Friday, November 16. 2012

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

A Block Law 12 - Today with Ms. Curry...will be your very last day EVER to work on your projects! I realize that there have been some technical difficulties... if you're able to present your project today, then we'll go ahead. Others may present on Monday. I can't wait to see the final products!

B Block Geography 12 - Today we'll continue our look at weather, the best topic ever! Like every day in our unit, we'll start by looking at the synoptic chart for North America and begin to understand weather station plots. The two sites we'll use are the Weather Office (Environment Canada) and Data Streme. For the rest of the class we'll look at the composition and vertical structure of the atmosphere focusing on the bottom two layers (Troposphere and Stratosphere) through this we'll complete the Atmosphere in the Vertical activity along with a few questions on the atmosphere. I'm so excited to be starting weather! Hail, lightning, tornadoes, and hurricanes are four on "the list" get ready, it's going to be a bumpy ride



C Block Crime, Media & Society 12 - Last week we started with Scooby Doo and today we'll watch an episode of Batman: The Animated Series Two Face (part 1). This episode provides an alternate origin story to Harvey Dent / Two Face than the movie The Dark Knight. The animated series was a sort of watershed for crime serial animation in that it was styled after a "film noir" format (a gritty and dark holywood genre of crime dramas from the 1940's and 1950's). This episoide is 20 years old (yep from 1992) and is a brilliant example of a cartoon series taking its audience seriously. It provided gripping, intelligent, and compelling episodes that did not shy away from important issues and was adept at examining crime from a criminological perspective.

from TV.com...Harvey Dent, campaigning for a re-election, vows to rid Gotham of Rupert Thorne's crime and corruption. The tables turn when Thorne gets a hold of Dent's psychological records and discovers his alternate personality the violent Big Bad Harv. Thorne attempts to blackmail the DA with this, and the following fight in Thorne's chemical plant hideout results in an explosion that scars the left side of Dent's body, despite Batman's attempts to save him.

So when we finish the episode we'll try to make sense of what messages the episode tries to pass on to its audience and also what the episode says of crime.

D Block Social Studies 11 - Today with Ms. Curry...we'll be in the computer lab, and you'll be getting some ideas for your WWII propaganda posters. I'll give you this hand out. I'll give you time to work on the poster on Monday, but you should complete the questions by the end of this class (if you don't, they'll be for homework).

Thursday, November 15. 2012

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

D Block Social Studies 11 - Today with Ms. Curry...you have a quizzy test on the 1920s and 1930s. When you are finished writing it, you can get started on your propaganda assignment.

C Block Crime, Media & Society 12 - Today we'll continue the reporting from our groups on the commercial advertisement - critical analysis that we began yesterday. Together, as a class, we'll look at the Axe body spray commercial that I posted yesterday and try to consider the message that this commercial sends to people. After this we'll examine our media consumption.

I want you to track your consumption of media for one day. Today we'll estimate how much time of the day you think you consume and interact with media. We'll look at this Kaiser Family Foundation study from 2010 and it will give us a good idea about amounts. The Infographic to the left from MBAOnline posted at Socialmouth is a good visual of generational differences for media consumption throughout the day. So for you...at the end of each hour that you are awake for one day I'd like you to write down what media format you interacted with for that previous hour and guestimate how much time you interacted with it. I know that you are a generation of multitaskers (and that you are interacting with this blog right now) so try to be as honest as you can about what you consume/interact with.

Remember the types of Mass Media include: Print media encompasses mass communication through printed material. It includes newspapers, magazines, booklets and brochures, house magazines, periodicals or newsletters, direct mailers, handbills or flyers, billboards, press releases, and books. Electronic media is the kind of media which requires the user to utilize an electric connection to access it. It is also known as 'Broadcast Media'. It includes television, radio, and new-age media like Internet, computers, telephones, etc. With the advent of Internet, we are now enjoying the benefits of high technology mass media, which is not only faster than the old school mass media, but also has a widespread range. Mobile phones, computers, and Internet are often referred to as the new-age media. Internet has opened up several new opportunities for mass communication which include e-mail, websites, podcasts, e-forums, e-books, blogging, Internet TV, and many others which are booming today. Internet has also started social networking sites which have redefined mass communication all together. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have made communication to the masses all the more entertaining, interesting, and easier

B Block Geography 12 - Today....Oh today we start weather, the best topic ever! Before we get to my favourite topic you need to finish up your topographic maps of Medicine Hat and after, you'll need to brainstorm a list of things you know (or think you know) about weather and questions you've always wanted answered about the topic. I'm so excited to be starting weather! Hail, lightning, tornadoes, and hurricanes are four on "the list" get ready, it's going to be a bumpy ride.
Every day we are going to start by looking at the synoptic forecast along with weather maps.
Data Streme
Envrionment Canada: Weather Office Comox



A Block Law 12 - Today with Ms. Curry...you'll have your quiz on Chapter 5 today, and then you'll get the rest of class to work on your criminal offence projects... remember, they're due tomorrow!

