I don’t know how we got to this topic but so go the wayward minds of Room 202. We were talking about Oligarchies and how they were overthrown in Ancient Greece. This lead to the Arab Spring, the Bolshevik revolution and eventually the Chinese revolution. Then, we talked about Mao Tse Tung and his reaction to a nuclear weapon attack. Finally, we spoke about how nuclear weapons were used during the Cold War. I love the minds in our class.
WOW,
Mr. Rose
Hello,
Today, we spent time continuing our projects. Students finished writing questions about novels for Thursday’s Jeopardy game, writing Fractured Fairy Tale rough drafts, and creating new continents from existing maps. My goal is to wrap up these projects by next week and finish the year doing a Symphony of Civilization.
More on that to come,
Mr. Rose
The practice of patience guards us against losing our presence of mind. It enables us to remain undisturbed, even when the situation is really difficult. It gives us a certain amount of inner peace, which allows us some self-control, so that we can choose to respond to situations in an appropriate and compassionate manner, rather than being driven by our disturbing emotions.
-Dalai Lama
Students are rewriting fairy tales. I know that this can be a popular upper-elementary assignment but I am trying to get kids to look at social issues using these tales as a basis. Students are looking at gender issues (princesses being saved by Prince Charming, beauty being the only attribute that is valued for women, men being violent and angry, et.al.), using people from different cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds to be the main character, changing the perspective of the story, and other opportunities to tweak the story.
I look forward to reading these!
Mr. Rose
