Week Twenty-Seven

This Week

This has been a chaotic week thanks to weather and PARCC testing, which made it impossible for us to get online during the end of the week. The good news, hopefully, is that we're back on!

Students, don't forget that your portfolio reflections are still due tonight (no later than midnight)! You were given plenty of class time and Plan E time last week and this week (before Internet went out) to complete this. Again, please use my portfolio as a template for yours. It can be found here. This must be submitted to this spreadsheet (click right here) no later than midnight tonight, and if you have not checked the link to be sure it works (i.e. takes me directly to your world history portfolio reflection page), it will be counted late, a point I've made repeatedly in class. I am concerned because as of 1:53PM, only 54 students out of 90 have done this.

In terms of content, though, this week we finished up our Conflict and Genocide unit (almost - still need to mail out our letters) and began our unit on Globalization. This unit is one I've done every year, but this year is different in that our focus will be not just on globalization, but on how globalization impacts and is impacted by emerging epidemics.

The students are attempting to answer four essential questions throughout the unit: What is the nature of globalization? Does it have a net positive or negative impact? What factors have led to increased globalization? and What can we do to reduce the negative externalities caused by globalization? They will discuss these questions during the seminars in a few weeks.

To begin looking at globalization, we looked at a short documentary by NPR that traces the journey of a t-shirt from Cotton fields in Mississippi to the backs of NPR listeners, which was really interesting. You can watch the short documentary at home using this link, and students were encouraged to revisit it later to use facts/details as notes for their Socratic Seminars and, later in the year, for their debates.

As an illustration of how globalization works, students did an activity mapping out where their clothes and personal devices and belongings are made... this is mine (the beard refers to beard oil I use, which is made in the USA)

Upcoming Week

Next week we will continue our study of globalization. Students are reminded to keep track of their assignments throughout this unit, as this is the only unit in which assignments are not collected after students complete them, but at the end of the unit. The assessment comes in their demonstration of understanding of the material during the Socratic Seminars. Students can keep track of the assignments using the assignment tracker for this unit, which I'll do my best to keep updated as we go along. So far they've only had one assignment, the Comparative Advantage activity worksheet.

Have a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve