Friday, October 31, 2014

Culture, Day 8 - Class Recap


Camels in front of the entrance to The Treasury in Petra, Jordan. Photo taken July 2014.

Hi everyone,

We really started preparation in earnest for your DBQ (Document Based Question) essay test next week. This is a somewhat complicated process, so I wanted to be as clear as possible as to what you need to do and how you will be successful in answer

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.

Soundtrack: "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. Selected for today because of the association with Halloween! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 10/31/14:
News Brief –  Braydan
USA Culture Analysis
DBQ Prep
Work Day

Homework: Read the blog. Prepare for the DBQ, which I will be handing out next class (the actual essay test will be on Thursday). Here are some assignments that will help in your preparation:

 1) Cornell Notes on Culture definitions/iceberg PowerPoint
2) Surface culture worksheet (National Geographic photos PowerPoint)
3) Nacirema writing (neatly written or typed, 200 words minimum)
4) Time for School Notes/Answers
5) USA Culturegram activity (see today's blog)

Next news brief: Alex D.

News Brief: Braydan had the news brief today and selected this story to talk about: NYTimes.com - Austria: Boy, 14, Held in Terrorism Case. We found Austria on our world maps to go along with this. I also brought up this recent video that a woman made while just walking around New York City: CNN.com - What 10 hours of street harassment in NYC looks like. We need to promote a culture of respect, wherever we are. Catcalling anyone is unacceptable and disrespectful. Just thought it was worth highlighting - especially with the amount of hands that went up when I asked if it had happened to anyone in the class.

We also watched the VICE News "Beyond the Headlines" clip on YouTube before moving on. Alex D, you have the next news brief!

USA Culture Analysis: This was built around going the group responses from last class, in regards to this reading:


Each member of the group was supposed to help by completing one or two of the seven cultural traits that the group chose to do on this worksheet:


To go over these, I used the random popsicle stick method of calling on people to share out what they wrote about various aspects of United States culture. I am hopeful that this will be quite useful for your DBQ prep!

DBQ Prep: Speaking of DBQ, we started looking at how to prepare for your first DBQ in high school (only one or two students had done this before, so it was mostly new). I handed out this "How To" packet, that I think will be useful for you this year and in years to come (DBQs are a feature of Social Studies classes here at Westview):


I used random calling via popsicle sticks to have students help me with reading this. I know it is quite a lot to take in, which is why we are preparing for two days before the test. Remember that the essay question you will be answering for the test is: "How does culture both reflect and shape society?"

You will be using your documents (listed above in the homework section) to prepare for the DBQ. For the actual essay test, you will have 8 documents to analyze and choose from to write your essay, which will consist of an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Review your previous assignments and the above guide to think about how to write your essay!

Finally, I passed out this paper that helps review and prepare for the DBQ. If you answer "no" to any of these questions, then you might need to be better prepared for the culture unit DBQ final!


Work Time: The rest of the class was devoted to starting to create possible DBQ responses and analyzing your culture unit documents to try and answer the question of: How does culture both shape and reflect society?

That was it for the day! Have a great weekend!
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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Culture, Day 7 - Class Recap


A big part of American culture is sports. This was taken at the 2010 Holiday Bowl, before Oregon played Oklahoma State, and won! :-)

Dear class,

Today was a work day, with groups looking at different aspects of American culture, through the Culturegrams reading. This was in preparation for the upcoming unit final, which will be a DBQ (Document Based Question) essay. I'll teach more about that in the coming days. Here's the recap for today:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.

Soundtrack: "Party in the U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus. Selected for today because the in class group activity was analyzing American culture, of which parties are part of social gatherings! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 10/29/14:
News Brief –  Nouri
Review Time for School
USA Culturegrams
Work Time

Homework: Read the blog. Bring all culture work so far, completed and ready to use in preparation for the DBQ.

1) Cornell Notes on Culture definitions/iceberg PowerPoint
2) Surface culture worksheet (National Geographic photos PowerPoint)
3) Nacirema writing (neatly written or typed, 200 words minimum)
4) Time for School Notes/Answers
5) USA Culturegram activity (see today's blog)

Next news brief: Braydan.

