Wednesday, December 11th, 2013

 Students do this: 
1) Take this homework survey.
2) Have your simple definitions and visuals ready to be checked.
3) If you have not returned your Ernie's Ark book, you are receiving a failing grade for that assignment.
4) Take the poll
5) This time ACTUALLY look at the calendar tab above and check out what's due in the future.
6) Check your shared folder for work I have returned.
7) If you don't have the Beans pre-questions, download this.
8) Download this Beans Study Guide.
9) We'll be working on the Beans Study Guide in partially self-chosen groups of 3-4.  Find someone in the room you'd like to work with and give Mr. Burns a piece of paper with your names on it.  If you can pair with someone you've never worked with, you'll get a poor quiz grade dropped. You chose not to pair with someone, in which case give Mr. Burns a piece of paper with only your name on it.  Later in class, you'll be paired with another group.

Vocabulary:  10 minutes to get these definitions DONE.
Ethnocentrism
Discrimination
Poverty Line
capitalism
socialism
communism
myth
supply and demand
bourgeois
proletariat

Test Preparation
Friday, at the beginning we'll be taking a test on the fall of Rome.  You will asked to name and explain the reasons Rome fell.  For the test you will be given a blank piece of paper and will need to clearly name the reasons Rome fell.  Scoring will be as follows: 9 correct = 100; 8 = 93; 7 = 88; 6 = 83; 5 = 78; 4 = 70; 3 = 60; 2 = 50; 1 = 50.

 Today, we will be using study groups to verify that everyone has the best possible translations of the 13 reasons.  Here are the steps.
1) You will be put into groups;
2) Pick one person to facilitate the group
3) Starting with reason one, the facilitator asks, "does anyone in the group feel they have a good, simple translation of this reason?"
4) Select a person to respond (if several, pick someone who has not yet responded.
5) After the explanation, ask if anyone wants to revise or clarify the translation. If so, let that person share.
6) Repeat #5 until group is satisfied.
7) Everyone write translation.
8) Go to next reason unless you are done with all in which case, start studying for test.
9) Go to #3.

In the Future:
Philosophy Challenge
Purpose: Philosophy and religion exist for the sole purpose of giving purpose and explaining how life works. They can be very useful when things aren't going so well and can make one's life significantly better.  Personal philosophies can be by-products of where you live, "inherited" from your family or chosen by you.
Challenge Narrative: Pretend you are have just been zapped by the Men In Black stun device. The device has been set to remove all philosophical beliefs from your normally driven, purposeful brain. You no have no idea what the purpose of life is and are shopping around for a philosophy that make sense.
Challenge: You're going to be given one quotation at at time. All the quotes come from different philosophies.  For each quote, you must 1) Find out who said the quote; 2) name the philosophy it came from; 3)  explain exactly what the quote means, as simply as possible, and; 4) explain a time in your life the quote and it's underlying belief would have been useful.  If your group finishes with a quotation, you will get another.  You will be quizzed next class on the quotes' meanings.
The Quotes:

• You cannot step in the same river twice.
• God is dead.
• Death need not concern us because when we exist death does not, and when death exists we do not.
• An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.
• The struggle itself...is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy
• The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, we did it ourselves.
• Man is the measure of all things.
• Nothing in the world—indeed nothing even beyond the world—can possibly be conceived which could be called good without qualification except a good will.
• Man is born free and is everywhere in chains.
• The unexamined life is not worth living.
• I think therefore I am.
• Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
• To lead the people, walk behind them.

Maslow Self-Assessment

Surveying Norway
Challenge: Find out everything you can about Downtown Norway.
Possible Tasks:
Survey questions on Rome
List of businesses and categories
List of things that are missing in Norway (through surveying people)
Brainstorming things that are missing (students)
From a busy location, do a visual survey of number of people and gender
Cars per hour