Thursday, June 26, 2025

Congratulations and Thank You

Congratulations Geography and Criminology families, you made it! 

Special shout out to this year's Grads...WTG🥳



Also, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you. My time at Vanier, this year, was special because I got to spend it with you. Now, go out and be amazing!

Best, Young


Posted by Geo Teacher at 1:59 PM 0 comments

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Last Day - Friday, June 20. 2025

Today's schedule is ABCD

A Block Physical Geography - Today, we finish HOME. Think about the title. What is our collective home? Now think about the statement from the beginning of the film today...
Listen to me, please. You're like me, a homo sapiens. A wise human. Life; a miracle in the universe appeared around 4 billion years ago and we humans only 200,000 years ago, yet we have succeeded in disrupting the balance so essential to life. Listen carefully to this extraordinary story, which is yours, and decide what you want to do with it. 

I cannot stress this enough...this movie is amazing! It perfectly encapsulates both Human and Physical Geography...it is both a cautionary tale of human impacts and a love letter to the planet. At the end, the narrator (Glenn Close) says,
"Must we always build walls to break the chain of human solidarity, separate peoples and protect the happiness of some from the misery of others? It's too late to be a pessimist. I know that a single human can knock down every wall. It's too late to be a pessimist. Worldwide, four children out of five attend school. Never has learning been given to so many human beings. Everyone, from richest to poorest, can make a contribution" 
Good Planet Foundation President Yann-Arthus Bertrand (the film maker for Home) says "I think it’s too late to be pessimistic. There’s no way to think optimistically or not – we need actions. Everybody has a mission and everybody can do something. The way you live is very important, in your private life.

Geography family if you are interested, UBC Geography is one of the top geography departments in the world...the 2025 QS World University Rankings by Subject rank UBC Geography as the number 12 school in the entire world (It's number 3 in North America behind UCal Berkeley and UCLA and it's the number one school in Canada). These rankings are based upon academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact. The UBC undergraduate program is divided into three fields: B.A. in Human Geography, B.A. in Environment and Sustainability, and B.Sc. in Geographical Sciences. UVIC, SFU, VIU, UNBC, UFV and TRUoffer both a B.A. and a B.Sc. in Geography while KPU offers a B.A. and BCIT offers a GIS training program. 

Almost any Introduction to Physical Geography class is basically the Physical Geography class at Vanier (like GEOG 108 - Introduction to Physical Geography @ UBC, GEOG103 @ UVIC, or GEOG1221 @ TRU - sometimes called Earth Systems like GEOG111 @ SFU)…seriously, just look at this weather forecasting lab exercise from the Laboratory Manual for Introduction to Physical Geography (the manual provides 24 labs to be implemented within first year post-secondary physical geography courses)…look familiar at all?!?!

Don't forget that: 


Enjoy and remember that Geography Rules.

B Block Criminology - We are in the Library / Learning Commons. Your question this week is:


Why do you think True Crime is such a popular content area/genre in mass media and what are the potential effects of consuming it? Are the voyeurisms of consuming the True Crime genre of media an example of curiosity or exploitation? Regardless of your opinion of Casey Anthony is it possible for her to escape the negative label of "Tot Mom" and will she ever be able to avoid the horrible mother image presented by CNN and Nancy Grace? Use examples from the Casey Anthony trial to explain your ideas. How does the concept of Schadenfreude and Cancel Culture apply to the Casey Anthony trial? Did the media shame, call out, or try to cancel Casey Anthony? How would low self-esteem make someone more likely to seek out schadenfreude-filled crime media? Is Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat) good or bad for criminal trials and the news/media coverage of them? Use examples from the Casey Anthony trial and from either Monica Lewinsky's story or those in the 15 Minutes of Shame video (Matt Colvin, Emmanuel Cafferty, or Laura Krolczyk) to explain your ideas


You should consider the following when answering your question: 
  1. Think about who reports information and how that information is used.
  2. Think about your privacy and how you manage your on-line presence.
  3. Think about how social media can be introduced as evidence at trials.
  4. Think about how social media can be used for reporting during trials.
  5. Do viewer/user comments about media coverage of a trial provide valuable feedback for discussion or not? Why?
  6.  Is public shaming protected by the right to free speech or is this a case where our old norms and principles have simply been exposed as unfit for a new era?