News Brief: Nouri had the news brief today and selected this story to talk about: BBC.com - Teacher Jamshed Javeed admits Syria terror offences. We found the United Kingdom on our world maps (and also talked about various other news stories, both here in the US and around the world) and also watched the VICE News "Beyond the Headlines" clip on YouTube before moving on. Braydan, you have the next news brief!

Review Time for School: We watched the last five minutes or so of the documentary that we did not finish last class, and I went over the questions relating to it, at the bottom of the second page of this worksheet. Please make sure you have finished this!

USA Culturegrams: I split the class up into groups of four, then explained what we were working on. Essentially, it was this handout (a class set, but feel free to use this link online to complete it as homework, if you didn't get to finish in class):


Each member of the group was supposed to help by completing one or two of the seven cultural traits that the group chose to do on this worksheet:


It appeared that the class worked really hard on these, because pens and pencils were flying on the paper! I'm interested to hear about them next class. Please remember to complete the last two questions on the worksheet yourself. Thanks! Again, all of our culture unit work so far will be combined into a collection of evidence, which will be part of the DBQ we are writing (probably next week, in class). See you next class!
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Monday, October 27, 2014

Culture, Day 6 - Class Recap

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

Hi everyone,

Today was mostly just spent finishing the fantastic Time for School documentary and thinking more about how education impacts culture. Here's the recap for today:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.

Soundtrack: "Learn to Fly" by Foo Fighters. Selected because of our continuing look at how education impacts culture. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 10/27/14:
News Brief –  Alex W.
Time For School
USA Culturegram
Work Time

Homework: Read the blog. Turn in missing/incomplete geography work ASAP. Fully complete Nacirema and Time for School work. Next news brief: Nouri.

News Brief: Alex W. had the news brief today, and though she initially forgot that news briefs about stories inside the United States are not allowed for this activity, she chose this story to talk about: USAToday.com - Real Madrid rallies back to beat Barcelona in 'El Clasico'. This was about a soccer match in Spain! I also showed this tweet, which looked at election results in Brazil. watched the VICE News "Beyond the Headlines" clip on YouTube before moving on. Nouri, you have the next news brief!

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


Again, the point to this was to analyze how we see surface culture and what deeper culture is like in different areas around the world. If you did not have enough time in class to fully answer the three questions at the end, please do so for homework!

Here are both parts to the documentary. I stopped Part 2 when it was clearly done talking about the students.



Really powerful stuff, especially when the students from Africa were talking about their shared challenge of losing parents and still striving for their education.

Thank you once again for your hard work and understanding. I am truly thankful to be your teacher. See you next class!
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Thursday, October 23, 2014

Culture, Day 5 - Class Recap

Some of our exchange students here at Westview came to talk with our class today about their experience here and their culture back in their country of origin. This is a photo I took on the football field at Westview, later this past summer.

Hi everyone,

I don't know about you, but I loved hearing our exchange students talk about their experiences today! Here's the recap for today:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.

Soundtrack: "Represent" by Weezer. Selected for today because we were talking about how people in different cultures represent themselves. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 10/23/14:
News Brief – Zachary V.
Exchange Culture
Discussion
Time for School

Homework: Read the blog. Turn in missing/incomplete geography work ASAP. Next news brief: Aiden.

News Brief: Zachary had the news brief today and talked about this story with the class: BBC.com - Ottawa shootings: Soldier killed and city on lockdown. This was a breaking news story, so it will be interesting to follow what happens here. We found Canada on our world maps and then moved on, because I wanted to make sure that we gave plenty of time to our exchange students.

Exchange Culture: We had the privilege of having Geir (from Norway), Laura (from Brazil), and Jerry (from South Korea) come into our class today and present about culture in their countries. They did such a fantastic job! I appreciated your focus and great questions as they talked. It was certainly interesting for me to learn about, too!

Discussion: After the presentations, there was time for general culture questions (made at the end of last class) for Geir, Laura, and Jerry. Again, I thought this was really interesting and cool to see! Thanks for your participation.

