Week Nineteen - End of the Semester!

This Week

This has been a really busy week as we have been introducing the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict now for nearly the entire week, with a one day break Wednesday when Mrs. Montgomery came in to talk to the students about their posters, which we will be working on incrementally after we get back next year. For those who have been out - each day I have recorded the lectures from 4th period so students can find these online if they are missing them, so please direct them to do so if they are absent for long periods of time this week, as they will need this background information when they return and it will be difficult for them to catch up if they are not taking time to listen to the lectures and go through the PowerPoints over break. A good extension opportunity for you at home would be to check out the New York Times piece from this week by Thomas Friedman on the upcoming Israeli elections and discuss with your son or daughter what he or she believes is the correct path forward, as this will be the topic of their letters when we return.

Secondly, Prezis have finally been graded and I wanted to highlight a few that were very well done (and which will probably be templates for students next year. Brian Bollinger's Prezi looks great, is well-written, and includes the appropriate sources. Colleen Fulton's Prezi and Edward Love's Prezi also look great and are very informative. Nice work all!

Check out Edward's portfolio here!

Also this week students were putting on Healthy Living seminars for teachers. My favorite was when Starr, Ben, and Vyshu came and gave me food. Thanks!

Ben, Starr, and Vyshu came to tell me how bad my eating habits are at Wendy's, but how I can make better choices when I am in a hurry and walk across the parking lot to get fast food! I suppose now I have to lay off the Baconators...

Upcoming Week

Obviously, next week is winter break! When we return we will be continuing with the Israeli-Palestinian Conference. I'm very excited that on January 8th we will host our first-ever Israeli-Palestinian Peace Conference, whereby students will hear from three of four speakers on the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Each speaker has a different perspective. Below are their bios.

• Angela Frydman - Presenting the Israeli perspective, Angela Frydman was an assistant Montgomery County Prosecuting Attorney for 21 years, specializing in child abuse and high profile violent crime cases. Since 2005, she has been teaching a course entitled “Understanding the Arab-Israeli Conflict” to Jewish HS students in an effort to prepare them for Anti-Israel and Anti-Semitic sentiment on college campuses.
• Dr. Donna Schlagheck - Presenting the U.S. Perspective, Dr. Schlagheck has published a number of  books and articles and her research is focused on the topics of terrorism and diplomacy. She is the Chair of the Political Science Department and the advisor for the Model UN Team.
• Dr. Vaughn Shannon - Presenting the U.S. Perspective, Dr. Shannon has written a number of books and articles about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and is an Associate Professor at Wright State in the Political Science Department and advisor for the Model Arab League Team.
• Safa Suleiman - Presenting the Palestinian perspective, Safa Suleiman is a history, political science, and liberal education instructor at Park University.  Her courses include Modern Middle East, Arab and Muslim Women's Writing, and American Foreign Policy.  Safa was born and raised in Colorado and is of Palestinian heritage.

I'm really looking forward to the conference and working on the posters when we get back!

I hope you and your family have a great break and I wish everyone who celebrates them a Happy Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, Feast of St. John's, Christmas Octave, New Year's, Mawlid Un Nabi, and, of course, a Happy Festivus!

~Mr. Grieve

Weekend Update on Grades

Students and Parents,

I've recently input grades for the Prezi project, which involves taking notes throughout this unit the past few weeks. After checking, a number of students are missing significant portions of this assignment. As a result, I've updated ProgressBook and many grades have changed, some for the better, some for the worse. Please check ProgressBook this weekend. Students who are making up a late assignment should email me once they've done the complete missing assignment, which is as follows (each worth 10 points):

Summary of the Cambodian Genocide
Summary of the Bosnian Genocide
Summary of the Rwandan Genocide
Summary of a current, ongoing conflict
Completion of the US Immigration Policy assignment (from the Holocaust unit)

Students should email me with a link to their Prezis ONLY if they've completed all of these if they would like a chance to earn 70% credit on this assignment.

Also, I apologize, I just realized that three assignments were not visible. This has been corrected. Otherwise, their 2nd quarter grades are unlikely to change much given any further assignments that will happen this week. The extra credit opportunity of attending the showing of "Bag It" this Thursday may be a good one for some students to take advantage of. See the weekly newsletter from DRSS for details.

Thanks, and have a great weekend.

~Mr. Grieve

Week Eighteen! - Exciting Week!

This Week

*Note, this post was updated at 12:46pm to let you know about the showing's of "Bag It" happening next week, (see below).

This was a really exciting week! We began the week looking at the Conflict in Northern Ireland, or "The Troubles," then on Tuesday we had two guests: my former professor,  Dr. McIlvenna (aka "Dr. No") and local engineer and Belfast native, Eoghan (pronounced 'Owen') Gregory, who spoke to students about growing up during The Troubles. Both shared personal as well as historical perspectives on the conflict and students really seemed to enjoy hearing from both of them. Thanks so much Dr. No and Eoghan! For more information about the progress and challenges that still exist in Northern Ireland, an interesting follow-up article can be found HERE at this NPR story.

