4.1 Are you Syria?

So to follow with our discussion in class today I ask that you read this article and make an informed decision about allowing Syrians into our country.
Read and think:
1) With a country on the brink of bankruptcy why would Greece allow refugees at all?
2) If the refugees are simply passing through, where are they going? Why?
3) Why is Macedonia holding things up at their border right now?  Who do they blame?  Why?
4) Do you think the situation is going to get better or worse for the refugees in that region in the coming months?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/29/teargas-fired-as-refugees-try-to-breach-greece-macedonia-border

3.5 Native Issues

One issue that we will cover a little in this course is Canadian Indigenous issues.  They are not really a global issue but the problems they face in Canada are what many indigenous people around the world are facing as well.  So here we go:
1) Why did the people have to relocate in the first place? Will the situation get better or worse with melting ice caps?
2) How can a government decide where these people should live?
3) As a soon to be federal tax paying citizen how do you feel about the amount of money being spent on this one community?
4) Where else is this happening in Canada?  The world?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/northern-ontario-first-nation-evacuees-kashechewan-kapuskasing-1.3461523

3.4 Powerful Poisonous Pesticides

Great article about the dangers of farming in poor remote areas:
1) Should the use of pesticides be continued?
2) Why hasn't the government of Argentina stepped in more?
3) What effects can this have on us? Why should we care?
4) Do you believe there is a connection to the pesticides and the illnesses?  Are they the fault of the manufacturer?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160223-photograph-aixa-argentina-avia-terai-pesticides-glyphosate/

3.3 Trump is on a roll

I can't believe I am putting an article in here about Donald Trump but here goes:

1) Why do people love him?
2) What do people have to be angry about?
3) What is his platform?
4) What would happen to the world if he became President?

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/24/donald-trump-victory-nevada-caucus-voter-anger

3.2 Oil, oil, oil

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/saudi-oil-minister-in-houston-1.3459539
1) What does low cost oil mean for Canadian oil producers? What would happen if they did shut down?
2) What does low cost oil mean for the environment?
3) Why do we need to produce oil in our country when there is so much out there?
4) Why doesn't the environmental impact of the oil sands deter us from our use of oil?

3.1 Warm enough for ya?

El Nino's peak has passed but it's effects are going to be long lasting and world wide.  Read and think:
1) What is El Nino?  What does it do to the world regions?
2) What economic impacts will be found in our region? Canada?
3) What impacts will this have on the world?  How is this a global issue?
4) What's worse El Nino or La Nina?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/el-nino-peak-1.3190550?__vfz=tc%3D69wA-Ma227P

2.5 Sanctions, Sanctions, Sanctions

1) Why would a country place sanctions on another?
2) What do sanctions do?  Who gets affected by it the most?
3) What countries currently have sanctions?  Any against Canada?
4) Is there a better method to get political action?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-north-korea-sanctions-1.3454214

2.4 You down with TPP? (old school rap reference)

Here is some information about the TPP and what is means to the auto sector in Canada.
1) What impact is this to you and to our region?
2) How is this a Political and Economic issue?
3) Is this a Liberal or Conservative party issue?
4) What position do the other countries in the TPP have on this deal?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tpp-trans-pacific-partnership-automotive-canada-1.3449461

2.3 The damn dam

Here is an interesting article about how the environment and economy are interconnected.  Looks like they are truly damned if they do and damned if they don't.
1) How does the environment and economy connect in this case?
2) Who is going to win?  Who should win?
3) Anywhere else in the world where this is going on? What were the effects there?
4) How do the people who live along the river feel about this?

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21692885-governments-should-stop-building-dams-mother-rivers-damned-if-you-do

2.2 Who just broke wind?

Read and think:
1) How is this a world issue?
2) Which of the PEES is this?
3) Do you agree with the ruling?  Why or why not?
4) Why is there such a push-back against wind farms?

http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/2016/02/11/wind-farm-gets-ministry-approval

2.1 Valentines Day...a greeting card holiday

Read the following article on Valentine's day in schools and think:

1) What is the true meaning of St. Valentine's day?  How has it changed?