Time For School: We did not have time at the end of class to continue this, but we will next class. If you missed class last time and the handout, here it is:


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

We got about 34:40 in to the following video, if you missed class and need to catch up, or simply want to review it again:


I hope you are finding this interesting and engaging! Have a great weekend! :-)
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Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Culture, Day 4 - Class Recap


I really like this picture I took of a kid (I have no idea who it is) at Trillium Lake by Mt. Hood, over the summer. Fishing could be a part of his family culture!

Dear class,

I enjoyed hearing some of your Nacirema stories today in class! We also started looking at school as a part of culture, which is something we are going to investigate a lot over the coming days. Here's the recap for today:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.

Soundtrack: "Abc" by Jackson 5. Selected because it relates to the theme of school and culture. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 10/21/14:
News Brief – Tarence
Nacirema Stories
Time for School
Create Questions

Homework: Read the blog. Turn in missing/incomplete geography work ASAP. Next news brief: Zachary V. (and Tarence).

News Brief: Tarence was not in class today, so we did not have a student presented news brief. We did talk about what was happening in the world (including the trip I booked last night to India for Spring Break)! Finally, we talked about anything interesting that happened over the weekend, before watching VICE News "Beyond The Headlines" for today. Thanks, everyone! Zach V, you are up next.

Nacirema Stories: This was homework to complete, so I began class by having students randomly get into seven groups and share your stories to the group members, while trying to guess what the story was about. Then, the group elected the best story from the group to share out to the class as a whole. I really enjoyed hearing these! Please keep the Nacirema stories to turn in as part of a collection of evidence for the Culture unit (like we did for Geography).

Time For School: I really like this documentary as part of our unit on culture, because it is especially interesting to me to see how school is a part of different cultures around the world. Here was the handout that I gave to students to fill out as we were watching:


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

We got about 34:50 in to the following video, if you missed class and need to catch up, or simply want to review it again:


I hope you are finding this interesting and engaging! :-)

Create Questions: Finally, at the end of class, we created a few questions for the exchange students who are going to be visiting with us next class and talking about their culture. One is from Brazil (Laura), one is from Norway (Geir), and one is from South Korea (Jerry). I wanted students to think of at least three questions to try to dig beneath the top of the iceberg. Next class, it should be fun to talk with our exchange students! See you then!
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Friday, October 17, 2014

Culture, Day 3 - Class Recap


The soundtrack for today was "Wavin' Flag" by K'naan and we also watched a short film that had all sorts of different aspects of the country of Turkey involved. This is a photo I took on the back of a ferry in Turkey, between Asia and Europe, in June of 2013.

Hi everyone,

Today, we reviewed our Cornell Notes from last class and worked on the Nacirema assignment (due next class). Here's what happened today:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.

Soundtrack: "Wavin' Flag" by K'naan. Selected for today because we were learning more about culture, and flags can be constituted,

AGENDA 10/17/14:
News Brief – Vlas
Review Cornell Notes
Nacirema Writing
The Watchtower
Time for School

Homework: Read the blog. Finish the Nacirema assignment (look at the last pages of this handout) - neatly written or typed, due next class. Next news brief: Tarence.

News Brief: Vlas had the news brief today and selected this article to talk about: BBC.com - Ebola crisis: No impact from pledges of help, MSF says. For this, we found the country of Senegal on our Africa map, since they have been Ebola free for something like 40+ days, in good news. We continued to talk about the impact of Ebola, along with other topics in the news.

We also watched the VICE "Beyond the Headlines" News clip.

Review Cornell Notes: Remember last class, when we had a PowerPoint on culture and everyone took Cornell Notes? Now, it was time for the next step in the process: reviewing, making questions, and summarizing. Here were the handouts again, that describe the process and the blank template.



Nacirema Writing: This was the reading describing "Nacerima" (American spelled backward) that we did last class:


Today, we made a list of possible topics to make our own Nacerima type stories about. The assignment in class today was to create your own story analyzing our culture from an "outsider" or "scientific" lens. There were a ton of possible items here! If you did not finish the 200 word story in class, it is homework: please come next class with your completed Nacerima article, either typed or written neatly.

