Today's Persecuted Christians: Class Project Blog

https://persecutedchristianstoday.blogspot.com/

November 22 Christian martyrs today

 You are presenting briefly about the persecution, torture and murder of Christians in the early years after Jesus' resurrection. Though Canada is a relatively safe and peaceful country, we need to be aware that many Christians in many countries are being martyred today. How should knowing about their suffering affect us?

Voice of the Martyrs Canada is a Christian group that prays for persecuted Christians around the world and informs the church about their suffering. Today, I will introduce you to Pastor Wurmbrand. He lived in Hungary when the nation suffered under communism. He was imprisoned and tortured, along with many other Christians, just for being Christian. Though his testimony will seem very old to you, being in the 1960's, this kind of persecution is killing Christians in many countries around the world today.

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand's testimony

https://www.vomcanada.com/wurmbrand-videos.html

 Following are articles that describe something of what Christians in China are facing. Next week, I'll show you some examples of what they have endured and are going through today.

China
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/13/china-christians-religious-persecution-translation-bible

Keeping the Darkness at Bay
https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/holding-the-darkness-at-bay-advocating-for-the-persecuted-church-in-china/ 

November 22 Presentations: The Martyrs and other Christians in the early centuries

Everyone will hand in the rough draft, final copy, ppt, and note cards today. 

Next, I want you to listen very carefully to each classmate. Do not make notes. Just listen.

• After each presentation, the first thing you will do is complete his/her quiz.

• Then, you will give the quizzes to me. At the end of the class, the presenter will receive your quizzes and mark them. On Monday, he/she will give me the quizzes.

Then, I will hand out the presentation checklist, which you will fill out and give to the presenter. I won't take time now to ask you for verbal responses. 

Each presenter will give me copies of your checklists along with the quizzes on Monday.

After the presentations, I will briefly introduce you to Christians who are persecuted today in many parts of the world--including Canada and the United States.

 

W2 Class 2 November 20

Something happened to the document I posted on sharepoint regarding my plan for the Unit on The Fall of the Roman Empire. I will make it available asap. Please show your parents. My plan will be adjusted somewhat as we go. One thousand years of history offers a massive number of important topics. I am not an expert on this time period, but I love history and will do my best to make it interesting and relevant to us as Christians.

Presentations will begin Friday. Everyone needs to prepare well. I will choose 3 presenters per class during the next three classes. There are two main purposes to this assignment. One is to interest each of you in the lives of the early Christian martyrs and some important teachers, such as Tertullian. I hope we will reflect on lessons that apply to our lives today. The second is to give you an opportunity to gain skill and confidence in public speaking.

To help with this goal, I will give you each a checklist. We'll watch ten minutes of a lecture and you will relate your observations on the checklist. During class presentations, everyone will complete a checklist for each classmate. I will collect and mark these before giving them to each of you. The reason is I expect you to help each other with focused, specific comments, not simply yes/no answers.

Finally, I want the class to think about respect. Fooling around and not paying attention are disrespectful of classmates, teacher, and subject. Think, too, about respecting your parents' hard work and expense to enrol you in Innova. Don't waste your opportunities.

Nov 18 Unit 1: The Fall of the Roman Empire

The linked document is my plan which will take us to the end of January. We will move on from our discussion of Eusebius to considering the topics regarding the reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire.

https://innovaacademy.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/EZQHWnkLq5RIrK5XAr-PjlYBX6xPEdBdkaKoRvhXLkVVRg

Lyons site of massive Christian persecution in 155 AD

Homework 2: due Friday

Read Book 5 from p. 138 through 149

What year did this take place? Where? Who was the Emperor?

Be prepared to answer these and other questions.

Homework: due Friday, rough draft

November 13, W3 C2  Christian martyrs during the Roman Empire

Today: work on a draft of your presentation. Hand in the draft on Friday. I will make suggestions and you may improve the draft. We’ll begin with presentations on Wednesday. Probably, we’ll do half the presentations then and the remainder on the following Monday.