2) Was this holiday created by the big corporations to sell flowers and cards in the off season?  

3) How does the holiday affect schools and students?  Should it be allowed? Banned?
4) How is this a world Issue?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/valentines-day-children-1.3440058

1.5 Anyone for a game of Risk?

The United States of America is upping its military presence in Eastern Europe and this will definitely get Russia's attention and Russia will have to quickly "call" or "raise" the ante (to use poker terms).
Read an think:
1) Which of the PEES does this fall into and why?
2) Why would the US be doing such a thing?
3) What does this do to an already unstable area?
4) Who is going to benefit and who is going to lose from all of this?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/nato-eastern-europe-brian-stewart-1.3441038

1.4 Oil, a slippery situation

Read this article about Saudi Arabia's decision to keep pumping tons of oil, despite a huge surplus of oil already on the market.

Read and think:
1) Which of the PEES is this?
2) How does this affect Canada's economy?
3) Why would Saudi Arabia be doing this?
4) How does this affect you?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/saudi-arabia-opec-oil-1.3437997

1.3 Who needs Ice?

As mentioned in class here is an article about the lack of ice coverage on the Great Lakes.
Read the article, watch the video too and think:

1) Why is this an issue?
2) What type(s) of issue is this?
3) What further effects could this have on us in Barrie?
4) How is this a World Issue?

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/near-record-low-ice-cover-on-great-lakes-worries-scientists/63205/

1.2 Trophy hunting

You may have heard of Cecil the lion that was killed in an African Game Reserve.  Well there are more people out there who do this than you may think...and a lot of the animals come from somewhere you may not have ever expected.
Read this article and answer the following questions:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/02/160206-American-trophy-hunting-wildlife-conservation/

1) What is the issue?
2) How do you feel about this?
3) What does big game hunting do for Canada?
4) Which of the four PEES does this fall into?  Can it be more than one?  Which ones?

1.1 Here we go

This is the first post for the week.

Read the following article and think:
1) What is the issue at hand?
2) What are your thoughts on the issue? Why?
3) What of the four PEES does the article reflect on?
4) How can this be more than one of the PEES?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justin-trudeau-canada-isis-fight-announcement-1.3438279

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3

Just checking to see if this thing called blogging actually works.  Please post a comment to this post to let me know you can see this.  If you do not post I will assume you can not see this and are having difficulty.

Blog Marking Scheme

Your Marking Scheme

I will start with the following marking scheme, which is based on the Brock University Faculty of Ed. with some personal tweaking.  If you feel that certain elements are needed or not needed, then this weekend is your chance to voice your opinions in the comments section below my post here.  Although I mentioned I would only mark one of your posts, and it will remain that way, I am including as a requirement that you respond to others in order to achieve level 4.  Think of it as a part of your post.  If you've done all that work to make your post great, then wouldn't you like to hear some feedback from other students? Bien sur.

General Suggestions:
-Participate actively.  To get the most, it is important for you to actively participate in discussions throughout the course

-Post on a regular basis - a minimum of every three days.  That means twice a week, but don't heap them up on the same day.  Basically, if you follow the above suggestion it means you make one post to be evaluated and a second post which is a discussion with one of your classmates.

-Make substantive postings. Please avoid making postings that simply agree or disagree or repeat ideas already posted.  Rather, add substantively to the discussion by extending the ideas of others, relating personal or other experiences that illustrate ideas being discussed, proposing alternate ideas, raising new questions for discussion and asking for clarification.
-Express ideas concisely. Please avoid lengthy postings. One way to do this is by keeping each posting focused on a single idea or theme. Make separate postings for different ideas and themes.
-Make a variety of postings.  Keep in mind the various regions of the world and also the various themes of study (i.e. Population, Environment, Economy, Sustainability, Geopolitics).
-Spell check work before posting. There's no excuse in 2016 when you are using a computer.