I've got links to the following articles on the site that I'd like you to scan through to help with your answers PLEASE USE THEM (not yelling....well maybe):
Social Media and News Fact Sheet
Social media guided defense in Casey Anthony case
Social media v. Casey Anthony
Social Media’s Influence on the Casey Anthony Trial
Social media revolutionized coverage of Casey Anthony trial
The Casey Anthony Case and Public Perception of the Criminal Justice System
How the Casey Anthony Murder Case Became the Social-Media Trial of the Century
Watching a Trial on TV, Discussing It on Twitter
How "Trial by Media" Can Undermine the Courtroom
Social Media Has Changed Crime and the Justice System
Social Media and the Fair Trial
Social Media in the Courtroom
Tweeting from trials: How social media gives crime followers a front-row seat

And...please remember the most important things I care about are that you:
  1. Don't be a doormat
  2. Don't be a doormat...and 
  3. Don't be a doormat

If you are interested UFV, VIU and SFU offer Criminology degrees here in British Columbia. You can also find Criminology diploma programs at Douglas College, North Island College (here in the Comox Valley), Camosun College and Kwantlen Polytechnic University. You can also find programs on policing and criminal justice at the Justice Institute of BC and the Bachelor of Arts in Justice Studies at Royal Roads University.


Today's Fit...
Same shirt & tie combo as my first day as a Teacher... October 5th, 1992






 

Posted by Geo Teacher at 6:56 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Thursday, June 19. 2025

Today is the second to last day of the semester and the schedule is DCBA

B Block Criminology -  Oh...Casey Anthony and the Media frenzy that was and still is...I want you to try to make sense of the crime (Casey and Caylee Anthony), the media's coverage of the crime (particularly Nancy Grace), feminist perspectives on criminology, the bad mother motif, and Schadenfreude.  No TL;DR here okay?!

HLN's Nancy Grace covered the Casey Anthony trial heavily in 2011. To her credit Nancy Grace was a criminal prosecutor in Georgia. Here is a CNN bio on her..


HLN's Nancy Grace covered the Casey Anthony trial heavily in 2011. Grace had her own trial of Casey Anthony in the media. Here is a sampling of her coverage


After the verdict here's what she had to say - which further shaped the public's opinion of Casey Anthony even after she was found not guilty by a jury of her peers


Now, here's what the media had to say about the media covering the Casey Anthony trial


And here's what CBC had to discuss about Nancy Grace on the show Q


Does the trial have a longer lasting impact on the USA or was it just 15 minutes of fame and a distraction from mundane daily life? Because of her actions, Nancy Grace has been spoofed on SNL and MadTV to name just two... 



HBO had a television series called The Newsroom and they had an amazing bit on Nancy Grace's coverage of Tot Mom...


CNN did a retrospective piece on the trial here


Grace is currently the host of the podcast Crime Stories with Nancy Grace and the Fox Nation series of the same name and is also the founder of the website CrimeOnline. Grace told The Daily Beast in an article titled Nancy Grace Doesn’t Regret a Goddamn Thing  
“I report and cover and investigate very disturbing criminal cases. I consider those facts to be evidence. If other people consider true crime to be sensational, I would say that they’re wrong,”

You should take some time to understand the German psychology/sociology term Schadenfreude. This term deals with a big concept - that as humans, we have a private rush of glee when someone else struggles (we take delight in another person's pain and misfortune). Schadenfreude registers in the brain as a pleasurable experience, a satisfaction comparable to that of eating a good meal. Schadenfreude is a common and normal part of life but can become dangerous if we lose empathy, fall into demonizing others, or lapse into “us vs. them” thinking.

