Comments (0) PD @ York U SWSH Conference, Dec. 13, 2022
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1O4_hqBe8vZZvVQZTsZxkB6fwnjlVtE_3TXO4JjPJQ8U/edit?usp=sharing
I hope to see you on Feb. 17, 2023 at York Mills CI for the SWSH PD Conference.
I’ll be sharing my grade 11 World History culminating activity.
Sorry, virtual class. I meant to take a pic with Ms. K in front of the screen with you but my camera didn’t have a card in it!
If you are interested in taking history at York Mills, you have come to the right place. History is a very valuable subject. It’s not about memorizing factoids and dates. It’s about thinking, interpreting, discussing, inquiring. The skills you gain in senior history courses will help you with any education path you choose. You will always need to THINK!
Grade 10 history (CHC2D), Canada Since 1914, is a mandatory course. It explores events and themes in our country’s history since World World War One. This course is also offered for French Immersion students (CHC2D5).
In grade 11, you can choose between American History (CHA3U) or World History (CHW3M) to the 16th Century. Speak to Mr. Chang about American History.
You can search on this website (Ms. Gluskin’s blog) under the CHW3M tab to see what the course is like. And, read on.
Here are some materials for you to decide if grade 11 World History (ancient civilizations) is for you:
Grade 12 World History starts in 1450, where the grade 11 course finishes. However, grade 11 history is not a prerequisite for grade 12 history.
You can search this website (Ms. G’s blog) under the CHY4U tab to see what this interesting course is like.
Here’s what two of Ms. Gluskin’s former students have to say about taking World History at YM (by the way, one is about to become a lawyer and the other is a business consultant):
If you would like to ask questions to Ms. Gluskin about World History at YM, please feel free to email (risa.gluskin@tdsb.on.ca) as she is on leave this year.
See you at Course Fair on Friday February 9, 2024 in room 145.
Don’t forget about all of YM’s senior (gr 11 + 12) courses in the Canadian and World Studies and Social Sciences and Humanities.
From https://www.researchgate.net/figure/This-map-of-the-North-Atlantic-regions-shows-the-location-of-the-Norse-Eastern-and_fig4_254862418
What do these animals have in common?
reindeer, gannet, orca, Arctic fox, walrus, seal, eider duck, storm petrel, sea otters, gyr falcon
As the Vikings made the journey from their Scandinavian homelands they came into contact with forms of nature that they hunted and made use of, not always killing animals.
As they made their way from 800 t0 1000 CE, jump by jump, across the North Atlantic – Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Vinland (Newfoundland) – they learned from nature, profited from it for trade purposes, and survived because of it.
Walrus tusk ivory from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/greenland-vikings-got-wealthy-walrus-tusks-180969962/
We don’t usually think of the Vikings as doing anything other than raiding. Natural history reminds us that humans cannot survive without nature. PBS’ long-running program Nature does an excellent job of reinforcing this timely truth.
Inside NATURE: Making of Wild Ways of the Vikings (6 mins)
Reindeer cyclone – incredible to watch!
Hello new students. I’m Ms. Gluskin, your World History teacher.
Ms. G in Hagersville, Ontario on her recent bike trip.
I like history, horses (I am a wannabe dressage rider), cats (I have two), bike-riding (only in the summer), and reading (mostly non-fiction). I am married to a wonderful guy named Val. I do not have a smartphone. Yes, you read that correctly.
This is Shadow. There are plenty of pictures of my other cat, Richard, on this blog so I won’t put one here.
I usually try to think of something interesting for students to do to introduce themselves to me rather than the standard questionnaire.
This year I’m going to try a new activity. First, I’d like you to pick a website or YouTube video related to history (a time or place you’re interested in). Then, I’d like you to mull over why you think this site or video is (or is not) reliable.
Be prepared to discuss it tomorrow.
That’s it. See you in class tomorrow.
Ms. G
Thanks everyone. We had some ups and downs but you were a fun bunch.
Thanks for putting giraffe in the photo!
History is not dead. Consider these recent articles about new discoveries.
A new mapping technique is being used to find large structures hidden in the jungle where archaeologists didn’t know they existed in Guatemala. Perhaps up to 10 million people lived there.
