May 26 to May 30

Please excuse me if I seem edgy and irritable this week. I'm busy with ceremony preparation -- and of course every day work must also still carry on. Once the graduation ceremony is over, life can return to normal.

I am not available for extra help at all othis week as I will spend every available moment working Scholarship Committee work and on the script for scholarship presentations for Friday night.

As of Monday, there are 15 classes left.

Now is the time to begin preparing for the final examination.
1) Be sure all assignments are complete.
2) Start studying for the final.Use this blogsite to see what work we will be doing and note homework assignments. I will give advance warning about tests here and inform you of their mark breakdown.
3) E-mail me for an invitation to my "Study-Ning for the Socials 11 Final" social networking site. This is a closed site, requiring a password. People in the outside world cannot access its content. An invitation is required to enter the site. In the site you will find tips for studying and writing exams, example questions, and also discussion forums where you can share ideas with others about how to attack questions and otherwise prepare for the final. Please keep your comments appropriate to a school environment.

For those of you new to my blogsite, it is intended to work alongside my website at:http://kbenoy.googlepages.com/

e-mail me at http://kbenoy@nvsd44.bc.ca/

Things that are static -- not requiring regular change -- will be posted on the website. This blogsite will have the changing material -- lesson plans and links to particular assignments. I will try to ensure that all assignments are made available on the Internet in this way. If something is underlined on the blog, it means that you can click on it to see a copy of the particular item -- this could be a pdf document, powerpoint, music or a video.

Use this blog to see what is coming up each week. I will usually post it on Saturdays for the following week. If you are away, you can check up on what you are missing. There really is no reason for you not to know what is happening. If you do not have an Internet connection, you certainly know someone who does.

If you can't read the PowerPoint material on your computer, download PowerPoint Viewer from Microsoft. It is free.

Sutherland has a license to access Discovery Education's United Streaming video collection. Students may download or stream videos from the collection by going to http://www.unitedstreaming.com/ . Use the passcode posted in the classroom to register. If you have lost it, see me, or e-mail me, for this information. Students are licensed to include this content within their own creations.

I do not read comments posted by readers on this blog -- not through lack of interest, just lack of time. Sorry.

Social Studies 11 (Regular)

My plan is to have only 2 tests in the final, Geography unit. The first will be for units 1, 2 & 3 from the text. The second, on the last day of classes, will cover units 4 & 5. These tests are not yet written; I will post the breakdown when I have done so.

Please note: You can access the Geography text 21st Century World online at http://www.design4effect.com/soc11/ . Note, however, that there are many dead links as this was published in September, 2000.

• Monday, May 26. Begin PowerPoint for chapter 1. Read pp. 17-22. Do #1-2, p. 17. #1-4, p. 21.Video sidebar: For an excellent treatment of how technology is changing our world, see Tom Friedman's address at MIT, following up on his book, The World is Flat.
• Tuesday, May 27. Homework taken up. Continue PowerPoint (Chapter 1) . On Monday it became apparrent that most students have seen Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. (Questions) I therefore decided to switch to watching The Eleventh Hour and complete the questions. Watch Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth if you have not already done so. (Available online: Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10.
• Wednesday, May 28. Take up homework. Complete The Eleventh Hour– Anything we do not see you will have to watch online to complete the video. Read p. 22 and do the "Further Thought questions, #1-2, on p. 22. Video sidebar: For an alternative view, see The Great Global Warming Swindle (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7. You might also be interested in a follow up to this, a follow-up debate from Australian ABC television: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9. Read pp. 29-37. Do both #1-3 on p. 31 and Do #2, p. 36 - but use 2006 data from US Census Bureau's International Data Base - Canada Population pyramid, #1-2, p. 37 (Click on the following for a Nigeria population pyramid and a Japan population pyramid).
• Thursday, May 29. Take up homework. Chapter 2 PowerPoint – Population. Read pp. 37-41. Do #1-6, p. 39 & #1-6, pp. 41-42. Video sidebar: This year's United Nations Human Devlopment Report takes as its over-arching theme Climate Change. You will find the report's accompanying video interesting (choose your download speed and language). If numbers interest you, watch professor Malcolm S. Forbes, Arithmetic, Population and Energy.
• Friday, May 30. Take up homework. PowerPoint (Demographic Transition Model) - continued. Population theories – Malthus, Catton, Boserup & Demographic transition model.. Read pp. 42-45. Do #1-5, p. 45. Sidebars: Doom and gloom video. For a cheerer look at the world - Hans Rosling's Gapcast: Bangladesh Miracle. Doom and gloom text at DieOff.Org - read p. 15, an excerpt from William Catton's Overshoot; The Ecological Base of Revolutionary Change. Read a brief synopsis of Boserup's ideas from York University. Julian Simon was another writer who felt population growth is a good thing. His book Population Matters: People, Resources.

