Canada Is Not That Strange And Other Biases | Wednesday | Period 2

[just-add-starch.livejournal.com]

As the students walked into class today, they'd seen several stacks of newspapers and magazines at the front of the room. Fraser himself was sitting at his desk, going over some paperwork and giving everyone a chance to settle down and get situated. Once that was done, he stood up and smiled at everyone.

"Welcome back," he greeted politely. "Today, we're going to be talking about media bias. In this country and this day and age, it's especially relevant since the media is pretty much everywhere. Television, print and cyber media affect us at least once a day and sometimes even more than that. We rely on the media for our news and therefore, we're victims of media bias all the time."

He paused and crossed his arms. "Media bias is, basically, the bias within the news media about which stories are reported and how those stories are reported. Within media bias, there are four specific types of biases: advertising, corporate, mainstream and sensationalism. Advertising bias is stories slanted to please advertisers, corporate bias are stories slanted to please businesses, mainstream bias is a tendency to report the same thing as everyone else so you don't offend and sensationalism is a practice that involves giving the impression that rare events, like airplane crashes, are more common than common events."

Fraser motioned to the table of periodicals behind him. "Today, we're going to be looking through several different variations of print media. I want you to see if you can find different examples of media bias. Look for the way the story is reported and which stories are reported across multiple versions. See if the slants are different and try to figure out why they might be reported differently from one outlet to another. If you have any questions, please feel free to come up and ask."

With that, Fraser let them get started.

So You Say You Want a Revolution: Week 9, Period 3

[tricksy-spy.livejournal.com]

"Hope you all enjoyed your guest teacher last week," Aly said, looking tanned from a week in the Copper Isles. "The Doctor gave you all a good report -" she smirked, remembering the exact words "- except for something about not arguing about grammar? Good call, life's way too short."

She gestured to the class to gather around the cut open (think dollhouse) scale model of the school. A scale model in all aspects like only the Danger Shop could provide. The school was set up as a working castle with an outer wall, guards, an armory, and all sorts of little people wandering about to do their daily jobs, milking cows, making bread, patrolling the walls, sharpening their swords, etc. The Principal's Office had been transformed into the throne room of a tiny king. "You're working in your groups today, and what I'd like you all to do is come up with a plan to infiltrate - and hold - this castle. You're getting way more information than you'd normally have in a situation like this so make use of it. Also you can use any personal powers or skills you have in your group, but I'd rather that's not all you focus on. If someone can melt the stone of the outer wall, that's great, but you still might need someone to subdue the fighters inside or the talk the King into surrendering. Use all your resources including those listed on the board to make up your plan." She glanced around, looking for any questions. "And I can't promise that your class next week won't be actually carrying out these plans."

When she flipped around the white board, the board only read:

Use your imagination. No guns. Bombs are fine.

Library [11-3]

[imonscholarship.livejournal.com]

Dan was sitting behind the front desk with his laptop today, sort of zoning out and playing Facebook games at the same time. Productivity was just not gonna happen any time soon.

Cultural Appreciation, Week IX [Wednesday, Periods 4 & 5]

[atreideslioness]

Today's portal would lead students to the doors of the David H. Koch Theater, home of the New York City Ballet. "Today, you'll be seeing something more along the traditional lines of 'culture,' Ghanima said, once everyone had arrived. "New York City Ballet was the brainchild of Lincoln Kirstein. He envisioned an American ballet where young native dancers could be trained and schooled under the guidance of the world's greatest ballet masters to perform a new, modern repertory, rather than relying on touring groups of imported artists performing for American audiences."

( Ballet's image of perfection is fashioned amid a milieu of wracked bodies, fevered imaginations, Balkan intrigue and sulfurous hatreds where anything is likely, and dancers know it. )

"The plot has served to inspire countless story books, a few movies, and is recognizable by people who have never even seen the ballet. Watch the dancers, and think about where you've seen elements of this ballet incorporated into contemporary culture."

[OOC: Wait for the OCD to find its pointe shoes shoes are on, barre work is done, and it's time to run variations!]

Boom-De-Yada Science - Danger Shop, Wednesday, Period 1 [Week 9]

[worsethanaunts.livejournal.com]

The Doctor had his arms folded across his chest when the class gathered today. "I trust you all treated your guest teacher well. Though raise your hand if you didn't let your bomb explode fully knowing that you weren't in any harm other than a bit of paint." He waited. "I'm disappointed in you all. Only a little bit, because bombs are never fun when you're the one undoing them, but you all had a chance to experience something in relative safety and some of you chose not to go for the full experience. Experience. Experience. It doesn't even sound like a real word any more. Experience. In case you haven't noticed, that's a good part of the reason behind this class. You learn from experience. You can understand your world, whether it's Earth or Mars or Raxacoricofallapatorious and all of the scientific joys, through experience.

Enough about experience." He stuck out his tongue since it was tangled around the word. "It's lost all meaning. Ah yes. Now. Egypt. That's a country on the African continent that's home to the longest river on the planet, the Nile, and also home to one of the oldest and grandest civilisations in human history. It's also good fodder for horror movies about mummies. Speaking of mummies, we're inside an Egyptian pyramid, so sorry if you're claustrophobic, but there's no quick way out of here other than me pressing a button and letting you out, which isn't going to happen unless you're having a genuine panic attack.

Where was I? Yes. Mummies. Mummies are...well, here's one now." He gestured to the ancient, decrepit mummy standing at the back of the group. "We're inside one of the Egyptian pyramids. You can go to a museum and see how they got the history about them completely wrong if you need to know about them for a history course. Why are we learning about Egyptian mummies? Well, they're interesting. The mummification process is a good example of early embalming practices of societies with primitive technology. The pyramids themselves are architectural marvels. I won't spoil you by telling you who actually built them. It's a good story though. If you want to consider language a science, which it most certainly is by some standards, hieroglyphs on the walls are a fascinating example of what happens when you let inebriated people come up with your written language. At least in my universe. I can't speak for everyone's, but that was a long night and there was an awful lot of beer.

I'm going on. Sorry, Ram," he said to the mummy. "This is King Rameses. One of the King Rameses. There were a lot. It's not important. He's one of the ones that didn't make much lasting contribution to history and that annoys him. He's also been possessed by a life form known as the Krinitos who like to take preserved bodies and use them as walking, grunting shells. By the way, because of the mummification process, he doesn't have any internal organs and he wants yours. Remember what I was saying about experience? This is one of those. You're being chased by a bloodthirsty mummy who wants your guts for his own. Now would be a good time to find a way out of the pyramid. Basically, run!"

And he did just that, leaving the students alone with the staggering mummy.