Discovery of a new 3400 years old tomb in Egypt from the 18th dynasty (my personal favourite dynasty).
A new map of Turtle Island – pre-contact Canada – is being constructed. What did it look like, map-wise, from an Indigenous perspective, without modern political boundaries and things imposed by the colonizers? This is a very exciting project!
Moving to a settled, farming way of life, the people of Catalhoyuk gave up something – their health. This way of life was difficult but it was unlikely they’d go back to their hunter-gatherer way, ironically, because they had built up their possessions.
Our man Akhenaten – remember – tyrant or visionary? – is in the news a lot lately.
Read this interesting article on archaeological excavations at Amarna, Akhenaten’s capital, suggesting that child labour was used to build the new city.
Here are some other interesting Akhenaten links:
The Lost City of Akhenaten (CNRNews – 3D models of buildings in the city)
Meet King Tut’s Father, Egypt’s First Revolutionary (National Geographic – amazing photos, including the one below of a skull with preserved hair)
When are people going to stop referring to him as Tut’s father? Tut should be Akhenaten’s son!
Hello everyone, welcome to my class, whether you’re in CHW3M or CHY4U, a new student, or familiar with my ways. I’m really looking forward to a good semester: Lots of thinking and exploring. Normally, I’d have students write a profile of themselves. I’m dispensing with that in favour of something new. We’ll see how it goes – it’s okay to experiment.
New Intro to You
I’d like you to go through my blog and find something you can identify with (search the lists of recent posts and archives on the right, or just keep scrolling down and hitting ‘older’) for a post that you like, a book review of a book that sounds good, a pic of a class, whatever. Just send me a comment on that post and tell me why you like it, or what it makes you think about, or what you’re hoping for in this class. I’ll leave it open ended. Just make sure it’s more than a couple of sentences – let’s put some thought into this, please.
Or, If You Don’t Like That Idea
If that’s not to your taste, write me a short email telling me which historical time period you think you would have liked to live in. My email is risa@cabal.org or risa.gluskin@tdsb.on.ca
My answer is below.
Ms. G: My Time
Believe it or not, I have given a great deal of thought to this question: if I had to live in another time period, which would it be? The catch is that I’d have to be of the time period, I couldn’t be presentist about it and say that I wouldn’t have liked to live in Tudor England because the technology was so low. I wouldn’t have known about Netflix and email at that time. So I couldn’t have missed it.
Though the technology would be different, another catch is that my personality would be similar to the way it is now. I’m not a very social person, I think a lot, I am rather moderate with the occasional radical thought. These things matter when I’m thinking about time periods. I would have been okay in the first phase of the French Revolution, expectant with change! However, in the Terror I wouldn’t have liked the extremism and would definitely have feared the guillotine.
Though I absolutely love studying ancient Egypt, I’m not sure I would have made it in that civilization; I’m an atheist and wouldn’t have had the personality for joining into the state religion. However, if I were an ordinary farmer I might have been just fine doing my thing and living my relatively good life along the banks of the Nile, especially as a woman.
I don’t think I’d have made a good Roman or Greek either. As a woman in ancient Greece, I probably would have had some complaints about how much I contributed to my society but how little I was valued for it. The Roman blood lust just wouldn’t have been acceptable to me. I’d have winced at gladiator shows.
A very appealing possibility is living in Florence or Venice during the Renaissance: so much creative license and artistic expression. Still a lot of religion though.
I guess I have to come to some kind of final decision here. Being who I am, I probably would have done best in the 1960s somewhere like Berkeley or San Francisco. It was a time of change and freedom. Young people were standing up for their beliefs, challenging society to become more progressive. Though I wouldn’t have liked the drug scene, and I for sure would have been VERY anti-war (Vietnam), I would have felt like I belonged in the forward motion of history.
“Anti-Vietnam war demonstrators fill Fulton Street in San Francisco on April 15, 1967. The five-mile march through the city will end with a peace rally at Kezar Stadium. In the background is San Francisco City Hall. (AP Photo)” from Library, University of California, Berkeley, Media Resources Centre, 2012,
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pacificaviet.html (Jan. 31, 2017)
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