Letter to Syrian First Lady

While reading CNN this morning, I learned about a video that 2 U.N. Ambassadors wives (from Britain and Germany) made.  The wives are heard reading a letter to the Syrian First Lady asking her to stand up to her husband and stop being a bystander.  People had hoped that Asma Al-Assad, the first lady, would bring a good Western influence on Syra.  Asma attended college in London (majoring in computer science) and worked in business there before marrying the Syrian President in 2000.  Despite people's hopes, Asma has remained next to her husband through his controversial reign.

The two U.N. wives made the following video and put it on YouTube to ask Asma to act.  The video has contrasting images between Asma's life of style and poise and the horrors that other Syrian mothers face.




This seems especially appropriate seeing as we just learned about how the U.N. can help African countries.  At the end of the clip, the U.N. wives ask people everywhere to send similar letters of their own to the first lady. 

Worse Than War--PBS Special

PBS made a video called Worse Than War.  Wendy King, another Timpview High School teacher, recommended this as another option to watch besides Hotel Rwanda.

I have not watched the film but I think it looks at the Holocaust/Genocides in the world.  It is just under 2 hours long.

Click here for a link to the website or watch the video below.

Watch Worse Than War on PBS. See more from Worse Than War.

Should a President's Character Matter?

Here is a link to a 2012 Republican debate.

The candidates are discussing how much weight we should put on a presidential candidate's character.  This is largely in reaction to the public's questioning of Newt Gingrich's character (in light of his affairs).

I am using this as a lead in to my discussion of Bill Clinton.  My objective is to have students use evidence to support an argument for Clinton's presidency as a success and for Clinton's presidency as a failure.  

Bill Clinton Impeachment Lesson Plan

http://billofrightsinstitute.org/resources/educator-resources/lessons-plans/presidents/clinton-impeachment/

Here is a link to a lesson plan about Bill Clinton's impeachment.  I haven't totally looked through this lesson plan yet but I may want to reference it for my lesson this week in U.S. History.

This movie from CNN reports on the fall of communism in Bulgaria. It is a great movie, in addition to the 30 of 30 ESPN movie called "Once Brothers" that focuses on the Yugoslavian fall of communism.


The Bulgarian movie is called "Autumn of Change" and is on the CNN video website. 










Communism

A young CNN reporter talks in a video about the fall of communism in Bulgaria.  

This would be good to look in to communism and East vs. West Europe.

WWII Movie

A student recommended the movie "Empire of the Sun" to me because she had watched it in her AP World History class.  She said it was a great way to learn about WWII in Japan.  It is an older movie with Christian Bales as the main character (he was 10 years old at the time).  She said you could watch it instantly on Netflix.

This same student recommended the movie "7 Years in Tibet" as well.