touch about this sort of stuff, please be coming to see either of us!
Generally, it was a good, productive day. I know that you probably feel like you have a lot of work ahead of you this weekend, but it is really just converting your notes into a paper, with an introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion, and bibliography. Okay, that still sounds like a lot. I am here to help! :-) ---
I am becoming increasingly busy it seems, but should be mostly available to post and respond to comments over the next few days. This week has been absolutely exhausting! Let's keep working hard together to finish the year! Have a wonderful evening!
Because we talked a little bit about nuclear winter (that is a really interesting Wikipedia page) today in class, I figured that I would post a picture from outside my house last winter, during the week we had off of school!
Hello and welcome to the blog recap!
We have lots to get to today! I would have to say that generally, I liked how class went today, though I was not too happy to see how little it seemed that most people had worked on their research questions, and with some of the base groups that did not seem to be particularly productive in talking to each other about their ideas. Hopefully, we can work hard next class and finish out the year strong!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? What are civil rights?
Soundtrack: "Bomb the World" by Michael Franti and Spearhead. The lyrics, which I showed on the projector and read aloud in class because I thought that they were really interesting, can be found here. This song was suggested to me by Ms. V'Marie. I played it today because of the nuclear bomb test in North Korea, which we talked about in the News Brief section.
Homework: Notes on sources #1-3 (use to start paper!). Read blog recap and ask questions!
This will be explained in greater detail below, so keep reading! :-)
News Brief (Exploding Nuclear Bomb Edition): At the start of class, I went over the essential questions, soundtrack, agenda, and homework, then asked the class about what they did for the long Memorial Day weekend!
After some good conversation here, we went on to talk about the enormous news of the weekend. I found it absolutely incredible that in both of my Global Studies classes today, nobody had heard that North Korea had detonated a nuclear bomb as a test over the weekend. You can read all about that on really any news site. CNN.com has a special section dedicated to it, which you can find here: CNN.com - News & Videos about North Korea.
CNN.com - California high court upholds same-sex marriage ban - this was the "Proposition 8" topic that I mentioned would be decided at 10 AM today. Basically, the Supreme Court sided with the voters in California that elected to ban gay marriage last November, but also that the people that got married when it was legal for a short time last year (about 18,000 people, including Ellen DeGeneres) still have valid marriages in the State of California. So basically, neither side of the debate is happy. The debate continues!
Finally, I mentioned that President Obama had selected Sonia Sotomayor to be on the Supreme Court. She has to be confirmed by the Senate now, but seems likely to be the first Hispanic (her parents were born in Puerto Rico) on the court, as well as the third woman. This is another HUGE deal, that is all over the news. Her biography can be found here: CNN.com - Who is Sonia Sotomayor?.
Allie, you are up for a news brief for next class! Anything going on around the world outside the United States. Thanks!
Scheduling: For this section of class, I had everyone take a schedule and write out what we will be doing in class for the rest of the year. Here is what I put down on the board, for those of you that were not in class or lost the schedule:
May 26 (today): Research Questions and quiet work on notes. May 28 (next class): Notes on sources 1-3 due. Work on citing in paper. June 1: Peer Review in class (rough draft and Notes 4 due. Check off bibliography in class.) June 3: Paper Due (First Draft). June 5: Paper Pass Back and Revisions. June 9: Paper Due (Final Draft). June 11: Paper Pass Back and LAST DAY OF CLASS!
I went over all of these dates and what I will be checking off and looking for in class. Hopefully, this makes sense to you! Please let me know if it does not!
Taking Notes: For this section of class, I had everyone come up and take 4 sheets of paper for your notes on your sources to put in your folders. I talked about the awesome system for writing the paper. Take one of these papers and write #1 on the top, then write #1 on your first source. Write your research question in, then look at the "cheat sheet" in your folder to find out how to correctly cite your source for the bibliography. Finally, use the three smaller sheets that Mrs. DeFrance and I showed you how to take notes on (quotes/summarizing sentences/summarizing the entire source), and use those to create your notes for each source!
