We're Finished!!!

This YEAR

With tomorrow being reserved for walk-a-thon, today marks the unofficial end of the course, and the end of debates. It's been rewarding for me personally watching all of these students grow over this past year. Hopefully, they can now claim to be more geographically literate and more knowledgeable about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than they were a year ago. They can also say that they know more about conflicts and genocides than most people, not to mention what challenges are facing China as it grapples with issues like economic development and censorship. Another claim they can make is that they can successfully articulate and defend their position on any topic. Learning how to learn is something I hope they have taken away from this course, and I couldn't have asked for a better group of students to teach. Thank you for such a wonderful year!

Team 2 consulting with one another during the break between the cross examinations and rebuttal. Fatima's look of concern was unsubstantiated, they won!

Of course I have to thank all of the partners who helped Ms. Reid and I judge these debates this year. The list is impressive and includes the following individuals:

• Vonya Lewis - Professor, Sinclair Community College
• Dr. Noeleen McIlvenna - Associate Professor, Wright State University
• Dr. Brian Boyd - Associate Professor, Wright State University
• Bill Lautar - Member, Kettering City Council
• Tony Klepacz - Member, Kettering City Council
• Dr. Robert P. Dillaplain - President, Xenia School Board
• Jordan Adams - Engineer - AFRL
• Deb Smyth - School Psychologist, Dayton Regional STEM School
• Jordan Slone - Director of IT, Dayton Regional STEM School
• Robin Fisher - Superintendent/CAO, Dayton Regional STEM School
• Dr. Romena Holbert - Assistant Professor, Wright State University
• Dr. David Wirth - MTSI Defense Contractor
• Suzanne Sumner - Attorney, Taft, Stettinius & Hollister
• Dr. Charlotte Harris - CEHS Dean, Wright State University
• Julie Tollefson - Grad student, Wright State University (International and Comparative Politics Program)
• Emily Miller - Teacher, Franklin High School
• Jim McFarland - Assistant Principal, Franklin High School
• Dr. Scott Peterson - Assistant Professor, Wright State University
• Caleb Mitchener - Social Studies Teacher

The judges were very impressed and wanted me to share this with the students. Dr. Luehrmann in particular wanted me to share her comments: "I can't tell you how impressed I was with the students yesterday: they were prepared, professional, and very interesting!  It was a joy to be there as a judge; please do count me in again next year." This is very high praise and I couldn't be prouder of all of them.

If you have any questions about the final grades your son or daughter has received, please email me at arch.grieve@wright.edu.

 

Next Week

I hope you have a great STEMmersion course! If you want to keep up with the biking STEMmersion's trips (and maybe get a few ideas of places to ride around Dayton), you can follow us on http://stemonwheels.blogspot.com!

Have a great summer and I look forward to seeing you all next year for Economics! My class blog for that course is http://economicsaccordingtogrieve.blogspot.com!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Thirty Seven - The Final Countdown!

This Week

It's been a fun week for me seeing all of the students honing their debate skills and piecing together evidence from throughout the year as they prepare for our debates, which will take place next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We have been practicing all week, which has been a lot of fun. We were even lucky enough to have local attorneys Nick Subashi and Tabitha Justice (who is also a DRSS Board Member) come help students prepare for doing cross examinations. They taught them as if they were "new attorneys," explaining all of the preparation that goes into preparing for a cross examination. It was tremendously helpful and I learned a lot as well!

Practicing for the debates!

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to get to go to Sima with Ms. Chen and her students and stuff myself!

Attorneys Nick Subashi and Tabitha Justice (also a DRSS Board Member) came to Ms. Reid's class to help us prepare for our cross examinations on Wednesday! Thanks so much to both of them!

Practicing constructive speeches and cross examinations during class on Thursday.

I also did bike to work day with Ms. Poppaw, Ms. Schultz, and the Bollingers. Lots of fun!

Next Week

We have an impressive array of judges who will be deciding which team better proves that the 20th century was (or was not) a century of progress. This group will include college professors (and even a dean), school board members, local council members from the City of Kettering, and business partners. It should be a lot of fun!