The Watchtower: I ended class with this video, which I thought did an excellent job of showing culture in the country of Turkey:


I just love all of the various scenes and quick cuts! It reminds me of my three days in Istanbul, Turkey in 2013. I saw it the other night after school and thought it was so cool I needed to show it in class.

As a reminder, I will not be here after 4th period today (Friday) because of a memorial service for my dad at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, which is at 1:30. I will probably be back at Westview for the Varsity football game, but not before that. Thank you for your love and understanding!
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Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Culture, Day 2 - Class Recap


Another part of my culture is having dual citizenship, due to my mom being born and raised in the United Kingdom.

Dear students,

Today, we got back to work on our new unit of culture. We learned a little bit more about the "iceberg" model for it. I also made sure that everyone had their geography packets graded and back, so you know what to improve on. Here's what happened today:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.

Soundtrack: "American Woman" by Lenny Kravitz. Selected for today because we were talking more about American culture. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 10/15/14:
News Brief – Jordan
Grades
Cornell Notes
The Nacirema

Homework: Read the blog. Check your grade in Student VUE and improve it, if possible. Next news brief: Vlas.

News Brief: Jordan brought in an article about this story to talk about for the news brief today: BBCNews.com - Iraq: Shia militias 'killing Sunnis in reprisal attacks'. We continued to talk about the situation with ISIS in the Middle East. Thanks, Jordan! Vlas was randomly drawn (eventually!) as the next news brief.

Today, I also introduced another way that we might add to the news brief, which are the short VICE News daily "Beyond the Headlines" videos. Here is the one I showed in class for today:


Hopefully this was interesting to everyone - I know that some other Global Studies teachers in the building use it to start class, so I might do the same from time to time.

Grades: I wanted to make sure to explain how I assigned grades for the Geography unit and packet. I wrote comments on your self-reflection papers, which I would appreciate you reading, because they certainly took a lot of time. Also, grades are now posted in the room (by student ID number) as well. You should always know exactly what you have and how to improve it! I will definitely accept revised work, so please do it correctly and thoroughly, and get it to me as fast as possible so we all don't have to stress even more about it. It's still early - you have time, but don't dig yourself a huge hole right now. Let me know how I can help!

Cornell Notes: This is a note-taking strategy that we are going to be using frequently this year at Westview - especially if you are at all familiar with the AVID class. There were two handouts that went with this:



We went through both of these together, as I made sure to talk about the way in which Cornell Notes help with retaining information. We will look at these together next class! Here's the PowerPoint on culture that I wanted notes to be taken on:


Really, the Iceberg Model is all about what we cannot see. Last class, the National Geographic slides that we went through were all surface level culture. I want everyone to start thinking about DEEP culture - what is ingrained in us and we do not even think about.

The Nacirema: Along with this, at the end of class, I read this famous article to everyone, as most students sat perplexed about what the heck was going on. Spoiler alert at the end!


We were able to just get to the list of items like our own culture at the end. Next class, we will continue with this and then write a little bit about the Nacirema using similar language. This is usually a pretty fun assignment, once you think of an aspect of our culture to use! See you next class!
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Monday, October 13, 2014

Culture, Day 1 - Class Recap

Part of my family's culture is attending Oregon Duck football games (well, maybe not so much for my sister). This is us outside the 2011 BCS National Championship Game in Arizona.

Hi everyone,

Today, we moved on to a new unit: Culture! What an interesting topic. Culture defines who we are, yet we shape and create it every day! Here's what happened today in class (we did a lot, so be ready for a fair amount of reading):

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.

Soundtrack: "Food" by Common and Kanye West. Selected because we talked about what we had for breakfast today, as a part of our culture. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 10/13/14:
News Brief – Gavin
What is Culture?
The Lost Boys
Iceberg Reading

Homework: Read the blog. Check your grade in Student VUE and know how to improve it, if possible. Next news brief: Jordan.

