Farewell to 2011

More Congratulations

Hats off (maybe Santa hats) to our wonderful band and jazz group who performed so magnificently on December 21. Your talent, dedication and hard work paid off. Great job!

South Asia

This past week we completed our study of South Asia. We watched the Emmy award winning show “India Rising” which focused on the rapid development of a middle class in India which is larger than the entire population of the US. After watching the video, you had an on demand writing assignment where you had to decide if this new large middle class in India would benefit or harm the United States. This in class writing assignment was worth 10 points

We concluded our study of South Asia by working in groups with multiple texts and videos to help us respond to two questions: Is Pakistan a dangerous country? And what should the US relationship be with this country? You had excerpts from your UpFront magazine, Newsweek, and the New York Times as well as a video clip on pop musicians in Pakistan, a TED video on suicide bombers, and a CNN interview with Greg Mortensen, author of “Three Cups of Tea.” This wealth of information gave you a wide ranging perspective on Pakistan but ultimately you had to decide the answer to each question. This in class writing assignment was also worth 10 points.

Current Events

In addition to our regular events, we took time to review reports on the death of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and to speculate how the transfer of leadership to his young son will impact the country. Secretary Clinton hoped this change in leadership could be the start of a new and more positive relationship between North Korea and the U.S. We will continue looking at this major event in the new year when we continue our study of Asia.

Task

Congratulations to all of you who handed in the task. Many of you met or exceeded the standard and therefore the task can go in your portfolio. For those who nearly met standard, you were still able to earn in-class credit. Task scores will be provided to you upon your return. My advice is to think before you write, give yourself time to rewrite and be specific…avoid generalities.


Enjoy

Now we have all earned some rest and relaxation time. No homework was assigned over the break but let me remind a few of you that revisions are due on January 3. I know you will keep up with the news and what is happening in the outside world.

If You Were Absent

This past week we had two in class writing assignments. If you were absent for the assignments, you have five days to make up the work. I am available before and after school each day except Wednesday (faculty meetings). Please make arrangements ASAP so you don’t lose the opportunity to make up the assignments.

A Time to Say Thank you

There are many who help make this blog an interesting, useful and helpful source of information for students and parents. I want to thank BABM, KLM, and MLM who give me the student’s point of view on the entries. They are especially good at pointing out the need for a consistent positive message no matter what the challenges are. They also provide technology support when I have goofed up an entry or inserted the wrong size picture. I also want to thank LEM who has been my faithful editor. His insistence on word choice and good grammar have made me a better writer. He has also been a constant source of encouragement when some weekend mornings I consider not writing an entry... “What, no blog?! Say it’s not true!” Finally, thank you to my faithful readers both near and far. While this is the last posting for the year, stay tuned for a special New Year’s kickoff!

End of a Long Campaign

The Providence Journal headline, “WAR OVER,” was indeed good news. A few American troops will remain in Iraq to help train the Iraqi army, but all other military personnel will be home before the end of the year. We still have approximately 100,000 troops in Afghanistan with a target withdrawal date of December 2014. I look forward to the time when war in the South West Asia region comes off the CWI syllabus.

Happy Bill of Rights Day!

We took time off from our busy schedule to celebrate Bill of Rights Day on December 15. This is a great time to pause and think about how fortunate we are to live in a country that respects and promotes individual liberty. It is amazing that so many people do not know their basic rights, but you did a great job outlining our five essential freedoms under the First Amendment: freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition. Bill of Rights Day was formally declared in 1941 when President Franklin Roosevelt asked all Americans to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the passage of the Bill of Rights. So when you walk into room 246 and see the bright lights you know it is time to celebrate! Did you “Tweet for Freedom”?

Tasks

We squeezed in one day in the library this week to revise tasks. Many of you did a great job the first time out but others needed to go back and reference the articles in the body of your essay. Those of you who treated the assignment as a current event were able to complete the task without revision. My goal is to have 100% meet standard so I am anxious to start reading your revised essays.

South Asia

We used our chapter 25 worksheet to help build background on India and we used the vocabulary cards as a way to help tell the story of this country. Focusing on new vocabulary and key terms is a way to better understand the readings. We also saw a clip from the NYT on outsourcing and interviews with young Indians and how they view their future. Our reading from The Economist gave us a well written argument on how India’s growth could outpace China’s. We took the opportunity to make a list of factors that would support investment in India, what the challenges are, and where we would invest money for future growth: India or China.

