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