September 8

Welcome back from the long weekend!

Social 30-1

I did a couple of homework checks at the beginning of class today: your rough draft of the 1st paragraph of a position paper, and your Chapter 2 Key Terms and Questions. Most of today's class was spent writing your Chapter 1-2 Quiz. If you finished up early, you were to work on tonight's homework: finishing off the individualism vs. collectivism booklet. If I were you, I would start looking back at some key themes in Unit 1, and some of the quotes in that section of the book, and start prepping some ideas for essays on some potential topics that might be asked. Remember, the text-based source will always change, but the essay question is the same: To what extent should we embrace the ideological perspective(s) in the source? You can prepare some arguments and examples for possible essays over the course of the next week. I have moved your Unit 1 Final Exam to Friday, September 11th and your Unit 1 Position Paper to Monday, September 14th (in the Blenheim Room).

Social 10-1

I gave you the World Geography Test Study Guide at the beginning of class (please see it again below), and we talked about the format of this exam. This geography test is on Friday, September 11th. I also gave you your first writing assignment: the Global Connections Essay. In this informative essay, you are to answer the following essay question: What are my effects on the world? You are really trying to personalize your essay by indicating what are some social, economic, political and environmental effects that you have on the world. What impact is globalization having on you, and what impact do have on globalization (in other words, how do you contribute to globalization)? The Global Connections Essay is due tomorrow.

Social 10-1 World Geography Test Study Guide:

This test will take place on Friday, September 11th. It is simply a country and capital cities identification test. You will be given a world map with certain countries, capital cities, and places identified and you need to be able to write out what country it is. Here are the countries that may appear on the test:

• any of the EU countries (there are 27 countries in the EU)
• any of the NATO countries (there's some overlap here with the EU, but not all EU countries are members of NATO)
• any of the G8 countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom
• full members of MERCOSUR: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and other associate members or countries that are achieving membership in MERCOSUR, such as: Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador
• to ask you to know ALL of the countries in the African Union would be cruel, so we'll focus on countries that came up last year or will likely be in the news this year: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan
• other very important countries that will be in the news this year, or that we'll be talking about, or get mentioned in your textbook: Cuba, Mexico, China, India, Myanmar (Burma), Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel
• **BIG HINT: if a country is a member of a few of these international organizations then there's a STRONG possibility that they will be on the test!!**

Please use the following links for studying for this test:
World Geography Games
Test Your Geography Knowledge
Maps.com Online Games (the "Find It" games are excellent!)