Deep Thoughts

 

Announcing at the beginning that his main goal of this talk is for you to go out and smash your smart phone, Nicholas Carr tells the audience exactly how the internet is affecting our memory and why this may not be a positive thing.

1) Why does Mr. Carr suggest you smash your smartphone?

2) Will you? Why or why not? Use evidence from his talk to support your answer.

3) What techniques can you use to improve your 'deep thinking?'

Native American Heritage Day

 

Everything you learned about Thanksgiving is a lie.

On August 3, 1990, President of the United States George H. W. Bush declared the month of November as National American Indian Heritage Month. This commemorative month aims to provide a platform for Native people in the United States of America to share their culture, traditions, music, crafts, dance, and ways and concepts of life. This gives Native people the opportunity to express to their community, both city, county and state officials their concerns and solutions for building bridges of understanding and friendship in their local area.

Filmmaker Ben-Alex Dupris explores how the reality and resistance of Native Americans inspire the work of Pawnee artist Bunky Echo-Hawk, igniting discussions about environmentalism, Native rights, and numerous other current topics.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Is Social Media Killing Us?

 

Last year's congressional testimony of Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, reveals the ways that Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, negatively affects teenagers’ mental health and how hate speech has spread on the company’s platforms. The hearing could be a turning point for the social media giant.

In this lesson, you will learn about Ms. Haugen’s testimony and about some of Facebook’s most problematic practices. Then we invite you to discuss with your classmates how the company should be held accountable and what change should look like.

Does life imitate movies or vis versa?

To the Moon?!

Bang Zoom ...You're Going to the Moon!

NASA's launch of the Artemis 1 mission signals America's intent to return to the moon and beyond. CBS Reports' documentary "Artemis: America's New Moonshot" reveals the incredible endeavor of America's next great leap in space exploration and the collective will required to see it through. 

What is exciting about the Artemis Moon Launch? What are the challenges? How is it different from the historic moon landings of the past? What lessons can the launch teach us back here on earth?

Why is it called ARTEMIS?

All The News Thats Fit To Print

This term we will study the stories that make the headlines.

After looking at famous headlines from the past, write a headline for your story and then decide with your group which story is front page news?  How close were you the actual front page?

Your headlines should be to the point but should also draw reader interest to the story.  Consider these steps.

2.6 seconds.  That's how long you have to grab readers attention.

How can you know a GOOD headline unless you've seen some BAD ones?

Want to see your headline in actual print? Click here.

What Is Current Events?

 

Click here to watch video.

It was a lurching, stammering year that began in hope, flirted with whiplash, and shuddered to a halt. In 2021, miraculously effective vaccines showed up, a new President promised unity, and a jury convicted the man who killed George Floyd. It was also the year that supporters of the losing candidate took over the U.S. Capitol, Asian-Americans were given new reason to fear for their lives, and COVID-19 people killed Americans at a faster rate than before free, life-preserving injections were available across the land. Is it any wonder that, from Naomi Osaka to Simone Biles, the deliberate preservation of mental health–resilience was a major theme?

1) What do you think was THE most important event? Least important? Why?

2) What made each of these events headline news?

3) What similarities or differences did these events share?

4) What predictions can you make up about the events we will study this year?

Ready Player One

When will the 'real' and 'virtual' merge?  in 2045 says visionary inventor Ray Kurzweil.  He calls that transition the 'Singularity.'  What used to fit in a building now fits in your pocket, and what fits in your pocket today will fit inside a blood cell in 25 years.  By 2045 we'll have multiplied the human-machine civilization a billionfold.  We will gain power over our fates.  Our mortality will be in our own hands.  Many focus on what they perceive as a loss of some vital aspect of our humanity.  The essence of being human is not our limitations, it is our ability to reach beyond our limitations.  The 'Singularity' offers the hope of an artificial afterlife, but it could also lead to our own extinction.  War, global warming,  or disease could all do us in, but what if it's our own technology?  

Author Ernest Cline discusses his book "Ready Player Two," anticipating virtual reality and exploring both the perils and potentials of internet technology.

Read the Book or Watch the Movie.   What's the Difference?

Discussion Questions for Ready Player One

Believe It Or Not!

 

At its most extreme, bias will drive people away from sources they disagree with and push them to consume only media from outlets that confirm their existing worldviews. In the age of social media, this has become especially true. Because we often surround ourselves with like-minded people as our friends and acquaintances, our social media feeds will often reflect a shared bias. At its most extreme application, we create an echo chamber, or a situation where ideas and beliefs are amplified and reinforced through communication and repetition, around ourselves.

1) Do you believe me? Why/ not?

2) How does this new information make you feel? Angry?  Sad?  Happy?  Glad? Why?

3) What is the 'backfire effect' and what can you do to counteract it?'

Mascot-Ology

From now until the NCAA basketball championship in April, experts and prognosticators, along with millions of amateurs competing in office pools, will attempt to predict the outcomes of all 67 of the tournament’s games.

People have all sorts of reasons to pick one team over another. Some break down game footage; others look at advanced statistics; and still others give preference to schools they or their friends attended.