I know that this sounds complicated, but I feel fairly confident that I explained this well in class. Again, if this is not making sense, PLEASE ask me to clarify! There is simply no way that I can know how to best explain it if you do not tell me what you are confused about.
After this explanation, I had everyone get in to "base groups" of 3 people (there was one group with 4), to talk over what your research questions are about and what sources you have. You will continue to be in these base groups for the rest of the year, writing the paper! I have found that it is really nice just to have people to check in with, who know what you are writing and bring good ideas to the table.
For the rest of class, people were working on their research questions (running them by Mrs. DeFrance or me), as well as writing notes about your sources. Again, try to have at least two direct quotes per source! This will make writing the paper so much easier, I promise!
As I said above, I am not sure how productive this whole period of time was, because there seemed to be not a lot of thought put into the research questions, or communication amongst the groups. We will see what happens for next class, when I am asking you to bring in three sources with notes on each source! :-)
Gallery Walk: We were not able to get to this, but I am okay with it, as it really does take up a good amount of time to do correctly. ---
That should just about do it for today! Please remember to be asking questions and posting comments below if you are confused or needing help in any way! It is a two way street here, remember that. Thanks! Have a great rest of the day!
The Wordle of what everyone had to say what everyone had to say for what they liked about this class! I was glad to see all of this, thank you for the participation here!
Good afternoon class!
Despite some continuing issues with attention, listening, focus, and being quiet, I think today was really a good day of class! We definitely accomplished a lot, and did many crucial things to get us closer to the end of the year! Your class is great to be around, but at times, I have to use some tough love to keep everyone on track. Generally, we did that today! On to the recap:
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? What are civil rights?
Soundtrack: "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado. Lyrics here. I'm not sure if anyone really knows what this song is about, including Ms. Furtado, but man, is it catchy. As I said in class, it reminds me of a California road trip I took in 2007! Chosen for today because I searched my iTunes for "right" and this was the best song that came up.
AGENDA 5/20/09: News Brief Debrief Class Reflections Martin Luther King Jr. Final Paper Bibliography
Homework: Have research question formulated for next class, begin work on writing paper! Read blog recap! Have a great long weekend!
In class, we talked about aspects of a good research question. Is is specific enough? Can it be actually researched or tested? Is it interesting to you? All of these should go in to formulating your question. Please let me know if you need help here!
I cannot emphasize this enough: you NEED to be working on finding sources for this paper, taking notes, and answering your question. It is not like you do not have homework to do for the next six days. It is really important that you use this time wisely, so please do.
News Brief: I used this part of class to go over the essential questions, soundtrack, agenda, and homework, as well as talk about your Israeli-Palestinian projects (about half of which I have graded). Apparently, nobody is particularly interested in getting theirs back, because I did not have any visitors at lunch. Good, I am glad that I can take my time then! :-)
We talked about what we had planned for the long weekend for a bit, and also talked about the news of the day - which I didn't make any notes on, so I am not sure if the class and anything to say that I needed to look up. I do remember this being productive, as always. This section of the class is only as good as you make it! Pat attention to what is going on in the world, it is really pretty interesting!
Mary brought in this news article to share: CNN.com - Indonesia plane crash kills nearly 100. Really unfortunate! I pointed out that Indonesia is actually the most populous Muslim country in the world, not anywhere in the Middle East. I also talked about how safe (I certainly hope) the airlines here in the United States are. Look at the bottom of this post for a little recap of my trip this weekend and why I love airlines.
Allie, you are up for next class for a news article, about anything going on outside the United States. Thanks!
After Mary presented her article, she showed the class an incredibly awesome PowerPoint she made using her photography of nature, and making it relate to the conflict in Israel and Palestine by saying that the land would be eventually destroyed if they kept fighting. Good points! Thanks for this, Mary!
