immigration

the good, the bad, the ugly -- how do you feel about immigration?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig25oct25,0,4001492.story?coll=la-home-center

History and Music

This week I am thinking about music and history and wondering if you could share with all of us one song in particular that strikes you as relevant for what you feel like you are learning. Of course it doesn’t have to be related to the times exactly, but perhaps appropriate for the feelings, thoughts, and ideas you’ve generated as a result of what we have been studying. What song captures what you’re thinking about in relationship to history? Ideally I’d like to play each of your songs before we officially begin class – so find a way to make that happen. Make a hard copy of the song, post a link (for a youtube video or an mp3 track) as you comment – find a way.

In terms of what to write this week – I want you to write about your song. Tell us why you selected it and why it matters to you. Make connections to what you are learning. And, as usual, comment on someone else’s ideas.

Please don’t save this for the weekend. I’d like to see the majority of you do this before Friday. Let’s all get online at some point Thursday night so we have time to listen and respond thoughtfully.

Bush and Health Care

An interesting topic that I hope creates some good debate.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/09/14/get_childrens_health_bill_passed/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,299129,00.htmlhttp://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709270353

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,299129,00.htmlhttp://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709270353

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709270353

What's meaningful to you?

This week I wanted to try on an idea by someone in my 6th period class who suggested rather than have two blogs, one dealing with the news and the other dealing with the content of our course and its significance for our lives today, that we would try both but rotate them every week. So this week I wanted to start an open-ended dialogue about the first six chapters of our text. There is so much material here, but is there something in particular that stands out as meaningful for you personally, meaningful for us collectively? What is it? Why is it meaningful to you? What does it remind you of? Why should we care? Why do you? I know this requires a different set of tools, but give it a try – we can make our second (or third or fourth) comments on anything that get’s mentioned. Tangents are welcomed.