2/21-3/4

Atomic Bomb Documents
2/20-We were looking at the atomic bomb documents and why America dropped the nuclear bomb on Japan. We went over each of the confusing documents, and then students read the easier ones.
2/21-Students began working on their DBQ on the atomic bomb, we worked on thesis statements and made a list of which documents we would use.
2/24-Students wrote their dbq in class on the atomic bomb. They didnt need to write a full intro or conclusion though. Only a thesis statement and 3 body paragraphs.
2/25-We began to look at the Cold War now that WWII was over, the Cold war began in a speech in Missouri where Churchill warned America about what was taking place in Europe and how communism was spreading. We did a quickwrite on how the cold war could be viewed from both nations perspectives.
2/26-Students finished the questions on the start of the cold war, and how America was threatening the Soviet Union, while the Soviet Union was threatening, other nations. We finished by looking at the first conflict of the Cold War, the beginning of the Berlin Airlift.
2/27-We collected the start of the cold war assignment. Students got a short handout on the Berlin Airlift and why it was so important to containing communism. Even though it was 1 city it was still an important city and it showed that America would stop at nothing to contain it. We finished class by trying to play a game about finding a communist and how hard it is to spot them, but how much harder it is to defend yourself if somebody accuses you.
2/28-Students had quickwrite 6 on the card game from yesterday. Then we were looking at the fear of communism still in America, students looked at the Loyalty Review Board and the HUAC and how they both were on the lookout for people who were against America. There was a short in class assignment, the bottom part did not need to be finished yet.
3/2-We had a sub, he put the students in groups, they had to begin preparing for KHR which is this friday. Students did a map and a war overview to have a little knowledge of every conflict they may see friday.
3/3-Students began writing questions. I talked a little bit about the project and what needs to be done. There is an individual component and a group component.
3/4-We finished making our questions for KHR. We went over the tables, check in times and things that you may have happen that day. 50 questions should be written.

2/10-2/19

2/10-Quickwrite 3-As an American citizen what is more important, your freedoms or your safety? If America had word that a 18 year old white Californian male was planning a terrorist attack on a California college(that is all we know). Would it be acceptable to round up every 18 year old white male until they can figure out who it is? When should we prioritize safety over your “freedoms” as Americans. Another similar question would be, balancing hate speech with American freedoms. 
We began to look at the Japanese interment. What took place and why the Japanese were put into prisons. We looked as well at the government stance on why it was required.  

2/11-We finished looking at the Interment and students read through several documents from the time and answered questions.
2/12-Attendance was low this day but students took the common assessment SAQ
2/13-Documents to be used on the Home front questions if needed. We also looked at the invasion of Europe and D-day
2/18-Students worked on the short assignment on the end of the war in Europe. The second 1/2 of class we talked about the Heartland Project. A code name for the Manhattan Project and the development of the nuclear bomb.
2/19-Quickwrite 4-Look up the Iwo Jima Flag raising, then :

This is the only photo which got the pulitzer prize(basically top photo prize) the year it was published.  It also is now a memorial to Marines in DC. What do you think makes it powerful? What do you think is even going on? Why of all the photos in a gigantic war would it be the central photo of it all?

We had brief notes on the lead up to the nuclear bomb. How the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa made America realize the Japanese had no intentions of surrendering. We also watched a brief cartoon of the Japanese perspective of the nuclear bomb from a kids viewpoint. 

2/7

We finished the notes from yesterday, following that we looked at some propaganda cartoons that were put out during the time. As the guy in the first video says, there is some racial sterotypes in creating these, and at the time was meant to help gain support against the enemies of the allies.

1/29-2/6 recap

1/29-We began the Unit WWII and it's aftermath. This is the climax of the American story that has been building for the past 150 years. America will rise to being the most powerful nation on the planet, and as much of the world will fall to ruthless nations, America will be looked to, to help save much of the world. We had quickwrite # 1 which was •Why do you think many Americans were very hesitant when we recently had a few incidents with iran? People were basically begging to make sure we didn’t end up going to war? Iran killed Americans, then they shot countless missiles at an American military base, inuring soldiers. Why do you think people do not want anything to escalate further? 
At the end of class we began to look at the video a rising threat from the world wars and what led to WWII
1/30-We began to look at America's steps toward war with the US isolation in the 1930's.
America went from neutrality acts in 1935, to allowing cash and carry with no weapons, to cash and carry with weapons, to lending and leasing anything our allies wanted. This progression brought us closer to war each time.
1/31-We finished part of the packet from yesterday and finished our video on the Rising Threat.
2/3-Sub Work on entering WWII Students had a small assignment with the sub. They were looking at the America First Committee, Roosevelt's 4 freedoms state of the union speech, Dr Suess cartoons and how he wanted America to intervene, and what upset the Japanese in their relationship to America.
2/4-We reviewed each of the documents from yesterday, toward the end of class, we had a quickwrite. We also had some notes as well. They can be found on tomorrow's post.
2/5-We finished the notes from yesterday. We talked about the brutality of the Japanese in the Phillipines and how American POW's were treated. Then we looked at the battle of midway and how it changed the entire war. Japan lost all of its aircraft carriers in the battle and wouldn't recover. at the end of class we began to look at the home front on the link below.

Here are the notes and quickwrite from yesterday and today. Power Point

Join the Home Front

2/6-We continued looking at the link from yesterday, The questions that connect to it are below. (one change is to do all 4 people not 3 as it requests)
Questions for Join the Home front