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!