Modern America, Day 1 - Class Recap

The outside of the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C. I mean, I'm a history teacher - I couldn't resist going to look at the building myself when I first visited the city in 2010!

Dear class,

Second to last weekend of the year! Today was another one day deep dive into a topic in the last century of American history - Watergate! What a super interesting piece of our history, at least to me! Here's the class recap:

Learning Targets:
SS.HS.KN.ALT.17: I can explain the process of change and continuity in a society, place or region.
SS.HS.KN.ALT.23: I can describe the influences, impacts and resolutions of historical conflicts.

Soundtrack: “Waterfalls" by TLC. Selected because today we learned all about the Watergate scandal in class. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 5/30/14:
News Brief
Watergate PowerPoint
The Final Report
Fall of the Wall

Homework: All late/make up/missing work (aside from Cold War newspaper) due by 11:59 PM tonight (Friday, May 30). My email is luke_fritz@beaverton.k12.or.us if you need it. Have a wonderful weekend! Read the blog! Next news brief: Raquel

News Brief: No news brief today, because Nolan was not in class at the start of the period.

Watergate PowerPoint: To start talking about Watergate, I asked the class about what a "scandal" was and gave some examples of scandals. Many scandals have names that end in -gate, due to this scandal! Next, I went through a PowerPoint. I tried to go fast on this, because there are a bunch of slides and I really just want students to get the main points of what happened for the upcoming multiple choice final. Here is the presentation again if you missed class or wanted to read through it at your own pace:

Google Drive - The Watergate Scandal PowerPoint

Some of the main points not covered by the documentary we watched were about President Nixon's Vice President, Spiro Agnew, resigning due to unrelated corruption charges. This also went more into depth about how President Gerald Ford got to be President without ever being elected to the Executive Branch, and the pardon he gave President Nixon.

The Final Report: After the PowerPoint, I showed a National Geographic documentary on what happening in the Watergate scandal. These were the questions to answer in class:

Google Drive - Watergate: The Final Report Video Questions

Here is the video we watched in class:

Again, I find the entire story so interesting! This was a President of the United States, who had to resign, because he was connected to all of these crimes! I hope everyone understood the importance of this, especially in connection to what we were learning about the Cold War and the Vietnam War as a part of it. The result was really deep dissatisfaction and distrust about the U.S. government.

Fall of the Wall: We did not get to this in class. Next time! Quite a lot to pack in: I want to talk about the fall of the Berlin Wall, along with our modern "War on Terror," too. Looking forward to these last few days of teaching you! Have a great weekend and come back ready for one last full week of the school year!

StEPP Career Ed Day, Class Recap

Before coming to Westview I worked at Marshall and Madison High Schools in Portland, for the "Step Up" program, which was largely after school tutoring and mentoring. This is a picture from one of the summer camps we did, which relates to the "StEPP" day, but your future after high school, too!

Hi everyone,

Today's class was almost entirely devoted to going to the Computer Lab with a Westview counselor to complete (or at least start) your StEPP Career Education objectives for 10th grade. Here's the recap:

Soundtrack: "Step in the Name of Love (Remix)" by R. Kelly. Selected because of the "step" connection! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 5/28/14:
Newspapers Back
StEPP (Computer Lab with Westview counselor)

Homework: All late/missing/incomplete/revised work due Friday (with the sole exception of the Cold War newspaper, which I am giving everyone another week to revise, if needed)! Read the blog! Next news brief: News brief: Nolan

Newspapers Back: No news brief today, due to me wanting to give you as much time as possible to complete the career ed materials in the Computer Lab. I did pass back all of the completed grades for the Cold War newspaper project, which I did over the weekend. Your grades should now be completely up to date and you should know what you need to work on!

Here's how I graded the rubric for the newspaper project (definitely come see me if you have further questions):

ALT.17 – Explain process of change and continuity
Describes specific events in editorial, in chronological order, with context of what is going on in the Cold War and how America is changing.

ALT.23 – Influences, impacts, and resolutions of historical conflicts
Depth of description/how well the newspaper describes what has happened in the Cold War up to the date of the newspaper.

ALT.05 – Support arguments with evidence
Range of examples for editorial on who is winning the Cold War, who is losing, why.

ALT.09 – Technological knowledge and innovation shaping society
Analyzes different technologies and their effects during the Cold War period, as appropriate for the time of the newspaper.

Thanks for your hard work on these! I had fun looking through them all! :-)

StEPP: The rest of class was spent with a Westview counselor in the Computer Lab, working on your career ed materials for 10th grade. You need to complete this in order to graduate, so if you did not finish in class, please do so ASAP at home, then turn it in to the career center! Thanks!

Cold War America, Day 12 - Class Recap

The soundtrack for today was "Wonderwall" by Oasis, because of the way in which we presented the newspaper project, and because it reminded me of when the song played at London 2012 Summer Olympics, on August 12th. Congratulations on being done with your last major assignment in class this year!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to your Memorial Day weekend! Thank you all for your hard work in class. If you did not finish your Cold War newspaper, you definitely need to email it to me - luke_fritz@beaverton.k12.or.us - as soon as possible. With that, here's the recap:

Learning Targets:
SS.HS.KN.ALT.09: I can identify how technological knowledge and innovation shapes a society, place, or region.
SS.HS.KN.ALT.17: I can explain the process of change and continuity in a society, place or region.
SS.HS.KN.ALT.23: I can describe the influences, impacts and resolutions of historical conflicts.

Soundtrack: “Wonderwall" by Oasis. See photo caption above for reasoning. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 5/22/14:
News Brief
Finish/Print
Gallery Walk
Debrief

Homework: Turn in all missing/late/make up work by May 30 (next Friday). Have a great weekend! Next class: StEPP career education day in the lab.

News Brief: Jacob had the news brief today, and selected this story to talk about: CNN.com - Marine vet who took grenade blast for comrade to receive Medal of Honor. Wow, what a story! I really encourage everyone to read this, especially on Memorial Day weekend. Thanks, Jacob!

We also talked about the Beaverton School District bond measure passing, what it might mean for Westview, and my being hired as a full time probationary (somewhat permanent) teacher at Westview (these two news items are unrelated). Happy days!

Finish/Print: As promised, we went to the library for about 30 minutes or so, just to finish up (if needed) and print your Cold War newspapers. My thinking here was that I really wanted everyone to have at least something to put up on the wall, and I know that often, it is difficult to get everything printed and ready at home. I was glad to see this time seemed to be utilized well!

Gallery Walk: When we came back to class, I had everyone tape at least the front page of their newspaper to the wall around the room ("wonder wall" - get it?). Then, we spent 10-15 minutes just walking around and looking at what everyone had created. I really loved seeing what everyone had done, and having students be interested in it, too!

Debrief: After the gallery walk, we talked about specific newspapers we really liked in class, and how the assignment went in general. It is always good to hear this information, to help improve in the future!

Thanks again for all of your hard work! Have a wonderful long weekend!