Languages, just like cultures, are incredibly dynamic and have changed over time.  Many people like to imagine an older version of their own culture of "how it used to be" or even "how it's always was."  This is an illusion though, to pretend as though cultural change is something new.  This fantasy allows for people to nostalgically yearn for what once was, even if that perceived pristine past was but a fleeting moment in history that was shaped by many other peoples, places and times. 

Tags: English, language, culture, infographic, historical.

Colony powers are still located within Africa. Just because Africa is technically independent doesn't mean that British Colonial power isn't still in place.

unit 4

This article reminds us all of the growth-stunt that colonialism in Africa brought to the continent.  It is not surprising to see that most African countries still depend heavily on their old colonial masters for survival.  People who may casually follow African politics might think that colonialism started with the Berlin Conference and ended in 1990 or so, but one could argue that it hasn't ended due to the urgent dependency African countries still have on their old colonizers.  Africa might be the most beautiful continent in the world but has the worst story of any in the world.

And if we did choose one language that would be the world standard what would it be?  I would guess that the Western cultures would demand English.  But why should English be the standard?

This Super Bowl commercial for trucks also doubles as a tribute to a rural America of yesteryear in general, and for farmers more specifically.  While some may object to the overtly religious references of video, I feel that it reflects the cultural ethos of the Midwest, but more importantly, the market research shows that this religious appeal would resonate with the truck-purchasing demographic that this commercial is trying to influence.  This commercial was cleverly critiqued in this video, "See God made a (Latino) Farmer" and in this irreverant parody.  

Tags: agriculture, labor, rural, unit 5 agriculture.

Religion et société aux EU: un document introductif pour le chapitre, pub du Superbowl 2013, à destination d'un public ciblé... 

This Super Bowl commercial for trucks also doubles as a tribute to a rural America of yesteryear in general, and for farmers more specifically.  While some may object to the overtly religious references of video, I feel that it reflects the cultural ethos of the Midwest, but more importantly, the market research shows that this religious appeal would resonate with the truck-purchasing demographic that this commercial is trying to influence.  This commercial was cleverly critiqued in this video, "See God made a (Latino) Farmer" and in this irreverant parody.  

Tags: agriculture, labor, rural, unit 5 agriculture.

Hindu pilgrims from all over India flock to bathe where it the Yamuna Saraswati Rivers join with the Ganges River for a religious experience.  This is a massive undertaking where the cultural practices create migratory patterns that reshape cities because of a sacred physical geography. 

This article is about the sacred gathering which occurs every 12 years at the merging point of the sacred Hindu rivers. Millions of people bathe in the waters daily during the Kumbh Mela. This sacred physical geography causes a massive human migration and creates a temporary mega-city. The temporary city is an excellent way to experiment with the planning of mega cities which, as evidenced by the problematic physical and human geography of Mexico City, are often not planned so much as just they just expand to meet the needs of the time. Urban planning should be particularly interesting for the people of India as the rapid population growth will cause significant expansion in its cities.

Every 12 years Hindus come together for a religious gathering, which results in the creation of a temporary mega city. The millions of people who attend this Hindu pilgrimage create this mega city for 55 days. It is impressive to see a temporary city supply housing, electricity, food and clean drinking water for millions of people. 

Globalization has a long reach indeed. 

Diffusion....Globalization....transnational corporations Oh My!

Cultural diffusion in action.

Unit 2 Population and Migration

This diagram is an 18 slide powerpoint explaining the uses of, how to analyze, and what a population pyramid shows. This is also in a childish language and is very easy to understand making it an easy thing to use and visualize. It shows how pyramids show fertility rates migration and workforce.

This diagram powerpoint relates to unit 2 because it shows population pyramids with population and migration data on them referencing to the units core concepts. This delves deep into the understanding of the uses of population diagrams overall and their effects on society's parts, It is overall a major part of unit 2.

Year 7 Liveability Unit 2

This just makes me realize how the world would be if we only had 100 people rather than the billions we have now.

A face das crianças no mundo

Geografhy education I¡ve  recently open it

Fantastic photography

Unit 1 nature and perspectives of geography

This video is about how a world wide pandemic can occur and has occurred in history. I thought this was interesting because it  spoke of many specific events like the black death and the 2010 cholera outbreak in haiti, gave detailed information, and was very informal.

