Notes from Classroom 15: Fall Trimester Edition

by Fox | Nov 8, 2016 | American History, AP Human Geography, AP Psychology, Big Questions, Ethics, Geographical Imagination, Learning Process, Life Philosophy, Pedagogy, Salzburg Geographical Expedition, Transatlantic Cable, World as Village, World Cultures

With the Fall Trimester nearing its end it might be a good time to report on some of the projects and expeditions taking place in—and out of—Mr. Fox’s social studies classes.  In Classroom 15 we inquire about the world and examine its social, cultural, geographical and historical complexities.  One major theme this year that underlies much of this is the geographical imagination, or how we know what we know about the world, regions, peoples and places.  We all arrive at making our own individual and collective mental maps of the world.  As learners it is our responsibility to deconstruct and examine these maps and many of the projects we are working on help us accomplish that heady task.  We also explore our own individual selves and seek out our place in that milieu, or on that map—finding out more about who we are and who we want to be along the way.    

In AP Human Geography our 11th grade students take part each month in the Salzburg Geographical Expedition in order to develop research skills necessary for University-level geography courses. Throughout the year we embark on a series of 7 short explorations that are designed to help connect—or, ground truth—the concepts, theories and models of our classroom learning with what is actually happening on the ground in the City of Salzburg.  We see first-hand how these geographical concepts take shape in the city.  Students document each of these 7 Expeditions with photographs, maps, notes and short writings.  Students share their findings with the public by publishing them to an online blog set up for this purpose.

For the Salzburg Geographical Expedition #1 students expanded their understanding of the “geographical imagination.”  As much of our imagining of the world is informed primarily by the visual each student was required to make a visit to one of two places where they looked at how both the global and the local inform our perceptions of that place.  The first option was the Salzburg Panorama Museum where one can see a great example of a 360-degree panorama painting of Salzburg that circulated around Europe during the 19th century.  The second option was to walk through the Old Town and locate and photograph examples of the intersection between the global and the local in the cultural landscape.  Each student wrote an essay accompanied by a photograph of their site.  The short essays explored how the global manifests in the local and how the local travels across the globe. 

For the Salzburg Geographical Expedition #2 students explored issues related to population and migration, the themes of our second unit.  In 1965 Austria began to grant work visas to people from the former Yugoslavia.  In 2016 the City of Salzburg celebrated the 50th anniversary of this moment with a curated exhibition.  COMING/GOING/STAYING gives us a window into that migrant experience, sharing a story that goes beyond statistics.  Students explored the subsequent migration flow, the demographic changes it has produced and its impacts on the Salzburg cultural landscape.  Students were also asked to relate their own migration experience and the challenges they have faced. 

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In US History 10th graders considered their own mental maps of the United States and then shared them with a classroom in California that did the same for Southeastern/Eastern Europe and Russia. 

The Transatlantic Cable project was designed to facilitate international cross-cultural communication across the great expanse of the Atlantic Ocean by connecting students from North America with students from Southeastern/Eastern Europe and former USSR.  While the perception of the distance between these places—say San Francisco and St. Petersburg—is much shorter today than ever before, the consideration and/or understanding of “the other side” is still quite far and distant and, perhaps, loaded with stereotypes and misconceptions.  The Transatlantic Cable takes the idea of an old-school letter writing correspondence between classrooms and, with the help of digital technologies, exchanges views, mental maps, and (mis)perceptions while seeking to find the common ground of shared personal goals in real time (almost) with classrooms on both sides of the Ocean.    

Here at the American International School in Salzburg, Austria we wanted to further develop and deepen our understanding of the United States of America and US American culture within the context of our ever-increasingly globalised world.  The goal has been to create learning situations where students consider their own perceptions and stereotypes of the United States of America while, at the same time, learn more about the perceptions and stereotypes that US American students have of AISS student home countries. 

The 10th Grade US History class was chosen as a great place to discuss US American culture.  Our history class is made up of teenagers from former Yugoslavia, Eastern Europe and former USSR.  These regions enter into the US American geographical imagination in many ways (news, films, propaganda) with many ideas and perceptions stemming—and still lingering—from the shared Cold War experience.

