The Forum

Here’s an easy way for my students to learn the basic order of the Chinese ruling dynasties. I have them sing the dynasties to frere jacque. The only danger is during A.P. exam day hearing students softly humming the tune while they take the test.

Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin (repeat)

Han, Sui, Tang (repeat)

Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, Republic (repeat)

Communist (repeat).

Yes, I know I leave out the Period of Warring States, Wang Mang’s brief rule between the early Han and the later Han and the era of the Three Kingdoms but the basic dynastic structure is there.

photo: Emperor Qin Shihuangdi, the first and only Qin emperor of a united China. China is named after his family. He’s the guy with all the Terra Cotta soldiers. He also was portrayed in a major role in the supercool Jet Li film “Hero.”

Take a look around my classroom. There is an extra credit opportunity lying around in ole room C55. 100 Daily Points…that would give your texas connect parent portal online gradebook a bit of a heft. You have to have your eyes open…you have to be aware…it’s there…just look around. It’s not a charity grade or a handout…there’s a bit of work involved…once you find the key.

Just another object lesson that you better not go through life as ant…just bouncing around walking unconsciously with all the other ants. As the great Ferris Bueller once said…”Life goes by pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Strange phenomenon that I’ve witnessed this year in all of my standard World History classes. Students are getting Muhammad mixed up with Gandhi. We aren’t even close to studying Gandhi yet…he’ll come by our room in the second semester. So I need to investigate this. I’ve never had a class mix these two guys up before. Somewhere down the line they got something wrong. Somewhere they were either mis-informed by a teacher or they simply mixed up what a teacher said in the past. Be interesting to see how this mixup came to be in the minds of the class of 2012.

The Parthenon of Athens

This weekend the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church will be hosting their 53rd annual Greek Food Festival in north Dallas. I attended this festival several years ago and had a great time. The Greek food is great. The Greek folk music and dancing is lively. There are displays about ancient Greece and Hellenic culture. There’s even a large Greek style market for shopaholics.

I will give any student who attends 100 extra credit points. You will need to bring back a photograph of yourself that proves that you attended this year’s event. I will also accept a program/brochure/ticket stub from the event if the festival provides those.

Everything you need to know about this event can be found HERE or at this link…

http://www.greekfestivalofdallas.com/index.html

For all those wingnuts out there thinking the President will be indoctrinating our students on with Maoist propaganda you can find a released copy of his speech he is giving tomorrow HERE.

The Presidential Seal

On Tuesday the President of the United States, Barack Obama, will welcome American students back to school in a live telecast speech.

Unfortunately a few paranoid radical rightwingers are attempting to hijack the President’s welcome speech by encouraging students to skip school on Tuesday. Read that again…these morons are actually encouraging students to stay away from school. Many more are calling schools demanding the speech not be shown.

I find such behavior shocking and outrageous. This is rule by the mob and rule by fear. People would have a right be upset if the President was planning on giving a partisan speech. But this speech will focus on things all Americans can agree on…the importance of education, staying in school and personal accountability.

This kind of protest weakens our democratic structures. Even though we may disagree with the President on many issues he still deserves the respect of the office. That office is discredited when the President is not even allowed to address American students.

This is the duly and democratically elected President of the United States of America. It doesn’t matter if he (or she) is a Republican, Democrat, Green, Communist or whatever. They are the President of the United States.

I disagreed vehemently with George W. Bush on many issues. But I would have absolutely no problem with him addressing American students in a non-partisan fashion as President. I wish he had. I wish all Presidents regardless of party would pay more attention to our youth. I guarantee these hypocritical protests would not be happening in Kaufman if Bush were President.

I am disappointed with our school district’s mandate that all students who wish to view the speech in class must sign a permisson slip. The implication is that there is something wrong with seeing your President speak in class. I know for a fact that there are teachers who show R rated movies in class and yet there is no uproar from parents. But our district has been placed in a difficult position by fear-mongerers in our community regarding this speech. I disagree with their decision but will respect it.

Parents would rather their kids see decapitations and dismemberment in movies such as 300 and Gladiator (both historical fiction) than see a positive message from the President and Commander in Chief of our great nation.

I believe in civil discourse. I encourage student to think their own thoughts. But all disagreement should be rational and respectful. This anti-speech movement is neither.

I was not planning on showing the speech. We are having a test that day that would be difficult to reschedule. But in support of our Republic’s democratic institutions I will be showing the recorded speech in my classroom after school on Thursday, September 10th. If you believe in freedom of speech, respectful disagreement and civil dialogue I invite you to attend.

Yes, due to district policy, you will need a signed permission slip.

Mr. White

The school year has started out very smoothly. My new students have been very respectful and polite. They do have a lot of personality and questions which makes the learning process an interactive one and therefore a more productive one. I couldn’t be happier with the way the year has started.

I haven’t yet discussed this blog with the new classes. But they seem very participatory…so I’m sure we’ll see a whole lot of guest blogs and comments.

For those intrepid few students who find their way to this blog before school actually begins…

The only supplies you need for all my classes (World History, WHAP, and Euro) are…

A three-ring binder exclusively for my class (any size works).

Five dividers.

Notebook paper.

Colored Map Pencils.

Yes, you will be allowed to take notes in a spiral…that you can put into your binder.

Remember…lots of info can be found all over my website at http://www.kaufmanisd.net/~dwhite

See you Monday!

Return to Normal

Back to work this week. Great summer, now it’s back to the saltmines.

Getting the room cleaned up and organized. Raring to go. I know you guys feel the same.

Looking forward to seeing all those summer assignments for WHAP this Monday.

See you guys Monday.

FYI: The poster (right) comes from the 1968 Paris Student Demonstrations. You will find that I will encourage you to be anything but just another sheep following the herd blindly.

The reading is done. The essays are scored. Our brains our fried.

I hit the 875 mark today. 25 more essays than last year.

Will be heading to dinner then to the closing night party. That’s a wild scene…hundreds of historians. Knock your socks right off.

Fly back home tomorrow. Not writing any more. Reading words are making me ill.

Will write a wrap up in the next few days.