Eoghan Gregory, local area engineer and project manager from Belfast, Northern Ireland talked to students about growing up during "The Troubles."

WSU Professor and DRSS parent Dr. Noeleen McIlvenna (aka "Dr. No") speaks to students about her personal experience during The Troubles and how the peace agreement was reached.

On Wednesaday, we discussed and researched current, ongoing conflicts and genocides from United to End Genocide. Recent headlines that the World Food Program has been forced to suspend its food program for the conflict in Syria (click here for NY Times Article) are troubling. The conflict in Syria has brought about a refugee crisis of over 3.2 million refugees who have been displaced. Students were shown what students did in North Carolina by creating "Memes 4 Peace" to help raise money and awareness for these displaced persons. They were also asked to think about how they could have an impact on helping raise awareness or alleviating the effects of global conflicts and genocides through the poster project we are doing, so please talk to them about how they can make a difference!

Click HERE to go to the United to End Genocide Website's map and read about the conflicts the students researched this week.

Finally, on Thursday I introduced students to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. We are just beginning to study this conflict, and it's a long post already, so I'll provide more details on what they're learning in next week's update, but we've only scratched the surface this week!

Upcoming Week

Next week students will be immersed in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, I will be grading their Prezis, entering final grades, and we will be (I can't believe I'm saying this...) half way through the year! No more major projects will be due next week, although there will likely be one more quiz and possibly a couple of classwork assignments, so please check grades on ProgressBook and see what your son or daughter is missing.

I'm also looking for feedback on whether or not the "HW tracker" is being utilized. I'm considering dispensing with it, as I've struggled with keeping it up to date, but if it's something that many use I will do my best to re-double my efforts. Let me know your thoughts.

*Update - We also had 6th grade students all week updating our advisory about the Zero Waste initiative here at DRSS (click HERE to learn more)! The students did a great job and they explained that next week there will be a showing of "Bag It," which tracks the life of a plastic bag (check out the trailer HERE). As this will go hand in hand with our next unit on Globalization, I am offering students who go to one of the showings next week extra credit (10 points out of 0). They can sign up themselves and their family members on the door to Mr. Nelson's room all day today and during the day next week. The showings will be on Thursday the 18th, 5:00 – 6:30pm and 6:30 to 8:00pm. Bring a reusable bowl and cup (ones you won't be throwing away when you're finished) and get free pop and popcorn! Should be a fun time for the whole family.

Thanks!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Seventeen

This Week

Time flew by this week, it's hard to remember what all we did! We began the week by finishing up our studies of the Bosnian Genocide, looking at how the evolution of international law has led to the creation of the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) and watched a short clip about the ICC, or International Criminal Court, an outgrowth of the 1998 Rome Conference that created this "court of last resort."

The rest of the week we studied the Rwandan Genocide. On Tuesday, students read about the Rwandan genocide and then on  watched a Frontline documentary on the event, finishing up today. Afterwards, we practiced the listening skill of asking questions, and I asked students to write down a question they had about the conflict. I'd encourage you to ask them what the question was that they wrote down and asked in class and talk through with them what they learned through this experience. They had some really good ones that I hope you will talk with them about.

Also, on Wednesday, we had an exciting Exhibition Night where many students showed off all of the hard work they've been doing this semester. It was great seeing many of you there, and I learned a lot about what they're learning and doing in their other classes. I learned a little bit about what lysing is (and what it does to beets), got to read many personal memoirs, and I saw many videos from the Westcott House and Public Service Announcements, so it was a great learning experience for me too!

Below are some pictures from the students who were in my room.

It was a busy night!

Some of the students getting ready for the event... last minute preparations!

Dr. Harris, (WSU) Dean of the College of Education and Human Services and DRSS board member, stops to hear from a student about her learning experience.

Upcoming Week

Next week is an exciting one for me as we begin to study one of my personal "favorite" conflicts to study, which is the Conflict in Northern Ireland, aka "The Troubles." I enjoy studying this conflict in part because I visited Northern Ireland a few years ago and I love the people there, but more importantly because I have two guest speakers who come and speak to the students each year who are from Northern Ireland and can talk with firsthand experience about their experiences during The Troubles. Those individuals are Dr. Noeleen McIlvenna, a DRSS parent (for one more year!) and WSU History Professor from a small Northern Ireland town, and Eoghan Gregory, a local engineer who was born and raised in Belfast.

After hearing from them we will discuss current, ongoing conflicts/genocides happening now and brainstorm ways in which we can use our poster project to help raise awareness about and raise money for those suffering through these. To see past posters, please check out our Conflict and Genocide page on the DRSS website here.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Sixteen - USAF Museum

This Week

This was a short week, but students had some very meaningful experiences today going to the USAF Museum and hearing from Holocaust survivor Ira Segalowitz share about his escape from Poland and into the USSR, where he lived with his mother for three years as WWII raged on. Thank you to him, the USAF Museum, and all of the parent chaperones who helped make this trip possible! Upon our return, students heard from a guest lecturer, Dr. Jason Deibel, who spoke to the students about lasers and many other cool physics topics. Thanks to his former student and current DRSS teacher, Ms. Camden, for arranging the visit. All in all, it was a great way to end a short week!