Our finally video is entitled “India Rising,” an Emmy award winning documentary by PBS NOW. The video points out the reasons for a fast growing middle class in India and its impact on your life style. The growth of the middle class is causing prices for all commodities to increase. Are we on a seesaw? As India rises does it mean our own standard of living will decrease?

Naval War College Guest Speaker Series

Our speaker series started off with two dynamic and engaging speakers: CDR Bottger from Peru and LT Vaidotas from Lithuania. Their PowerPoint presentations covered the history of their countries and brought us up to contemporary times. You could quickly see that both officers are enthusiastic supporters of their homelands.
I want to compliment you as an audience on your attention and great listening skills. Speakers appreciate a good audience and I know our two international officers will go back to the Naval War College with glowing reviews. Next time, let’s work on questions. Speakers always enjoy thought provoking questions as it shows you were listening and it gives them the opportunity to bring out additional points. Our next speakers will be January 13.

Current Events

This is an ongoing assignment and by now you should be earning high scores. You have a week to do the assignment so that is plenty of time to find an article and write your two paragraphs. When you need an event from a certain region let me remind you again that you can’t just go to the computer and type in the region. We must use our text and your map work to determine which countries are in the region of study. Some search engines put Afghanistan in South Asia while our text considers it part of Southwest Asia. By doing the regional map as your first assignment on the syllabus you know which countries are part of the region we are studying. I will return the assignment and you have the opportunity to revise.

Wrap Up

We are just about at the end of our 2011 school year and my goal is to finish our South Asia syllabus and return the tasks to you prior to our break. If we can finish our multiple text study of Pakistan (that will require you to do the few pages of reading in your text on Monday evening) then we can all go home for the break without any formal homework. Yes, I know...keeping up with current events, watching the news, and knowing what is happening in the outside world are ongoing tasks, but it would be nice not to have any formal worksheets, papers or assignments, so let’s put in that extra effort.

Beautiful Music

A special thank you to our chorus for a wonderful holiday concert. Your long hours of practice paid off and it was an evening many of us will remember for a long time.

On Task

While the President and Congress wrangled over tax cuts, and the world looked on as the European Union tried to put its financial house in order, your efforts were focused on your “It’s My World” task. You had nine days to think about the prompt and to collect and analyze three articles on an international topic of your choosing. We went over the rubric twice and explained each requirement in an effort to prepare you for the assignment. Many of you came into the library ready to write...congratulations for good time management skills! Those who were ready to write completed the task within the two-day allotment, while those who were still collecting articles had difficulty meeting the deadline. This was a very manageable task as it was just what you have been doing with your regular current events assignments only in an expanded form. One student even entitled the essay “Just a Big Current Event”... that made me laugh!

If you were absent for one of the days for writing or you are granted extra time, you may work on the essay at home and upload to TieNet. I will keep the task open until December 14. Please hand in a hard copy, rubric and articles to me no later than December 14. The task was also your major project for second quarter.

South Asia
This week we also continued our study of South Asia. You have completed your map and have taken notes from “The World Today.” You will have your map and note quiz on Monday, and as usual you will be able to use your own map and notes to help you with the questions. Sounds like a great opportunity to earn high marks!

Your current event on South Asia is due December 15 (which also happens to be Bill of Rights Day…this is cause for a celebration). Make sure you select an event from a country that is in the region so check your map for eligible countries…don’t just Google “South Asia current event” as you may get a country outside the region.

As you will see from the photos we will view in class, this is a complex region. We have the mountain kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan, the largest democracy in the world, India, and Pakistan, which has been described “as the most dangerous country in the world.” President Obama travelled to this region last year and spent several days in India in an effort to boost our trade with a country that can also help keep the balance of power in a region being encroached upon by China. It is crucial that India continue to be closely aligned with the US. Two years ago, President Obama signaled to the world that our relationship with India was unique by holding his first state dinner honoring Prime Minister Singh. A White House State Dinner is an elegant and unique function reserved for the most important alliances. The President spoke eloquently about our relationship with India and Gandhi’s impact on our own Martin Luther King. India has entered our contemporary culture through the popularity of such films as “Monsoon Wedding,” “Slum Dog Millionaire” and “The Namesake.” A former Rhode Islander, Jhumpa Lahiri, winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, bases much of her writing on experiences growing up in a household with parents from India. If you are looking for quality short story fiction, I highly recommend any of her books.

Guest Speakers
On December 16 we will be having an in-school field trip in room 212 during advisory to hear from the Naval War College International Officers from Peru and Lithuania. This is a unique opportunity to hear about far off countries from a leading military officer of the country. Let me remind you that you are expected to arrive on time and to listen to our guests. This is the time when your best manners are on display. Time will be allotted for a question and answer period. Students who ask questions will earn extra credit.

