Stuffed

We had a lot of "things" packed into one day...Late Start, Lock-Down Test, Career Fair, etc. I reviewed the Career Fair and showed you the online Map Prep sites. Tomorrow will have us do a ROMOTHINK and cover some info about the Nile. Bye...

Halftime

OK, my little minions. I am quickly posting during halftime of tonight's big game. The US is beating Mexico 1-0 in Columbus. While I root for both, like millions of others, I win either way. But my taxes stay in this country, while my family contributions cross the border.

We will have the Asia Map Test next Tuesday, including the Middle East. Next Friday's Map Test will cover Oceania AND some of Southeast Asia. To help you prepare, check Lizardpoint for Asia and the Middle East as well as Sheppardsoftware for Asia and the Middle East.

Second Half just began. You better appreciate how much I am sacrificing to get this post out...

Today's class focused on the African Slave Trade from West Africa as well as Apartheid in South Africa. We watched some short vids and then you took some notes of information from the vids and what I shared with you from my twisted mind. My heinous respect for the actions of the Viking raiders and other conquerors was based SOLELY ON GENETICS and the importance of diversity.

I gotta go focus on the game...you peons (anyone know the origins of that term?) have too much of my attention right now - and Mac/Frankie/Chris/Peter will continue to have my spying eyes looking out for more stupid assumptions. Perhaps someone would be interested in starting a thread here of what should have been included in your notes.

Creativity at it's Finest?

We mocked one another's New Africa maps and continued to get settled in our new room (E5). I assigned you an in-class writing task, requiring you to write either two separate paragraphs or one page-long story about two countries. You must deal with the following:

1 Economic Situation: Resources, exports, poor/rich?
2 Capitol City: Location
3 Military Situation: Big spenders? At war?
4 Dominant Ethnic group.
5 Any other comments/tidbits

Staple it to your map and turn it in. Try to have some fun with this, but be realistic too. No armies of 10-foot zombies that eat sand and poop diamonds. See ya...

Nomads

We moved to a different location today. E5 is our new, permanent home. It has these weird things that let you see through the wall. Yeah, that reads funny doesn't it? You can actually SEE THROUGH THE WALL! I think they're called "windows" or something. Bye bye rickets! We'll complete the move over the week as I take time to set up the tech and space things out (where exactly to put the desk, doc camera, etc.?

In class today, I collected your New Africa maps - a bit disappointed in some efforts. You'll write your paragraphs explaining the rise, solidification, successes, and/or setbacks of your two chosen countries in class tomorrow.

We went over the Africa chart, which I saw some of you frantically trying to fill in/complete in class. Again - a little disappointed. I hope everyone picked up the info about:

• the diamond trade (Blood Diamonds and DeBeers' hoarding through monopolization)
• 8-10 key physical features of Africa (maybe someone can be kind and leave them in a comment)
• Parallel of nothingness (where is that, again?
• European Imperialism (taking any resources OUT of Africa)
• The differences between South Africa and Zimbabwe in dealing with post-Apartheid solutions.
• Salt-Gold/Copper Trade and Empire trends in West Africa
• US withdrawal from Somalia
• Immigration supporters
• And many other things.

We looked at some maps of Africa (resources,vegetation, climate, etc.) and I also passedout a Nile River reading. You'll do that in class tomorrow.

I distributed the Asia map, for which we'll have a test next Tuesday. I have decided to add Oceania for next week as well - so there will be another map test on Friday. That means the week after next will see Europe, followed by Latin America & Caribbean, and ending with USA/Canada (with states and provinces).

Non-Geography tidbits:
We can void nearly ALL baseball stats from the mid1990's through 2006. How sad.
And continue feeding me more funny vid clips - I am downloading them for future in-class viewing.

Ciao...