Wednesday, January 15. 2014

Today's schedule is B-AG-A-D-C

B Block Social Studies 10 - Today we are in the library for the first day of research on your family history assignment. Remember, your task is to research your family history, which includes learning how to conduct academic research, making critical evaluations regarding sources, and managing information. Please remember that I want you to focus on the context of history- did your ancestor fight in the war of 1812? What was life like for farmers during early settlement of the west? Why do you have American relatives? Use the primary documents and stories you find to uncover what daily life might have been like for your relatives. You have the assignment sheet and I posted this already but just in case...what should you research?

1. Start with you. Collect documents, facts, vital statistics, and stories about you. This can be done by checking your birth certificate, tracking down old report cards, or interviewing family members.
2. Then move one generation up to include your parents, step-parents, adoptive parents, etc. Collect information and stories from them. Gather the basics of birth, full name, places born / lived, dates of graduation, marriage, divorce, remarriage, etc. Set time aside to interview them or tell stories over dinner.
3. Has anyone in your family already started researching your family tree? Might you borrow some of their documents and research? Sure…but you also need to help by finding new and different things for them.
4. Some work can be done through interviews, but you also need to use proper historical research techniques and track down primary documents.
5. Most people in Canada can find a few generations worth of information quite easily. Keep going backwards, following whatever leads you have to collect as much info as you possibly can. Consider yourself as History’s detective…solve the puzzle.
6. Focus on the context of history- did your ancestor fight in the war of 1812? What was life like for farmers during early settlement of the west? Why do you have American relatives? Use the primary documents and stories you find to uncover what daily life might have been like.

Links to help with research...
Government of Canada Geneaology Site
American National Archives
Pier 21 Immigration Museum Research Canada
Ellis Island - U.S. Immigration
Climbing Your Family Tree
Family Search
BC Department of Vital Statistics
Ancestry

A Block Criminology 12 - Today we'll delve deeper into white collar crime. We will begin by learning how to identify a pyramid / ponzi scam (for more take a look at How Stuff Works). After, we'll quickly look at individual exploitation of an institutional position, influence peddling & bribery, theft and employee fraud, client fraud and corporate crime. I'll introduce to Edwin H. Sutherland's Differential Association Theory (he introduced the concept "white collar crime") and we'll see what we can find on the Internet about white collar crime....spoil alert LOTS!
National Check Fraud Center
Robert O. Keel White Collar Crime
Canadian Encyclopedia White Collar Crime
Federal Bureau of Investigation White Collar Crime Division
Understanding White Collar Crime
News Stories of White Collar Crime

Lastly we'll start to watch the History Channel DVD "Scammed"...



D Block Law 12 - Today we are back in the library to work on our major civil law project. I want to remind you that after today there are only 11 classes left until the final exam and 13 classes left before the project is due. No pressure but get it done!

C Block Crime, Media and Society 12 - Today we'll look at gender connected to moral panics and crime waves. In Gender, Youth, Crime and Justice Loraine Gelsthorpe and Gilly Sharpe claim that "recurring moral panics regarding girls’ behaviour, seem to have shifted their focus in recent years – from girls’ sexuality and ‘status’ offending, to their apparently increasing violence and alcohol use – and dwell on the resultant punitive turn towards girls and young women". This turn towards vilifying young female crime can also be seen in crime media. Today we'll look at the Madonna-Whore complex in crime media which is most clearly covered through the topic of rape (think Law & Order: SVU). This complex refers to a dualism in Western patriarchal discourse, which seeks to explain the behavior of women and the desires of men. On one hand, women are rewarded for being the sexual play objects of men (i.e., whores), and on the other hand, women are given clear messages that true grace only derives from marital chastity (i.e., Madonna). We'll see how women are portrayed as victims and as perpetrators in crime media and see if the Madonna-Whore complex applies. To do this we'll watch the DVD "Mothers Who Kill" which deals with Susan Smith, Andrea Yates and Marylin Lemack. Tomorrow we'll watch "Deadly Women" which deals with Diane Downs.