Social Studies 11 (Honours)

The next unit test will be on Friday. Expect 45 multiple choice questions (1 mark each), 5 definitions (2 marks each) and 3 from 5 long answer questions (6 marks each). The test is, therefore, out of 71 marks. 30 properly constructed flash cards will earn 5 bonus marks.

If you have an interest in World War II, check out the contents of my directory of World War II documentaries uploaded to Google video and Youtube - all 19 pages.

• Monday, May 26. Take up #1-3, p. 121. Continue watching The Liberators; D-Day to the Rhine (sorry - unavailable over the Internet) and complete the questions.
  Begin Endings & Beginnings & do questions. Read pp. 121-127. Do #1-4, p. 127. Read the sidebar, pp. 115-116. Do #1-2, sidebar, p. 116.
• Tuesday, May 27. Take up #1-4, p. 127 & #1-2, p. 116 sidebar. Continue Endings & Beginnings & do questions. Japanese internment. Show CBC Archives video clip on compensation. Read pp. 127-132. Do #1-4, p. 132 & sidebar #1-2, p. 129.
• Wednesday, May 28. Take up #1-4, p. 132 & sidebar #1-2, p. 129. Introduce the Holocaust/Shoah. Watch Frontline; Memory of the Camps - without questions. Complete “In Review” and “Applying Your Knowledge” questions, p. 133. If you are interested in what Nazi anti-Jewish propeganda was like, watch The Eternal Jew (with English dubbing), Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 & Part 7. Other online material includes: Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered (abour an hour) a lecture by a Holocaust survivor. A documentary, Hitler's Henchmen; Heinrich Himmler (about an hour) is quite interesting. The BBC's Auschwitz: The Final Solution is also available on YouTube (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 - these are 10 minute or so segments.) Another 60 minute documentary is Children Remember the Holocaust. A wealth of material on the Holocaust can be found at The Holocaust History Project - their material on Holocaust denial is of particular interest. Bear this material in mind if you watch Holocaust denial material, like Judea Declares War on Germany; A Critical Look at the Holocaust
• Thursday, May 29. Take up "In Review" and "Applying Your Knowledge" questions on p. 133. Filmstrip & questions Middle Power Introduction to the Cold War. Prepare for unit test next class on the Interwar Years & World War II. Sign out CounterPoints textbooks. An excellent introduction to the Cold War, that explains how it came about, is Episode 1 of The Cold War; Comrades 1917-1945. Episode 2 covers 1945 to 1947. Episode 3 covers the Marshall Plan, 1947 to 1952. Watch Winston Churchill's famous "Iron Curtain" speech, in which he calls on Americans to note that a conflict with the USSR was brewing (5 minutes).
• Friday, May 30. Unit Test. Read pp. 130-135. Do figure 6-2, p. 133, figure 6-3, p. 134, and #1-4, p. 135 in Counterpoints.

The first version of my Cold War videos available online document is 5 pages long and links to some fabulous Cold War material. If you have time, it is well worth a look.