Wednesday, November 14. 2012

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

B Block Geography 12 - Today we are continuing our work on the Medicine Hat Topographic map. You need your Canadian Landscape topographic map book and the Medicine Hat map can be found on pages 40-42. You will need to work on questions 1 a, b and d, 2 a & b, 3 a-e, and 7 a-d. This work is due on Friday but you should get it finished by the end of class today. If you don't get this work finished and wish to work on this activity out of the class I would highly suggest you ask me questions ahead of time. You can find topographic maps of Medicine Hat on Google Maps (Type in Medicine Hat Alberta on a Google search and click on maps at the top and then choose "Terrain" as an option). For other maps and information on Medicine Hat that will help you with some of the topographic map assignment questions check out Tourism Medicine Hat

A Block Law 12 - Today with Ms. Curry...you'll have some time to work on your projects, but there will be a short lesson first. You'll briefly discuss the different kinds of crimes and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. You'll do questions #3 and #4 on page 247 and #2 and #5 on page 250. After you're done, you can work on your projects.

D Block Social Studies 11 - Today with Ms. Curry...you'll have time to finish off the questions and definitions that I assigned in last class (define: appeasement, War Guilt Clause, isolationism, St. Louis Liner, Kristallnacht and do questions #2-5 on page 98). After that, you'll watch an episode from Love, Hate and Propaganda: Strongmen (it goes over the rise of dictators and shows you how they used propaganda to gain vast support). It will also show you what was going on before WWII.

C Block Crime, Media and Society 12 - Today we continue with our unit on media literacy. Yesterday we talked about the history of media and communication formats (I'll give you a handout on the topic and we'll go over it today). We also understood that not only are media constructions (made by humans) but that the receiving audience interprets the meaning of the message themselves. Today we'll find out that:

1. Media have commercial implications - Most media production is a business and must, therefore, make a profit. In addition, media industries belong to a powerful network of corporations that exert influence on content and distribution. Questions of ownership and control are central – a relatively small number of individuals control what we watch, read and hear in the media. Even in cases where media content is not made for profit – such as YouTube videos and Facebook posts -- the ways in which content is distributed are nearly always run with profit in mind.

2. Media have social and political implications - Media convey ideological messages about values, power and authority. In media literacy, what or who is absent may be more important than what or who is included. These messages may be the result of conscious decisions, but more often they are the result of unconscious biases and unquestioned assumptions – and they can have a significant influence on what we think and believe.
As a result, media have great influence on politics and on forming social change. TV news coverage and advertising can greatly influence the election of a national leader on the basis of image; representations of world issues, both in journalism and fiction, can affect how much attention they receive; and society's views towards different groups can be directly influenced by how – and how often – they appear in media 

3. Each medium has a unique aesthetic form - The content of media depends in part on the nature of the medium. This includes the technical, commercial and storytelling demands of each medium: for instance, the interactive nature of video games leads to different forms of storytelling – and different demands on media creators – that are found in film and TV.

So, I'll ask you to work in partners on a handout that I'll give you today. On it will be a commercial advertisement for a product and I'll ask you to practice the skills of critical analysis of the message and the medium. Together as a class we'll look at the following commercial and try to consider the message that this commercial sends to people...

Now consider what the commercial indicates about sex in modern society. Who is the commercial targeted at and what are the sexual roles in the commercial.

Tuesday, November 13. 2012

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

C Block Crime Media & Society 12 - Today we begin our unit on media literacy. Over the next two weeks we'll look at Mass Media Theories and Media Literacy. Today we'll look at the elements of Media Literacy...two key elements of media literacy are that:

1. Media are constructions - Media products are created by individuals who make conscious and unconscious choices about what to include, what to leave out and how to present what is included. These decisions are based on the creators’ own point of view, which will have been shaped by their opinions, assumptions and biases – as well as media they have been exposed to. As a result of this, media products are never entirely accurate reflections of the real world – even the most objective documentary filmmaker has to decide what footage to use and what to cut, as well as where to put the camera – but we instinctively view many media products as direct representations of what is real.

2. Audiences negotiate meaning - The meaning of any media product is not created solely by its producers but is, instead, a collaboration between them and the audience – which means that different audiences can take away different meanings from the same product. Media literacy encourages us to understand how individual factors, such as age, gender, race and social status affect our interpretations of media.

 

So today we'll try to come up with some questions and practise critical analysis. I'll have you begin to evaluate your own personal consumption of media and try to figure out all the various forms of media that you consume every day.

D Block Social Studies 11 - Today with Ms. Curry...we'll finish up our discussion on Hitler (I'll show you the last video clip) and then you'll work on a couple of questions from the last few pages in Chapter 4. Afterwards, we'll discuss what's on the quiz. Here's the review sheet that I'll be handing out to you:

Terms, Events and People that you will need to know for the quizzy test you have this week:
Winnipeg General Strike
Person's Case
Balfour Report
Causes of the Depression
Arthur Meighen
William Aberhart
Mackenzie King
CCF
King-Byng Crisis
Appeasement
Chanak Affair
League of Nations
Statue of Westminster
Potlach
Buying on the Margin
Treatment of Minorities in Canada
Pogey
Unemployment camps
Laissez faire
Residential Schools
Fascism
Totalitarianism
Aboriginal Title                    
Kristallnacht
On-to-Ottawa
Jewish Immigration
Ride the Rails
Hitler's Rise to Power

A Block Law 12 - Today with Ms. Curry...I'll give you most of the block to work on your projects. We'll talk about the quiz you'll have this week on Police Investigations.

B Block Geography 12 - Today you have your Gradation Unit Final test. This test will take the whole class to complete and if came prepared then I am certain you will do fine. Relax, breathe, and dazzle me with what you know.