There is a human fascination with murder as entertainment and news media companies have turned the story of the death of a toddler into a prime time circus...a story that we can safely watch and perhaps feel a little guilty pleasure in the fact that we're better than Casey Anthony. Her pain and suffering on television brings us delight and makes us feel good in that we are not the monster that the media has portrayed her out to be...sigh.

Matt Wild wrote a piece called The guilty (and not-so-guilty) pleasures of Dateline NBC and in it he stated
...for an alarming number of Americans—myself included—Dateline has become appointment viewing. Mad Men, Downton Abbey, and their ilk are fine, but there’s a distinct, guilty pleasure in staying home on a Friday night, dimming the lights, sounding off on Twitter with other like minded fans, and watching the sordid true-life tales of murderous spouses (usually husbands), sorrowful family members (usually parents), and sinister motives (almost always infidelity) unspool over the course of an hour, all narrated by the stern and sonorous Morrison, or the rumpled and incredulous Mankiewicz. Murder, shattered families, and desperate cries for justice: perfect for a cozy night of popcorn, wine, and incessant tweeting.
So you have a question to answer for me: 
Why do you think True Crime is such a popular content area/genre in mass media and what are the potential effects of consuming it? Are the voyeurisms of consuming the True Crime genre of media an example of curiosity or exploitation? Regardless of your opinion of Casey Anthony is it possible for her to escape the negative label of "Tot Mom" and will she ever be able to avoid the horrible mother image presented by CNN and Nancy Grace? Use examples from the Casey Anthony trial to explain your ideas. How does the concept of Schadenfreude and Cancel Culture apply to the Casey Anthony trial? Did the media shame, call out, or try to cancel Casey Anthony? How would low self-esteem make someone more likely to seek out schadenfreude-filled crime media? Is Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat) good or bad for criminal trials and the news/media coverage of them? Use examples from the Casey Anthony trial and from either Monica Lewinsky's story or those in the 15 Minutes of Shame video (Matt Colvin, Emmanuel Cafferty, or Laura Krolczyk) to explain your ideas

You should consider the following when answering your question: 
  1. Think about who reports information and how that information is used.
  2. Think about your privacy and how you manage your on-line presence.
  3. Think about how social media can be introduced as evidence at trials.
  4. Think about how social media can be used for reporting during trials.
  5. Do viewer/user comments about media coverage of a trial provide valuable feedback for discussion or not? Why?
  6.  Is public shaming protected by the right to free speech or is this a case where our old norms and principles have simply been exposed as unfit for a new era?

A Block Physical Geography - To help with your questions about Consumption and Climate, today and tomorrow we'll watch Home, an incredible documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand who also helped to initiate a foundation called Good Planet. Please take some time to share this movie with as many family and friends as you can. You can watch it on line at the YouTube home project's channel or connect with it on the film's Facebook page or watch it below...

Think about the title. What is our collective home? Now think about the statement from the beginning of the film today...
Listen to me, please. You're like me, a homo sapiens. A wise human. Life; a miracle in the universe appeared around 4 billion years ago and we humans only 200,000 years ago, yet we have succeeded in disrupting the balance so essential to life. Listen carefully to this extraordinary story, which is yours, and decide what you want to do with it. 

I cannot stress this enough...this movie is amazing! It perfectly encapsulates both Human and Physical Geography...it is both a cautionary tale of human impacts and a love letter to the planet. At the end, the narrator (Glenn Close) says,
"Must we always build walls to break the chain of human solidarity, separate peoples and protect the happiness of some from the misery of others? It's too late to be a pessimist. I know that a single human can knock down every wall. It's too late to be a pessimist. Worldwide, four children out of five attend school. Never has learning been given to so many human beings. Everyone, from richest to poorest, can make a contribution" 
Good Planet Foundation President Yann-Arthus Bertrand (the film maker for Home) says "I think it’s too late to be pessimistic. There’s no way to think optimistically or not – we need actions. Everybody has a mission and everybody can do something. The way you live is very important, in your private life. To that end, look at all the good that is going on right now:



Today's Fit...