Next week, of course, will be the end of our academic year (before STEMmersion starts), and I am looking forward to watching the students show off everything they've learned this year in front of our judges. As local attorney Nick Subashi explained to our students this weekend, he still practices a lot before he steps into a court room for a trial. I hope students take this lesson to heart and realize that it's true that "practice makes perfect," and that they spend at least some of their weekend practicing their delivery.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Update on Chinese Comic Life Project

All of the comics that have been uploaded have been graded and entered into ProgressBook. If you would like to revise, you must follow these special directions (and shortened revision timeline due to the end of the quarter rapidly approaching):

1. View my grade/feedback on Pilot
2. Revise your comic accordingly (fixing everything, not just some of it) 
3. Upload your file back to Pilot
4. Print out a hard copy of your new comic life project 
5. Turn it into your class' turn-in tray no later than 3:30PM on Wednesday, May 13

Thank you,

~Mr. Grieve

Week Thirty Six - Debate Preparation

This Week

We are half way through our debate preparations today with students working on crafting their contentions, finding their evidence, and (for the groups who are really on top of things) tying all of their evidence together with a unifying theme. Students have been given mini-lessons this week on finding evidence, crafting contentions, developing themes, and coming up with reasoning to tie their arguments together. Today I spent the period meeting with students individually to look at their evidence and provide them feedback on how to improve it. They had to fill out a form by this morning at 8:00AM letting me know what their evidence/contentions would be for the debates so I could provide feedback.

Students' Chinese Comic Life projects were also due today, which I will try to finish grading over the weekend. What I've looked at so far looks pretty good!

This is Colleen Fulton's comic life project. She did a great job!

We also had a good time enjoying the beautiful weather this week (while continuing to prepare for the debates):

The weather was too nice to stay inside today, so we went outside!

Upcoming Week

Next week we will be doing the following as we prepare for our final debates:

Monday - I will meet w/students one on one, students will begin practicing constructive speeches w/in their own groups and critiquing one another/refining their arguments

Tuesday - Same as Monday

Wednesday - Class will do a run-through of the whole 1st half of the debates with another like group (progress presents to progress so no potential opponents get an unfair advantage!) and give each other feedback.

Thursday - The class will do run-throughs of the whole debate (cont.) with whole-class critique

Friday - Groups will work on revising based on class feedback after finishing up whole debate run-throughs and preparing for debates, which will start during 1st period on Monday!

I hope you have a restful weekend and come back ready to finish the year strong!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Thirty Five - Comic Life Project

This Week (and Last Week)

I apologize I didn't get an update posted last week, but I was in Washington DC with my JCOWA students for the annual Academic WorldQuest Competition, put on by the World Affairs Council of America. We had a lot of fun, and you can check out our picture album on our Dayton JCOWA Facebook page.

This is our team with the European Union Ambassador David O'Sullivan! We got to visit the embassy.

Throughout this short week (no school for students Friday!) students have been working on their Comic Life projects whereby they create a comic about an important person or event from Chinese history so that we can create a comic book for each class about Modern Chinese history. On Wednesday we had a visit from Dr. Luehrmann, an expert on China and the Director of the Wright State International and Comparative Politics program (the one I'm in). Students submitted questions to her via a Google Form and she was able to come in during advisory and answer those questions on everything from currency during the Maoist era to the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement to the contradictions of Modern China. Students really benefited from her expertise and we she can visit with us again!

Dr. Luehrmann presenting to students on questions they sent to her ahead of time.

Many students wanted to ask questions so badly that they went late to lunch! Wish there was more time in the day.

There was also some big news on the poster project this week, as United to End Genocide (the organization for which we raised money) wrote an article about the unit we do! I have also decided to make all of their posters available for purchase, so you can check out the posters on our website at www.daytonstemschool.org/conflictandgenocide and then use this Google Form to let me know what posters you would like us to purchase. The form must be filled out and money must be turned in by Friday, May 8th, at 3:15PM. If you have any trouble with the form or questions, please contact me. All net proceeds from the sale of the posters will be donated to United to End Genocide.

Check out the story here!

