Period 2: World War I, Day 5 - Class Recap

Today was the start of a new semester for our class! A dawn of a new day. This is a picture of the streets in Bogota, Colombia in the pre-dawn light on October 4th, 2009.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for putting in a lot of effort with the essay and asking questions if you needed. Remember that it is homework if you did not finish it in class. Please feel free to comment if you need any help!

Essential Question: Why do wars happen?

Soundtrack: "At The Beginning" from the Anastasia soundtrack. Lyrics here. Chosen because this is our first class together at the start of the second semester! Also, because the Disney movie is somewhat related to the Russian Revolution, which is what we will be studying after (or as a part of) World War I.

AGENDA 2/5/13: 
Semester 1 Grades
News Brief/Blog Recap
Essay Writing

Homework: Finish your essay! Find out how your family came to America. Check the blog.
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Semester 1 Grades: To start the class (as you were walking in), I told everyone that your final semester 1 grades were posted on the wall. There are a few limited exceptions to these, like students who were just added, or those who got very close to passing and need to prove that they deserve credit. I will be talking with those students on an individual basis. Thank goodness we can start afresh now!

News Brief/Blog Recap: Lots to go over, for sure.  We talked briefly about the Super Bowl. Traevon had the news brief article today. Here is the article he picked to use: CNN.com - Saudi Islamist preacher on trial in daughter's slaying. I used this to talk about the next two new items:

I mentioned the news of a former Westview student being found guilty of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction: HuffingtonPost.com - Mohamed Mohamud Guilty Verdict: Oregon Car-Bomb Suspect Convicted of Terrorism. There is obviously a LOT to talk about with this case. I tried to address the main points in class.

I also mentioned the attempted suicide of an Eastern Oregon teenager, which ended with him being taken off life support. Columbian.com - Oregon teen dies in hospital after suicide try. My main point in bringing this up was to just say that if you ever feel like you need to talk to someone, our school community is here to help you. In particular, please feel free to check in with me at any time. Be good to yourselves, your community, and each other. High school can be a really rough time (I know from personal experience). It gets better.

Finally, I brought up this news story from today: NYTimes.com - Bones Under Parking Lot Belonged to Richard III. How crazy is that? Using DNA matching and all sorts of other forensic evidence, researchers were able to find the remains of England's King Richard III, who had been buried in a shallow grave in a church, which later became a parking lot. What a story.

Colton, you have the news brief for next class. Any article about something going on around the world, outside the United States. Thanks!

Essay Writing: The rest of the class was devoted to finishing the World War I essays that I had you start during finals. Remember to use the same format that we talked about in class! If you missed it, or want to review the presentation again, here it is:

Google Docs - Writing Essays in Social Studies PowerPoint

Remember that you will be peer reviewing these essays next class, and I will have you be looking for the correct format and the vocabulary words/terms on the last slide to be used.

All good? Remember to finish those essays and to make sure you know how your family first came to Portland/America!