In our first engagement with the USA we worked with Sugar Bowl Academy of Truckee, California,  a small boarding school like our own situated in the mountains in the Tahoe region.  We worked with Mr. Andrew Knox’s World Regional Geography course right as they were about to discuss Russia and Eastern Europe in their class. 

STEP 1: Mental Maps of the Other place

The first step was to consider our own perceptions about the other region.  Using base maps, with only the outline of political boundaries, students filled in the empty spaces with places they knew, words, ideas and small drawings representing the images that first came to mind when the name of the country/region was mentioned.  Students also answered a series of questions designed to better understand those perceptions.  We scanned and exchanged these mental maps and questionnaires and reviewed them the next day in class.   

STEP 2: Response: Home Country Profiles

After reviewing the mental maps that USA students had of Yugoslavia, Eastern Europe and former USSR (and vice-versa) students were then asked to respond by creating a country profile with information they deemed important for teenagers across the Ocean to know in an attempt to enlighten some of the misconceptions.  We scanned and sent them. 

STEP 3: “Care Package” of Cultural Artefacts and Landscapes

As a further way of sharing ideas about culture students were then tasked with putting together (digitally) collages of landscapes and artefacts, both from folk and popular culture, for the other side to see.  This included photographs of cultural and natural landscapes as well as examples of what is deemed “cool” by teenagers in terms of folk traditions and current popular trends. 

STEP 4: Videos—Shared Experience of the World

Students then put a face to their name and shared some of their own personal ideas and goals with their new friends from across the Ocean.  Students needed to make short videos that introduce themselves and their ideas while also highlighting our local geography (school & Salzburg). Students filmed themselves with different backdrops around campus and downtown in order to transmit a ‘sense of place.’  Videos were only 2-3 minutes long but communicated very much about their own person. 

STEP 5: Student Feedback

To round out the experience students wrote feedback comments that were shared in both classrooms.  And lastly, we exchanged a list of “must see” film titles that best capture cultural nuances from each of the participant countries.    

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In World Cultures we are working on better understanding of our own worldview.  In many ways this concept is similar to the geographical imagination as both seek to bring to light the underlying assumptions we make when imagining, or piecing together, a bigger picture of the world in which we live.  Currently we are looking at the roots of the Western worldview while considering how much the Classical and Renaissance periods have shaped the way we think today in Western societies. 

Apart from our rigorous reading and discussion schedule we have also embarked on two expeditions, or projects, of our own.  The first involves a cultural exchange with an English-language learning classroom in Armenia.   We are working with Ms. Tova Gold, a Peace Corps TEFL Volunteer originally from Virginia, who is based in the small village (population 950) of Bazmaghbyur in the Aragatsotn region.  Contact was first made through the Peace Corps’ World Wise Schools program.  Each student has shared a short one-minute video reporting on one aspect of their home culture in exchange for the same from the students in Ms. Gold’s English Club.  We are eagerly awaiting the response from Armenia.   

We have also initiated a long term project that will look at statistics and stories about people around the world.  The World As Village: 100 People reduces the 7.5 billion global population to more comprehensible numbers and instead imagines the world as a village of 100 (proportionally representing the whole) to better understand the challenges and struggles of fellow people around the globe. 

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In 10th Grade Ethics students are reading and responding to a series of key texts that push them to consider the importance of developing a life philosophy.  Thus far we have considered Plato’s cave and debated to need to discover our own personal myths.  Discussions in this seminar class have been lively and the 10th Grade spirit comes through in our exploration of the self as both individual and as a member of a community and/or society. 

Lastly, in AP Psychology 12th grade students are busy looking inward to better understand a wide range of behavior and mental processes.  This course is rigorous and serves as a perfect primer for University-level work.  We regularly conduct seminar-style discussions and will spend the year working on mastering communication skills necessary for continued success in higher education.  Be sure to ask students how sound reaches and gets processed by the brain!

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