October 23, 1962
Today I met in secret with General Robert Kennedy. He has filled me in about the details surrounding the U.S., the Soviet Union, and Cuba. I understand the Soviet's reasons behind helping Cuba become Communist but to the extreme of allowing nuclear weapons to be placed there seems too extreme. I know that President Kennedy is probably sweating like crazy from the anxiety of possible nuclear warfare. Due to both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.'s relations I know why neither wants to be the first one to back down and call a truce, but to act as though they even have the right to threaten one another with nuclear weapons could mean the end of not only sections of the U.S. or Russia, but also possibly the end of mankind. There is a reason why we do not use nuclear weapons, they are too dangerous to fire off, but to threaten one another with such weapons is bad enough. If all goes well I might be able to get Premier Khrushchev to back down. This will be difficult in order to not ruin the reputations of either Premier Khrushchev or President Kennedy. As long as General Kennedy gives me a little more time to convince Khrushchev to back down, this madness may be able to end, hopefully with the world still in tact. I do not understand why President Kennedy will not back down first, Americans are too proud. Oh well as long as one of them does. I am surprised that Cuba is willing to risk their precious island to anger the United States, what if the U.S. decided to blow up Cuba instead? I think that Cuba should have been smart and not allowed the Soviet's nuclear weapons to have been placed there in the first place. It is not like they need nuclear weapons to become a successful Communist state. I think I need a vacation from all of this stress already and I have only been informed of this today!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
An Example of a Good Webquest
The following is an example of what a good webquest looks like.
http://questgarden.com/133/29/9/111013075318/index.htm
I found this website to be exemplary. From the introduction to the credits every expectation for the students was well outlined. The author used appropriate photos and the font was good, except for the few uses of lime green writing on grey background. The introduction and task were well detailed and gave students a taste of what they should expect from the webquest. The process was well thought out, but I feel that the fact that it is supposed to take two weeks is too long for students to spend on a webquest. Other than that the websites are relevant to the task and each assignment is very informative. Another drawback is that the links do not open in different windows. The evaluation, conclusion, and credits are very well done. The teacher page is great and goes in depth and mentions the state and NCSS standards. I liked this webquest a lot, but if I were to use it in my class I would have to alter it to be a little shorter so that my students would not be taking two weeks to complete it.
http://questgarden.com/133/29/9/111013075318/index.htm
I found this website to be exemplary. From the introduction to the credits every expectation for the students was well outlined. The author used appropriate photos and the font was good, except for the few uses of lime green writing on grey background. The introduction and task were well detailed and gave students a taste of what they should expect from the webquest. The process was well thought out, but I feel that the fact that it is supposed to take two weeks is too long for students to spend on a webquest. Other than that the websites are relevant to the task and each assignment is very informative. Another drawback is that the links do not open in different windows. The evaluation, conclusion, and credits are very well done. The teacher page is great and goes in depth and mentions the state and NCSS standards. I liked this webquest a lot, but if I were to use it in my class I would have to alter it to be a little shorter so that my students would not be taking two weeks to complete it.
A Bad Example of a Webquest
The following website shows an example of what a bad webquest looks like.
http://questgarden.com/126/02/8/110504171414/index.htm
I feel that webquest was done very poorly or has not been completed. The introduction to the quest gives poor if any background knowledge but does at least tell the students what to expect from the webquest. I liked the task as working as reporters to explain the four major causes of World War I: militarism, nationalism, imperialism, and alliances. Yet I did not like that they also had to do a graphic organizer that connected the causes, the connection is the war itself. I feel like the task does not match with the introduction to create a graphic organizer that is "eye catching", why does the graphic organizer need to be eye catching? If you want something eye catching, then create a poster to demonstrate the causes of World War I instead. As for the process I was disappointed. There was a video that discussed the causes of WWI yet the video started with ads, wasting precious class time, and if you tried to forward through the video it would have to be reloaded, plus the video was not the most informative. The next link on the webquest took you to a website that had all sorts of categories an websites to go to, which would not allow students to complete this webquest in one period, perhaps three would be sufficient. The next part of the process is to read three handouts, that are not offered to be viewed, meaning that anyone using this webquest would have to create their own handouts or forget them altogether. The conclusion, evaluation, and credits were ok, but the teacher page had blanks in every category, making it useless to even have a teacher page. So overall the webquest needs a lot of work.
http://questgarden.com/126/02/8/110504171414/index.htm
I feel that webquest was done very poorly or has not been completed. The introduction to the quest gives poor if any background knowledge but does at least tell the students what to expect from the webquest. I liked the task as working as reporters to explain the four major causes of World War I: militarism, nationalism, imperialism, and alliances. Yet I did not like that they also had to do a graphic organizer that connected the causes, the connection is the war itself. I feel like the task does not match with the introduction to create a graphic organizer that is "eye catching", why does the graphic organizer need to be eye catching? If you want something eye catching, then create a poster to demonstrate the causes of World War I instead. As for the process I was disappointed. There was a video that discussed the causes of WWI yet the video started with ads, wasting precious class time, and if you tried to forward through the video it would have to be reloaded, plus the video was not the most informative. The next link on the webquest took you to a website that had all sorts of categories an websites to go to, which would not allow students to complete this webquest in one period, perhaps three would be sufficient. The next part of the process is to read three handouts, that are not offered to be viewed, meaning that anyone using this webquest would have to create their own handouts or forget them altogether. The conclusion, evaluation, and credits were ok, but the teacher page had blanks in every category, making it useless to even have a teacher page. So overall the webquest needs a lot of work.
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