Notes from Allen Webb's Visit

Notes from Allen Webb

English- connect to students, learn about them through their writing, discuss issues.

Make teaching powerful and important, and try to change as many lives as you can.

English and health – some great connections can be made

• Map of the world – equal areas projection
• How maps help us view the world.
• All flat maps are distorted, what does the distortion do?
• –all land mass shown in proper proportion to each other.
• Maps. of U.S. used to be in the middle and Asia cut in half. (This showed that America was the focus)

-who won the wars? The victors write the history.

History & the role of colonialism in the world.

• The last 500 years since Columbus, the history of the world = colonialism by western Europe. (Spanish, Portugese, etc.)
• Columbus 1492
• Cortez 1519 – went to Mexico City – there were 20 million people
• slavery, disease, violence, etc. killed people off

(Trail of death – northern Indiana to Kansas – Natives were forced to move)

• Western European powers colonized all over the place.
• Set up posts in Africa to capture slaves. (The triangle trade – weapons, manufactured taken to Africa, slaves taken to Caribbean or Brazil (1 out of 20 made it to America) made sugar, rum or molasses. The Caribbean colonies were wealthier than the 13 colonies in America.
• (Scramble for Africa)

Why did the Europeans do this? Bring religion? Civilize savages? It was for MONEY!

1884 – Berlin conference – nothing to do w/ geography, languages, etc. People were separated, enemies were put together.

Other Colonization

• Australia (penal colonies), Tasmania, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh – British
• Indonesia – Dutch
• Philippines - Spain (America took the Philippines from Spain so they could bring Christianity.)
• Vietnam, Loas, Cambodia – France
• China was not properly colonized – opium war – fought against Britain, U.S. = divided China up into different sections.
• Japan – engaged w/ European powers was never colonized

Balance of power – divided everything up so that no one county could get stronger than European

Malaria – ½ human beings that have ever lived have died of malaria.

Knowing this history is important in understanding the modern world and what has happened since.

• WWII – seen as a colonial war – Germany missed out on the “grab the planet thing”, tried to get “living room” in Russia, Poland, etc.
• Vietnam War – seen as a colonial war – The U.S. didn’t know what they were doing.

• Rabbit Proof Fence – Film (2002)
• Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
• Life and Times of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass
• Beloved - Toni Morrison
• Flight to Canada - Ishmael Reed

Literature puts you in the shoes of someone else. It allows you to see what they have gone through.

What can you do in a school that would give you some freedom?

• Know the curriculum
• Having information
• Know what is “required” of you
• Know what you want to teach – what you are passionate about, what you care about
• Start down road to educate yourself
• Inform people about your sources – professional, academic, etc.
• Keep parents informed
• Invitation – allow people to come into your class
• Advocate for yourself and stand up to your colleagues