Which is the truth???

Which is reliable? Which do you believe? Which is useful?
Reliability = usefulness + purpose?
Can cross-referencing help? What do you cross-reference to?
Do you believe what you see? Or do you see what you believe?
Is it possible to be objective?

This is like a Source-based case study...
Where there is an existing issue [Medal Tally];
different sources present different views [US, China & EU];
they are all seem right and true;
reliability and usefulness are determined by PURPOSE [L5/7]!
thanks Davis!

Japan's Imperialism & the Civil War in China

Previously, we saw how militarism grew in Japan after the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War. After annexing Korea, Japan set its sights on Manchuria.

The catalyst of Japan’s invasion was the Mukden Incident on September 18, 1931. The Chinese were accused of blowing up a section of a Japanese South Manchuria railroad when, in fact, it was the Japanese themselves who did it to provide themselves with an excuse to send troops into China to take over Manchuria. Their goal was accomplished and, as Japan withdrew from the League of Nations, they continued to press on into China from 1937.

Find out more from the map below about Japan's expansion into Manchuria and China proper while the Chinese are embroiled in civil war.

Quiz 2: Why did conditions in China encouraged the rise of militarism in Japan. Explain your answers in comments.

credit: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072957549/student_view0/chapter36/interactive_map_quiz.html

Recess Review

Dear students,

Thanks for all that you have been.

For someone (i.e. me) who has been teaching the same (roughly the same) content since 2002, it does get repetitive sometimes. Like going through the same facts, answering the same questions and watching the same videos (by now, I've watched Nanking like 6 times). What keeps the excitement going is that while the content, facts, worksheets, videos are the same, the responses from students are always different, from year to year; even in the same year, from class to class and from individual to individual.

So it really heartens me to know when a student enjoys something he watched. Maybe he blogs about it, another may recommend to his friends, or some may go google for more information. The idea is that if something engages you, it should take you on this self-propelled auto-pilot journey into multiplier dimensions to discover things you will never even hear in class. That is when teaching has succeeded and learning has begun. And you have all been very encouraging in this respect. It is your response that keeps me excited about showing you the next video.

I am glad most of you enjoyed Nanking for causing many thoughts to well up from within you. Listen to those voices of "whys" and it will help put the perspective back into the worksheets. The information in the slides and the questions in the worksheet are supposed to help us understand "why". There is so much more intriguing information you can google.

I have lined up a few more videos when school reopens: HIROSHIMA and WHITE LIGHT BLACK RAIN. In the meanwhile, take a relook at your worksheets and try to write out the links for each factor under each heading question. That is your only homework for this holiday.

Once again. Thanks for everything so far. I hope you have enjoyed yourself as much as I have.

The Battle of the Atlantic

MWH3.3.10 Rise of Militarism in Japan

Topic: War in the Pacific

Essential Question: Why did the military become so important in Japan in the 1920s?

• 3F Make-up class on Monday 25 Aug 08 1415-1530
• this is to pre-emp lesson lost on coming Friday.

• Understanding goals:
• Why did was the a rise of militarism in the 1920s?
  
• International disarmament
  
• Weak political leadership
  
• Nationalism in China
• How did the Great Depression affect Japan
• Search for economic security
• Turn to regionalism
• Economic-military alliance
• Performances:
• Complete Worksheet on Rise of Militarism/Pacific War
• Watch NANKING.
• Assessment:
• CA2 = SEQ2.1 (70%) + SBQ2.2 (30%)
• SBQ2.2 total marks is 20
• Quiz 1: Explain the given factor in the following SEQ for the remaining 5 marks
• To what extent did international disarmament lead to the rise of militarism in Japan in the 1920s?
  

Coming Soon: Nanking

Imperialism & Colonialism

Previously we tried to explain how Japan became an imperial power. One of the reason was that the period from 1871 (after the unification of Germany in the Franco-Prussian Wars) till 1914 was a time of new imperialism. This race for territories, and increased global militarism necessary to secure new territories, was arguably one of the reasons contributing to the outbreak of WWI.

Find out more about the scale of imperialism from the map below:

Credit: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072957549/student_view0/chapter39/interactive_map_quiz.html

MWH3.3.9 Rise of Imperial Japan

Topic: War in the Pacific
Essential Question: How did Japan become an imperial power?

• Admin
• Notes check for Unit 2.2 (Fascist Japan) & Unit 3.2 (War in the Pacific)
  
• Understanding goals:
• How did Japan modernise in the period 1868-1893?
• Role of the West
• Rivalry between clans
• Meiji Restoration
• Why did Japan become an imperial power? 1894-1914
  
• Age of imperialism
• Effects of military victories
• Effects of foreign intervention
  

• Performances:
• Watch Horror in the East during triple periods.
  
• Construct Factor-Explanation SEQs on the rise of imperial Japan.

War In The Pacific

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: japan history)

HSS3.3.8 Bonding Singapore

Topic: Bonding Singapore
Essential Question: What are the challenges of managing multi-ethnic societies?

