Contemp Issues - Your Immigration Solutions

Well, our podcasts are finally done! I've just finished the last touches on my cut and I think I've figured out this hosting thing. You can use the mini players below  to listen to your Immigration Solution Podcast, or you can check out this link to download the mp3.

Good job guys!


3rd Period

Podcast Powered By Podbean

6th Period

Podcast Powered By Podbean

3rd Period - Opperation: Total Media Starvation

 This week we are starting our unit on technology and it's effect on our lives, a topic YOU chose. (Good job guys) Because of AP testing and Law Academy activities going on this week, I'll be posting assignments here for those of you who are missing class.

Operation: Total Media Starvation. Can you unplug?

On Friday we briefly discussed the differences between media and technology. We decided that technology is the means in which media is presented to us. For example: your iPod is technology and your music is media. This weekend I challenged you to give up media for a 24 hour period. No music, no radio, no newspapers, magazines, and no internet access. After some discussion we decided books were okay, and telephone use was fine as long as you didn't text.

So, how did it go?

Your assignment today is to write a 750 word response to my challenge OR draw/write a 10 cell comic strip on the same subject. You should discuss you experiences, was it hard? Easy? Impossible? Did things end up the way you feared/hoped? Did you learn anything new about yourself?

When you are finished, watch the documentary below. The film follows three college students as they try to give up using computers for 3 whole weeks, as they struggle to communicate, get their assignments done, and make it through "digital detox."


Watch more free documentaries

Word Of the Day: 5th 6 Weeks

Serendipity –n 1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. 2. good fortune; luck

Languish -verb to be or become feeble, weak, or enervated, to be or live in a state of depression or decreasing vitality

Culpable -adj: deserving blame or censure; blameworthy.

Aberration –n 1.the act of departing from the right, normal, or usual course. 2.the act of deviating from the ordinary or normal type.

Microcosm -n.1.a little world; a world in miniature 2.anything that is regarded as a world in miniature.

Xenophobia -n. an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.

Masticate -v 1.To grind with or as if with the teeth in preparation for swallowing and digestion; to chew; 2.To crush into a pulp.

Enigma -n 1.a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation .2.a person of puzzling or contradictory character. 3.a riddle.

Precarious adj. 1.Dangerously lacking in security or stability. 2.Subject to chance 3.Based on uncertain or unproved premises.

Auspicious -adj 1: promising success, favorable 2: fortunate, prosperous

Contemp Issues: Frontline Assignment

As you know this week we are knee deep in high stakes SBA testing and on Wed and Thurs we have a slightly different school schedule because of the testing. Due to this alternate schedule, we will be working on some side assignments in class that can easily be made up by the juniors who are currently testing.

Frontline: Growing up Online

The video is 55 minutes long, to watch the whole episode, click the link BELOW the embedded video.

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

Watch the video above and write a one page compare/contrast paper:

The Internet is sometimes labeled the new "Wild West." Is this true? Do a Web search to learn about what life was like in what is characterized as the Wild West. Come up with a list of five themes that represent the Wild West and compare them to what the Internet is like. Is this an good representation of online life?

Continue your writing for another one page reflection paper where you reflect on the following questions:

How would you characterize your experiences online? Think about the benefits and the dangers of the internet, does the good outweigh the bad? Or does the dangers of the internet make more trouble than it’s worth?

Is the internet something we need to protect young people from? If so, how? Is the even something we should be worrying about?

Both of these papers are due next week on April 11 & 12.

Independent Study: Important Dates

Image Source

Welcome back from spring break! It might not seem like it now, but we have just hit the slippery slope heading to the end of the year. Not counting Finals week, we only have roughly 8.5 weeks of class left! The countdown has begun and it's time to start thinking about your final due dates.

You decided on these due dates in class, so I hope you can keep up! As usual, you will have weekly/daily logs due every week (on Friday) but here are the big assignments leading up to, and including, your final!

• April 8th – Interview Questions Due
• April 18th – Interview Transcript and Reflection Due
• April 27th – 1st Rough Draft Due
• May 9th – 2nd Rough Draft Due
• May 20 – Final Paper Due
• May 26 – Infographic Due (may change depending on finals schedule)

Contemp Issues: The Least of These

Watch more free documentaries

Today we will be picking up on our discussion of the US immigration policy that deals with children and families in detention centers. Last time we read about Fega, a Nigerian girl who was kept in detention for over a year after being abandoned by her parents. Today we will be looking at the Hutto Facility in Texas, were families with children are kept pending their asylum applications or deportation hearings.

As part of the Bush administration policy to end what they termed the “catch and release’” of undocumented immigrants, the U.S. government opened the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in May 2006 as a prototype family detention facility. The facility is a former medium-security prison in central Texas operated by CCA, the largest private prison operator in the country. The facility houses immigrant children and their parents from all over the world who are awaiting asylum hearings or deportation proceedings.

As these events unfold, the film explores the government rationale for family detention, conditions at the facility, collateral damage, and the role (and limits) of community activism in bringing change. The film leads viewers to consider how core American rights and values – due process, presumption of innocence, upholding the family structure as the basic unit of civil society, and America as a refuge of last resort – should apply to immigrants, particularly children.

As we watch will need to come up with three open-ended questions which you will bring up in discussion at the end of the film. These questions will be for a grade.

Independent Study: Google Search Tips

Here's the information we went over yesterday in class, if you would like to take a look again. I recommend looking at this in full screen (under the "More" button) to be able to read it clearly.

Google Search Tricks on Prezi