North Korea

We've been intermittently watching Inside North Korea this week.  Ten minutes here, fifteen minutes there.  We finished it up today.  If you've got an hour to spare and haven't watched it, here you go:

It's very good, and fostered a lot of discussion.  I would guess it's the reason for the letter I posted on yesterday's blog - which garnered quite the response on my personal facebook page, I might add.  So, kudos to the student who wrote it.

We compared North Korea to The Hunger Games - something I've already written about extensively in the past.  Most students were able to write a page and a half in no time comparing the two.

Unlimited rulers.  All the money gets funneled into the capital - which is even called The Capitol in The Hunger Games.  Energy shortages outside the capital.  Low standard of living.  No/limited freedom of movement.  No/limited freedom of speech.  No/limited freedom of thought.  Constant surveillance.  State of fear.  An electric fence keeps you inside.  There's propaganda that is mandatory viewed... 

There's a lot.

But I won't post about all that right now.

I'm most excited to post the propaganda posters my students made.  But I'm going to go to the high definition scanner to convert them to digital format.

In case you didn't know, my students made "Social Studies Propaganda."  It's hilarious.

Hopefully it's posted by tomorrow.

If you want the extra credit for reading and discussing the blog today, write the phrase, "Social studies is the best class in the world" on a scrap of paper.  Have the adult that you read the blog with sign the paper and turn it in tomorrow.