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

Week Thirty One - Modern China

This Week

We began our studies of Modern China this week by looking at a brief overview of Dynastic China and Chinese geography. If you're looking for a way to deepen your understanding of Chinese history, I'd definitely recommend checking out the Dayton Art Institute, which has a nice collection of Chinese art and artifacts that are very cool. Below are a few that we took last year when we rode our bikes there for our STEM On Wheels course.

A bit about the exhibit

A Watchtower from the Han Dynasty

More about the Watchtower

Figurines from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1544)

Also this week, a big shout out to Joel Baker, whose logo design for the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords was selected by Culture Works of Dayton as the winner of their logo contest! Look out for his logo next November as the anniversary events are advertised. The event is likely to bring dignitaries from around the world to Dayton, all of whom will be reading programs with Joel's logo. Great job, Joel!

We had two more students receive good news as well - Edward Love and Ray Hampton, whose poster Was it Really "Never Again"? won 2nd place in the Max May Memorial Art competition this year! Congratulations to both of them as well!

The 2nd Place Poster for the 2015 Max May Memorial Art Competition - Edward Love and Ray Hampton

Upcoming Week

Obviously next week is spring break! When we get back from that, though, we'll continue with our studies of Modern China by watching the movie, To Live, which is a Chinese movie by the famous Chinese director Zhang Yimou. I use this film to teach the different stages of Modern China up through the Cultural Revolution, as it's a good look at China from a Chinese perspective. It's also important to remember that much of it is simultaneously propaganda, so understanding the difference between how events are depicted and what actually happened is also a good way for us to become familiar with the progress and challenges Modern China has faced since adopting Communism.

I hope you and your family have a great spring break and that you make it out to the Dayton Art Institute at some point this break! If a student goes to the museum and brings back a ticket stub (or, better yet, gets a picture of him or herself with one of the artifacts in the Chinese Art exhibit!) I will give them extra credit, so there's a good reason for a family trip to the museum!

~Mr. Grieve

Week Thirty - Posters Unveiled!

This Week

The week isn't quite over, although the highlight of the week has mostly passed us, which was the poster unveiling at the Wright State Educational Resource Center. It was great seeing so many of you there and seeing all of the student artwork hanging prominently at Wright State University. Please go and 'like' their Facebook page and check out the picture album that Stephanie Bange, the Director of the ERC, has posted. There are many more great pictures of students and parents on there. Thank you so much to her and the ERC for hosting us and our artwork!

The posters will be on display until April 15th if you weren't able to make it out Wednesday. Some of the posters are also being entered into the Max May Memorial Art Contest, so look for those soon!

It was a truly fun evening seeing all the artwork on display, you all did a great job!

Thank you to all the students who showed up!

And the parents!

Thanks to DRSS Board Member Jennifer Winner for showing up and purchasing some of the posters to donate back to the school so they can be on display in our rooms!

And thanks to everyone who wants to shave my beard! We received over $100 last night and had commitments for at least another $100 through auction sales!

Students decided today to donate the proceeds to the non-profit organization United to End Genocide, which helps raise awareness of current ongoing conflicts and genocides going on around the world today. Find out more about how their money is spent HERE. If you missed a chance to donate but still want to see me with a new (or no) facial hair style, you can send in cash (or a check) made payable to either the Dayton Regional STEM School or directly to United to End Genocide. We have until Friday to get to $1,000 and students of all grade levels can donate!

Socratic Seminars have now been entered and all grades are now in ProgressBook depending on which quarter students elected to have their seminars and ticket assignments show up. If you have any questions or the grade book looks inaccurate, please feel free to email me to clear up any confusion at arch.grieve@wright.edu.

Upcoming Week

Testing continues throughout the week, and the most important one, of course, is next Monday. Don't forget to study this weekend using the following Ohio Department of Education test preparation website. Additionally, students can find out the topics for the Social Studies test HERE.

Have a great rest of the week and a great weekend!

~Mr. Grieve

Special Announcement - Poster Unveiling TOMORROW!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Testing is under way and Socratic Seminars are nearly finished. As an update on an item from last week, I am allowing students to select which quarter their seminar grades and ticket assignments will count towards.

Just a reminder for all of you who can make it out, we will have the poster unveiling at the Charles and Renate Frydman Educational Resource Center at Wright State University from 5-6PM tomorrow evening, March 18th (Wednesday). There is a Facebook Event that the ERC created where you can find the details and information about their location on Wright State's campus. Here is their webpage. I'd encourage you to get there early to be sure you have time to park. Guest parking information can be found here. You can park there or get a pass to park in another lot, but please leave enough time to get there.

There will be snacks and you'll have a chance to meet the artists! I am also offering extra credit (on 3rd or 4th quarter) for students who show up.

Please remember their artwork will be available for purchase after the display is taken down (April 15th), so if you'd like to purchase theirs or others' posters, the suggested donation amount is $10, but we will gladly take more! If students raise $1,000 or more, I will let them shave my beard (or dye it) as I promised. The silent auction will end at 5:50.

We hope you can make it out, and we will also take donations that evening. Checks should be made payable to the Dayton Regional STEM School and write "Donation for Genocide Posters" in the memo line.

Have a great week,

~Mr. Grieve

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

Week Twenty-Eight

This Week

It's been a rare week of being in school all week, even though some schools closed yesterday! This week we focused on continuing our study of Globalization. Students were given a combination of readings and videos (even some cartoons) and took part in group discussions as we continued to grapple with our essential questions. I've been tracking the assignments on a Google Doc, which you can find here.

Today students also are taking their first geography quiz (first one in a while) over Asia. Hopefully they haven't lost this skill set!

Today is also National Bring Your Action Figure to Work Day.

I brought Batman...

 

 Upcoming Week

It's hard to believe that 3rd quarter ends next Friday. Students will be finishing up our Globalization unit and wrapping up the quarter, which means the following:

• Students must be sure they check to see that their posters have been received (they've been given detailed instructions on how to do this)
• Ms. Reid and I will grade posters next week and this will be added as a project grade in ProgressBook
• Once I receive grades from Ms. Reid I will input her grades into ProgressBook for the students' letters and we will mail them to their Members of Congress
• Students should study for the OGTs by taking the practice tests, found here
• Students must revise their portfolio reflections for World History by next Wednesday at 3:15 in order to revise their portfolios and receive a grade for that in my class - the directions were written on my board Thursday and I took a picture of them: 

How to revise portfolio reflections

I think that about wraps it up! Have a great weekend, and please remember that your students' work will be unveiled and displayed at the Wright State Educational Resource Center on Wednesday, March 18, from 5-6PM. Hope you can make it out!

~Mr. Grieve

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