Iranaeus 120 to   https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/irenaeus-johns-spiritual-grandson-11629607.html
Alana

Justin Martyr 165  https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/death-of-justin-martyr-11629602.html
Kaelyn

Lyon crowd roars for blood  177 https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/lyons-crowd-roared-for-blood-11629604.html
Emma

Blandina 177 https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/blandinas-amazing-courage-11629605.html
Anna

Perpetua 200 https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/perpetua-11629614.html
Noah

Tertullian 229 https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/tertullian-11629598.html
Daniel

Origen 254 https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/origen-gifted-devout-condemned-11629615.html

Cyprian 258 https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/carthage-dunking-rebaptized-the-lapsed-11629623.html
Judah
J

Procopius 303. https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/procopius-first-of-the-palestine-martyrs-11629634.html
Jed

Pamphilius 309 https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/pamphilius-beheaded-for-faith-11629638.html
Josh

Assignment: Tell us about one of the early Christians and relate his/her life to ours

Today, I am giving you time to begin working on this project. On Friday, hand in a draft of your presentation, typed, double spaced, 12 point font. Also, if you have questions, include them with the draft. Date    Topic    Name at top of page.

Topic: Prepare a 5 minute presentation on your assigned person or event. You may use the timeline as the primary source for this assignment. You must use at least one other source for more factual information.

Instructions:

Some questions to be answered: When and where did he/she live? Who was the Emperor during this period? (see Roman Emperors timeline on this blog) What was h/she known for? Why was he/she arrested? What did the authorities do? How did the person respond? What lessons can we learn? You are not limited to these questions. Tell us anything/everything you find interesting.

A five minute presentation will be somewhere between 500 and 750 words. If you find you can’t compress your presentation into that limit, let me know and we’ll figure out what to do.

Note: Do not just answer these questions mechanically, in order. Wherever in your presentation you think they can most appropriately be answered, do so.

If you use Powerpoint:

You may, but you do not have to, use powerpoint to complement your presentation. If you use ppt, there is a limit of 5 slides.  

The introductory slide should include the name of your character or event; the dates of his/her birth and death; a map of the city and Roman province in which he/she/it lived and died, and the Emperor’s name and time period.

The three middle slides should focus on each of your three main points about the person/event. You may use a photo of a statue, a city, a location like the forum where the person was executed. There is a limit of one sentence per slide. You might want to use a quote to illustrate something impressive about your subject.

The concluding slide should briefly express what you think is most important that we can learn from this person or event. Try to use only a graphic of some kind to remind you of what you want to say. I don’t want a whole sentence or conclusion on the slide. Be creative: if you want to begin the presentation by asking questions or posing a difficult situation facing a Christian today that might relate to your subject, do it. You could use this strategy to ‘answer’ the questions or suggest a solution to the dilemma in your conclusion.

Your presentation may not follow a 123 points plan, as for instance, 3 reasons why x is a great Christian. Maybe your subject is better told as a story, in which case if you use ppt, try to have a clear theme for each slide.

Important: You must present….you may not read from notes. You will hand the complete presentation to me. Submit it on sharepoint and give it to me on a usb thumb drive.

Do not take things word for word from the sources, unless you are using a few brief direct quotes. Summarize and paraphrase. Also, indicate in the text of your Word document, the sources using MLA style. See David Taylor and other MLA links on the blog.

Finally, you must create a 5 question quiz for the class. Ask fact-based questions to see how carefully they have been listening and taking notes.

Prepare the quiz and present it to me as another document, along with your presentation. Include your slide presentation if you create one. After each presentation, hand out your quiz. Students will have 5 minutes to respond.

Submit these online so that I alone can access them. Also, bring me your documents on a usb flash drive. Put them in a single folder called Martyrs assignment and include your name as well eg. Martyrs assignment Kevin

·         Either 2 or 3 items: 1. Word doc presentation, 2. Quiz and optional, 3. Ppt

Monday, November 11, 2019 Remembrance Day: History of the Early Christians

History – facts are the foundation of stories

Eusebius: The History of the Church

 Eusebius, bishop of Caesaria, mid 200’s to 300’s: born 265,  died 339

Timeline:

Eusebius: Timeline: 300 to 600 AD

               https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/eusebius-1st-church-historian-11629659.html

Polycarp: Timeline: 1 to 300 AD

https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/old-bishop-polycarp-11629599.html

From Eusebius: the story of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna: pages 117-119 and to 123: born 69AD, died 155AD

               1.What are your thoughts?

