Thursday, October 29, 2015

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,

Most of today was taken up with finishing the excellent "Time For School" documentary and watching the available updates for the students. Please continue to be working on your Culture Project, as well! Here's the recap for today:

Learning Targets:
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Critical Thinking LT 1: I can explain multiple perspectives and viewpoints.
Knowledge LT 15: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.
Behavior LT 1:  I can manage my responsibilities as a student.

Soundtrack: "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. Selected for today because we talked about Miley Cyrus and American culture, as well as Halloween upcoming. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 10/29/15:
News Brief – Jonathan B.
Finish Time for School 3
Updates
Work Time

Homework: Read the blog. Continue working on the Culture Project - due next Friday! Next news brief: Zack.

News Brief: Jonathan B. had the news brief today and talked about this story with the class: BBCNews.com - 'Hero' US jet pilot saved farmer's life during crash. We found the United Kingdom (where this event happened) on our world maps as we talked about this story, which happened last week. Thanks, Jonathan B.!

Zack was chosen to bring in the next news brief.

We also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

Finish Time For School 3: 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.

Here are both parts to the documentary:



I hope you enjoyed watching this - I know that when I watch this, I am always reminded about how fortunate I am to have received a good education!

Updates: After watching Part 2 (just the parts having to do with the students, not the interview at the end), I showed the updates that PBS recently put out about 5 of the 7 students in Time for School. Here are links to see them again (the video should start playing at the new sections of the video):






It was really interesting to see how everyone is doing now, and what they are up to in their lives!

Work Time: After watching the updates, the rest of class was devoted to work time, in completing the Time for School questions, and continuing to work on the culture project. There are a lot of options of what to do - it could be writing, a visual, a presentation, or something else. Here's the assignment:


This will be due in class next week (probably Friday), so be working on it at home, bring work into class to do, and ask questions if you need help! I went around the class and answered questions about it, or helped brainstorm ideas. Please continue to be working on this at home! See you next class. :-)
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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

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, I introduced the Culture Project to the class (probably due at the end of next week) and we continued the Time For School series of videos. Here's the recap for today:

Learning Targets:
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Critical Thinking LT 1: I can explain multiple perspectives and viewpoints.
Knowledge LT 15: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.
Behavior LT 1:  I can manage my responsibilities as a student.

Soundtrack: "Rhapsody in Blue" by Leonard Bernstein. Selected for today because a student in Period 1 suggested it, as an example of American culture, due to being in Fantastia, by Disney. No lyrics, but listen here.

AGENDA 10/27/15:
News Brief – Gabe
Culture Project
Time for School 3
Work Time

Homework: Read the blog. Continue working on the Culture Project! Next news brief: Jonathan B.

News Brief: Gabe had the news brief today and talked about this story with the class: CNN.com - 5 dead, 1 missing after whale-watching boat sinks off British Columbia. We found Canada on our world maps (in North America) and talked a little bit about what happened - this event was very close to home! Jonathan B. was selected to do the next news brief.

We also watched the one minute BBC World News update (shout out to Lucy Hockings for the reply on Twitter!). Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

BBCNews.com - One-minute World News

Finally, we checked in about the weekend (I am still quite sore from my half marathon!), and anything else that was happening, as well.

Culture Project: This is one of the main assignments for the culture unit, and I hope it is interesting for students to work on! There are a lot of options of what to do - it could be writing, a visual, a presentation, or something else. Here's the assignment:


This will be due in class next week (probably Thursday), so be working on it at home, bring work into class to do, and ask questions if you need help!

Time For School: We continued 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.

Here are both parts to the documentary. I stopped Part 2 at about 18:30 in, when it finished talking about Nanavi.



Next class, we will finish with this and continue working on the culture project.

Work Time: The rest of class (about 20 minutes or so) was devoted to starting up the Culture Project, as I went around the class and answered questions about it, or brainstormed ideas. Please continue to be working on this at home! See you next class. :-)
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Friday, October 23, 2015

Culture, Day 5 - Class Recap

On the football field at Westview, later this past summer. Athletic events are a big part of Westview culture!

Hi everyone,

We continued learning about culture today and I enjoyed hearing the Nacirema stories students came up with, as well as beginning the Time For School series of videos. Here's the recap for today:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 15: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.
Behavior LT 1:  I can manage my responsibilities as a student.

Soundtrack: "Represent" by Weezer. Selected for today because we were talking about how people in different cultures represent themselves. This was also a pump up song for the 2010 World Cup. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 10/23/15:
News Brief – David
Share Nacerima Stories
Culture Checklist
Time for School 3

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

News Brief: David had the news brief today and talked about this article with the class: BBCNews.com - Chinese diplomats shot dead in Philippines restaurant attack. We found the Philippines on our world maps (in Asia) and talked about what a typhoon is (vs. a hurricane). Thanks, David! Gabe was randomly drawn as the next news brief.

We also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

BBCNews.com - One-minute World News

Finally, we checked in about the upcoming weekend, and anything else that was happening, as well.

Share Nacirema Stories: I was glad to see that most students did their homework and were prepared to share their stories in small groups! I had fun listening in on the six groups, and then each group selected their best example, and had a student read it aloud as the rest of the class tried to guess what it was about. The point of this was to be able to look from an outsiders perspective at our own culture, so that we can more easily understand why other cultures might be different.

Culture Checklist: This is a new way of tracking assignments and your proficiency self-assessments on the unit, rather than the big rubrics at the end (which are connected to this). Here is the checklist that I passed out in class:


As we progress through the culture unit (we are about halfway through), you should be writing down assignments and looking at your progress, so that you feel comfortable by the end about

Time For School 3: 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 38:00 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! See you next week! :-)
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