Here are some photos from the trip...

Students explore the USAF Museum Holocaust exhibit with survivor Ira Segalowitz

Students touring the Holocaust exhibit

Students explore the museum, checking out one of the early jet engines

Ms. Camden's group hanging out in the lobby before we leave

Dr. Daibel explaining how light moves

Also, the results everyone has been waiting for... the winning group for the scavenger hunt (by far, with 71 points!) was Mr. Federinko's group, Group 4! Congratulations to all the students who will be receiving extra credit:

• Starr
• Keshawn
• Matthew
• Cameron
• TJ
• Sterling
• Carl
• Mason
• Jacob
• Ray

Great work all!

Upcoming Week

When we return, students will be finishing up our unit on genocides and beginning our study of conflicts of the 20th century. We will focus special attention on the Conflict in Northern Ireland, Kashmir, and end with the Israeli Palestinian Conflict.

Have a great Thanksgiving break!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Fifteen - Cambodia and Bosnia

This Week

We are moving at a much more rapid pace now as we get through the remaining genocides. This week students studied the Cambodian Genocide and the Bosnian Genocide. Students also presented today on selected passages from the books they are reading in Language Arts and the sources we have studied in World History to try and draw parallels and dissimilarities between the ways in which the two sources talk about the conflict or genocide. Now would be a great time to talk to your son or daughter about what they are reading and ask them to explain the premise of the book and how the conflict they are studying unfolded in that part of the world. Also, today is the 19th anniversary of the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords (which students studied yesterday)! Check out what is being done to celebrate its 20th anniversary next year below:

Check out the full story from WYSO here

Upcoming Week

Next week is obviously a short one, and it is made even shorter by the fact that we are going on a field trip on Tuesday to the Air Force Museum. Thanks to the parents who have volunteered to join us, I really appreciate it!

This weekend I would encourage you to ask your son or daughter to think of some questions they would like to ask the Holocaust survivors. They should brainstorm and come prepared to ask questions when we meet with him or her. For more information on the exhibit they will be exploring, check out this link from the USAF Museum website.

When we return from break we will begin studying the Rwandan Genocide before moving on to our study of the Conflict in Northern Ireland and others. 

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Fourteen - Nuremberg Trials and more

This Week

We finished up with our study of the Holocaust and its aftermath today after reading about the Nuremberg trials Wednesday and then "trying" the leaders of the Holocaust in a mock trial yesterday and today. Students learned about the challenges the Allies faced in trying the Nazi war criminals as well as what crimes they were actually charged with. Students also began discussing the books they are reading in language arts and comparing them to what they have studied in history class.

Upcoming Week

Next week students will continue on in our study of 20th century genocides by looking at the Cambodian and Bosnian genocides. We will also be moving on from Western European countries for our Geo Quiz and beginning to study Middle Eastern countries. Students can start studying for that one this weekend by practicing the test here.

Short update this week, but lots going on!

Have a great weekend,

~Mr. Grieve

Week Thirteen - Understanding Jewish Life in Pre-War Europe

This Week

Students this week were working for the first three days on the Jewish Life Photo Project whereby they found photos of European Jews before the Holocaust began from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's website and researched that person's community. Students then compared them to their own lives by comparing photos of themselves with their friends and families, so I wanted to make available to the parents the spreadsheet where you can find your son's or daughter's Prezis to see what they did. You can find them here. The students presented many of them yesterday so that everyone would get a chance to see how the Holocaust affected different people in different communities. I will grade the rest of them this upcoming week.

One notable Prezi was Fatima's, who did a great job with this project. Check hers out by clicking on the link below the picture!

Check out Fatima's Prezi here!

Students also began studying the events surrounding Kristallnacht (learn more about it at this website from the USHMM.org), which we began studying more in depth in class today. Unfortunately, the first period class may need to spend a little more time on homework this weekend as our class work time was cut short by our first "Code Red" Drill evacuation. It went extremely well though and all students exited the school building very quickly to safe locations. Additional homework is a small price to pay for safety preparedness!

Upcoming Week

Next week students are off on Monday while teachers have a professional development day, so students get to sleep in one day! After that we will continue our study of the Holocaust for one more week before moving on to the Cambodian Genocide. Next week we will focus more on the Nuremberg trials as we continue our study of the evolution of the international community's response to genocide.

Also, we now have all of the chaperones we need for the trip. Special thanks to Mrs. Walton-Crichton, Mrs. Kelly, and Mr. and Mrs. Lucas for volunteering as parent chaperones! Again, this trip will take place on November 25th, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving break.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Twelve - Continuing the study of the Holocaust

This Week

On Monday and Tuesday we finished up our unit on the Armenian genocide. Students gained an understanding of how and why it happened and we began to see how the 8 Stages of Genocide were at work in the Ottoman Empire and (later) in Turkey as the genocide against the Armenians unfolded.

