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,

Only three weeks left of school now! 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 5/27/14:
News Brief
Finish/Print
Gallery Walk
Debrief

Homework: Turn in all missing/late/make up work by May 30 (this Friday). Read the blog! Next class: StEPP career education day in the lab.

News Brief: Tifani had the news brief today and selected this story to talk about: CNN.com - Three killed, five wounded in Myrtle Beach shootings. Another shooting story as a news brief - there were certainly a few over the weekend. Just awful.

We also checked in for a bit about how Memorial Day weekend was.

Finish/Print: As promised, we went to the computer lab next to class 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! See you on Thursday for the StEPP day!

Cold War America, Day 11 - Class Recap

A few students are working on Cold War newspapers in relation to the United States dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. This is the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. Photo taken in January, 2014.

Dear class,

Our last full day of work on the Cold War newspaper assignment today! Here's what class looked like:

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: “I Ka Barra (Your Work)” by Habib Koite. Selected because this was the last full in class day of work on your Cold War newspaper project, due next class.

AGENDA 5/21/14:
News Brief
Newspaper Overview
S210 Computer Lab

Homework: Finish newspaper (we will have about 30 minutes in the lab to finish and print, but please come with it done, if possible). Read the blog! Next news brief: Tifani.

Links to homework assignment and grading rubric:

Google Drive: Cold War Newspaper Final Project Assignment

Google Drive: Cold War Newspaper Final Project Grading Rubric

News Brief: Ben had the news brief today and chose this story to bring in: NYTimes.com - 2 Students Arrested After Putting Rat Poison in Teacher’s Water, Police Say. Wow! I would say that I'll have to watch myself, but I feel confident I have nothing to worry about.

Along with this section, I talked about the legalization of same sex marriage in Oregon on Monday. I made sure to go over how this happened and some of the reasons why a judge was able to declare the Oregon constitution invalid. An important day in our history, for sure.

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!

Newspaper Overview: I wanted to talk about the basics of the assignment, one last time. This is what I read in class:

Article 1: From the date that you are choosing to publish your paper, who is “winning” the Cold War? Why is the other side not? What is changing in America at this point?

Political Cartoon/Visual Metaphor that relates to your headline, with caption that explains what it is about.

Article 2: An overview of how technology is shaping the war at the time you are publishing the newspaper. Be sure to address the Nuclear Arms Race, and the Space Race if possible. You could also talk about technology within specific wars.

Make sure to cite your sources if you use out of class information! Your in class notes do not need to be cited.

S210 Computer Lab: The rest of class was spent on the computers. Please work hard on this, to be able to turn it in next class, on Tuesday! This is your final really big assignment of the year - do not neglect to do it! Make sure to ask me in the comments or with an email if you need help!

Cold War America, Day 10 - Class Recap

Sometimes, to make art (like this couple I saw at the John Lennon Wall in Prague, Czech Republic last summer), you need a bit of help. That's what I tried to do today in class!

Hi everyone,

I hope you are as excited as I am about this newspaper assignment! The ideas for cartoons today should be pretty fun to see! 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: “Killer Tofu" by The Beets. Selected because this song is from the cartoon "Doug" and we were working on political cartoons today in class. Listen to it again, here.

AGENDA 5/19/14:
News Brief
Bitstrips/Google Drawings
Blog Precap
Computer Lab N228

Homework: Continue to work on newspaper assignment, which is due next Tuesday, May 20. Read the blog! Next news brief: Ben.

Links to homework assignment and grading rubric:

Google Drive: Cold War Newspaper Final Project Assignment

Google Drive: Cold War Newspaper Final Project Grading Rubric

News Brief: Hailey had the news brief today and talked about this story:

I also talked for a bit about the pending (it will be released at noon today, apparently) decision by a U.S. District Court Judge about Oregon's ban on same sex marriage. Certainly an interesting case to follow and a potentially historic day today.

Blog Precap: A "precap," because I showed this exact post, detailing how you could go about making your political cartoon!

Bitstrips/Google Drawings: I wanted to show the class a few ideas for how to do the political cartoon element that is required for your Cold War newspaper. I think you could have a lot of fun with this!

The first website I showed in class to help with creating a cartoon or visual metaphor for what is going on in the Cold War at the time you are making your newspaper is BitStrips.com/create/comic. I demonstrated a range of ways that website could be used! The only thing you need to watch out for is that in order to save, you need to sign up for the site. If you don't want to do that (it is not required for this assignment), you could either: 1) use the "Print Screen" function. If using a PC with this button, it acts like a screenshot of the entire screen, that you can paste in a Paint or Word document to edit or print. With a Mac, here is the guide to taking a screenshot:

Press the Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 4 all at the same time

You will see the cursor change to +

Drag a box around the section you want to copy and release the mouse

You will find a capture of the screen on your desktop again entitled ‘Picture _’

2) You could also just take a picture of the cartoon using your phone, and upload it to print by emailing it to yourself. This will almost certainly be low quality, though.

