Wednesday, December 5. 2012

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

B Block Geography 12 - Today we look at mesoscale convective complexes and tornadoes. I'll show you some footage of a tornado captured on video by a Kansas television crew. This footage was actually detrimental to tornado safety as most people who saw it assumed that a highway overpass provides shelter and safety.

This proved deadly with the May 3, 1999 Moore Oklahoma F5 tornado. We'll also watch footage of the Moore tornado and see the damage it wrought. We'll watch a bit of the wind episode from the BBC Series "The Weather" and hear from a man that survived a direct strike from an EF5 tornado.Then we'll watch the Raging planet video on Tornadoes and while it is on you can work on questions 15 and 16 from page 248 of your Geosystems textbook.

A Block Law 12 - Yesterday's quiz took up most of the block so today we'll go over the ten sob stories who walk through the doors of your imaginary law firm for your major project. After this, I'll go through civil trial procedures with you and give you some notes on summons or statements of claim and the options available when a lawsuit is claimed against you (statement of defence, counterclaims, third party claims, or default judgements). Next I'll explain the benefits of an out of court settlement and identify why negotiating an agreement is better than going to court

D Block Social Studies 11 - Today we'll finish up our introduction to the Cold War. Remember the discussion of Superpowers using the Freedom and Commie Unicorns? "Pew Pew Pew..." Today we'll look at NATO, NORAD, the Warsaw Pact and the Distant Early Warning Line.

After we'll look at the creation of the United Nations - focusing on the structure of the organization. You'll look at the General Assembly and Security Council along with other UN organizations like UNESCO, ICJ, UNICEF, UNHCR, and others. You'll watch a Brainpop video on the UN and will discuss the purpose and intent of the organization both in the Cold War world and the modern world as well. If there's time, we'll also watch the American Civil Defense video "Duck and Cover" along with a bit of the Atomic Cafe movie in class. The Atomic Cafe contains civil defense movies from the 1940's through the 1960's and will help you understand the culture of fear that developed throughout the Cold War. If we don't get to it today then we'll look at it tomorrow. You'll need to work on questions 1, 2 and 3 from page 139 in your Counterpoints textbook

C Block Crime, Media & Society 12 - Yesterday we looked at Social Structure Theories and tried to see if the explanation of crime by the Crips fit within any of those theories (social disorganization, strain, and or cultural deviance). Remember the narrator in the documentary indicated that the Crips came out of an area that had poor schools, housing and an unemployment rate three times the national rate. Also Raymond 'Dhanifu' Cook said that they were "like bandits coming from the poor sections (of LA) to the more affluent sections (of LA) to requestion their material to bring it back to the neighbourhood" and 'Crippin' meant "are you ready to rob, plunder, pillage"?  This kind of fits within the Social Structure theories.

There are three major arguments among Social Process Theories that focus on how people learn to commit crime (Social Learning), how society fails to control deviancy and criminality (Social Control), and the impact of criminal labels on individuals subsequent behavior (Social Reaction).
So to help understand this we'll look at an episode of Criminal Minds from Season 3 called "Birthright". In the episode the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the FBI travels to Fredericksburg, Virginia, where women are being abducted, burned and mutilated. Soon it turns out that similar killings happened in the 1980s. We'll see whether or not Social Learning, Social Control or Social Reaction theories can help explain the murders...but consider this from the episode. When the BAU are discussing the current and previous cases they indicate that:

they know they are dealing with some type of copycat – a killer using the same MO and same dumpsite as Robert Wilkinson. Since none of these details were made public, they are looking for someone with ties to Robert Wilkinson. They know that Robert and Mary Wilkinson had a son, and that genetics is one factor, along with psychology and socialization, in the making of a killer. A son who grew up without a father and with a genetic predisposition may be a killer...

After I'll have you work on yesterday's question along with today's question: Have you ever been given a negative label, and, if so, did it cause you social harm? How did you lose the label, or did it become a permanent marker that still troubles you today?