Debrief Class Reflections: This is always interesting for me to do, and I liked that most everyone was following along, hoping to get a glimpse of what people like about my class, and what should be improved. If you missed it, here were your answers again:
1) What do you like about this class?
What we learn about x 9, culture x 2, relaxed, not hard, news x 7, people x 5, agenda, blog x 2, soundtrack x 4, activities x 3, comfortable, safe, fun x 2, "not just textbooks," interesting x 2, everything, Mr. Fritz, not much homework x 2, relevant x 2, easy to understand x 2, debates, videos x 2, food, quietness, discussions x 2, energetic, happy
2) What could the class improve on?
Attention/listening/focus x 12, less homework, discussion, less lectures, more debates x 2, less talking/quieter x 7, more windows, less videos, more history, more games, sharing more, being interesting, not talking about sports, nothing, checking the blog, respect
3) What do you like about Mr. Fritz as a teacher?
Excited x 2, comfortable, not harsh, work hard/effort x 3, makes class fun x 3, focused, enthusiastic x 4, interesting x 3, good topics x 2, personality, music, loud (and clear) x 4, activities, learn from, cool, good at explaining things x 3, friendly/kind/nice x 4, smile, optimistic, helpful, blog x 4, easygoing, organized, awesome, style x 2, motivated, eccentric, understanding
4) What can Mr. Fritz improve on?
Reduce amount of homework, assignments are boring, making the class fun x 2, keep classes attention x 3, be quieter/volume (disturbs us in Hardin's class/only if needed) x 9, memorable activities x 3, games, music selection, slow down, "make note taking a little more fun" (less) x 2, handwriting (on board) x 4, talk less about what we already know, be stricter ("give lunch detentions for people who are bad or late"), explain more --- Really interesting stuff! My main point here was that it seems that you like what we study, but know that there are a lot of problems with your attention and noise level. Similarly, you like my enthusiasm as a teacher, but think I need to be a bit quieter. Sounds like we need to work on this together, so please, let's do that! I think we got better at this as time went along today, but the start of this class was a little rough.
Martin Luther King Jr.: For this section, I asked you to get out your notes on civil rights from last class. I then proceeded to hand out a sheet of excerpts from three different speeches, which can be found (along with many others) at MLK Online - Speeches.
The speeches that I quoted from were "Letter from Birmingham Jail," "Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech," and "I See the Promised Land." All incredibly powerful speeches, with some amazing context for when they were given! For instance, check out this excerpt from the end of the last speech he ever gave, "I See the Promised Land":
If that does not give you chills, I do not know what to tell you.
After reading through these excerpts, I asked the class (using volunteers and calling on random people) to tell me a little bit about the philosophy behind what MLK was saying. How was he trying to get civil rights? I thought that this was an incredibly productive conversation to have (I took notes on the board and asked you to copy them down). It was a little shorter than I wanted, but that is the nature of things for the rest of the year, since we also have the following section to work on!
Final Paper Bibliography: For this section of the class, I handed out a bright yellow sheet to help you with formulating a good research question and citing sources. I talked about how to create an easy bibliography, using the "cheat sheets" that were stapled in your folders. I used Suzie's book as an example for a source. Remember, for your final paper, you need to have at least four different sources, and three of them have to be a newspaper article, magazine article, and a book. Wikipedia is NOT a source, but it does frequently link to sources at the bottom of each page!
