whoo wee! where'd the week go ...

Wow! I totally blew off my customary "beginning of the week" post [*I must have been sleeping at the wheel or forgetting to drink my coffee or not getting enough sleep or completely knee deep in other stuff]

ooo ... ooo ... pick the last one! please, please ya gotta pick the last one!

Yep folks, knee deep in other stuff.

I've been baking like a shackled slave in the kitchen everyday; I think I'm breaking a world record with how many sticky buns I can crank out in less than a week. With such tremendous success at my daughter's "snacks by the tracks" fundraiser last Saturday (and the numerous compliments regarding my buns!), I just couldn't disappoint this weekend's post office crowd and potential fund raising contributors by not showing up with the "goods".

And in addition to all of that, I had an unexpected conversation with the boys' 8th grade teacher regarding the final geography unit and that had me dusting off my old GGS notes and doing some major tweaks to my proposed Guns, Germs, and Steel curriculum idea.

So for your viewing pleasure (and because it represents what my brain's been on for the past few days ... beside brown sugar, cinnamon and fast-rising yeast!), my proposed pitch of how to teach 8th graders Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel:

GGS – Geography Lesson summaries

An actual story of global conquest:

• The famous battle at Cajamarca – Peru in 1532
• Why was it the Spaniards conquering the Incans and not the other way around?
• It was a conquest based on willingness, ability and necessity!

What it takes for man to survive:

• Man’s basic needs
• The need to travel in order to fulfill those basic needs

When man moves from surviving to thriving:

• Hunter and gatherers become settlers – the rise of nations
• The good (innovations and discoveries in the arts, science mathematics, astronomy and architecture to name a few), the bad (political systems, social hierarchies, introduction of rich vs. poor), and the ugly (dictatorships, spread of disease, and war)
• Ultimate motivator in developing societies was the desire for more – more wealth, more stuff, fame and glory!

What in the world does geography have to do with all of this?

• Moving in the right direction – longitude and latitude and having the right climate
• The shape and terrain of continents – allowing people and ideas to move
• Having the right stuff – access to valued and usable natural resources

Back to the people:

• How food helped change the world
• How disease helped change the world

Looking at the connections:

• The theory of how people’s natural wants and necessities had such global effects
• The example of Europe

Playing the game of Global Risk:
*student assignment

[and kiddos, if you're lucky and I remember, I'll post the longer teacher version with the cooler notes so we can *discuss* this stuff!]