News Brief: Gavin brought in an article about this story for the news brief: CNN.com - Texas nurse who had worn protective gear tests positive for Ebola. He was able to relate this to news outside the United States (which is a news brief requirement) by talking about the origin of the man the nurse was caring for being Liberia. We had a quick talk about the story, and I made the comment that the doctors and nurses who are caring for Ebola patients are really heroes in my eyes, as they are putting their lives on the line to care for others. Thanks, Gavin. Jordan was assigned to do the next news brief.

What is Culture?: I started this section and new unit by asking what everyone had for breakfast today. The answers were:
13 – Nothing
7 – Cereal
3 – Bagel
3 – Bread
3 - Fruit
2 – Waffles
2 – Eggs
1 - Yogurt
1 – Donut
1 – Granola Bar

I saw this article last week and thought it was interesting, which is why I asked:


We looked at a few of these different types of breakfast (all of which were certainly better than "nothing" as the high answer - you need to eat before school, everyone!) and identified "food" as an aspect of culture. Then, I passed out this sheet:


I had students guess about what culture is with the top space on the worksheet, then we brainstormed as a class all the different aspects that could go in the second box, of 10 characteristics of culture.

After that, we went through this slideshow of pictures from the National Geographic Photography: Culture website. Here are the photos we went through:


I love all of these pictures because the world is such a diverse and interesting place! I enjoyed the class guesses as to what was going on in each.

The Lost Boys: Next, I showed part of a documentary on The Lost Boys of Sudan. This shows the dramatic differences between the culture in Sudan and the culture in America - something I think we do not think much about at all.


As a counterbalance, I showed this commercial that was made about Lopez Lomong, who was one of the "Lost Boys" and who eventually gained American citizenship, made the US Olympic Team, and carried the American flag into the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing:


I showed these videos to highlight some key aspects to American and Sudanese culture. We will continue to explore cultural similarities and differences of various different cultures during this unit.

Iceberg Reading: Near the end of class, we started going through a reading about culture:


We talked about some more aspects of culture, including the fact that the American school system is obsessed with time and being on time, whereas in other cultures, time is something that is more of a relative concept.

To end class, I showed this video compilation of various people around the world dancing to "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. This was to highlight a similarity of cultures: dancing!


This ended the class for the day. See you next class!
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Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Geography, Day 8 - Class Recap

This is me doing the Gangnam Style dance, at Gangnam Station in Seoul, South Korea, in January of 2014. Yes, the Korean girl who took this was laughing at me.

Dear class,

We are finally done with map quizzes and most of the Geography unit! Thank you for your patience and understanding as we finished today and there was a flurry of activity. I will grade your packets in the coming days and over the weekend for your progress reports on Monday. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 7: I can demonstrate the ability to use geographic tools.
Knowledge LT 11: I can demonstrate an understanding of the connection between the physical and human systems.

Soundtrack: "Gangnam Style" by PSY. Selected because we had our last map quiz today, on Asia. South Korea is where PSY is from, which is in Asia. Lyrics (which are mostly Korean, and hilariously translated to the English alphabet) here.

AGENDA 10/8/14:
News Brief – Tyler
Asia Quiz
Finish Five Themes
LT Self Assessment/Turn In

Homework: Read the blog. Your geography packet needed to be turned in today, so if you have parts you did not turn in (it may not be graded by progress reports), please get it to me ASAP. Next news brief: Gavin.

News Brief: Tyler brought in an article about this story (I think) for the news brief: BBC.com - Kurds protest against Turkey as IS advances on Kobane. This is obviously a situation we have continued to monitor during the news brief section, as the United States is now directly involved in the conflict. We talked a bit about all the refugees that are fleeing Syria - one of the world maps in the atlas in class shows the flow of refugees around the world, which would be a great one to identify the theme of Movement - People. Thanks, Tyler! Gavin, you are up next.

Asia Quiz: This was the last map quiz opportunity (remember, you had 6 possible opportunities with different map quizzes - 3 of which you choose as your best work to be graded along with the other geography work we have been doing). We graded and passed this back in class, so everyone should have had all the graded quizzes available for selection.