Use this form to order posters. Find the 2015 posters available for sale on our website here.

Upcoming Week

Next week we begin studying for our "End of Year Debates," whereby students will be taking everything they have learned over the course of the year and fashioning arguments about whether or not they believe the 20th Century was one of "Progress," in addition to defining what "Progress" means. They will be debating in front of a panel of judges on May 18th, 19th, and 20th.

This is also the last weekend you have to visit the Chinese Art Exhibit at the Dayton Art Institute (if you haven't already), so be sure to send me a picture of your visit this week or weekend if you want to take advantage of this opportunity!

Have a great long weekend this weekend and here's to a great Thursday!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Thirty Three - Modern China Continued

This Week

It was fun on Thursday hearing about all of the things students did while on their internships on Wednesday! I heard about making coasters with an etching tool, playing with some pretty impressive video games at the Air Force Research Lab, and even heard my new favorite student say how hard it was to be a teacher after she shadowed one yesterday! One student even shadowed my brother, a writer for Naked Lime, a subsidiary of Reynolds and Reynolds that produces The News Wheel. All in all I was jealous about all the opportunities students got to take advantage of yesterday!

In terms of actual classwork, this week was spent finishing up the movie, To Live, and beginning two of the three readings we still have on Modern China. Students were given class time to complete these readings on Thursday and will have time on Friday as well.

Of course I can't forget to mention that Eddie Love and Ray Hampton placed 2nd in the Max May Memorial Art Competition, and Eddie was on hand to receive the award this past weekend at the Beth Abraham Synagogue. It was a great event and the Holocaust survivors who spoke were very moving. Check out some of the pictures, below.

A cool piece of art from another school

Many of our students' posters were on display

Here is Eddie's and Ray's poster

Eddie receiving the award for he and Ray, delivered by Renate Frydman, granddaughter of the Max May Memorial Art Competition's namesake, Max May

Eddie with his family!

Upcoming Week

I'm still allowing students to visit the museum, and I have to say that one student and her mother have set the bar quite high for letting me know they visited the Dayton Art Institute's Chinese exhibit. While you don't have to go quite this far, the extra effort is definitely appreciated, and I hope you have a chance to check it out as well!

Nice job Sophia and Mrs. Lucas! This is awesome! If this doesn't make you want to visit, I don't know what will.

There are some more pictures to show of others who went to visit the museum too!

We will be continuing with our studies of Modern China next week as we look at the Tiananmen Square protests, the artist Ai Wei Wei, and the challenges of Taiwan. Students were given their homework today for the Plan E day, so they should not need to log into Pilot or Pilot Live next Monday.

Also, I'm excited to announce that I'll be gone (that's not why I'm excited) next Friday because my students placed 1st for the second year in a row in the annual Junior Council on World Affairs competition, so we'll be traveling to Washington DC next week!

Have a great weekend.

~ Mr. Grieve

Week Thirty Two - Modern China Continued

This Week

This has been a slow week of easing back into the groove of school as students on Monday and Tuesday worked independently on a reading about Modern China. We then began our viewing of the movie, To Live, the final three days of the week.

Speaking of Modern China, thanks to all of you who took up my challenge to visit the art museum! I heard from many parents that they were unable to make it, so I'll extend this opportunity out another two weeks in case anyone else would like to visit it. I'm posting some of the better pictures below of students who went.

Thanks as well to those of you who came to the discussion panel about the US Senate torture review panel's findings at Wright State. It was an interesting and enlightening discussion and I'm glad you could make it.

Upcoming Week

Next week we will continue with our studies of Modern China as we finish up the movie and then move onto looking at more modern events, such as the Tiananmen Square protests and Ai Wei Wei's political dissidence. Today I also told students that we are going to (hopefully) have the opportunity to do a Q & A with the Director of the International and Comparative Politics Graduate program at Wright State, Dr. Luehrmann, and I'm asking them to think of things they want to ask her and post them on sticky notes as we go through the unit. With her being a true Modern China expert, I'm really excited for her visit. To get some ideas about things you'd like to research, check out NPR's page on China.

Have a great weekend,

~Mr. Grieve