We brainstormed on the board the aspects of a great research question, like: being specific, testable, interesting, and easy to follow. For the last 10 minutes or so, we worked in class on developing your questions. Again, please see me if you want any help with it! Begin researching and answering your question! This should be a fairly lengthy paper - about 3-4 pages by the time you are all done. We will continue to talk about great ways to take notes and accomplish all the other objectives for the paper, next class. ---
As I stated in class, this weekend I will be visiting my brother at college in Princeton, New Jersey, to help him pack up to come home for the summer. I am really excited! I am flying out on Friday morning and getting back on Sunday night. If you are at all interested, you can track my flights in the air here: Portland to Seattle (Horizon Air Flight 2172, 9:30 AM Friday), Seattle to Newark, New Jersey (Continental Airlines Flight 1680, 11:45 AM Friday), Newark to Phoenix, (US Airways Flight 77, 4:35 PM Sunday), and Phoenix to Portland (US Airways Flight 94, 8:10 PM Sunday).
Also, if you would like to see a really awesome website that has all of the flights I have ever taken in my life mapped out, check out this: FlightMemory.com - Ml007. I love flying! Looking forward to putting that Newark-Phoenix route on that page later! If you end up doing this, post a link to yours in the comments! I would love to see where everyone has flown to!
Finally, I told the class about an airline geek post I wrote for Period 1, during the Nigeria unit and the travel guides everyone was working on. Should you like to see how big of nerd I am about this all, you can check that out here: Off-Topic: The Airline Geek Post.
Whew! With all of that being said, I still should be fairly easy to communicate with this weekend, though it may not be as fast as you are used to. Please keep in touch and ask questions, post comments, or e-mail me with anything I can help you with! Enjoy the long weekend, and thanks for being so great!
Earth, as seen from the Apollo 17. This is probably the most famous image of Earth from space, and is sometimes referred to as the "Blue Marble" picture. Found on the consistently incredible (bookmark and come back every day) NASA.gov - Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).
Dear class,
That certainly was an interesting class. I am not sure what it was about today, but there seemed to be an almost class-wide lack of focus. Possibly because it was a Monday after a sunny weekend. Possibly because the class just was not all that interesting (which I have a hard time believing, but could totally be true). Whatever the reason, I really had a difficult time quieting everyone down, making sure that people were paying attention to what was going on, being prepared, and other aspects of class that should really be entirely up to you guys. Take some ownership of class! It simply just will not work if I have to do it all. That, as we saw today, would take up most of the class.
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? What are civil rights?
Soundtrack: "Wavin' Flag" by K'Naan. Lyrics here. Selected for today because Ricardo suggested it to me, because it was his birthday.
AGENDA 5/18/09: News Brief Reflections on Goals/Unit/Class Civil Rights Final Paper Note Taking
Homework: Bring sources (at least one more) for next class. Continue to work on research project! Read blog recap!
For next class, I want you to have a solid choice for your topic that you want to research, as well as multiple (more than one) sources to take notes on. Thanks!
News Brief: We had a few good topics to talk about this morning, but none that I actually took note of to post on the blog. However, I did have a couple of items to point out in class and on here. The first was this article: CNN.com - Woman elected in Kuwait says gender in politics is 'history'. Super interesting article, I thought! Exactly what we were talking about at the beginning of this unit with how women can have an impact in the Middle East. Yay, progress!
Breanna chose to bring this article to talk about: CNN.com - Abuse of child 'witches' on rise, aid group says. Such a sad story! Furthermore, it is talking about Nigeria, a country that we know a lot about, right? Very interesting! Education is the name of the game!
Mary, you are up next for a news article! Anything currently going on around the world outside the United States. Thanks!
Reflections on Goals/Unit/Class: At the start of this section, I had you pull out your goal sheets from the beginning of the semester (if you still had them), or make a new sheet for goals. I asked you to write a little reflection about how things are going, what you can improve or continue to work on, etc. I read all of these, and generally, I am glad that you are participating on this! It is really important to set goals for yourself, and come back to those goals from time to time.
I then asked you to use the second half of your sheet of paper to do the activity that we had done at the end of last semester. The questions that I wanted you to respond to were: 1) What do you like about this class? (What about the structure gets you excited to come in the morning?) 2) What can the class improve on? 3) What do you like about Mr. Fritz as a teacher? 4) What can Mr. Fritz improve on?