On Wednesday, we began our unit on the Holocaust. Students explored the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's website while taking an accompanying quiz over the materials contained therein. This quiz and other quizzes during this unit are formative assessments and are designed to ensure that students are reading and comprehending the material and are always revisable. Please advise students to revise if they receive a low grade on a quiz. A number of the questions asked them to analyze maps, which is a key skill for the upcoming Ohio Graduation Tests, which they will be taking this spring.

On Thursday students read about the killing centers that operated during the Holocaust and on Friday they analyzed the role of race and eugenics as examples of symbolization in the Holocaust.

Upcoming Week

Next week, students will be working on a project whereby they will analyzing the lives of families living in pre-WWII Europe. The goal is for students to compare and contrast their lives with the lives of Jewish families living in parts of Europe that were affected by Nazi takeover and the Holocaust. Students may be asking you to help them find photos of your family in similar situations. Any help you can give them in accomplishing this task would be a great way for you to talk with them about what they're learning. For a great example from one of my previous students, check out Vidur's Prezi.

Check out Vidur's Prezi here to get an idea of the kind of research students will be doing.

Students will be presenting these in class next Thursday and Friday and all Prezi assignments will be graded then.

Lastly, thanks to everyone who volunteered to join us on the field trip to the USAF Museum on Tuesday, November 25th! We have enough chaperones for the field trip now and will be leaving school at 9:30 and coming back from the museum at 1:25, so the trip will take place entirely during the school day.

Just to clarify a few things - students only need to pay for a lunch if a) they are buying a lunch from the cafe and b) they are not on free/reduced lunch. If they did order a box lunch but are on free or reduced lunch, they should pay whatever they normally pay for a school lunch (either nothing or the reduced lunch price). If you still have not turned in your money but need to pay, I will still be accepting lunch money past today's due date. Hope this clears up any confusion.

Have a great weekend and Happy Halloween!

~ Mr. Grieve

Week Eleven - Beginning the study of conflict and genocide

This Week

On Monday most students presented their creative projects for the greatest achievements of the 20th century. Many of the presentations were very engaging and presented the information in a creative way. Special shout-outs go to Maddie and Starr for their creative writing pieces, which were very well-written. Nice work!

This week we also began our next unit on the study of conflicts and genocides of the 20th century. This is obviously a difficult topic, so I would ask that you please communicate with your son or daughter at home and ask them how they're processing the subject matter and alert me of any issues or concerns I should know about. We study the 8 Stages of Genocide as a way to systematically study the process of how and why genocides happen. If you're interested in learning more about this framework for understanding genocide, please click here for a PDF of the 8 Stages of Genocide and discuss this subject with your son or daughter. Right now we are in the middle of studying the Armenian Genocide.

One video we started in class on Tuesday (but didn't have time to watch as much of it as I would have liked) was the reproduction of Stanley Milgram's classic experiments on obedience. We discussed how these experiments helped show that genocide can happen anywhere and be carried out by people everywhere in the world if it is not stopped in its early stages. You can watch more about these experiments below:

 

Upcoming Week

Next week we will be continuing our study of the Armenian Genocide and then moving on to studying the Holocaust. Students are creating Prezis that track their journey through understanding genocide from a societal perspective as well as its legal evolution over the course of the 20th century, so you can ask them to show you their Prezis at home, which they should be working on this weekend (if they did not finish the assignment today in class).

We will also have our second Western European countries quiz, which students can practice for here. 

Since this is a new unit, we also have a new Conflict and Genocide Assignments Tracker.

Things to put on the calendar

Field trip to the USAF Museum is on Tuesday, November 25th. Students who are on free or reduced lunch will pay whatever they normally pay (or do not pay) for a boxed lunch. Others should pay $4.75. Please turn in this money by next Friday, October 31st. I'm still looking for about 3 parents chaperone volunteers, so if you're interested please email me at arch.grieve@wright.edu.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Ten - Finishing up Societies in Transition

This Week

This week students are working on their "creative projects," whereby students research an area of innovation or an invention that changed society, travel, communication, or the economy over the course of the 20th century in a significant way. Students were given the following resource (greatestachievements.org) to help inform the projects, but the method for presenting their information was left up to them. It could be a podcast, a poem, a video, a creative writing piece, or any other creative means they can think of. Students have been working on this every day this week and will present to the rest of the class on Monday, so ask them to show you what they've worked on this weekend!

Upcoming Week

Next week is parent-teacher conferences. If you would like to meet and talk about your son or daughter or are concerned about your student's performance and would like to schedule a meeting, please use the pick-a-time website that the school is using for scheduling conferences. I'm always happy to meet with you if you'd like to discuss your son or daughter's performance or learn more about what goes on in the class, or would just like to walk through their grades in more depth. I also like having the students be a part of the conference as well, so please know that they are welcome to join us if you would like.