• Admin:
  
• Review SEQ practise assignment
  
• Review:
• Challenges Singapore face in managing multi-ethnicity: race, religion, region
  
• Fostering national identity: Multiracialism, Common practises, Bilingualism
• Safeguarding interests of minority groups: Minority representation, Self-help groups
• Developing common space: grassroot, education, housing, National Service
  
• Focusing less on Race: ethnicity, cosmopolitanism, internationalism
  
• Performances
  
• Watch clip on CEP in Singapore
  
• Construct hierarchy chart of chapter Bonding Singapore
  
• Form sample SEQ questions from the chapter
• Assessment
• Q&A review session for 3F on 12 Aug 08 1430-1500.
  
• CA2.2

The Old Man, the Boy, and the Donkey

An old man and a young boy were traveling through their village with their donkey. The boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked.

As they went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding.

The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.

Later, they passed some people that remarked, "What a shame, he makes that little boy walk." They then decided they both would walk.

Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So, they both rode the donkey.

Now they passed some people that shamed them by saying, "How awful to put such a load on a poor donkey."

The boy and man said they were probably right, so they decided to carry the donkey.

As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned.

The moral of the story?

If you try to please everyone, you may as well just kiss your ass goodbye.

Secret bunker open to public

Nearly 19 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the nuclear shelter for former East German leaders will be opened for three months

PRENDEN (Germany) - Visitors flocked to the once top-secret bunker of Erich Honecker and other leaders of former East Germany as it opened to the public last Friday, almost 19 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The huge underground complex northeast of Berlin, close to where Honecker and the former ruling elite of communist East Germany used to live, will be open for three months and then closed for good.

It was built between 1978 and 1983 at the height of the Cold War as a shelter and command centre for the East German National Defence Council in case of nuclear attack.

Honecker visited the bunker only once. 'Contemporary witnesses told us that Honecker was more or less frightened or shocked when he walked through here,' said Mr Sebastian Tenschert, a founder of the Berlin Bunker Network, which helped make the facility accessible.

The complex covers an area slightly smaller than a soccer pitch. The guided tour of the three-storey bunker takes visitors through heavy steel doors and musty hallways past some 300 rooms. The tours are being booked up quickly, he said.

The interest in Honecker's bunker is the latest example of Ostalgie - a nostalgia for the former east. Last year, a communist-style hotel, or Ostel, opened in Berlin with pictures of Honecker on the walls.

Mr Wolfgang Schubert, a member of the former East German government who helped plan the bunker, said the facility had been unknown in western Germany.

It was closed in 1993 and declared a historical building, but intruders repeatedly broke in to hunt for souvenirs.

In October, the bunker will be sealed with a concrete cap intended to make it fully secure.

Reuters

HSS3.3.7 Bonding Singapore

Topic: Bonding Singapore
Essential Question: What are the challenges of managing multi-ethnic societies?

• Preview:
• Race Conflicts:Sri Lanka
• Religious Conflicts: Northern Ireland
• Understanding goals:
• What are challenges Singapore face in managing multi-ethnicity
• Perceptions of race
• Perception of religion
• Influence from region
• INTEGRATION OF INTERNATIONAL IMMIGRANTS?
  
• How can Singapore manage ethnicity
• Fostering national identity
• Multiracialism
• Common practises
• Bilingualism
• Safeguarding interests of minority groups
• Minority representation
• Self-help groups
• Developing common space
• grassroot programmes
• educational opportunities
• housing integration
• National Service experiences
• Focusing less on Race
• remove race categories
• celebrate cultures & cosmopolitanism
• integrate international immigrants
  
• Performances
  
• Who is the Real Singaporean?
  
• Who has left? Who is left?
• Read article on latest Singapore demographics
  
• Complete worksheet on Bonding Singapore
  
• Refer to lecture slides here:
• Checking of notes on Bonding Singapore during first HSS perios
• Assessment

Complete the following practise SEQs by 1st HSS period:

How far was the education system the cause of the conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics in Northern Ireland? (12)

Was the economic impact of the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict more damaging to Sri Lanka than the political impact? EYA. (13)

Hss.Bondingsg.Slides

view presentation (tags: bonding)

Population grows to 4.59 million

SINGAPORE'S population now stands at 4.59 million.

It grew by almost 200,000 between 2006 and last year, with foreigners accounting for the bulk of the increase.

The number of foreigners - professionals, workers, students and their family members - rose 14.9 per cent over 2006 to hit 1,005,500 in June last year.

It was the first time the population of foreigners here has crossed the one-million mark.

The population of Singaporeans and permanent residents also rose, to about 3.58 million, up from 3.52 million in 2006.

The figures were given in the Yearbook of Statistics 2008, released yesterday.

Women outnumber men slightly - 1.80 million to 1.77 million.

The statistics also showed a marginal increase in the number of births and marriages.

The number of births last year went up by over 1,100 to 39,490.

The number of marriages was up 260 from 2006.

The 23,966 marriages registered were the highest number in five years.