Intra-terms
Intra-terms are due next week so we will take class time to update our status of assignment sheet and figure out your score as of December 12. Your task will count for the second half of the quarter.

When You’re Absent
While we have gone over the expectations and they are outlined in your room management plan, I want to remind you that when you are absent, you must arrange time (before or after school or during advisory) to come by and make up the work. You have 5 days to complete the work. If you do not make arrangements then you will receive no credit for the assignments. It is up to you!

“Gifts That Say You Care”
As this is the time for giving, our friend, New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof, had some interesting suggestions for holiday shopping in his article entitled “Gifts that say you care.” I have given you the link if you are interested in reading more about his idea. He also used the column to announce his annual win a trip contest. Remember…we heard Paul Bower, one of the winners, report on famine in Africa.

Time for a Task

This week there was good news to celebrate at home and overseas. Egypt began its first truly democratic elections, and most observers feel the process is going smoothly and eventually a parliament will be seated. In Myanmar, Secretary Clinton made an historic three-day visit, encouraging its people and military government to continue down the road toward democracy. And banks around the world coordinated actions to provide funds for loans and debt relief that gave confidence to stock markets and investors. Here at home, our unemployment rate has started to move in the right direction with a decline from 9.1% to 8.6%, and MHS PREPARED TO DEFEND ITS SUPERBOWL TITLE!

Afghan Profile

Using your text, the UpFront reading and the Goode’s Atlas, you developed a statistical profile of Afghanistan. I especially like Goode’s Atlas as the maps give us a great deal of information visually. Using the atlas you discovered how much clean water is available Afghanistan (only about 22% of the population has it), the country has negligible exports, the people are suffering from malnutrition and only about 30% are literate. You can see why the Taliban, an organization that offers food, clothing, shelter and some degree of hope to young people can be appealing. TED features a video on how the Taliban recruits youngsters to become suicide bombers and next week we will watch a clip as part of our study of Pakistan.

Afghan Star

We finished watching this documentary that shows life in Afghanistan before, during and after the rule by the Taliban. The movie allowed you to see firsthand what the country looks like and how the people are trying to restore their culture after years of Taliban censorship. You also saw how the show “Afghan Star,” modeled after “American Idol,” is teaching people about democracy. Afghans are encouraged to vote for the best singer, not the one from their region or tribe. We also witnessed one of the female singers who was roundly condemned by viewers for performing a simple dance on stage, a violation of tradition. Her life was threatened so she immediately sought safety with her family. The TV show is now in its fifth season and over 11 million people watch it each week.

Final Assessment

You had your announced final assessment this week. You had an open ended question and you were allowed to use your map to help you with your thinking. If you were absent, you have 5 days to make up the work. Don’t delay...come by and make plans to do the assessment during advisory or after school. Our pep rally interfered with our last class of the day, so if you did not finish the assessment there will be an alternative available on Monday.

Task

This week you received your portfolio task. You must select an international issue to analyze. You must have 3 current event articles to attach to your reflective essay. Your topic must be preapproved. While many of you were ready with a topic on the assigned day, some students still need to have an approved topic. The sooner your topic is approved, the sooner you can start collecting the news articles you will need for the essay. We will go over the rubric again next week. Writing will take two days in the computer lab. This is a great opportunity to complete a portfolio task AND receive class credit as this will be your major project for second quarter. I have not assigned any homework since giving out the task so that you could spend your time finding the articles, reading and summarizing. To meet standard, your reader is going to look for your ability to synthesize and analyze the issue and come up with a solution or recommendation. You must also include why this issue is important to you and its impact on the world community.

And now we are off to India and Pakistan

You have received the new syllabus for our next unit on South Asia. The syllabus has been punched with 3 holes so you can put it in your binder. Staying organized is a critical step in meeting the stress and challenges of school – and beyond! We will start with a map and some reading to acquaint you with this area of the world.

The $100 Challenge

Thank you to the students who contributed to our first challenge and a special thank you to my outside blog reader who contributed money, along with a note about how malaria took the life of a friend. Our votes for how to use the money were scattered but ultimately mosquito nets came out on top. A check for $40 was sent to Save the Children and according to their catalog this will be enough to buy nets for four families. Malaria is the leading cause of death in the world, and your simple action of contributing $1.00 may save someone’s life. So take the time to think about how this one painless action could affect the lives of four families in some far off place. You should take satisfaction in knowing that you helped!