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The First Day of Class

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:35:30 -0400

Guiding Question What does it mean to be educated? Introduction Welcome. This course offers a...

Thankfully, I seek to explode these dangerous myths each and...

Tue, 08 May 2012 13:58:59 -0400

People in charge have all the answer

Learning ends when you leave class

The best and brightest follow the rules

What the books say is always true

There is a clear, single path to success

Behaving is as important as good grades

Standardized tests measure your value

Days off are more fun than class

Purpose of your education is your career

Thankfully, I seek to explode these dangerous myths each and every day in my office & classroom. My favorite is, “4. What the book says is always true.” The response, “why we need multiple sources of information” is perhaps the most sage advice one can give.

gjmueller:

9 Dangerous Things You Were Taught In School

Here’s something for us to consider; does analytical...

Tue, 01 May 2012 22:26:12 -0400

Here’s something for us to consider; does analytical thinking decreases religious belief? If so, in what ways and with what effects? Enjoy your TOK-burrito with these…

theatlantic:

samonedraws:

For an article from The Atlantic: “Analytical thinking decreases religious belief”

religion goes in to logic machine goo comes out.

This article inspired a nifty-looking illustration. Thanks, samonedraws!

This is bad…unsurprising, but bad. (via Shark Populations...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 11:50:26 -0400

This is bad…unsurprising, but bad.

(via Shark Populations Are Plummeting in Areas Near Humans | Planetsave)

Have been waiting for this for some time. NPR & TED together...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:31:45 -0400

Have been waiting for this for some time. NPR & TED together at last. (via Our Buggy Brain : NPR)

A GREAT tool for all of us IB GP folks. Downloading...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:44:50 -0400

A GREAT tool for all of us IB GP folks. Downloading now…

united-nations:

Have you seen UN CountryStats, a free data visualization app to compare key economic, social, environmental, trade, and area & population indicators for 216 countries and territories?

IB Extended Essay Documents

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:43:35 -0400

IB Extended Essay Documents: Click on the link above for guidelines from the IBO on everything from...

A Great way to start the day! (via BBC News - Charles Taylor...

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:43:37 -0400

A Great way to start the day!

(via BBC News - Charles Taylor guilty of aiding Sierra Leone war crimes)

"‘To go or not to go nuclear? That is the question."

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:43:47 -0400

“‘To go or not to go nuclear? That is the question.”” - BBC News - Iran...

Two of my favorite things: football (soccer) and post-conflict...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:59:17 -0400

Two of my favorite things: football (soccer) and post-conflict peace building efforts.

united-nations:

This weekend, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined other diplomats at DiploMatch, a soccer match organized by Play31, which aimed to use the unifying power of football to bring together people who have been torn apart by war.

Play31’s vision is a world in which all children are free to play, as stipulated in Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The goal of the DiploMatch was to raise enough money to finance a community tournament in Sierra Leone.

Photos credit: UNDP and Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict

As we discussed in our after-school seminar last Thursday, war...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:36:41 -0400

As we discussed in our after-school seminar last Thursday, war between the Sudans seems all to imminent. Be sure to read/watch the rhetoric amongst the principals, “”We call it an insect … trying to destroy Sudan, and our main target from today is to eliminate this insect completely” -Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan (article here). This sounds very much like Stage 1 “Classification” in Stanton’s model. Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time that the Bashir regime has danced with the language and practice of genocide.

crisisgroup:

ABC | South Sudan’s Leader Says Sudan Has Declared War

The president of newly independent South Sudan, in Beijing lobbying for economic and diplomatic support, told China’s president on Tuesday that attacks by rival Sudan amount to a declaration of war on his country.

There has yet to be a formal declaration of war by either of the Sudans, and Salva Kiir’s remark, made during talks with President Hu Jintao, signals a ratcheting up of rhetoric between the rival nations which have been teetering on the brink of war.

Kiir arrived in China late Monday for a five-day visit. He told Hu the visit comes at “a very critical moment for the Republic of South Sudan because our neighbor in Khartoum has declared war on the Republic of South Sudan.”

China Central Television reported that Hu responded by saying that China hopes both sides will “cease the armed conflicts at the borders” and coordinate with the international community as it attempts to mediate the conflict.

FULL ARTICLE (AP via ABC)

Photo: Jenny Rockett/ Flickr

Good to see Samantha Power back with the Obama team; her...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:28:41 -0400

Good to see Samantha Power back with the Obama team; her comments about then-candidate Clinton were overblown anyway. The Atrocities Prevention Board, however, is something that should proceed with caution.

crisisgroup:

Inter Press Service | In a major speech commemmorating the Nazi Holocaust, U.S.