 

Posted by Geo Teacher at 4:54 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Wednesday, June 18. 2025

Today's schedule is BADC

B Block Criminology -  Cindy, Casey, and Caylee Anthony...I want you to try to make sense of the crime (Casey and Caylee Anthony), the media's coverage of the crime (particularly Nancy Grace), feminist perspectives on criminology, the bad mother motif, Schadenfreude, and the way fictional crime media represented the story (Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit). 

Remember this crime is relevant in that it represents a massive shift in what crimes are reported, spectacle culture and what is considered "newsworthy", how crime reporting changed with different media platforms, the polarization of society connected to injustice and outrage. Nancy Grace helped to shape a decade’s worth of suspected murderers and rapists in the public imagination, stressing their cruelty and alien coldness, tapping into a cultural enthusiasm for righteous witch hunts and armchair convictions (Lots more on this tomorrow and then next week with the documentary "15 Minutes of Shame")

Today we'll conclude with part 3 of the retrospective 2017 Investigation Discovery documentary Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery


And after watching some media coverage of the media coverage tomorrow (*cough cough Nancy Grace)...you'll have a massive wrap up question to answer for me:

Why do you think True Crime is such a popular content area/genre in mass media and what are the potential effects of consuming it? Are the voyeurisms of consuming the True Crime genre of media an example of curiosity or exploitation? Regardless of your opinion of Casey Anthony is it possible for her to escape the negative label of "Tot Mom" and will she ever be able to avoid the horrible mother image presented by CNN and Nancy Grace? Use examples from the Casey Anthony trial to explain your ideas. How does the concept of Schadenfreude and Cancel Culture apply to the Casey Anthony trial? Did the media shame, call out, or try to cancel Casey Anthony? How would low self-esteem make someone more likely to seek out schadenfreude-filled crime media? Is Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat) good or bad for criminal trials and the news/media coverage of them? Use examples from the Casey Anthony trial and from either Monica Lewinsky's story or those in the 15 Minutes of Shame video (Matt Colvin, Emmanuel Cafferty, or Laura Krolczyk) to explain your ideas

You should consider the following when answering your question: 
  1. Think about who reports information and how that information is used.
  2. Think about your privacy and how you manage your on-line presence.
  3. Think about how social media can be introduced as evidence at trials.
  4. Think about how social media can be used for reporting during trials.
  5. Do viewer/user comments about media coverage of a trial provide valuable feedback for discussion or not? Why?
  6.  Is public shaming protected by the right to free speech or is this a case where our old norms and principles have simply been exposed as unfit for a new era?
Remember, you'll get links to help on both Thursday and Friday and


And from Vice

While it may seem that cancel culture and call out culture align with the same purpose, both concepts differ in resolution. Call out culture has more of a direct focus on education and progress, provided the person being ‘called out’ has the desire to grow and learn from their wrongdoings or mistakes. Anyone can be called out, and by doing so, anyone can learn to educate themselves and/or change their perspective for the better. Cancel culture aims to rid the person on the receiving end of any kind of redemption. So while the two are similar, keep in mind that they both come to different conclusions. And if you’re going to cancel or call someone out, remember what you want from it.

And from Vox

All along, debate about cancel culture has obscured its roots in a quest to attain some form of meaningful accountability for public figures who are typically answerable to no one. But after centuries of ideological debate turning over questions of free speech, censorship, and, in recent decades, “political correctness,” it was perhaps inevitable that the mainstreaming of cancel culture would obscure the original concerns that canceling was meant to address. Now it’s yet another hyperbolic phase of the larger culture war. The core concern of cancel culture — accountability — remains as crucial a topic as ever. But increasingly, the cancel culture debate has become about how we communicate within a binary, right versus wrong framework. And a central question is not whether we can hold one another accountable, but how we can ever forgive.


A Block Physical Geography - Today you have your quiz on Weather, Climate, and Climate Change. It's just 25 multiple selection questions with a weather forecast and you may use your note packages to help.  
After, we look at the ethics associated with resource use focusing on the four ethical views on resource use (economic/exploitation; preservationist; balanced-multiple use; and ecological or sustainable), specifically focusing on water.
  