Level 4 - (80-100%)
1. Contributes to discussions with high degree of regularity
2. Responses indicate a high degree of knowledge of events and how they relate to world issues
3. Interacts with other members on the discussion board with a high degree of effectiveness
4. Demonstrates a high degree of self-motivation
5. Accepts criticism postively
6. Illustrates ideas with references to classroom (and other) experiences with a high degree of effectiveness
7. expresses ideas clearly and concisely with a high degree of effectiveness
8. Includes references to two external sources to support posting.

Level 3 - (70-79%)
1. Contributes to discussions with considerable  regularity
2. Responses indicate a considerable knowledge of events and how they relate to world issues
3. Interacts with other members on the discussion board with considerable effectiveness
4. Demonstrates considerable self-motivation
5. Usually accepts criticism postively
6. Illustrates ideas with references to classroom (and other) experiences with considerable effectiveness
7. expresses ideas clearly and concisely with considerable effectiveness
8. Includes references to one external sources to support posting.

Level 2 - (60 - 69%)
1. Contributes to discussions with some  regularity
2. Responses indicate a some knowledge of events and how they relate to world issues
3. Interacts with other members on the discussion board with some effectiveness
4. Demonstrates some self-motivation
5. Sometimes accepts criticism postively
6. Illustrates ideas with references to classroom (and other) experiences with some effectiveness
7. expresses ideas clearly and concisely with some effectiveness
8. Does not reference to external sources to support posting.

Level 1 - (50 - 59%)
1. Contributes to discussions with limited regularity
2. Includes a response to another classmate, but lacks a formal post
3. Responses indicate limited knowledge of events and how they relate to world issues
4. Interacts with other members on the discussion board with limited effectiveness
5. Demonstrates limite self-motivation
6. Does not  accept criticism postively
7. Expresses ideas with limited effectiveness
8. No references to external sources to support posting.

<50%
1. Does not include a post

Mr. Lahaie please add...

Mr. Lahaie can you please add the following topic...

Blog Overview

This is an overview.

In general you can post to the news events of the day by selecting from the tabs on the right of the screen.  They are organized by the week.
You will be responsible for posting on one news events from a world region per week AND commenting on two or your classmates posts as well.
You can post as many as you like.  One, Twenty, but I will only select one for evaluation.
That post should contain a MINIMUM of two sources (not including your newslink itself), and one of those two sources should be from a reliable (i.e. academic/government) source. Please try to abstain from using wikipedia, random websites, etc.

You will begin that post with the statement "This is my weekly post ..." or "Mark this one"
Please change it up on a weekly basis so that you have covered each region by the end of the course. I won't be a stickler here, so you can overlap a tad, but if I notice that you are constantly posting on the same issue on the same part of the world then I will make you aware of the need to vary your posts.

Try to comment on another student's post so that it feels like a conversation/debate/or learning table.  You may even include a response as one of your selected posts to be evaluated.  In fact, I encourage it.

As the course develops and we begin to understand the major global issues, you may wish to explore a particular topic more in-depth.  A particular issue may strike a chord with you.  You may also take part in a long-term ongoing conversation on that topic that lasts the duration of the school semester.

If you want to add another sub-topic to each unit, make a request for me to add it  by going to the tab on the right titled "Mr. Lahaie please add..."  And I can create a new sub-heading where we can create a discussion board on that topic.

There are roughly 17 weeks to the course and there are 17.5% marks allocated to the area of Thinking/Inquiry.  Convenient. This means you will receive approximately 1% of that mark component based on your weekly participation.  You will be expected to tie in course material that we cover on methods of critical thinking and analyzing World Issues.

This blog is live - this means it is a work in progress and can be modified to suit the needs of your learning.  Feel free to post comments/suggestions under the tab titled "Mr. Lahaie please add"
Let's get this started then shall we?

Enjoy!