President Barack Obama Monday announced several steps his administration will take to curb mass atrocities abroad, including in Syria where he is under continuing pressure to intervene with military force.

Among other measures, he announced that Washington will now impose sanctions against individuals, government agencies and private companies that use or provide advanced communications or computer technologies to track, disrupt or target opposition activists for violent repression.

In the first use of such sanctions, the U.S. Treasury said Monday it was applying the new measure against Iranian and Syrian intelligence agencies, Syria’s state-controlled mobile phone company, an Iranian internet provider, and several individuals for their involvement in repression in both countries.

“These technologies should be in place to empower citizens, not to repress them,” Obama declared at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. “It’s one more step that we can take toward the day that we know will come – the end of the (Bashar al-) Assad rebime that has brutalised the Syrian people.”

In his speech, Obama also announced the formation of a much- anticipated Atrocities Prevention Board (APB), a high-level inter- agency body that will report directly to the White House on the potential outbreak of genocide, war crimes, or other mass atrocities and possible options to prevent or contain them.

The Board, which will meet at least monthly, will be chaired by the senior director for multilateral and humanitarian affairs, Samantha Power, a long-time close adviser to Obama who authored a book about the 1994 Rwanda genocide and reportedly played a key role last year in persuading him to intervene militarily as part of a NATO force in Libya.

FULL ARTICLE (IPS)

Photo:US Mission Geneva/ Flickr

International Baccalaureate at North Broward Preparatory School

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:21:48 -0400

International Baccalaureate at North Broward Preparatory School: Welcome to the hub of the I.B. at...

Yet…when cost is measured in lives lost, the unmitigated...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:44:57 -0400

Yet…when cost is measured in lives lost, the unmitigated disaster that is the V-22 Osprey program should move to the top of the chart. How many more Marines have to die for this incredible waste of a vehicle?

govtoversight:

That bar at the top is outrageously long and it represents the most expensive weapons program in all of human history. The Joint Strike Fighter is 38 percent of the cost of all DoD weapons procurement.

Don’t worry, folks…you’ll be reading plenty of...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:00:42 -0400

Don’t worry, folks…you’ll be reading plenty of books in this class

emergentfutures:

The Next Time Someone Says the Internet Killed Reading Books, Show Them This Chart

“Remember the good old days when everyone read really good books, like, maybe in the post-war years when everyone appreciated a good use of the semi-colon? Everyone’s favorite book was by Faulkner or Woolf or Roth. We were a civilized civilization. This was before the Internet and cable television, and so people had these, like, wholly different desires and attention spans. They just craved, craved, craved the erudition and cultivation of our literary kings and queens.

Well, that time never existed. Check out these stats from Gallup surveys. In 1957, not even a quarter of Americans were reading a book or novel. By 2005, that number had shot up to 47 percent. I couldn’t find a more recent number, but I think it’s fair to say that reading probably hasn’t declined to the horrific levels of the 1950s.”

Full Story: The Atlantic

I love me some charts & graphs, especially when they involve...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:17:46 -0400

I love me some charts & graphs, especially when they involve world politics.

lmdesigngrp:

Level of freedom and democracy in the Middle East and North African countries

On A Mission: What The U.N. Faces In Syria : NPR

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:33:20 -0400

On A Mission: What The U.N. Faces In Syria : NPR: On the challenges facing governments and others...

Map #4 is the most interesting; total amount of cargo that...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:27:54 -0400

Map #4 is the most interesting; total amount of cargo that passes through them. With the expansion of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale Int’l Airports, more deepwater access to the Ports of Miami and Everglades, improved roads and rail (although this needs to be better) in SoFla, along with the soon-to-be completed expansion of the Panama Canal, SoFla is poised to be a leading locale for global transshipment and logistics.

(via America’s Most Important Airport Cities - Commute - The Atlantic Cities)

A worthwhile read as a part of our study on Human Rights. (via...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:20:00 -0400

A worthwhile read as a part of our study on Human Rights.

(via To Be a Woman in Pakistan: Six Stories of Abuse, Shame, and Survival - Atlantic Mobile)

(via NPR.org » New Type Of Resistant Malaria Appears On...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:18:20 -0400

(via NPR.org » New Type Of Resistant Malaria Appears On Thai-Burmese Border)