February 15 --Today's assignment

Good morning.  Rosa Tellez would not let me use this picture (I think Yihenew Belay or David Hernandez shot photo) in the school newspaper's article on basketball.  Eric, I will take this off after this morning.  I have no clue if this is the image a tough basketball player wants out there or if he didn't want his picture taken or he is looking tough on purpose.  It is used here really just to get your attention.  I know it is early in the morning.

Assignment.
Choose a topic from below and write a short paper on what you find out.  Answer the specific questions.  YOU MUST TURN IN A SHORT PAPER TO THE SUBSTITUTE WITH PROOF OF WORK for credit today.

1.  Local angle that satisfies the proximity issue in news.  Why proximity?  Because the thing is right in our front yard.  Read on.
Search for articles/info on Matthew Henson, the explorer.  It is actually an amazing story about that anchor on the JFK lawn and the journey it took on the Roosevelt cutting through ice to get to the North Pole.  Parts of it are ripe for reenactment.  Admiral Peary might have been the second man at the North Pole and he got really mad about it.  The African-American was probably really the first man at the true north as the Admiral was feeling poorly that day and stayed in his tent.  Both men are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.   Write up the interesting things you find out about these guys.

2.  Facebook and the role it played in Egypt
Click here for most recent take on this

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june11/egypt2_02-14.html

Click here for footage (at 5:37 it begins) about Facebook's role to the people in Egypt

What would you do with your social media?  What if the state cut off your access?  Would you spill into the streets and protest (Egypt was about way more than social media, btw)?  Do you think the Facebook people are staring at this event with shock?  Who knew that this would get so big?

3.  Chicago high school has new, unusual learning plan

This school is doing something innovative.  What do you think of this?  Should it be incorporated at JFK?  Would it help our scores?  Are we doing this already?  How would you structure a news report on this story?

That's it.  Have a great day.

Ms. Greer
Silver Spring, Md