I also want to note that next week we are starting our Conflict and Genocides of the 20th Century unit. If you would like to learn more about what we study, I would encourage you to check out the video and description about this unit on our website (click here) and learn more about what we focus on in order to get an idea of the content we will be covering. In an age of ISIS, intractable conflict in Syria, regime changes in the Middle East and other flare-ups around the world, now it is more important than ever to study the conflicts and genocides of the past in order to ensure that we know how to stop those that are happening in the present. Specifically, we will cover the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, the Bosnian Genocide, the conflict in Kashmir, the conflict in Northern Ireland, and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. This unit will go into 3rd quarter and most likely we will finish sending letters to our Members of Congress and creating posters about certain conflicts sometime in January or February. Posters will most likely be on display at the Wright State Educational Resource Center sometime next year, so look for a post about them early next year!

Lastly, we will have a great opportunity to visit the US Air Force Museum on November 25th. I'm looking for a few chaperones to help me with this trip, so if you are interested, please email me at arch.grieve@wright.edu and let me know whether or not you would be available during school hours. You would be assigned a group of 10 students and would travel with them throughout the museum during their scavenger hunt. It's a big place and involves a lot of walking, so please make sure you're ready to walk if you would like to come! It's always a good trip and one of the reason we go is that students have the opportunity to hear from a Holocaust survivor, which is unfortunately an increasingly rare opportunity. They will also be led on a tour of the Holocaust Exhibit. This is a powerful and moving experience for the students and it is great that we have such a powerful exhibit right here in Dayton.

Learn more about the exhibit here: USAF Museum website

I look forward to seeing many of you next week!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Nine - End of the Quarter!

This Week

We began this week with a mini-unit on a society that changed a lot in the 20th Century by looking at Berlin and briefly reviewing the Cold War, which students learned about last year in US History. Students watched a video that talked about the Berlin Wall both from a historic standpoint and an engineering one, which you can view here. Students also spent time reflecting on their work and their growth as learners this first quarter in order to prepare for their portfolios throughout the year. You can read more about the changes to portfolios this year by checking out the student responsibilities portion of the DRSS Portfolio Handbook, or by watching the video below. I would encourage your son or daughter to work on this throughout the year so they don't fall behind or feel pinched for time at the end of the year. You can also watch the following video on new portfolio requirements if they get confused about what they need to do to showcase their learning.

Finally, we kicked off our unit on transportation on Thursday, which is the final part of our Societies in Transition unit. Students traced the journey of Wilbur Wright through the following primary source document of his September 13, 1900 diary entry. In it he describes his journey to Kitty Hawk, NC, to test out their glider. Students then researched how to travel the same route today and compared the ease of travel 114 years later with the much longer journey that he took.

Grades should be completed and at this point will not be changing for 1st quarter. You can check your son's or daughter's grades on ProgressBook. The class average was high this quarter and students appear to have taken my advice not to have missing assignments, as there have been relatively few this year. Consequently, the class average was high at 90.6%. Great work!

Upcoming Week

 

Next week students will be continuing their look at transportation and inventions/innovations of the 20th century and working on creative projects that demonstrate the importance of a particular engineering achievement of the 20th century.

Have a great long weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Eight

This Week

Students this week finished up the movie Invictus, wrote an essay on racial reconciliation, and participated in a simulation whereby they re-enacted the 1986 Coca-Cola Shareholders Meeting. For more on the roles they played, you can find the simulation at http://southafricanhistorysimulation.wikispaces.com/. It was a fun experience that allowed students to see how individual, institutional, national, and international decisions interact with one another. Students also got to research primary documents through this activity, and one I'd encourage you to read is the 1986 LA Times article describing what actually happened at the shareholder meeting the students re-enacted.

Today students also had an opportunity to hear from our first guest speaker for the year, Dr. Jennifer Subban, a Wright State University Urban Affairs professor originally from South Africa who is also a parent of a DRSS graduate and current student. She came to speak to the students about South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy, specifically about the progress and shortcomings since the end of apartheid. As someone who grew up under apartheid and continues to travel back to South Africa to take WSU students on service learning opportunities, she has a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experiences to share. We only wish we had more time with her! Thank you very much Dr. Subban for coming to speak to the students.

Thanks so much to Dr. Subban for coming to speak to all of the students today!

Finally, students all got to go to the Scholastic Book Fair today. Thanks to the parents who volunteered to help with this.

Students browsing in the Scholastic Book Fair room

Upcoming Week

It's hard to believe, but there are only four more days in this quarter! Next week we finish the quarter, and it seems to be going faster than normal. Our Societies in Transition unit may end up spilling over a bit into next quarter, but there will be no more major projects due before the end of the grading period.

