Wednesday 12-19 : MAKE UP ALL MISSING ASSIGNMENTS!

Seriously children, do you WANT assignments hanging over your head all vacation long? I sure don't! Get them done, get them handed, or forever maintain a respectful silence... because on the work we've done up until now, I will no longer be listening.

cheers,
Mr. L

Wednesday 12-19 : Time To Vote!!!

Hail Atlantis! And greetings to you, one and all!

As promised, I have winnowed down the possible names for our blog to a field of finalists. You will kindly please send me your

FIRST
SECOND
THIRD

choices for the names you like the best, second best, third best, in that order

In an email, with your name and "I voted" in the subject line.

Here are your choices --- and thank you for proving once again that no matter how creatively bizarre the name choices were for one set of students, the next set is sure to upstage them :-)



future acolytes

FDR Walks Again  

Donatellos Pizza Shop

kylaidyntopia slaves


Athlete's Mind 


How I Met Your Computer 

sun gods sacrifices

Contagious Syndrome

All About the Humans


JUST DO IT !

Velociraptors In Space

crazy cat Cornchip Blog

im not a genius so i dont have any names


Barbie's Rule !











Cheers,
Mr. L

Monday 12 - 17 : just for fun, name this blog

In the past, I have set up blog-based websites for each of my classes, shared the website address with my students, and after they have become comfortable using it, allowed them to rename the TITLE of the blog. Not the website address, just the title at the top.

Right now, our class website is called "World History Section 2"... a perfect name if you're having trouble sleeping at night. What I need for each of you to do is to send me an email with some ideas of your own about what our website should be called.

Make sure to put your first and last name in the subject line, plus the phrase "blog name choices"

In the body of the email, send me as many ideas as you would like, but try for at least four. Just to help you along, here are some actual "no I'm not kidding they actually voted for that one" examples:

Noise Aquarium

Code Monkeys

Dissonant Disturbances

Krakatoa's Revenge

The Skunk Werx

Deafening Silence

Hellen Keller's Traffic Dodgers

We Heart Bald

Vitamin E

Feeble Minded Pandas


So, with this in mind, send me four ideas of your own by email. I will do my best to sift through 'em, and come up with some finalists... next time we meet, you will have an actual vote, and from there I will work over next weekend to declare a winner :-)

cheers,
Mr. L

Monday 12 - 17 : political revolutions, step three

It has been said that "every organization is the lengthened shadow of one man". This means that every group, every movement, every revolution has had at least ONE indispensable leader. There is always at least one person who perseveres despite all odds, who cannot be bought, bribed, bluffed, bullied or silenced. Without this one person, the revolution in question would not have been attempted, much less succeeded.

It's like in the movie "The Matrix" : there are many brave and capable people fighting against the machines -- Morpheus, Trinity, Tank, Dozer, Switch, Apok, even Mouse -- yet there is one and only one Neo

So, who is your one? Who is your revolution's "Neo"?

When you figure that out, you will need to build a profile of this individual, including:

A) when and where they were born (one complete sentence)

B) formative experiences that helped them become the revolutionary leaders they became  (at least two complete sentences)

C) At least five character traits which enabled them to lead as they did
(at least two complete sentences per trait)

Send this material my way via Box.com or by email

Cheers,
Mr. L

Thursday 12 - 13 : political revolutions, step two

Now that you have chosen a "revolution" topic, the next step is to begin answering some simple questions about it, to wit:

A) What group or organization made this revolution take place?

B) What were the basic principles which this group stood for?

C) What other groups opposed this first group?

D) What were their reasons for being in opposition? Please do not "speak for them", let the opposition speak for itself 

E) Where did "the action" take place? In other words, where on earth did this happen?

F) When did this happen? Give the year or years involved

G) Did the revolutionary group achieve its aims? 

H) What happened to the winners? What happened to the losers?

I) What are at least four reliable website sources which you can cite? (You need to give me website addresses, people!)


Each question must be answered with at least one or two complete sentences. This information can either be uploaded to Box.com or emailed to me 

cheers,
Mr. L

Thursday 12 - 13 : political revolutions, step one

One very important and not to be overlooked aspect of political geography is the political revolution. By definition, a revolution is a sharp and drastic change in the way a society organizes itself. A revolution can be violent; precipitated by physical conflicts, riots, rebellions, even full scale civil wars. A revolution can also be (relatively) bloodless : nobody dies, but there is a dramatic change in a society.

Your first step today is simple: choose a revolution to study. Here are some possibilities.... but by no means is this an exhaustive list:


American Revolution
Reagan Revolution
Bolshevik Revolution in Russia
Nazi Revolution in Germany
The Iranian Revolution
French Revolution
The Haitian Revolution
The Glorious Revolution (England)
Communist Cuban Revolution
The Mexican Revolution
Maoist Revolution in China
The Spanish Civil War (1936- 39)
The Easter Uprising (Ireland)
Tea Party Revolution
Cultural Revolution (also in China)
Turkish war of Independence
People Power (Phillipines)
Scientific Revolution
Warsaw Uprising
Occupy Wall Street Rebellions
The Arab Spring
Greek Civil War
Zanzibar Rebellion
Velvet  Revolution (Czechoslovakia)
Algerian Civil War
Kengir Uprising
Salt March (India)
Founding of Israel
beatnik/hippy movements
Mau Mau Rebellion
Lebanese  Civil war
Black September (Jordan)

As I say, you may choose from any of the revolutions on this list, or you may choose something completely different. In either event, please send me an email with the name or names of all people involved -- as well as the name of the revolution chosen -- in BOTH the subject line AND the main body of the email.

