What does the food you eat reveal about a civilization?  This class will look at food (and eat a little too!) as a means to connect the history, geography, and culture of the Western Hemisphere.  We’ll also have a “newsy” focus to our studies.  Get ready to create video broadcasts from the time of the Aztecs, shoot advertisements of the Americas, and learn all sorts of cool concepts about the media along the way.  You know you’ve always wanted to be a TV star.  Prepare to be live in 3…2…1…

Lots happening in class!  Including…

1. For our final ADI, we are visiting  CEDS on April 7th to meet some refugees who are now entrepreneurs.  Afterwards, we are going to eat Ethiopian Food.  If you are interested in joining us as a chaperone, please let me know.  We will be leaving immediately after 2nd period on Friday.   Students need to bring a writing utensil, their journal, their immigration packet.  Lunch — as mentioned — will be provided.
2. To prepare for our visit, we are going to be discussing and conducting research about refugees, immigrants, and specifically Ethiopia.
3. We also have our final mentor day on Thursday afternoon.  Students will be pitching twice (including one time to either Nicole Glaros or Brian Draves from Techstars).  If your student is going to be absent for whatever reason on that day, please let me know.  This is an important opportunity for them to get feedback.  To prepare for our pitches (POLs), here is the guideline and rubric document fyi…

Upcoming due dates:

• Thursday, April 6th:   Ready to pitch with mentors.
• Friday, April 7th at 3:30pm:  Immigration packet due at conclusion of ADI.

Friendly reminder that LTPs are due on Monday, November 7th.  I’ve just given all students another fresh set of comments with next steps.  LTPs should be turned in via Google Classroom.

I’m so excited to join the CHOICE program and to meet all the students next week!  We have a fantastic year planned, filled with a ton of writing, reading, thinking, and grappling all year long.

I’ve always been enthusiastic about email to disseminate classroom happenings.  I’m going to try something new this year and use both this blog and Google Classroom to communicate instead. We’ll see how it goes.  Check in regularly for all sorts of updates and resources that will (hopefully!) be helpful.  With that said, if you ever have any questions at all, please email me at joshua.feiger@bvsd.org — I’ll respond asap.

There is a Brazilian Educator, Paulo Friere, who once suggested that it is “not enough for students to become critical consumers of culture, but that students must also become critical producers of culture as well.”  I can’t wait to create amazing critical productions with your students as we learn to share our perspectives authentically with the “real” world.

Have a wonderful last few days of summer!