APELC Class Notes
APELCers, we spent the first half of class Thursday and Friday revisiting clauses, phrases, and syntactic (and lexical) categories, and playing with others’ and our own words in a mimicking exercise. We completed the second half of our time together in the liberry where you continued to draft you narrative arguments, which, as you well know, are due on Monday.
I’ve encouraged you last week to pay attention to issues surrounding WikiLeaks, too significant a news item since the most recent dump of documents to not be paying attention to. Here’s more:
- “Wikileaks Reveals U.S. Tax Dollars Fund Child Sex Slavery in Afghanistan”
- “The 24-hour Athenian democracy”
- “Silencing WikiLeaks A Free Speech Challenge For U.S.”
- “Web Attackers Find a Cause in WikiLeaks”
Have a fine weekend. It’ll all be over soon.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, yesterday and today we talked over the Douglass text, more in fourth period on Tuesday than in third and fifth on Wednesday because of our wacky schedule. We met in the liberry for the last two thirds of class on Tuesday and for the entire period on Wednesday where students drafted their narrative arguments and I conferred with others over their free-response revisions. You do have a reading for homework; please attend the details on your class page.
I decided after fifth period on Monday to post the “damn” words I proscribed from student papers here on out. This should help those that find them too numerous to remember. The words are
- Aspect
- Factor
- Efficient
- Kids (this was the word I couldn’t read)
- Hooks
- Uses
- Vivid
- Paints
- Choppy
This list will continue to grow, and, of course, there’re other phrases I’ve mentioned in class that remain forever banned from your papers, and I’ll remind you as needed.
If you’re not following the news about WikiLeaks, you really should do what you can to educate yourself about this most important development in foreign relations. You can start with these:
- “State’s Secrets” at the New York Times (see also “The War Logs” about the organization’s first major document dump to attract worldwide attention)
- “WikiLeaks: A Reminder Of The Pentagon Papers” from Morning Edition
- “The Inner Workings Of WikiLeaks” from All Things Considered
Also, as Hanukkah begins tonight, here’re two more fun pieces from NPR:
- “Tracing Hanukkah’s U.S. Roots … To Cincinnati?” from Morning Edition
- “No Gelt, No Glory: A Dreidel Champion Is Crowned” from All Things Considered
We’ll see each other next class, boys and girls.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, we discussed the issue of “ethnic studies” in TUSD high schools and Arizona House Bill 2281 and how these might apply to your revision of free-response 3. The texts we read are linked on your class page, and, in the interest of fairness, here’s the site of teachers fighting the state to keep the program in schools: SaveEthnicStudies.org. You had the opportunity to work on your theses and consider your sources; some of you used your time wisely while many did not.
I wanted to post the following notes on Friday, but the post was already long enough, so here’s more on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a very important SCOTUS decision that appeared to confute certain campaign finance laws and that came up during our discussion about government and trust our last two classes. In fifth period, Alyssa commented on the freedom this decision permitted foreign corporations to fund US elections and sent along this article: “The GOP’s foreign fans”. And today, also in fifth, Emery reported her informal, online research on various southern Arizona candidates including Ruth McClung and Raul Grijalva, and Jesse Gabrielle Giffords and Jesse Kelley, and I’d encourage you to do the same. If you want to know more about the election, and I hope you do, see the 2010 Arizona Voter Guide at AZ Central and Arizona’s page at Ballotpedia.
For more on this election cycle, I hope that you might surf to the NPR series “Message Machine: Fact-Checking 2010 Election Ads”. It’s a great set of reports that attempts to keep both sides honest (if that’s even possible); last Wednesday’s piece, “‘Cookie-Cutter’ Ads Dominate, Coast-To-Coast”, was particularly interesting and amusing.
Check your class page for homework details, and I’ll see you next class.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, we completed, as much as we could, our discussion of Gelsey and Dinh, and I was a little unnerved by many students’ indifference (?) toward privacy or at least their fourth amendment rights. It was intriguing. Coincidentally, and relevant to our discussion, I found this today at Newsweek: “What the Internet Knows About You”. And I’d be curious to hear your reaction to the following video from LAPD’s iWatch LA program:
It’s curious that this particular video is no longer on the website.
We talked a little your attitudes toward politics and the federal government, and many of you mentioned that issues of trust and corruption were important in assessing your feelings. For kicks, I recommended you look up the following politicians known for their recent scandals, all having to do with sex and money:
- Elliot Spitzer (D, former Gov. NY)
- Charles Rangel (D, former Rep. NY)
- William Jefferson (D, former Rep. NY)
- Mark Foley (R, Rep. FL)
- Larry Craig (R, former Sen. ID)
- Eric Massa (R, former Rep. NY)
That’s all for now. Have a fine weekend and I’ll see you Monday.
APELC Class Notes
APELCers, yesterday and today we talked about privacy and the USA PATRIOT Act. During our discussion several items came up that I encouraged you to research because of their relevance to our texts. They were:
- Probable cause
- Reasonable suspicion, Terry stop
- FISA Court
- Oscar Grant
- TSA full body scanners (millimeter wave scanner)
I mentioned Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols when we discussed home-grown terrorism, and I was absolutely stunned that only two or three of you ninety-one knew anything about these men. And those few only admitted scant, incomplete knowledge. Again, know who these two people are.
In addition to the informal request that you familiarize yourself with the items above, and the formal order to attend the homework on your class page, here’s some further:
- “Court Ruling on Wiretap Is a Challenge for Obama”
- “Judge says man within rights to record police traffic stop”
- Carlos Miller’s blog “Photography Is not a Crime”
Again, boys and girls, you must move beyond your assumptions about what you think you know and learn and engage important issues, no matter what side you of the political divide you occupy.
See you next class.