Following that, we can proceed with the next step

Cheers,

Mr. L

Tuesday 12- 11: a discussion of Political Geography & your questions and answers

ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL RIGHTY THEN!!!

Today, as promised, we are going to engage in a discussion of the questions which I asked you about political geography,as well as the questions which you yourselves have created. As an added twist,  there will be times during this discussion when I am going to randomly select people to participate using a small computer program of my design.

The record of this discussion will be typed up by a student volunteer as is customary, and when we are finished, it will be uploaded to this folder on Box.com found

HERE

After we are done, you will have time to finish up any other unfinished business, any assignments not uploaded, that sort of thing. 

Time permitting, I have a reflective writing exercise setup where you can add to this discussion after thinking about what has transpired

cheers,
Mr. L

Monday 12 - 10: Getting Ready for your Discussion & other matters

Greetings everyone!

Today you will be working to accomplish two distinct yet equally worthy goals:

A) Making sure that you are ready for our class discussion tomorrow. Remember that you will be held accountable for BOTH sets of questions I have asked you, as well as the four questions which you were asked to create and answer, all on the topic of political geography

B) Besides getting to me all those questions by email -- in other words, passing in your work-- you also need to make sure that you have passed in both sets of notes, as well as any other work which you still owe. Remember, progress reports may have been issued, but the grading must go on

cheers,
Mr. L

Thursday 12-6: some additional political geography questions from Mr. LaRue

If you are reading this, it must mean that you have finished the notes -- both part one and part two -- which I have provided for you in previous classes. Now I would like today to perform the following four actions:

A) Answer the questions which I have provided below 

B) Create four of your own questions. You may model how to phrase the questions based on questions I have already asked, but naturally, you CANNOT ASK A QUESTION WHICH I HAVE ALREADY CREATED

C) Provide an answer of some sort to each of your own questions. It doesn't have to be huge big deal... two complete sentences each will do.


PLEASE SEND YOUR ANSWERS FOR A IN A SEPARATE EMAIL.... the subject line for the questions from "A" above should have your name plus "Mr. LaRue's 2nd set o' questions"

The subject line for "B" should be your name plus "my Q and A"


OK, without further ado, here are my questions for today (ANSWERS MUST BE AT LEAST TWO COMPLETE SENTENCES EACH)

A) The second round of notes proclaimed that "the state" provides services, demands that we pay taxes and obey its laws, etc etc . Here's my first question: WHAT IS "THE STATE"? Please provide a definition of what it is, not what it does. And no, the one provided in the notes already is off limits.... I think its way too abstract, and doesn't hit near enough what a state actually is

B) What's the difference between a "state" and a nation? (Please bear in mind, by "state" I don't mean something like "South Carolina" or "Texas" -- I mean the definition as laid out in "A" above)

C)  Which one is more important? Why?

D)  Is America an example of a multinational state? If so, could we end up like the former Yugoslavia from your notes?

E) In the notes, the first part of the definition for a nation is "a culturally defined group of people" ... what do you suppose that actually means?

F) The definition goes on to say that these people have a " shared past and  a common future". Question : since America is composed of 310,000,000 people from every country on earth, what exactly is our "shared past"? 

G) Based on your answer to F, what do you think America's future looks like?

H) In the notes, it is pointed out that the boundary lines of other nations have shifted over time. How likely is it that this will never happen here in America? And in the event it did happen, what might precipitate this/make it happen?

I) In the notes, it states that the earliest rulers ruled over a group of followers, not a particular territory. Question: what kind of modern day organizations can you think of that are like this? List them, and explain why they belong in this list

J) For "I" above, which do you think is more important for these "rulers" : their organization, or the nation where they reside/ the state they live under?

K) What about the people who these rulers are in charge of? Where does their allegiance lie?

OK, that should be enough exercise for today. Just make sure to get it done, as I would like very much to have a class discussion of a random sampling of all sets of questions the next time we meet

cheers,
Mr. L

Monday 12-3: political geography questions, part one

Greetings once again!

OK, so now you have some basic terms and concepts to begin this new section of the course... now let's apply them to answering some questions:

Please note, at least two complete sentences to explain each of your answers

A) The notes pointed out that there are many nations that are now independent which were once part of bigger empires. Question: is it inevitable that big "multinational" empires will split apart? 

B) The notes also pointed out that many of these new smaller nations had some serious problems. Do you believe that these problems are due to them being smaller, or because of their previous position trapped inside a large empire?

C) For B above, how might you go about researching an answer for this question?

D) The notes point out that the word "ethnic" comes from the Greek word ethnos meaning "people" or "nation". The word politics comes from the Greek word "polis" meaning city. Question: what could possibly happen to a city that is politically divided along ethnic lines...one where the various ethnic groups absolutely do not get along?

E) What could possibly happen if an entire country was divided in this fashion?

F) Please list -- using complete sentences -- at least three benefits to a city or a nation being ethnically homogeneous --- meaning all from the same ethnic group

G) Please list -- again using complete sentences -- at least three benefits to a city or a nation being ethnically diverse

OK, that should be enough exercise for today. Don't forget, you still owe any and all "unfinished business" from the previous section of this course

cheers,
Mr. L

Tues 12-4: Political Geography Notes, Round Two

Greetings, everyone!

Last week, we began with our first round of notes on political geography. Today, your task is simple: type up and send to me in an email this second round of notes. When next we are in class, there will be a collection of questions for you to come up with some creative and thought/debate provoking answers, which -- I hope -- will to a debate of sorts. 

In any event, here they are :-)

Cheers,

Mr. L