Bunch of Hippie Crap: October Update Part II

Have you ever been to SeaWorld?

I've been once. Mom, Dad--correct me if I tell the story wrong.

It was many years ago. We went for I believe half a day during a relatively extended stay in Orlando. I'm quite sure it was the trip where we spent some time at Disney, a day at Busch Gardens, and SeaWorld was thrown in there somewhere.

And that's what I remember.

I don't remember leaving with a stuffed Shamu.
I don't remember inhaling any delectable ice cream treats.
I don't remember riding any rides.
(Sorry Mom and Dad. I'm sure I had fun, though!)

But would I go to SeaWorld again?

No. Way.

Ok, maybe.

But for argument's sake, NEVER!

Enter: Blackfish

Is it possible to "love" a documentary?

YES.

I've seen this more times than I've seen any movie, including Finding Nemo or Beauty and the Beast.
I show it every time I teach 1101 to introduce the research project.
I used it as the motivation for my example project which turned out to be 21 pages long.

We watched Blackfish the whole class period Wednesday, and we finished with about 15 minutes left on Friday. They thought they were going to leave early.

*insert maniacal laugh*

Enter: A Simple Game that Incited Riots

(ok, maybe not "riots," but there was raising of voices)

Simple Concept: I prepare slides with one opinionated statement each. The students read the statement and then move to the side of the room to physically represent their answer. This game isn't new or my original idea. I first saw it in a 6th grade classroom to introduce The Outsiders. I love it and use it often!

Below is the slideshow I used in class. Click through to see the statements. "A" means agree while "D" means disagree.

So, you'll see we start off pretty tame, and then "There is nothing more precious than human life"* comes up. Out of nowhere. Like a punch in the gut.

And you know what?

More people disagreed than agreed.

However, The problem was no one could name anything they thought is more important. Many students who claimed they disagree with this statement argued for the equality of many things, brought up the circle of life, even our dependance on things like other animals and even trees.

I was blown away.

The best quotation of the day, in my humble opinion, came from a student who stood on the "agree" side. He was appalled by the number of people who disagreed with this statement, and said something to the affect of,

"That's a whole bunch of hippie crap over there!"

The point of "Moving Statements" is for students to congregate with like-minded peers while attempting to put their snap judgements into words. Many students often jump ship once they start discussing. I'd be more than happy to share all the parts of executing this game well, but I'll spare everyone else the the details for now.

In all, it was a good day.

*The reason I chose to project this statement is not to simply incite riots, however much I enjoyed them. Blackfish is on the surface arguing that whales should not be held in captivity because of their size, intelligence, and emotional capacity, but I argue that the motivation for the surface-level argument is the fact that human lives are being put in danger for the sake of "education" and monetary revenue.