To be honest, I have not read all of these yet, but I did glance at them, and I am really thankful for your honest feedback. It really does help me out (and in theory, you as well)!
Civil Rights: To start this section of the class, I asked you to get out another sheet of paper and I projected this quote for you to reflect on (like Mr. Hardin's class): "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." - Mohandas Gandhi.
After a really great period of focused work (I could tell you guys were used to doing this), I had everyone come up and write one example or thought you had that came to mind as you were thinking about the quote. I thought all of these were really interesting! The point to doing this was as a warm up to think about the fight for civil rights.
Next, I asked you to help me brainstorm about what, exactly, civil rights were. I started this by asking the class "how (have) your civil rights been violated lately?" We had some interesting stories about freedom of religion, and freedom against search and seizure, amongst others. Mary helpfully pointed out that civil rights are rights that you are born with, which I called "natural rights." Generally, I think this was a great way to begin the unit and thinking about all of this!
Final Paper Note Taking: During the final few minutes in class, I had everyone go up to the board and write down what their idea for their final research project is. I was not expecting a really concrete idea, but many of these seemed entirely too vague or not thought through enough. Again, your homework was to think of something and bring in a news article about it! That is your homework for tonight as well!
For the rest of class, I had you take notes on three separate sheets of paper in your folders. I think I probably could have done a better job at teaching this, but hopefully everyone understood the main points behind all of this. Here is exactly what I typed on my laptop, for future reference:
YELLOW SHEET:
One sentence or a short thought, directly
Quote "in quotation marks" (Author, page number) – in parenthesis
Indenting multiple sentences
Commentary on how or why the quote relates!
RED SHEET:
For paragraphs or chunks –
Paraphrase! (take the paragraph, rewrite into your own words)
PURPLE SHEET:
For the entire article –
Main points (what is the abstract?) of the article.
Put this in your own words – paraphrase, summarize ---
That was just about the end of the class! I hope that everyone has a wonderful rest of the day. Please come prepared to focus and learn on Wednesday! We are almost to the end of the year! Keep working hard, please. Post comments about anything you think is interesting or any questions that you have about what we are doing! See you next class! :-)
Peter's really amazing wallpaper that was his creative product! Formatted for screen resolution 1280x800, I believe. Seriously incredible! Click to view full size, then right click on the image and select "set as desktop background" and presto! :-)
Good afternoon class,
This was another really productive day of presentations and talking a little bit about the final paper for the entire year! Thank you for the good focus and attention, for the most part. You guys are sort of a bouncy group, but all in all, really fun to work with. I hope you enjoyed class as much as I did! On to the recap:
Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? How can the Middle East be stabilized?
Soundtrack: "Let Love In" by Goo Goo Dolls. Lyrics here. Really an excellent song. It can also definitely be related to the conflicts that we are studying!
AGENDA 5/14/09: News Brief Student Presentations Final Paper Folders
Homework: Decide on what topic you want to do, bring a source to take notes on next class. Read blog recap!
This will be talked about a little more in "The Final" section. Basically, I want you to decide on what you want to investigate for your final paper, and bring one source in (like a news article, book, magazine, etc) that relates to your topic and that you can take notes on. We will help you do this in class! All I need for you to do is to pick a topic, and choose something to take notes on about.
For anyone that was not in class today, or that has lost (already) the assignment sheet, here it is to download:
Again, we will be talking about this much more. In fact, for the rest of the year, this is what we will be doing. As I noted in class, I am thinking that we will have about half the time devoted to a new unit, and the other half to developing this paper.
News Brief: We have really been struggling to find things to talk about recently! The two things that I took note of were:
The recent plane crash in Buffalo, which Amy mentioned, is something to really be interested in. A lot of things had to go wrong for that to happen. Source: ABCnews.com - Buffalo Crash: 'A Recipe for an Accident'. Basically, the pilots were sleep deprived, inadequately experienced, paid very little, and the icy conditions outside made it all come to a head. Really a sad story. Pilots do not get nearly enough credit for what they do.