We'll talk about over-consumption and unsustainable resource use practices through the “Tragedy of the Commons”, popularized by Garret Hardin, in terms of resource use and management, using the example of water consumption connected to the Aral Sea. From National Geographic:

Actually a freshwater lake, the Aral Sea once had a surface area of 26,000 square miles (67,300 square kilometers). It had long been ringed with prosperous towns and supported a lucrative muskrat pelt industry and thriving fishery, providing 40,000 jobs and supplying the Soviet Union with a sixth of its fish catch...The Aral Sea was fed by two of Central Asia's mightiest rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya. But in the 1960s, Soviet engineers decided to make the vast steppes bloom. They built an enormous irrigation network, including 20,000 miles of canals, 45 dams, and more than 80 reservoirs, all to irrigate sprawling fields of cotton and wheat in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In the decades that followed, the Aral Sea was reduced to a handful of small lakes, with a combined volume that was one-tenth the original lake's size and that had much higher salinity, due to all the evaporation. As a result of the drying over the past decades, millions of fish died, coastlines receded miles from towns, and those few people who remained were plagued by dust storms that contained the toxic residue of industrial agriculture and weapons testing in the area.



Today's Fit...


 

Posted by Geo Teacher at 7:07 PM 0 comments

Monday, June 16, 2025

Tuesday, June 17. 2025

Today's schedule is CDAB

Last week of Classes in June...don't be Patrick Star

A Block Physical Geography - Don't forget...final quiz tomorrow (Weather, Climate, and Climate Change). We'll take a look at two sections of the National Geographic video "Six Degrees Could Change the World" (1 to 3 degree temperature changes).


You have one question to answer:
  1. So, what can you do? What grassroots activism can you engage in to shift peoples’ attitudes towards climate solutions? (Pages 204-5 Geosystems Core)
To that end...I love what Dr. Sam 'Ohu Gon III has to say about Hawai'i as a microcosm for the world and the melding of Traditional Ecological Knowledge with Western science.


"I think it’s too late to be pessimistic. There’s no way to think optimistically or not – we need actions. Everybody has a mission and everybody can do something. The way you live is very important, in your private life. To that end, look at all the good that is going on right now:


When hope is redefined as action, it can be uncoupled from the need for a guarantee of success.

B Block Criminology - Cindy, Casey, and Caylee Anthony...I want you to try to make sense of the crime (Casey and Caylee Anthony), the media's coverage of the crime (particularly Nancy Grace), feminist perspectives on criminology, the bad mother motif, Schadenfreude, and the way fictional crime media represented the story (Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit). 

Remember this crime is relevant in that it represents a massive shift in what crimes are reported, spectacle culture and what is considered "newsworthy", how crime reporting changed with different media platforms, the polarization of society connected to injustice and outrage. Nancy Grace helped to shape a decade’s worth of suspected murderers and rapists in the public imagination, stressing their cruelty and alien coldness, tapping into a cultural enthusiasm for righteous witch hunts and armchair convictions (Lots more on this Monday and then next week with the documentary "15 Minutes of Shame")

This series provides an interesting eye on the topic of the media, true crime, and infamy (episode 2 is titled "Media Frenzy" look at the PEW Research Center article Casey Anthony Verdict Top Story for Public and Social Networkers). Please remember from Media Smarts:

1. Media are constructions 
2. Audiences negotiate meaning
3. Media have commercial implications 
4. Media have social and political implications 
5. Each medium has a unique aesthetic form 

We need to think critically about how and why media are made; examining the impact that media have on us and on society; and reflecting on how we use digital and media tools. So what is true crime, in terms of media, why is it produced? How does it get packaged and then what might coverage of true crime media tell us about North American society?

Today we'll watch part 2 and start part 3 of the retrospective 2017 Investigation Discovery documentary Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery


Today's Fit...


 

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