Friday, May 16, 2014

Blog #15: Your nonfiction project

Due Date: Sunday, June 1
Minimum Word Count: 500 words

Congratulations, friend! You did it.

You've got your nonfiction project complete and you've shared it with the class. You've put in a lot of time, effort, and energy over the past few months, and you've learned something because of it. Now, it's time to share what you've learned.

This blog has two requirements:

  1. Share your project in some way on here. 

    1. Embed your Prezi or YouTube video.

    2. Upload your podcast to SoundCloud and embed it.

    3. Share your Google Doc with the world and embed or link to it on here. Do something to make your project available to everyone.

  2. Reflect on your project and present your major conclusions and understandings.

If that is enough information for you and you want to take your own spin on this blog, then go for it!

If you still need more, then continue reading.

A good reflection will:

  • An explanation of how you accomplished what you accomplished.

    • Turn our research and findings into a story that raises and answers questions.
    • What are your main findings and what research did you do that led you to those conclusions. What did you learn along the way about your topic? How would you explain your research process in light of your findings?

    • What were your beliefs heading into the project and how did they change throughout your process? What learning, research, observations, or interviews helped you in your thinking?

  • What you think went well with your project.

  • What areas for improvement do you see?

    • Beyond "Start earlier", what would you do differently if you were to do this again?

  • What do you hope your audience would take from your project?

  • What are some thing you learned that you left out of your project?

  • What are some thing you're looking forward to doing with your next research project?

Monday, May 5, 2014

Blog #14: Your Utopia

Due: Friday, May 9
Word Count: 400
Minimum Links or References: Two
Remember to use links to resources to help support your thinking. Your claims should have support.

Your Project


No matter which questions you'll answer, please do this. First of all, embed your video from your group so that other people can see it. Don't just link to it. It should look like this:


Copy your video URL from YouTube, click the clipboard icon on the formatting bar, select YouTube video and paste in the link. Hopefully this will work for you.

  • Describe your Utopia. Give a general description of the society and the process of creating it. What are the fundamental principles behind your Utopia?
After you have your video and a general description for your society posted, consider the following questions:
  • What challenges did your group have in the creation of a Utopian society?
  • What were your group's focus questions? How did you address them?
  • What did this project make you think about in regards to governments or governing people in general?
  • Could people ever create the perfect government or society for themselves or would it be easier for an outside group to create a utopia for someone else?
  • What do believe your Utopia really has gotten right? What things do you think wouldn't work in actuality? Why would your Utopia be successful, why would it fail.
  • Just go in detail about your Utopia: Its principles, how it'll work, how it will incorporate the key elements of a perfect government.

Updated Questions and Thoughts

After you post your video, you can address the questions above or take on some of the deeper questions we tackled in class discussions. See the details below for more clarification.


Self Actualization and Utopias


Can a classroom, a family, a government, or a school be set up to help people achieve self-actualization? What would that look like?

Can only self-actualized people help others become self-actualized? If self-actualization was a goal, how could a system be created to help it happen for the most people?

Wants, Needs, and Making Good Decisions

Respond to the following statement: “People are driven by their wants more than their needs, and this makes them incapable of making good decisions about government.” 

Write about the way your thinking on these issues may have developed and how you see these things expressed either in the way the world is currently or the way it works in literature.

The Importance of Wellbeing

Respond and expand on the following statement: “The wellbeing of a society should be more important than the happiness of individual citizens.”

How does this relate to your thinking about Government, Utopias, and Dystopias. Can a great government thrive on this principle? Can people create their own happiness in a government that doesn't consider the happiness of an individual but values the wellbeing of the whole society. Does living in a great place mean sometimes accepting unhappiness or discontent?


Other Thoughts

Here's a link to our discussion questions from throughout the week. If you like one or want to combine several, you can. Please remember to find resources you can use as links to support your thinking.