Welcome Back! Monday, January 4th

Goals:

• Establish our class culture and understand Ashley's norms/policies
• Develop initial thoughts to the essential questions for "Society, Technology and  Solitude" 

Starter #1

1. Open a new google document
2. Title it: "YourName_Starters"
3. Put the MOST RECENT Starter at the top of the document
4. Share this document with me so that I have editing privileges
5. Answer the following prompts: 

• Describe the culture of this class last semester (or what you understood it to be)
• What is your IDEAL classroom culture/learning environment like?
• What can YOU do to help us achieve that?
• What can I do?

Class Biz

1. Senior project check-ins will be January 19 and 20.  The vast majority of you have goals you need to accomplish by then.  Be ready to talk about your progress with Ashley and your peers by this date!
2. January 7 (yes, this Thursday!) is a day for seniors and juniors to get ready for next steps.  Alumni panel, surviving college workshops, etc.  More details to come!
3. Senior project hits hard on February 1.  Be ready to research!
4. Honors:  If you’re interested in honors, I’ll have more details for you towards the end of this month.

Agenda
5th Period: Class Norming
1. Ashley's spiel about what inspires her as an educator and what she expects from her students.

2. Establish class values

• In small groups, take turns sharing your starter responses
• Next, come up with a list of 5 classroom values that you think leads to the BEST class culture and learning environment. 

• Combined groups: Share out and select the top 3-5. 
• Share out as whole class: Create class charter.

3. Second Semester Humanities Orientation: Class policies, grading policy TBD, my DP layout, and what we are doing!

6th Period: Intro to "Society, Technology and Solitude"​

Pair-Share on the political cartoon at the bottom of today's blog post

• Summarize:  What is this cartoon trying to say about social media?
• To what extent does this message ring true to you?  Explain your reasoning!

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Four Corners
Take 10 minutes to jot down your initial position on each of these questions.  Be ready to discuss in 4 corners format!

1. Using social media/technology makes me happier than I would be without it.
2. The use of technology and social media ultimately makes us less connected to other people.
3. I would have a hard time going an entire day without using some type of social media, checking email, etc.
4. I use technology and social media to define myself.
5. Social networking makes us more connected to the world around us.
6. I share, therefore, I am.
7. Technology and social media make people more lonely, rather than less.

Course of Study Introduction:
Review essential questions, focus of the weeks.

1. Week 1:  Technology, social media, and connection
2. Week 2:  Solitude
3. Week 3 and 4:  Experience and Creativity

Week 1 Essential Questions:

1. To what extent do you use technology/social media to define yourself?
2. Does the use of social media/networking/technology make you happier, or less happy?
3. How dependent are you on social media?  Would you have a hard time going without it?
4. Does social media make us more or less connected to other people?
5. What values are inherent in the use of social media?  Think about how you use it- what values underlie your use?
6. What is the relationship between social media and loneliness?
7. Is there technology that puts us MORE in the world, that makes us more connected to ourselves, to what’s around us, to others?

Turkle TED Talk:  Connected But Alone TED Talk 

1. (Give students transcript)  
2. Watch TED Talk (20 minutes)
3. During talk, write down one idea/phrase/word,/concept that stands out to them
4. After talk, write down one question they would like to ask this researcher, or that this talk sparked for them.

"That's what I love about social media. I can have connections with thousands of people and yet still be completely alone"