This relates to unit 1 because it shows how pandemics and epidemics occur in a detailed way. It also shows how geography has related to epidemic outbreaks by showing disease spread maps and showing how doctors used this to solve the issue of it.

Are you a high school teacher looking for some funds for your classroom?  The My Community, Our Earth: Global Connections and Exchange Program (PDF) is connecting high school students in the U.S. with their peers abroad (in Bolivia, Ghana, Nicaragua and the Philippines) through virtual online meetings.  The Association of American Geographers is especially eager to have AP Human Geography teachers participate in this program.  These meetings are arranged through online video conferences, online phone calls and chat sessions using Skype. The purpose of these meetings is to stimulate thinking and collaboration between high school students across international borders around sustainable development themes such as climate change, green economy, food security and hazards and vulnerability, while enriching cultural literacy. We are looking for formal and informal educators in the U.S., at the high school level, who would like to participate with us.

For every time that you complete one hour of exchange and submit one MyCOE exercise to our online system, you will receive $300 for your classroom (personal check or Amazon gift card). 

Ready to Participate? Please send e-mails to mycoe@aag.org. 

Tags: AAG, teacher training, APHG.

Could have great potential experiences for the classroom

Geography game

Are you ready?

Ughhhhhh, this is addicting. Must stop playing. Must keep playing so I can beat JC.

From 1946 to 2000, Palestine (Islamic individuals) have been at war with Israel (Jewish individuals) over land in Israel/Palestine. In 1946, Palestine took over most of Israel but throughout the decades up until 2000, Israel slowly won over almost every piece of Israel and now, Palestine barely has any land in Israel. From 1949 to 1967, Palestine took over a specific area of Israel known as the West Bank and another small part of Israel known as Gaza. There was a lot of war going on between Israel and Palestine because Israel discriminated against non-Jews. Palestinians became refugees but that didn't stop Israel from fighting to take over Palestinian land.

The video was informative, but bias. I have a stronger understanding of how Israel is exploiting, how the borders were re-drawn, and how the make up of the original border mattered. However, the author gave me these facts in a very pro-Palestinian manner. The narrator sees the Palatines as refugees instead of the Jews, who as the narrator said, were "refugees living where people already lived." This similar identity clearly resonated with the narrator who almost 2 minutes of the video speaking about how the treatment of the new refugees was wrong. While a fair amount of the rest of the video advocated a solution to help Palestinian, hence the negative portrayals of the United States backed peace talks.  

What was missing from this video was Israeli's story. The Jewish community had become a large force within Palestinian, but was not being aptly recognized. In fact, the Palestinian's prior to the UN offer weren't treating the Jews fair. When this offer came along, it was the Palestinian's who started the fight, a point that was down played in this video as the narrator rushed to point the finger at Israeli's wrong doings. Yet, another portrayal of this conflict mentioned in class, showed the Israeli's feel threatened because they are a minority surrounded by enemies within the region. All of this information means that the Palestinian's and other neighbors play more of a negative hand in the land dispute than what the narrator says.    

To be honest, I don't know enough about either side to really say who I support. However, from what I gather, neither side is a bushel of roses. As learned in class their were a fair deal of geographic tensions from BOTH parties that caused the fighting and their is still a fair deal of geographic tensions from BOTH parties that factor into the fighting today. Thus, the bias of this video acts as a reminder that a person looking to understand a heated conflict, such as this one between neighbors, must view the information with causation. 

first off, this video is very pro isrelis which must be kept in mind. also i dont know what the palestinians and surrounding countries expected. the jews had nowhere to go and were sent there by england. where else where they to go? instead of accepting this the palestinians started to attack them and when they lost they wanted to come back and live there, of course the jews were not going to let them back in. neither side is completely right or wrong but i can see the jewish side more than the palestinians.

Gender Development index - CHapter 9 materials

This is a great represenaton for showing the unfortunate truth of the state women in the world today.

Why are women so unequal to men? Why are women in the Middle East seeing such bad treatment and unequality? How can we fix these problems?

I like how this map shows regionaly were most fans of a certain team are.  However one thing it fails to take into account are fans of a certain team that live in another region.  Like I live in Rhode Isalnd so based on the map i would be a Patriots fan, however I am  49ers fan, and I know i am not the only fan of a team not living in that teams region. 

An excellent visual representation of functional regions.