But what if we took a different approach and picked teams based on the strength of their mascots?

1)  Who would win?

2)  Whose Mascot is the toughest? Whose is the weakest? Why?

3)  Which mascot is the most common?  The most unique?  Explain.

4)  Why do schools choose the mascots they do?  What do mascots say about a school?

5) Why aren't their any 'Indian' mascots in the March Madness Tournament?


The "Brave," an American Indian warrior, became the symbol of the Talawanda Schools in the 1950s.

But who was Talawanda?

Do Indian Mascots honor insult Native American Groups?

Should Talawanda have changed its mascot? If so what to?

Golden Arches Theory

 

The Golden Arches Theory comes from a 1995 book by New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman. It posits that nations whose economies can support fast-food chains tend to have a middle class that cares more about maintaining calm and commerce with its neighbors than starting conflict.

That belief actually fell apart in 1988, when civil war broke out in the former Yugoslavia. Over the years, the armies of India and Pakistan, and Israel and Lebanon, have respectively faced off, despite the presence of McDonald’s within their borders.

The calls for a brand boycott are premised on taking aim at the comfort of Russian oligarchs and the country’s middle class. Doing so, the thinking goes, will create enough economic and cultural isolation to put the screws to the Russian regime to retreat as Ukrainians continue to resist the incursion.

1) What is the Golden Arches Theory?

2) Do you think it will prevent us from war with Russia? Why/ Not? What has history taught us?

3) What other companies have joined McDonalds in sanctions against Putin's Russia?

4) Will you support these companies by giving them more business? Will you give less business to the companies who have not supported sanctions? Why/ not?

5) Is the dollar more powerful than the sword? Explain.

News vs. Media: What's the Difference?

You might see the terms “news” and “media” seemingly used interchangeably. While it might seem that they’re one in the same, it’s important to understand that there’s a strong distinction between the two. Media refers to the tools used to store and deliver information, whereas news (or, news media) refers strictly to the sharing of recent events.

News is all around us. From what we hear on the radio to what we see on television, come across on the Internet, see in an advertisement, or even hear from a colleague or friend, the news and peoples’ opinions on it are an ever-present part of everyday life. This information forms our opinions, shapes of conversations with others, and even affects how we view the world around us. With the wealth of information now available at most individuals’ fingertips, it’s important to take time to evaluate just where we find news. For many individuals, it’s some (if not all) of the following: television, laptop or computer, radio, newspaper or magazine, cell phone. tablet, smart tv, e-reader.

1) From whom do you hear most news events?

2) What role does social media play in how you access news?

3) What devices do you use to access news?

4) Why do you prefer these?

5) What is the difference between 'news' and 'media?'

Appeasement

 

After assuming power in 1933, Hitler threatened to spark a new war in Europe by demanding that the Sudetenland be ceded to Germany — largely on the basis of the fact it was populated by ethnic Germans. European powers eventually gave in to Hitler's demands via the Munich Agreement in 1938, in what would ultimately be a failed bid to prevent another conflict from consuming the continent. The European leaders involved in the Munich discussions — particularly British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain — were accused of appeasement, and of being fooled by Hitler.

Nazi Germany would go on to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, just months before the onset of World War II.

As he moved to recognize two separatist territories in eastern Ukraine as independent on Monday, Putin made references to the historical and ethnic connections between Ukraine and Russia. He rewrote history in the process, and effectively suggested that Ukraine is not a country. "Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia," Putin said.

In remarks at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky alluded to the 1938 Munich crisis and the Sudetenland.

Zelensky suggested that Western leaders had engaged in "appeasement" in the face of Russian aggression toward Ukraine. "Has the world forgotten its mistakes of the 20th century?" Zelensky asked. "Where does appeasement policy usually lead to?"

As President Biden vows more sanctions on Russia to deter its attacks on Ukraine, there are lessons to be learned from the past. Edward Fishman, a former State Department staff member and adjunct fellow at The Center for a New American Security, joined CBS News' Tanya Rivero and Omar VIllafranca to discuss.

1) Do you think sanctions against Putin will work?

2) What are the dangers of 'appeasing' Putin? What do the lessons from the past teach us?

3) Why doesn't the United States and our allies respond with equal force?

Great Power; Great Responsibility

 

On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown Jr., an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by 28-year-old white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the city of Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.

The events in Ferguson drew significant attention to the role of a free press in a democracy. In the days after the shooting of Michael Brown, a number of journalists were detained, searched, and arrested as they attempted to cover the story, while many others reported being harassed, questioned, and threatened by police as well as by protestors and community members. Many journalists and civil-liberties advocates highlighted these occurrences to make the point that preventing members of the press from doing their job puts democracy at risk.

Using the Iceberg Diagram teaching strategy. What is at stake when a reporter is treated as he was? Why do you think the police acted the way they did? Were they justified? What information don’t we have, with only Lowery’s version of the story? Is there any context in which his treatment would be justified? How does this treatment threaten his First Amendment rights?