Monday, April 20. 2015

Today's schedule is A-Ag-B-C-D... only one week left in the term and 9 weeks left in the school year.

B Block Social Studies 11 -Today we'll start looking at Mussolini, Hitler, Tojo and Stalin, which prepares us for your Dictatorship for Dummies project that we start in the library tomorrow. This is your first major project for term four and can be a very effective way of starting off the term well! I really don't want you to get caught up in the minutia of details. The important thing here is to see the big picture and understand how the dictators in the 30's came to power and then held on to power. Naomi Wolf wrote an article in the Guardian newspaper back in 2007 that outlined some steps:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

Wolf argued that these steps existed in the United States and that is certainly a debatable proposition however the steps she identified are a scripted pattern. Start with economic and social turmoil, throw in some perceived lawlessness and humiliation, then add a national threat and the conditions are ripe for a charasmatic personality to promise a golden path to either a renewed past of halcyon days or a bright future. So look for the common threads between the three dictators. Look at their methods of gaining power. Who did they seek for help? How did they convince people of their ideas? Once they got power how did they keep it? Remember the word totalitarian? Big Ideas folks.
C Block Geography 12 - Today we're in the library to start our next project on Mass Wasting. The assignment is to the left and is also in the K Drive here at school in the Mr A. Young folder (K/Mr. A. Young/Geography12)

You can also find the assignment in your week 8 package. Today and tomorrow are the only days that I can give you for research as the library is booked solid so you'll need to do some research on your own. Here are some websites to help...

Forest Service National Avalanche Center
United States Geological Survey Landslides Hazard
Federal Emergency Management Association Landslide & Debris Flow
National Park Service Mass Wasting
Geological Survey of Canada Living With Slopes
Parks Canada Mountain Guide
University of Kentucky Earth Science Department Mass Wasting animation
Avalanche Canada
National Atlas of the United States Landslides
OUC Foundations of Physical Geography Mass Wasting

D Block Criminology 12 -  Today you'll be in the library to do two things: 1. finish any missing blog entries that you have yet to complete for assessment; and 2. finish working on your shoplifting poster assignment or any missing property theft questions (good burglar). A Reminder that the blog topics are:
Blog #7 Auto Theft
Blog # 6 Sexual Assault & Hypermasculinity
Blog # 5 Serial and Mass Murder (Olson and Lepine)
Blog # 4 Short & Long term Impacts of Crime Victims
Blog # 3 Is School a Dangerous place for young people
Blog # 2 Drug Crime Trends and Rates for BC
Blog # 1 Personal Theory of Crime