Endings and Beginnings

As I look over our school calendar and review the events of this week, I see this as a time of endings and beginnings. We are ending our third quarter and our study of the Cold War in Modern America and the years between the wars in World History. As we enter the final quarter, we begin our study of the Civil Rights Movement and World War II.

In current news, Supreme Court Judge John Paul Stevens is ending his career of nearly 35 years as President Obama begins narrowing the choices for the candidate who will become his second nominee to the Court.

Two figures who played very different roles in history died this week. The passing of Morris Jeppson, an Army electronic specialist who flew on the Enola Gay, leaves one survivor from this history-making flight. When asked what he had done the day he dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, he is reported to have said “I think we ended the war today.” After the US dropped one more atomic bomb, on Nagasaki, the war did end. In Russia, they are mourning the passing of Anatoly Dobrynin, the Soviet Ambassador to Washington during the Cuban Missile Crisis and most of the remaining Cold War era. He is credited by many historians with helping end the crisis and easing tensions between the USSR and the USA.

Finally, this was a week when our President took major steps toward reducing the threat of nuclear weapons by signing a treaty with Russia to lower the number in each country’s arsenal and issuing a new doctrine that narrows the conditions under which the US would use such weapons. Both countries have huge nuclear stockpiles, and reducing their number and restricting the circumstances under which they might be used will mean a safer world for all.

Your study of history becomes more meaningful when you can make connections. Watching the news and talking with family members help you better understand events and their significance.

CWI/Modern America

This week we started by listening to two popular songs from 1965 and 1966: “On the Eve of Destruction” and “The Ballad of the Green Berets.” By listening to the music and reading the lyrics, you quickly noted that one was a protest song and one was a patriotic song. The country was deeply divided by the war in Vietnam and the music, documents, and photos you used in your group activity helped you understand the reasons for those divisions. As good historians, you sifted through the evidence and reached conclusions.

We concluded our study of the Cold War by looking at events during JFK’s administration, including the Alliance for Progress, the Bay of Pigs incident, the Berlin Crisis and finally the Cuban Missile Crisis. Each of these events showed the different strategies Kennedy used to contain communism. Our videos on the Cuban Missile Crisis gave you a sense of the tension the entire world felt during those 13 days as the two most powerful countries stood face to face. We are all thankful that cooler heads prevailed and a peaceful resolution was worked out to end the immediate threat of all-out war. If you are interested in knowing more about this event, I would urge you to watch “Thirteen Days in October,” a film starring Kevin Costner. It is a good depiction of what happened and the extras on the DVD include interviews with key players.

To help you get a better understanding of this time period, we listened to Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” accompanied by a video depicting events mentioned. Thanks to Mr. Scott Allsop, a history teacher from England who built the video around this song. For those who like to sing along he has recently updated the video to include a karaoke version.

At the end of the week you had your Cold War final assessment which included multiple choice questions and a writing piece. The writing focused on the use of the vocabulary we have been working on for the past few weeks. Many of you did a fine job on the writing...congratulations!

You also received your Civil Rights syllabus. This is an especially important unit for you as we are preparing for a portfolio task. You will be given a prompt and several documents. In order to be successful on this essay you will need to analyze the documents (April 27 or 28) and use your prior knowledge to respond to the prompt. Readers of essays are looking for an understanding of the documents AND your understanding of the time period based on your previous work. For homework you should identify and tell the significance of the people listed on your syllabus. This will prepare us to write the speech that is listed on your syllabus. We will do his next week.

World History

We finished our study of the world between the wars. One of the most useful assignments you had was your comparison sheet of fascism, socialism and democracy. A good understanding of these different forms of government will help you in your future study of historical time periods. Many high grades were earned on the end of unit assessment. Great job!

We have started our study of World War II and you have a packet that will help you understand the text and our discussions. We had some fun on Friday as we acted out the play with Chamberlin trying to appease Hitler. We also analyzed the two editorial cartoons. Cartoons are an amusing and sometimes forceful way of communicating difficult concepts. I hope you have taken the time to look at some of the cartoons in the UpFront magazine.

For homework you need to move on to section 2 on the syllabus. You should also be thinking about what type of power point project you would like to do for your final assessment. This coming Wednesday, April 14, we will discuss the due date. We will be going to the computer lab next week to look at sites and develop an open-ended question which will be the basis of your project. This will be great practice for the Capstone project you do as Juniors.

Extra Credit

Many of you have asked for an extra credit question so I am offering you the opportunity to earn extra credit by bringing in an editorial cartoon and sharing it with the class. It can be on any topic from any reputable source. Have fun!