               2.Do you believe the story of his death?

               3.Why do you think the Jews and others, Romans, Greeks hated the Christians?

               4.Could Christians ever in our time, our country face danger that might lead even to death?

Sign up for study.com

               “Early Christians”

Homework:

·        

          Take out a gmail account and create a simple blog

·        Bring notebook and binder to class every time; I will collect and grade notebooks/binders for content and order

               Project: I will assign an historical person to each of you. You will research your person, incorporating different materials on a blog. Each of you will do a brief presentation to the class about your character. I will have explicit instructions for you: sources, questions to be answered, length, due dates asap—definitely by the end of this week.

Homework Omnibus: Create a google blog for Wednesday's class

From now on, we will refer to the course as Medieval History. We are beginning by looking at how Christians lived, how they affected the Roman Empire, and how with the collapse of Rome, the Christian church became the foundation for Europe through a thousand years of time known as the Middle Ages.

Your first project will be to create an interesting presentation about one of the early Christians to whom I am going to introduce you. On your blog, [there is a how to video on the right under History of the church] you'll collect various photos, maybe videos, and factual information about the person.

In a few weeks, you will each present your person to the class.

You need to bring Eusebius for this week and next. In addition, you must have both a notebook and a three-ring binder that you bring to every class. I will collect these from time to time and grade them on the neatness and completeness of your notes in both books.

Get in the habit of taking notes, whatever we are doing. Put the proper heading: Date       Topic           Name at the top of each page in both the notebook and the binder. I'll be giving you handouts which I expect to be kept neatly in order in your binders.

Homework: Logic Friday, November 8, 2018: due Monday

I am pretty sure you will have a different teacher for Logic next week. Leave your completed assignment on the table in front of where I sit.

I have a little challenge for you. Today's handout is a copy of a final exam that basic level college students must write. They are required to produce either a 4 or 5 paragraph essay of 500 words in one hour. In addition, they need to answer comprehension questions. You do not need to answer Part 1 questions. Choose any one of the five topics in Part 11.

On the upper right of the blog, I have included 5 references. Three of them have to do with how to effectively use quotes in your writing. One is a 10-minute video about how to write the 5 paragraph essay. Watch it. Then, refer to each of the links about quotes. The last one explains how to use Word and MLA in referencing your sources.

Write either a 4 or 5 paragraph essay of 500 words. 4 may be an easier structure for a comparison/contrast essay as in topic A. You may also write a 4 paragraph 'reasons' essay, but of course, the 2 body paragraphs will have more details. If you like, share the article with parents or siblings and see what they think about which topic might be most interesting.

In your essay, you must use one quote to support a point. Remember to identify who is writing or speaking, whether it be the writer of the article or someone quoted in her article.

Bonus marks if you can correctly use MLA style to format your essay and cite and reference the quote. 

Typed, double spaced, 12 point either Calibri or Times New Roman font.

I'm looking for a clear thesis near the end of your introduction, topic sentences to begin each body paragraph, specific examples and details with appropriate transitions--eg One, another, finally-- to support your topic sentence in each body paragraph.

Remember, the introduction paragraph of an essay has no topic sentence and the main idea sentence-the thesis- is at or near the end of the introduction.

The conclusion paragraph should summarize your thesis in different words. Then, add one or two sentences to round off the essay. Again, David Taylor's video will guide you.

Lincoln's beautiful parallelism in the Gettysburg Address

http://www.guidetogrammar.org/grammar/gettysburg/gettysburg16.html

Homework due tonight: The early history of Christians from the apostles through the persecution to 312 AD and Constantine, the first Christian Emperor

Eusebius' History of the Christian Church

https://librivox.org/eusebius-history-of-the-christian-church-tr-by-mcgiffert/

This begins the story of how the early Christians from the time of the apostles to the early 300's lived and often suffered under the Emperors of Rome.

Don't ask why we are not starting with Book 1 :)

I want you to write about 3 things you find interesting in this part of Book 2. Pause your computer and make notes. Do not read the book yet. I'm really interested to see if you like listening. Post your replies here on the blog. 

Remember, when you work on something longer like this, do it in Word and save the document. Then copy  and paste your work into the blog.

