Week Twenty-Nine

This Week

It's been a good week this week as we have finished up our studies of Globalization and started our Socratic Seminars. As a class, we looked at NAFTA (which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year), discussed the concept of "Glocalization" (yes, with a 'c') by watching McDonald's commercials, and looked at how emerging epidemics like Ebola intersect with Globalization in the real world. Finally, on Friday, we began our Socratic Seminars. Students are doing a great job so far and their discussions have been thoughtful, well-informed, and very reasoned.

Students in our first Socratic Seminar of 2015

Upcoming Week

These seminars will continue into next week during OGTs (taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday). I am polling students to see whether they think it fair to include these Seminar grades on their 3rd quarter grade (since some of them are taking place during 4th quarter). On the one hand, all of the preparation took place during 3rd and putting them on 3rd quarter will give students a better idea of where they stand. On the other, the fact remains that some will take place during 4th quarter. Whatever is decided, fairness to the students will be the deciding factor. If you have any issues with the decision made after talking with students today, please feel free to reach out to me to discuss.

Of course next week is OGT week. Students are encouraged to practice this weekend for the OGTs using the following test preparation website. Additionally, students can find out the topics for the Social Studies test HERE. While students have not yet had all of the classes covered by the OGTs, I am confident that the students will do well on this test. As a benchmark, in previous years, 93% is the lowest passing rate DRSS has had for students taking the social studies OGT test.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me at arch.grieve@wright.edu.

Oh, and Happy St. Patrick's Day next week! In celebration, please enjoy this beautiful picture of the "Three Sisters" on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry from 2010 when my wife and I visited the country.

I just love the picture...

Have a great weekend,

~Mr. Grieve