Time on Texas Discussion - 3 Maps Drawing

Guess who???

Today we:

1. discussed the Time magazine article, "Why Texas Is Our Future," beginning with an excellent student-raised question as to what the author meant by the sentence, "The first thing to understand about our more Texan future is what's happening to the American workforce on the whole: average is over." Students offered excellent insights, including hand gestures illustrating the concept of the shrinking middle class. 
2. examined several key terms on page 1 of the article, including "median household income, the Great Recession & the Great Depression, the business cycle (illustrated by graphs students found online), and libertarianism. Tyler Cowen, the author of the article, stated he is "an economist and a libertarian."
3. discussed the concept of point of view and found evidence in the article of Cowen's emphasis on economics from a libertarian perspective.
4. read part of an article in today's Temple Daily Telegram by libertarian columnist John Stossel and identified libertarian principles in the article - The article can be read online at another periodical's site here.
5. went through a 3-step process illustrating how each of us pictures the map of the great state of Texas - First students drew a map of Texas from memory, then drew one while looking at a map of Texas, and finally drew the map a second time from memory. See the results below.

Click to enlarge or click here to download. Zoom in and out for details. 

Zooming in, I see some of the maps got distorted when I was taking the Panorama photo. I'll retake this on Monday and hopefully get a better shot. Apologies! . . . Accepted? The new photo is now in place.

Assignment for Monday

1. Finish reading the Time article
2. Continue color coding the good & bad aspects of Texas, according to Cowen
3. Write - in a blog post - 5 discussion questions over the article for use in class on Monday

Thank you, students, for an excellent beginning to the school year. You have cooperated superbly, done excellent analysis and evaluation, and raised and discussed a number of pertinent questions.

Have a great weekend!