I'd encourage you to check ProgressBook and look at this unit's assignment tracker to see where your son or daughter could still have a chance to improve their grade. If there's nothing left that they can turn in, a conversation may be necessary to see what strategies they may need to implement at school or at home in order to improve their grades next quarter. As a benchmark, the average class grade right now for all 93 students in my class is a 90.3% (A). The single greatest reason for any grades that are below this mark is failure to complete assignments, so please stress this to your son or daughter for next quarter. First quarter often serves as a wake-up call for many of our students who go on to improve their grades over the remainder of the school year.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please email me at arch.grieve@wright.edu.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Seven

This Week

I can't believe I'm writing "Week 7" in the headline, but it really is! This week students continued watching Invictus, a movie about the South African rugby team that helped bring the country of South Africa together after the fall of apartheid. Through this movie, students are able to understand on an emotional level what elements of racial tension existed in South Africa and how Mandela used sports to help bring about racial reconciliation in the newly fashioned "Rainbow Nation." Students also analyzed the Bill of Rights sections of the United States Constitution and South African Constitution in order to see how the prior shared experiences of both nations and the passage of time helped to inform the documents they created to govern their new nations.


Students also went on a trip Thursday to our parent institution, Wright State University, where they were able to talk with current students, visit the colleges within WSU, and just see the campus. It was a fun visit and students had a great time learning about my alma mater. If any of them want to know more about what it's like to go to WSU from an alum and current student, I am always happy to share my experiences with them!

Here are some photos from the trip -

Students got to go on a campus tour, during which they saw many of the colleges, the student rec center, and the dorms.

Students heard from a panel of current WSU students about what college life is like.

Students visiting the science labs, where Board President Dr. David Goldstein works.

Upcoming Week

Students will be reading a book in Sierra Leone entitled A Long Way Gone in Language Arts. Ms. Reid has asked me to post her letter to parents on my blog, which you can READ HERE.

Students will also be continuing our study of South Africa and next week they will take part in the new role-play activity I have for them to do. It should be a fun week.

Lastly, because I forgot to tell students early enough what this week's geo quiz would be, I did not have them do a geo quiz this week. Next Friday, however, they will be taking the geo quiz on the countries of Southern Africa, so they should use THIS QUIZ to study for it.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Six

This Week

This week we began our study of South Africa as students were exposed to an overview of South African history, followed by group research on topics related to the system of apartheid and how black South Africans fought back against (and ultimately overcame) the apartheid regime. Students also took their last Geography Quiz on South America, and next week we will begin looking at Southern African countries. 

Students will be working tomorrow during the Plan E day on their Who I Am pages. You can now find them on our DRSS 10th Grade website here.

Upcoming Week

Students can study for the upcoming test, which will cover South African countries identified in this quiz - http://lizardpoint.com/geography/africa-southern-quiz.php.

Additionally, next week we will continue our study of South Africa by preparing for simulations whereby students will role-play people from one of four groups - a member on the Board of Directors for Coca-Cola in the 1980s, an activist seeking to change Coke's role in South Africa, an investor pushing for adoption of the "Sullivan Principles," and another investor urging the company to stay the course. We will also be viewing the movie Invictus, which chronicles the efforts made by Nelson Mandela to bring his country together after the end of apartheid through sports. Students will be writing a short essay about racial reconciliation in South Africa after viewing the movie in segments throughout the week.

Next week it might be fun to study the poem that resonated so deeply with Nelson Mandela and inspired the movie title and talk about it with your son or daughter. The text is printed for you here:

Invictus

By William Ernest Henley

 

Out of the night that covers me,

      Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

      I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

      Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul. 

Hope you have a great weekend, and don't forget about Plan E tomorrow!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Five

This Week

This week we held our second simulation as we studied the partition of India and Pakistan. Students role-played the 1946 Cabinet Mission, playing the roles of the British, the Congress Party, the Muslim League, the Unionist Party, and the Sikhs of Punjab. Students really got into the negotiation process and did an outstanding job of the role-play activity. A few groups were successful in negotiating the puzzle of keeping a united India, but the successful role-playing was historically accurate for many groups, meaning that they were unable to reach an agreement and were forced to allow the British to partition India into two countries - India and Pakistan.

Negotiations became very heated as students were role-playing. This group couldn't stay in their seats!

Students also took their second South America GeoQuiz today.

Upcoming Week

Next week we begin our study of South Africa. Students will be studying the early history of South Africa, how the system of apartheid was put in place (and remained in place for so long), and how a combination of non-violence and external pressure eventually helped bring about an end to apartheid. This group of students will also be preparing for a brand new role-play simulation that I have created this year, so they will be my "guinea pigs" in seeing how it works out. I'm looking forward to trying it!

As we are studying South Africa, our next quiz will be over the 10 countries in Southern Africa. You can find the quiz here.

Don't forget, there's a Plan E on Friday. Students will be working on creating their "Who I Am" pages on their websites in all of their 10th grade classes. If they need help on finding information on how to set up their pages, please direct them to this page on the new 10th grade Website.