Yesenia brought finished this section of the class up with this article: CNN.com - Former Mexican president calls for legalizing marijuana. This is a pretty interesting take on the whole "war on drugs" issue. Someone else in class noted that some people are proposing to legalize marijuana in California and tax it, in order to help with the state's finances. A really interesting report on that was recently done by TIME Magazine, here: TIME.com - Can Marijuana Help Rescue California's Economy?
Breanna, please remember to bring a current news story about anything currently happening outside the United States, for next class on Monday. Thanks!
Student Presentations: These were pretty fun, again! Thank you to those who really put a lot of time and effort into creating something. I really respect your hard work! After everyone was finished, we turned in the following items, which I need from everyone ASAP if you did not turn it in today:
- Completed Skills Packet (which contained the Blazers recap and debates). - Presentation Notes (for other students). - Explanation Paper for your creative product AND - Creative product, if it is something that can be handed in (like lines for a skit, or a PowerPoint, or a poster, etc). Again, I cannot grade your creative products without the explanation paper, so please get both in to me!
I hope that everyone enjoyed these presentations, and possibly learned a thing or two about interconnectedness as well. It was fantastic for me to be able to see you demonstrate your knowledge about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict!
Final Paper Folders: As I think I said in class, this "historical investigation" project is one that every freshman at Westview is working on, as part of the common assessment for Social Studies. If you remember, the first semester version of this was the visual metaphor. Thus, this is a really big deal!
I talked about Mrs. DeFrance's really amazing folder system for helping you write papers. Seriously, if I had this in high school, I think I would have written 10 page long papers with ease. It is really a pretty incredible way to keep track of everything. Please keep everything in that folder - including all the sheets of paper tucked inside!
I linked to the final paper assignment sheet above. We read that together in class, as I tried as best as I could to introduce this as something that you do not have to stress out about. Make it interesting to you! After reading everything together, we started brainstorming ideas for "issues of global significance" on the board. Here is a picture of what we came up with, to help you out if you need it:
Pick one of these, or any other issue for your homework, and bring in something to start you off on the project on Monday! I want you to be excited at finding out information about the world, that you may not have really had the chance to learn about in class this year!
Put it this way, there are entire college courses devoted to just these topics. In fact, I was in one last year at Western Oregon University! It was called History 492: World Problems. I ended up writing a 10 page paper on the search for Osama bin Laden. It was a really interesting class!
If you are still totally unsure about what to do, try a Google search for "world problems" or "globalization" or something along those lines. If none of that sounds interesting at all, come talk to me and I am sure we can get you started. :-) ---
Other news of interest: Brandon Roy was selected to the All-NBA Second Team! This is a really huge honor! The first time a Blazer has made All-NBA since Clyde Drexler in 1992. Source: BlazersEdge.com. Brandon Roy is simply incredible. What a guy.
The Office Season Five finale is tonight (Thursday)! It is totally worth checking out, even if you have never seen it. The fun starts at 9:00 PM, on NBC (Channel 8 for most of you). The Office is my favorite television show of all time. I am really quite sad that the season will be over and we will have to wait until the fall for a new episode! Every year this happens, and there is a huge cliffhanger, and it just kills me.
There is a TON of sporting action going on. I am sure that Westview's spring sports are all worth checking out. Add to that two Game Sevens in the NHL, the Lakers-Rockets and Celtics-Magic series in the NBA (both Game Sixes), and Major League Baseball, all tonight. Wow. It is a great time to be a sports fan!
Tomorrow, I will be playing hoops during second lunch in the gym. Come sign up on the sheet in N116 if you want to play! I am excited about it!
With that, I think I will sign off! I hope everyone is doing well! Have a wonderful weekend! Keep in touch and keep working hard on everything we are doing!