The second website I know of to create cartoons is the "Drawings" section of Google Drive. To get there, sign into your Google account, go to Drive, then click on "Create." This is what I am talking about:

That opens up a document that looks a lot like Paint, where you can insert images, play around with text and shapes, add lines, etc.

Basically, I want to see that you have a cartoon or visual metaphor that has some relation to what your newspaper headline and editorial is about. If you can try to make it funny (and be appropriate), that would be great! I am excited to see what you come up with! 

Computer Lab N228: The rest of class was spent on the computers. You definitely need to be working on this assignment over the weekend, because we only have one more day (Wednesday) of in class work before this is due, next Tuesday! Please let me know how I can help, if you need it!

Cold War America, Day 9 - Class Recap

Newspaper front pages around the world on September 12th, 2001. Photo taken at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. in 2010.

Dear class,

Here we go! Today was the first day of working on the last real major assignment of the year in class. Lots of links and resources follow! 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: “Bad News” by Kanye West. Selected because it may seem like today's assignment about making a newspaper is bad news, but it is not! Also, because it was the first clean song that came up under my iTunes when I searched for "news." Lyrics here.

AGENDA 5/15/14:
News Brief
Cold War Newspaper Project
Templates/Read Write Think
Computer Lab N228

Homework: Continue to work on newspaper assignment, which is due Tuesday, May 27. Read the blog! Next news brief: Hailey.

News Brief: Alfonso had the news brief today and selected this article to talk about: CNN.com - Man smashes truck into TV station, sends tweets while barricaded. It sounds like this man needs serious mental healthcare. Thanks, Alfonso!

Cold War Newspaper Project: I had shown the class a version of this document before, but this time, I actually handed it out, so everyone should know what we are working on. Here are the two pages you are going to need in order to do this assignment:

Google Drive: Cold War Newspaper Final Project Assignment

Google Drive: Cold War Newspaper Final Project Grading Rubric

There are a lot of details on the assignment sheet, on purpose. I wanted to try to make it as detailed as possible. Basically, there are three main elements that I am going to be looking for:

1) An editorial about who is winning the Cold War (again, you could use almost any topic we have been learning about for the past few weeks) at the date that you choose for your newspaper, along with what is changing in American society.

2) A political cartoon or visual metaphor that helps visually explain what is going on at the time your newspaper is being published.

3) An article about the role technology is playing in the Cold War at the time your newspaper is printed, specifically referencing the Nuclear Arms Race and Space Race, if possible.

Finally, as I explained in class, there is no way you are going to be able to finish this all, plus the additional elements that might help it look more authentic, like advertisements or other stories, in class. You will need to be working on this as homework. I have not been giving daily homework throughout the semester because we work hard in class and you sometimes have these bigger assignments which require work out of class. I am hopeful that by getting this one out of the way before most of your final projects and tests are due in your other classes, you can devote a lot of attention to it.

Templates/Read Write Think: In order to do this assignment, I went over three possibilities in class for newspaper templates. You could obviously find your own, or just assemble different articles on a regular newspaper, as well. Here were the options I saw:

1) Use the Printing Press tool on the Read Write Think website. This lets you play around with different formats, add images from your files, and save your work as you go (using a .RWT file that you can only open on that website).

If you use Read Write Think, make sure to spell check your work, because it does not automatically do it for you through the website.

2) Select a template from Google Docs (you will have to log in to your Google account before clicking on the link for it to work - or just search "newspaper templates" on Google). Here is a link to at least 50 different formats you could try: Google Drive - Newspaper Template Options.

3) Download a template for Microsoft Word. I looked around and liked a few of the options here: ExtraNewspapers.com - Newspaper Template Pack. These will download as .zip files, then you have to open them up and select the Word documents to work with.

Do NOT pay for any templates or anything like that! I am sure that you can adequately complete this assignment without buying any.

Computer Lab N228: The rest of class was spent on the computers. I suggested using this blog and your in class notes to find resources to use, but you could also find other sources to help. From what I saw, most students were able to identify the topic for the newspaper and have a general idea for how they are going to accomplish it. Please be prepared next class to keep working on it! We only have two days devoted in class after today for work on this project before it is due.

Bring materials for working on your political cartoon/visual metaphor, as well! Feel free to post in the comments if you are looking for a particular resource that I can help you find here on the blog or elsewhere!