Finish Five Themes: We didn't have the time in class to go through the results of this activity, so I will see how everyone finished up with it while I am grading. There was time in class for students to be finishing this, after the Asia quiz. I hope you used your time wisely!

LT Self Assessment/Turn In: Finally - the first graded packet of work for the semester! This was the accumulation of all the work we have done with the geography unit - the quizzes, five themes papers, and your completed world maps by continent (colored and labelled). Here was the rubric students used in class to self assess:


I will look at what students wrote on this, along with the work that was stapled and turned in with it, in order to determine your proficiency grades are for these two learning targets, which is what the first progress report is entirely based on. Thus, if you did not do well with keeping up with your maps, doing well with the quizzes, and making sure to use class time effectively for the Five Themes of Geography packet, you may have some unfortunate news coming soon.

Next class, we will start our look at culture in depth. See you then!
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Monday, October 6, 2014

Geography, Day 7 - Class Recap


The Nile River going through Cairo, Egypt. The Nile is the longest river in the world and flows through seven countries in Africa. Today in class, we had the Africa map quiz - hopefully you knew where all of those countries are! Photo taken on July 28, 2014, as I was being taken to the airport to fly out.

Dear class,

Back at it with another week - this one is short, in that you have Friday off, while teachers have staff development and grading for progress reports to do. Here's what happened today in class:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 7: I can demonstrate the ability to use geographic tools.
Knowledge LT 11: I can demonstrate an understanding of the connection between the physical and human systems.

Soundtrack: "I Ka Barra (Your Work)" by Habib Koite. Selected for today because Habib Koite is from Senegal and based in Mali - two countries in Africa. The song lyrics are in Bambara (the main language in Mali), so here's a link to the actual song if you want to just listen to it again.

AGENDA 10/6/14:
News Brief – Rui
Africa Quiz
Five Themes of Geography
Asia/Middle East

Homework: Read the blog. Asia map quiz next class (need labeled and colored Asia map completed to be able to use on the quiz). Keep working on your Five Themes of Geography packet with the in class atlas (this will be due in class next time we meet - you will have some time to work on it). Students need to have their completed world map packet, ready to turn in next class, as well. Next news brief: Tyler.

News Brief: Rui had the news brief today and selected this article to talk about (thanks for emailing it to me in advance!): CNN.com - Is North Korea still digging tunnels to the South? We found North Korea on our world maps and talked about why they might be wanting to dig tunnels to the South. I also talked about my experience visiting North Korea for about two minutes last January, as I went to the other side of one of the huts on the center of the DMZ line. Always fun to talk about! Thanks, Rui. Tyler was randomly selected to do the next news brief.

Africa Quiz: This marks continent quiz 5 out of 6 for us. Again, students could only use their Africa maps to help if they had them completed by labeling and coloring them. We are going to use these maps all year long - especially during the news briefs, so it is very important they are done correctly!

Five Themes of Geography: After the quiz grades were done, I wanted students to move on to trying to finish the five themes packet (linked above in the homework section) and make sure that Asia was labeled and colored. We will have a quiz on Asia next class (while handing in your three best map quizzes, the world map packet, and the Five Themes of Geography notes and activity). That will bring us to the first progress report, which teachers will be working on next Friday (students do not have school).

Asia/Middle East: The last item in class was to make sure these two maps were being worked on and completed for next class. Once we are done with the Asia quiz, you will be turning these in for a few days so I can assess them! If you would like to see how your progress report grade is going to be figured out, here is the rubric we are going to use in class for self-assessment - then I will make my own assessment and remarks.

See you next class! Be ready to turn everything in!
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Thursday, October 2, 2014

Geography, Day 6 - Class Recap

On September 21st, 2013, my dad chose to have his birthday celebration by parking our R-Pod (recreational trailer) outside my grandparents retirement community on the street and have the family sit around inside while eating a BBQ style lunch together. Cool guy, my dad. :-)

Hi everyone,

It was so good to see you all today, after just an awful week away. As I said in class, I am so grateful for your support and to feel so welcomed back by smiles, kinds words, hugs, and understanding. My heart and soul is really in our work together here at Westview and it is so good to know that everyone has my back. On to the recap:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 6: I can demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of locations and regions.
Knowledge LT 7: I can demonstrate the ability to use geographic tools.