Also, next week there is an informational meeting on Monday for all 10th and 11th grade JCOWA students. Seniors would be invited, but they have a Jostens meeting they have to attend.

The meeting will take place at 12:15 in my room and we will be going over the recently released study guide. If you'd like to take a look at the study guide, you can find it here.

There are four JCOWA events this year:

• Oct. 29 - International Career Day at Sinclair CC
• Dec. 2 - Youth Forum at Wright State University
• February 9 - Academic Quiz Bowl at the University of Dayton
• April 2014 - Geography Bowl at the University of Dayton

Due to the large number of students who have joined (over 50!) we will have to be selective this year in terms of who goes to which of the first two events. We may or may not be able to attend the Geography Bowl. We will be going over who gets to attend which event on Monday at this informational meeting, so it's important that students attend.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Four

This Week

This short week was a busy one we wrapped up our study of the Iranian Revolution and Modern Iran by learning about the Iran-Iraq War and reading about human rights issues in Iran today. After that, on Thursday, we began our study of Early India and then moved onto the Indian Independence movement on Friday.

Next Week

This reading will prepare students to take part again next week in another simulation. This time they will be preparing to play the role of the British as they decide how to break apart India in the 1940s as the Indians are clamoring for Independence.

On Tuesday during study hall students who read Persepolis are invited to join Ms. Reid and I for a book club discussion, which should be a lot of fun.

Our first entire South America quiz was today, and our second will happen next Friday. It will be the same quiz both times, so if your son or daughter needs practice please have them continue to practice it by visiting this link.

Lastly, the 10th grade team now has a page where you can easily find out more about all of your teachers and about some of the projects we do each year. You can find it at http://daytonstem.wix.com/drss10thgrade.

Check out our new website

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Three

Weekly Update

Today was a fun day of debating the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Throughout this week students have learned about different kinds of governments and how Iran transitioned from a constitutional monarchy to a representative democracy to a dictatorship and, finally, to a theocracy. Students were put into groups yesterday to argue for either a social democracy, a socialist government, or a theocracy in a role-playing activity, which took place today. The debates were a great learning experience as students put themselves in the shoes of people living during this time of rapid transition in 1979 Iranian society, and we had a lot of fun debating what Iran's future could have looked like. I was really impressed by the empathy that many of the students demonstrated by arguing these positions.

I also told all of the students about a fun opportunity to join a book club with Ms. Reid and I. Students had the option to check out a copy of Persepolis, which is a graphic novel about a girl living through the Iranian Revolution that we have assigned as mandatory reading in the past, but this year is an optional reading (due to time constraints). It's a great book and we hope to have this club meet on Tuesday, September 9th during study hall.

Check out Persepolis on amazon

Check the assignment tracker for an up-to-date listing of where we should be in our assignments right now.

Upcoming Next Week

Next week we will wrap up our study of Iranian society's transition and move on to looking at our second case study: the  Indian Independence movement. There, we will see how a former British colony utilized non-violent struggle to gain their independence and look at how Indian society changed as a result.

We will also be studying now for the South America quiz for next Friday, so make sure your son or daughter is practicing for these weekly quizzes.

I hope everyone has a great three-day weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Two

Weekly Update

Students had a great week this week as we began building our "toolbox" for understanding the 20th Century. We read the Time Magazine article Astonishing 20th Century by Paul Gray, outlining some of the major developments of the 20th Century, talked about how to set up our notes this year to prepare for our end-of-year debates, learned about Max Weber's definition of "politics," and read a small portion of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "World House Essay," using this as a discussion topic for how to truly debate the year's essential question, "Was the 20th Century one of Progress or Decline?" Students also took their second Geo Quiz over Central America, which is the same one they will take again next week to ensure mastery of content.

We also had a lot of fun on Tuesday at the Westcott House in Springfield for Mr. Polk's class field trip. I managed to snap a couple shots of the trip as well.

Students taking photos of the Westcott House

Working on geometry sketches in the backyard

Students working on their geometry sketches

We have had a number of assignments entered into GradeBook already. Don't forget to set up alerts to let you know if your student has missed any assignments.

Mrs. Strickland and Mrs. Fisher went over expectations for 10th grade with students today in the "greenhouse" space

Upcoming next week

We move now into some case studies that help us understand how societies changed during the 20th Century, starting with Iran next week. We will study early Iranian (or Persian) history, look at the Iranian Revolution, and prepare for a role-playing activity on Friday whereby students will debate the "future of Iran" as if they were living in 1979 after the fall of the Shah of Iran. It promises to be a fun activity and I'm looking forward to the debates!

Additionally, Mr. Lydy and I will be holding an informational meeting for the STEM school's chapter of the Dayton Junior Council on World Affairs (or "JAWS COMET") on Monday (8/25/14) at 12:15pm in my room. If your son or daughter is interested please make sure they attend this meeting. Last year we had a group that was able to compete in Washington DC and we hope to go again! You can find a video about JCOWA produced by one of our former students here -

Tyler, Zach, Tess, me, Mr. Lydy, David and Olivia meet with Singaporean Ambassador Mirpuri at his official residence on April 25, 2014

As always, if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me at arch.grieve@wright.edu.