Please create a folder called "Omnibus". Title this document "Eusebius The History of the Christian Church. 

As we go along, you will add other documents to the folder. At some point I will collect your folders. And, by the way, if you want to add comments or questions that you'd like to raise in class, include them in your document as well.

Homework: The early history of Christians from the apostles through the persecution to 312 AD and Constantine, the first Christian Emperor

Caesaria Maritima, the city where the gentiles were first given the Holy Spirit and the home of Eusebius, who lived about 250 years after Jesus
https://youtu.be/c7msQn3mJzg

The Greek Empire gives way to the Roman Empire
https://youtu.be/qzStS_NSs-s

The 1st  generation after the apostles:
https://youtu.be/az4sztb0Tlc

The Persecution from100 to 300 AD.
https://youtu.be/hJR0A9phBc8

The Fate of Empires by Sir John Glubb
https://www.docdroid.net/5CdrehR/the-fate-of-empires-by-sir-john-glubb.pdf#page=2

Homework: Theology: Nov 4: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you...

to give the reason for the hope that you have. 1 Peter 3:15 and, it's a young world after all (with apologies to Disney).

Learning to reason within ourselves and later, unbelievers, about our Christian faith is known as 'apologetics'. Sounds like we're saying 'sorry' but, no.

apologia implies not admission of guilt or regret but a desire to make clear the grounds for some course, belief, or position.

An apologia and an apology usually aren't the same thing. An apology includes an admission of wrongdoing, but an apologia rarely apologizes in this sense, instead seeking to justify what was done. So, for example, in 1992 some of the books published for the 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage were apologias explaining why European powers such as Spain acted as they did in the New World: because, for example, the Aztecs were a cruel people, practicing human sacrifice in grotesque ways (victims were skinned, and their skins were worn by the high priests).
Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apologia

We're looking at an article titled "The 10 Best Evidences from Science that Confirm a Young Earth"
https://answersingenesis.org/evidence-for-creation/the-10-best-evidences-from-science-that-confirm-a-young-earth/

Rather ironically, the article includes a video that argues evidence is not the correct basis for defending the truth of the Christian faith. Let's see what you think.

Homework: What do you think is the most interesting point in the article "10 Best Evidences..."? Give me at least a few sentences.

Important: Please read the linked document to prepare for Monday's Omnibus class

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A2c905fba-1401-4149-90ba-c381aa750029

This article is an introduction to Eusebius, the first historian of Christianity. He writes about what happened from the time of the Apostles to the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in 312 AD.

Civics: Friday, November 1, 2019 An Unusual Career

What did Irene give up to follow her unusual career? What did she gain?

Do you feel you would be open to following God even if he led you in a surprising direction?

Omnibus: Friday, November 1, 2019 Mainstream Environmentalism--saving the planet or destroying it?

Since I have been subbing this week, I chose to focus on a global movement that has become a huge force in controlling our lives: the mainstream (major) environmental movement.

As you are becoming young adults, you will become more and more aware of how powerfully the people who claim to be saving our environment are affecting everything in our daily lives, from whether we may use plastic straws to whether we may own a car to whether we may keep our homes warm in winter and cool in summer.

Question: Most of us love animals, well tarantulas maybe not so much, but do you believe that animals are either equal to, or superior to humans? Why/why not?

How would you feel about a government that outlawed having pets--no one would be allowed to own a cat, a dog, a budgie, or a goldfish?

What are some of your thoughts about the film we just watched?--10 sentences.

Friday November 1, Response to David Taylor, 5 Paragraph Essay

Did you learn anything new or interesting from Taylor's video? Explain briefly.

Parallelism: Friday November 1, 2019

Parallel structure (parallelism) again.

Today, I'll give you twenty questions on paper. Do the first ten and then post your score by clicking on the comments link below.

Check your answers here:
https://www.chompchomp.com/structure02/structure02.htm

Do the last 10 questions, back of page, at home. Check them from the same link. These are actually questions 11 through 20 in Interactive Exercise 2.

Use your Christian name to post so I know who is who. Also, did you find this exercise easy, medium, or difficult--comment.

Next week, we will do something more challenging with parallelism and we'll consider how the technique can be used for powerful effect. As preparation, watch the 5 minute video clip about the Gettysburg Address on the left of the blog.