Soundtrack: "Tom Sawyer" by Rush. We played this song at the end of my dad's private memorial service on Saturday, because he loved it and we liked ending with classic rock before the reception. I talked about it a bit in my tribute remarks at the service, but here are the full lyrics.

AGENDA 10/2/14:
My Dad
News Brief – Kent-o
Grade Oceania/Europe Quiz
Five Themes of Geography/Africa

Homework: Read the blog. Africa map quiz next class (need labeled and colored Africa map completed to be able to use on the quiz). Keep working on your Five Themes of Geography packet with the in class atlas. Next news brief: Rui.

My Dad: I obviously wanted to take the first bit of class to talk about my dad and what happened. I tried to give an overall impression who my dad was. I talked a little bit about the car accident that killed him (we are under the impression that there was absolutely nothing he could have done) and what the last week has looked like for my family.

More than anything, though, I wanted to let everyone know that one of the main lessons my family and I are taking away from this horrible experience is just the importance of being kind and loving. My dad was an amazing man, and I feel so blessed that I got to spend 28 years with him, on an almost every day basis. Our family is so strong because of the leadership of both of my parents. We try to treat everyone with respect and love. It would be so easy to be angry about this, and I suspect that might come from time to time. We are going to try to react out of love. That's why I am back at Westview: I absolutely love being your teacher and the community here. I know it is where I am supposed to be, and doing what I am supposed to do with my life.

So thank you, everyone, for all your kindness to me. I said I would link to a few articles and stories if you were interested in learning more about who my dad was and what happened over the last week, so here they are:

First and foremost, here is the tribute speech that I wrote for the private memorial service we had on Saturday:


A really well done video recap that the Oregonian did about the public celebration of life on Sunday:


The obituary style article that ran in the Oregonian the day after my dad was killed: OregonLive.com - In death, Dr. Steve Fritz remembered for putting patients first, supporting wife, pursuing adventures.

The written recap of the celebration of life downtown on Sunday, which hundreds of people came to: OregonLive.com - Steve Fritz memorial: Hundreds pay respects to Portland man who was 'unapologetically himself'.

There are at least 16 different articles posted on the Oregonian website about the accident and the aftermath, including one about Westview and me being a teacher here (this was seriously crazy to read out of the blue, especially with my tweets being quoted): OregonLive.com - After Steve Fritz's death, Westview High School supports his teacher son, Luke Fritz.

If you have any other questions or comments that were not addressed in class, please feel free to comment on the blog, email, or just see me personally. Thanks so much, everyone. It's going to be a process, for sure. I can't guarantee that I will always be happy or upbeat with this. I do want you to know that I love you all and I am glad to be back.

News Brief: With that, we started back up with the news brief. Kent-o brought in this article today for it: BBC.com - Japan Mount Ontake volcano: Death toll reaches 47. We found Japan on our world maps (it's in Asia!) and highlighted it. To be honest, I haven't been paying much attention to news around the world in the last week, so this might be a little bit more in depth as I get up to speed. Rui was selected to do the next news brief.

Grade Oceania/Europe Quizzes: Since all of my Global Studies classes are in somewhat different places, I wanted to try and get back on track. Basically, we should have a quiz on Africa next class, then Asia the class after that (while handing in your three best map quizzes, the world map packet, and the Five Themes of Geography notes and activity). That will bring us to the first progress report.

Five Themes of Geography/Africa: After the quiz grades were done, I had students move on to trying to finish the five themes packet (linked above in the homework section) and make sure that Africa was labeled and colored.

That was it for today. Thanks again, everyone, for your understanding. It's going to take me a little bit of time to get up to speed with everything - hopefully this weekend will help. Be kind and good to each other. It matters. :-)
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