Tag Archives: SCI

December 14, 2013 · 6:48 am

Mr. Wood’s Journal July 15, 2013 – Soweto and Klipton

This assignment is due posted to Google Docs by 11:59 PM Tuesday, December 17. This assignment is worth 50 points.

This one is easy guys…just read my journal entry for July 15, 2013. One of the assignments for our NEH tour this summer to South Africa was that we teachers would share the responsibility of providing personal journals for each of the thirty-five days that we traveled in South Africa. The assignment of the particular day for the particular teacher was done alphabetically for the first 24 days, and by volunteer the remainder of the trip. There were no guidelines provided for the individual journals, only that we cover the assigned day.

It just so happened that my assigned day was probably the most pivotal of the entire journey. We toured the Nelson Mandela museum in Johannesburg, spent time in Soweto on the streets and at the church where the Truth and Reconciliation hearings took place. We also visited Klipton. I want you to read my journal entry. I want you to respond. I want you to go find some link – any link – of any issue that is raised in the reading of my journal entry, and I want you to comment on that as well.

There is no specific requirement to this entry – other than 400 words. Talk about your feelings concerning my experience – what thoughts that raised in your mind, and comment on the link that you provided off of my journal entry. This is pretty much a free write, however I expect good grammar and well thought out ideas. So please proof it.

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Filed under 1 Senior Current Issues, Uncategorized

Tagged as Nelson Mandela, SCI

December 6, 2013 · 6:48 am

SCI Issue #1 – Wiki Leaks, Assange, Manning, and Snowden

• For this study we will begin here with a 2011 Frontline Investigation “WikiSecrets”. Go here to access Wiki leaks.

• Bradley Manning stands at the center of the biggest military intelligence breach in U.S. history — the leaking of more than a half million classified documents on the WikiLeaks website throughout 2010. Bradley E. Manning, was the Army intelligence analyst who’s charged with handing them over. Who is Bradley Manning, and what does his story tell us about how and why the secret cache of documents may have been leaked? In WikiSecrets, FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith gains exclusive access to those closest to Manning Smith also examines the events surrounding the publication of the leaked documents, interviewing key players like WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange; Assange’s former colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg; and Adrian Lamo, a well-known figure in the cyber underground who eventually turned Manning over to the authorities and is now living in an undisclosed location over fears for his safety.

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Tagged as Assange, SCI, Snowden, WikiLeaks

November 29, 2013 · 4:00 pm

The Cider House Rules – Redux

This is the first assignment of Marking Period 3 – it is due by 11:59 PM on Wednesday, December 4, and it is worth 50 points. For the original assignment – go here.

I really want us to dig into movies in this Senior Current Issues course. If that is the case then I would like you to look at the main characters and contemplate why they do what they do with more intensity, with more depth than we did on this assignment. Maybe in the process we will see the world in a different light as well. For the most part, while I believe you enjoyed The Cider House Rules, and while you may have thought about the issues brought forth in a reflective way, I don’t feel as though we really dug into these issues that pushed the movie to the edge. I got the feeling reading many of your posts that for the most part you wrote and wrote and at the end of it all you just stopped. However many words – that was it. A lot of the posts didn’t feel edited or reviewed. And many had no conclusion. You should always when you write for blogs, posts, assignments, or life – sum up your thoughts with some kind of a concluding insight.

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Tagged as Cider House Rules, SCI

November 16, 2013 · 7:31 am

Nicole Depender Congrats on the 25!

…for re-taking your ACT from 22 to 25.

The ACT will never fully define your educational value. That being said, in this standardized “brick in a wall” we-have-to-measure-everything-in-the-classroom world, your final score has significance; fortunately not nearly as much as some think.

I’ve always believed that your ACT score opens doors; seldom does it close them. You don’t even need the test to get into MCC. In addition I’ve seen a lot of low ACT scores overcome by high GPA’s to gain university acceptance. Public universities are looking for more than a test taker, even if public schools seem to think otherwise. Your attitude, your effort, your intelligence, your extra-curriculars, your GPA trends, volunteering and sports participation and clubs and blogs and an ability to write a compelling essay – are all as significant or more vital in taking the next step, than your standardized ACT final tally. I would also say that they are a lot more reflective of predicting success at that next level.

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Tagged as college funding, college scholarships, econ, SCI

November 10, 2013 · 6:00 am

Take a look!

Assignment is due by Wednesday November 13 11:59 PM. It’s thirty points.

Everybody in this class is gone…gone…gone…next year.

You maybe be in Germay or Ghana or at Ferris University, MCC or GVSU or Brown University in Rhode Island. Because of that our focus remains the same – what will you be doing in the Fall of 2014? That’s key for all of you.

With that in mind I will continue to move you in a direction that forces you to take on issues that deal with the inevitable. So, this assignment is again a google docs assignment. Everybody is included on this one. Germans, Ghanans, Pauline, and Americans. So, here’s the deal…

You may choose to comment on one of four paragraphs located here. I’ve provided links surrounding three issues 1 – Careers and College majors. 2 – Four year degrees are not for Everybody. 3 – Smart poor kids can go to really good colleges. 4 – Take a gap year. Pick one of the four.

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