Class Recap 3/27, 3/28

The past two days have been exactly the same, talking about something called a flip classroom, signing up for Sophia, and then spending the rest of class in the computer lab working on the Civil Rights Movements stories. I am exhausted and extremely glad this week is finally over.

Class Recap 3/25, 3/26

On Monday, we had the long composition and I took an extremely long time to finish so I did not go to class in order to write the long comp.

On Tuesday, we learned about the Black Panther party and their code. The code overall had nice ideas, like equal opportunity and suitable housing, but they also demanded some things that even white people did not have. Education seemed reasonable enough to ask for, and a right to control their own futures, but there were demands like jobs for every person as well as completely free health care when white people do not necessarily have these things.

The Story of the Civil Rights Movement

Class Recap 3/21, 3/22

On Thursday, we had split class because of second lunch, so for the first part of class, we finished filling ou tthe worksheets that had questions on either MLK or Malcolm X. After lunch, we watched a YouTube video of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. That speech is one of the most influential speeches of all time. American histroy would not be the same without it. It was a good class because I love that speech.
On Friday, we started class with a picture of people marching towards the capital. We had to write about it and talk about it. After looking at the picture, we had a discussion about whether or not blacks and white are equal today. It was an interesting talk and it was followed up with a talk about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and how it was similar to the one in 1883.

Class Recap 3/18, 3/19

On Monday in class, we returned to our groups from Friday based on the letter from our document. Each group read a document on either about Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X. We answered questions regarding the document and when we finished answering the questions in those groups, we split into different groups that read different documents amnd shared answers with them. My original group read a document about MLK. He was a huge inspiration and the way he led the black community and all of America and his speeches moved people for centuries to come. Learning about him is great because of what he did for our country and for people around the world.
On Tuesday we had a snow day again.

Class Recap, 3/14, 3/15

On Thursday in class we learned about sit ins that occurred in diners and 5 and dime stores. African Americans were made to stand facing the wall to eat their lunch, so that the white people wouldn't have to look at their faces during their own meals. Young black people eventually got sick of it and would peacefully occupy as much of the seats intended for whites as they could. They would not fight when white people poured food and lit cigarettes down their shirts, and they succeeded in losing money for white businesses.
On Friday, we learned about the Freedom Riders and bus sit ins. We started class with writing small details regarding a projected picture and then we took notes. It was horrifying to hear about what white people would do to try and get the black people out of their seats. The police even gave them 15 minutes to do whatever they wanted, kill, maim, abuse, the black people and white people alike on the bus. I wish that we nver had this part of our history because it is just too upsetting to hear about people hurting others because of what they look like.

Class Recap 3/12, 3/13

On Tuesday in class, we had a sub. We watched a really interesting documentary that talked all about the Civil Rights movement, of course. We had to fill out a sheet that wanted us to write down things we found interesting, questions we had, and a connection, all to talk about in class. The documentary focused on Emmett Till, a subject that we had already covered in class and also a subject that I am doing my desktop documentary on. It proved to be quite helpful. I hardly needed to search on the internet for anything on Emmett Till because I already knew so much from the documentaries.
On Wednesday, I was out sick, but I was told the Little Rock Nine were discussed. Rachel gave me some documents to read and answer questions on, which I did.

Class Recap 3/7, 3/8

On Thursday in class, we talked about Rosa Parks and the many different ways she is portrayed in history documents. In some, it appears as though she was tired and simply just did not have the energy to stand up. In many it seemed as though she was the very person who started the bus boycott. This all proved to be untrue. In an interview with Parks, she claims that she had been planning the act for a very long time with her organization, and that particular day was the day she was finally able to put the plan into action. She was certainly an important figure in history, and the Civil Rights movement can thank her for helping to start the ball rolling.
On Friday, we had a snow day so no class.

Desktop Documentary- Emmett Till

Class Recap 3/5, 3/6

Yesterday, I did not go to class because I and four other students went to Danvers with Mr. Colby to listen to a speaker named Al Duncan. He talked about leadership and change-making in our own lives and community and the world around us. It was interesting to go to the Summit. I am glad I went. Rachel got my work for me, which turned out to be four papers dealing with "separate but equal," mainly in schools. The segregation of the South was getting to be a major problem, so it was decided to hold a series of five trials that would all together decide what to do about it. The trials were collectively called Brown v. Board of Education. I read the handouts and answered the questions.
Today's class was extremely beneficial to me. We watched a documentary the entire period that taught us all about the case of Emmett Till. We answered four or five questions about the documentary. It was very interesting, but it was even better because I picked Emmett Till for my Desktop Documentary due on Friday. I was completely shocked when I saw what happened to Emmett and even more shocked when I learned that the two white men convicted for his murder were announced not guilty. It just shows how twisted and wrong society in the South was back in the years leading up to the Civil Rights movement. I did not know very much at all about Emmett Till until today, and I am excited to speak about him in the documentary.

Class Recap 3/1, 3/4

On Friday we had a half day so we didn't have class.

Today in class we were assigned a letter and were told to sit with people with different letters in groups. Then we got a timeline describing the events of the Scottsboro case. We had to read it and then had to make up three journal entries about it. Our group had to write them in the voice of Ruby Bates who was one of the women who accused the teenager boys of raping her on the train. It was very interesting because it turned out that she had lied about it. She disappeared and then came back two years later as a surprise defendant and confessed that it was a lie. Learning about the trials was pretty cool because they were the very things that inspired Harper Lee to write To Kill A Mockingbird.  Today was a good class because we all pretended to be different vital people of the trials.