Wednesday 2 March 2016

Legal and illegal highs

Wiki of legal intoxicants;

Frank (UK advice site for teens) on legal highs;

FamilyLives guide to banned drugs;

Centeronaddiction list of banned drugs;







Wednesday 17 February 2016

AA Alcoholics Anonymous

100 Health Risks of Alcohol Abuse
Defining Alcoholism


Health effects

Drink Spiking
Daily Mail reports on a victim's story [note: this paper likes a moral panic]

Luxembourg


A Dr's view on the dangers of alcoholism


How Alcohol Affects Your Brain And Body


Underage Drink Driving: Jacqui's Story


Alcohol and Your Brain


Alcohol and the Teenage Brain


10 Health Risks of Alcohol Abuse
(from AlcoholMasteryTV)


C4 News: Dangers of Alcohol During Pregnancy


The Dangers of alcohol and date rape drugs


Dangers of Alcoholic Energy Drinks




Celebrities and alcoholism
Here are some links to news stories about high profile alcoholics, many of whom have failed to combat their alcoholism.
Find an AA meeting
Gazza, ex-England footballer, talks about his battle (Daily Mail video).


Bradley Cooper opens up on his battle with alcoholism.

Amy Winehouse's death linked to alcoholism

Channing Tatum claims to be "a high functioning alcoholic".

Bruce Willis on getting sober.

10 Celebrities ravaged by alcoholism:


Matthew Perry on Piers Morgan show


Monday 11 January 2016

Yr8 Spring1 career + work

TASK 1a:
write down the skills mentioned by the teacher in this video [2:39]


TASK 1b:
again, write down the skills mentioned in this video [2:19]


TASK 1 FOLLOW-UP:
Share and discuss the list of skills you've compiled from these videos. What other important skills can you think of?

SWOT ANALYSIS SHEETS
After a short class discussion, fill these in and stick into your books.


LAST 5 MINUTES...
What did YOU write?
What careers are you interested in?
What life skills do you need to succeed in this field?

HOMEWORK
Watch the video on the Year 8 blog and take notes in your SMSC book of the skills presented. 

...

Monday 4 January 2016

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Identity, immigration and Britishness

British identity is a topic we've returned to throughout this year, as mandated by the new Conservative government for schools UK-wide.

Here's the PowerPoint (produced by Miss Lister) we've been using:


VIDEO TASK
Using any of the resources provided or others you find, produce a video of between 2-5 minutes in which you explore and set your view on what Britishness/British identity means to you.
this should feature:
  • quotes from politicians and experts
  • headlines from media coverage
  • statistics
  • images
  • 'vox pops' (video footage of) of students or others giving their views on this
 You should include some demographic, census figures in this.


EXTENSION TASKS: review and complete this worksheet:


If there is sufficient, you will also be tasked with completing this:

...

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Some resources you can use not just for this task but for other work (and subjects) too.

BBC BIG QUESTION PROGRAMME
20 min clip of a discussion programme filmed in a York school exploring the question "should we promote a united British identity?"


The reaction to this is notable in itself - look at how these two uploaders put an entirely different slant on this show:


BBC REPORT ON BRITISH v NATIONAL IDENTITIES (census analysis)
In a time of resurgent nationalism in Scotland and Wales, this 7min clip looks at the complexities of fixing on a British identity. There is a real surprise in some of the findings - contrary to the stereotype, older people are LESS likely to identify as British, and this is also true for ethnicity, as is explored in the clip.


BBC REPORT FROM 2008: Ridicule for suggesting promotion of British identity?
The response when a notionally left-wing party, Labour, proposed a national day and compulsory education on British identity, there was widespread resistance and much negative media coverage. This BBC report takes an impartial look at the response to proposals which are similar to those passed some 7 years later by a new right-wing government with little fuss or controversy.


...

Thursday 12 November 2015

PRESS right-wing coverage of para Bloody Sunday arrest

NOTE: this contains a range of complex terms, useful for much more than a General Studies exam. If you are a Media student you will in time be familiar with all of these, but can apply these in a range of subjects.

Nifty bit of content analysis (a 'quantitative,' objective' as opposed to subjective [eg semiotics] research methodology) by Roy Greenslade, reviewing how the story of a British soldier's arrest for murdering civilians in Bloody Sunday was treated.

Greenslade notes how the headlines of three right-wing papers focus on the anger of those opposed to the arrest.

He delves deeper, comparing a count of those quoted who are opposed to the number of relatives of the dead quoted, highlighting the stark disparity.

CHOMSKY AND THE PROPAGANDA MODEL
This, by the way, meshes well with a classic political economy approach, the framework laid out in Chomsky's propaganda model. He proposed that five filters ensure that counter-hegemonic ideas (information or arguments that might undermine the power base of ruling elites - it is Marxist influenced) are filtered out of media discourse; the media function not to underpin democracy but to undermine it. One filter is anti-left-wing propaganda, which we can see very clearly with the hysterical, rabid coverage of Jeremy Corbyn (let's not forget the very timid Ed Miliband, judged to be very right-wing by the Political Compass site, was dubbed Red Ed for his supposedly extreme leftist views!). Another is source strategies: selecting and highlighting sources favourable to the interests of the establishment.

The bias is evident - read Greenslade's analysis for more details.