Have a great weekend,

~Mr. Grieve

PS - Ms. Reid said to remind students that their "I Am" poems are due next Friday!

First Week - Done!

Weekly Update

Our first week is finished and we have organized our binders, taken our first geography quiz, and learned a little bit more about each other through the primary source documents students have turned in. This week we began getting into the groove of how classes will work each day as students have done their Geo Daily Preps of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Remember, you can start keeping track of assignments students have been given using the assignment tracker, and over the weekend I plan to have three grades in Gradebook: Interest Inventories, Primary Documents, and Geo Quiz #1.

Upcoming next week - 

• Begin reading Martin Luther King Jr's World House Essay
• Field Trip on Tuesday to Westcott House in Springfield in Math class
• Studying the concept of the Rule of Law
• Beginning to define and understand what is meant by "politics" to have a working definition that will help us as we move through the course

Have a great weekend!

An example of a primary source document submitted by Conor showing his family, his values, and his membership in Boy Scouts

Intro to the Course for Students and Parents

Now that the year is starting, I want to explain some things that are new to the Modern World History Course this year.

First things first, I strongly encourage students and parents to read the Course Syllabus. It is linked under the "Links" column on the right-hand side of this page and will be kept up-to-date with any changes as the year progresses. There you will find an overview for the course, our thematic units, and our 10 Themes for the year, which are aligned to the National Council for the Social Studies' 10 Themes.

Something new this year for all of us will be the four different learning targets. Each grade students receive will fall under one or more of the following types of learning targets: Knowledge, Skills, Reasoning, and Project/Products. I'm also no longer weighting my assignments, so students should find it easier to keep track of their own grade as the quarters progress, which you can do by checking out the "Assignments Tracker" for each unit, which I will keep up to date regarding when students receive these assignments. The vast majority of my assignments are due the day after they've been assigned (unless I've told students otherwise). It may take longer for assignments to get posted in the ProgressBook, but once they're there and marked "missing," students have a week to turn them in late before they turn into a '0,' after which they may no longer make them up. I encourage you to set up alerts in ProgressBook so you can receive notification via text or email as soon as an assignment appears missing. Directions to do this can be found here.

Thirdly, another new thing this year is the Geography Daily Preps. My goal is for students to have daily preps each day highlighting specific countries, which they should be writing about each day at the beginning of class. Students should pay attention to Pilot to know which days we went over each country. I'd also encourage your son or daughter to practice for our geography quizzes by playing the "Country Games," which are organized by continent on the "Geography Games" link to the right (or click on the big map on the top right of the blog). As of now, I plan to have students take these quizzes during class at the end of each week, so I will try to keep posted and up to date what quizzes we will do in the upcoming week.

As always, please reach out to me via email if you have any questions, which is the easiest and quickest way to get in touch with me. I'm very responsive to email and will do my best to get back to you in a timely manner regarding concerns about your student.

Welcome/Who is Mr. Grieve?

Welcome to Mr. Grieve's World History blog! 

With our class sizes growing at DRSS, my goal for the 2014-2015 school year is to update this regularly with some of the cool stuff we're doing so that parents have an idea of what is happening in our Modern World History class. I also hope to use this blog to give some shout-outs to students who have done a great job on assignments throughout the year. If you missed our presentation/overview of the course at orientation, you can find it here.

We have an exciting semester planned, and if you don't know anything about me, allow me to provide a brief bio:

• I've been teaching at DRSS since 2010 and am in my fifth year of teaching.
• I also teach Economics, so many of you will have me next year.
• I've been married now for 10 years to my wife, Amanda, and have a dog named Jetti.

  

  I'm on the left, next to wife Amanda. My dad is in plaid, pictured with my mom Tammie (also a teacher) and brother Patrick, along with their pugs.

• I teach the STEM On Wheels (biking) STEMmersion with Mrs. Curran.
• I'm an advisor for JCOWA, the Junior Council on World Affairs, which is a student organization that learns about world affairs and competes in two annual competitions. Last year we got to go to the national competition in Washington, D.C.! I hope some of you will consider joining, we have a lot of fun. Check out this student-produced video to see why others have joined!

  

  The 2014 Dayton JCOWA Team in DC for the national competition!

• I'm a student at Wright State, where I'm pursuing two master's degrees, one in International and Comparative Politics and another in Public Administration.
• I'm a member of the Xenia School Board.
• My favorite book is God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, by Kurt Vonnegut (also my favorite author).
• You can learn more about me on my digital portfolio.

I encourage you to reach out to me with any questions or concerns you have throughout the year regarding your student's performance and/or the class in general. You can reach me at arch.grieve@wright.edu, and I am very responsive to email. I also hope you will subscribe to the blog so you can get the updates whenever we put out a new post.

I'm looking forward to an exciting year!

~Mr. Grieve