Constitution Test - Class Recap

In 2011, I went to San Francisco for Spring Break (my brother was living there at the time) and took this picture.

Hello everyone,

Welcome to Spring Break! I know that I am certainly looking forward to resting up a bit and coming back with an abundance of energy! Here's what we did today:

Learning Targets Addressed:
SS.HS.KN.ALT.05: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different levels of U.S. government.
SS.HS.CO.ALT.05: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: “Come & Get It” by Selena Gomez. Selected because I think just about everyone is ready for Spring Break. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/21/14:
News Brief
Constitution Test
113th Congress Profile
Computer Lab N228

Homework: Have a great Spring Break! Revise historical investigation, if needed! Read the blog! Next news brief: Marco.

News Brief: Austin had the news brief today and selected this story: CNN.com - President Obama pushes for equal pay for women. It looks like he did this in a speech in Orlando. Remember that most of the time, the President/Executive Branch needs the approval of Congress to make big changes to the government.

We also chatted for a little bit about what we were up to over the break. I hope you all are safe and have fun while resting up!

Constitution Test: I hope that you studied and that this went well for you! I will see how you did after school.

113th Congress Profile: After the test, I went over a worksheet about our current Congress - the 113th in our history. This was a little activity that should help with your knowledge about what Congress looks like in various ways.

Computer Lab N228: To save some paper, we just went to the Computer Lab next door, instead of me printing out various copies of this document for the answers.

FAS.org - Membership of the 113th Congress: A Profile

This should have been a nice and easy way to end the day and move on to Spring Break! Enjoy it - see you all in a week!

Constitution Review - Class Recap

The view from the top of the Washington Monument, looking down the National Mall towards the United States Capitol. Picture taken in 2010.

Hi everyone,

I don't know about you, but I had fun today with our Jeopardy review game, in preparation for the Constitution test next class!

Learning Targets Addressed:
SS.HS.KN.ALT.05: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different levels of U.S. government.
SS.HS.CO.ALT.05: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: “All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow. Selected for today because I was hopeful we were going to have some fun in class. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/19/14:
News Brief
Juvenile Rights
Jeopardy Review
Study Time

Homework: Study for the Constitution test next class! Read the blog! Next news brief: Austin.

News Brief: Micah selected this story to talk about today: CNN.com - Pro-Russians storm Ukrainian navy base in Crimea; deadline set. Thanks, Micah! Remember that the current event write up form is a link under the Ground Rules in the upper right corner of the blog.

Juvenile Rights: For this section, we talked about this article about whether or not life imprisonment for juvenile offenders as old as 13 violate the 8th Amendments protections against "cruel and unusual punishment" - New York Times Upfront - Locked Away Forever.

This certainly prompted some interesting discussion in class!

Jeopardy Review: I always enjoy this activity. Congratulations to Team Blue, who won the game and the taffy! If you missed class, or wanted to see the game again, it is here:

Google Drive - Constitution Jeopardy Review

If you have any questions about this, or what the test (40 questions, multiple choice) looks like, please let me know!

Study Time: With a test on the basics of the Constitution coming up next class, I am hoping that you will use in class time, as well as some out of class time, to study for it.

See you on Friday!

The Rest of the Bill of Rights - Class Recap

It is over a week since the Malaysia Airlines 777 disappeared without a trace. This is an Air France Airbus A340, landing at St. Maarten in the Caribbean in 2009.

Hi everyone,

A full week of school before Spring Break. Let's keep up the hard work! Here's the recap for the day:

Learning Targets Addressed:
SS.HS.KN.ALT.05: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different levels of U.S. government.
SS.HS.CO.ALT.05: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: “Learn to Fly” by Foo Fighters. Selected for today because of the disappearing Malaysia Airlines 777. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/17/14:
News Brief
The Rest of the Bill of Rights
Juvenile Rights
Study Time

Homework: Study the handouts ! Read the blog! Next news brief: Micah.

News Brief: James was a little delayed in getting to class today, so we did not have a news brief section. It was good to hear about a few of your weekends, though!

The Rest of the Bill of Rights: Because I want to get done with the Bill of Rights, today we looked through the details of the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments. Specifically, I started by looking at the cleaned up lyrics to "99 Problems" by Jay Z, then going through a packet of individual U.S. Supreme Court cases that helped set the scope of the Fourth Amendment. Then, I showed this clip to introduce the Fifth Amendment:

This led to another handout, going through the rights of the accused in the United States.

Juvenile Rights: For this section, we started to read this article about whether or not life imprisonment for juvenile offenders as old as 13 violate the 8th Amendments protections against "cruel and unusual punishment" - New York Times Upfront - Locked Away Forever.

Please finish reading this as homework!

Study Time: With a test on the basics of the Constitution coming up this week, I am hoping that you will use in class time, as well as some out of class time, to study for it. 

The Second Amendment - Class Recap

The African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, DC. Look at what the soldiers are holding: guns!

Hello class,

Only one day this week of seeing you! Here's what we did today in class.

Learning Targets Addressed:
SS.HS.KN.ALT.04: I can explain how different ideological movements and philosophies shape politics.

SS.HS.CO.ALT.05: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: “Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns 'n' Roses. Selected for today because we talked about the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is about the right to bear arms (guns). Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/12/14:
News Brief
The Second Amendment
Gun Nation (Pro Gun vs. Anti Gun arguments)
Quiz Retake/Study for Test

Homework: Read the blog! Next news brief: James.

News Brief: Dawnte was not in class today, so we skipped this section. Back to back days of no news briefs! Sad times. I hope you are still following current events involving the United States government!

The Second Amendment: I passed out a sheet of paper that identified some of the issues at debate with the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We talked as a class a bit about these, then watched:

Gun Nation: This was an episode of the television series "30 Days" from Morgan Spurlock. In it, a person who is pro-gun control lives with a very pro-gun family for 30 days. I thought it did a nice job of presenting both sides of the debate. After the episode, we talked as a class about the issues.

Quiz Retake/Study For Test: This was the last class before progress reports are due, so I wanted to give everyone an opportunity to retake the first quiz, which hit the philosophies of government learning target. There will also be a test, probably next Friday, on the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights and some different scenarios involving them.

Have a great weekend!

The First Amendment - Class Recap

I happened to be in Washington D.C. in 2010 when President Obama's healthcare bill was advancing through Congress. There were a lot of angry protesters outside the Capitol!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for checking in on the blog during your long weekend!  Read on to check out what we did today!

Learning Targets Addressed:

SS.HS.KN.ALT.04: I can explain how different ideological movements and philosophies shape politics.
SS.HS.CO.ALT.05: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: “Cry Me A River” by Justin Timberlake. Selected because of the ongoing crisis in Crimea, Ukraine, and because it was raining out today. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/7/14:
News Brief
First Amendment Debates
Tinker v. Des Moines
High School As A Prison

Homework: Read the blog! Next news brief: Dawnte.
--
News Brief: Eddy had the news brief today but it slipped his mind and he was not prepared. Hopefully in the future!

First Amendment Debates: Last class, I handed out a worksheet that had a few questions about what students thought about different aspects of the First Amendment. For instance, should burning the US flag be allowed? We debated our answers as a class. After this, we tried to identify what the most crucial part to the First Amendment is. Was it freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, or petition?

Tinker v. Des Moines: This is a famous U.S. Supreme Court case about freedom of speech at school. Ultimately, the justices decided 7-2 that the students protesting the Vietnam War by wearing armbands were within their rights to do so. A summary of the case can be found here.

As part of this section, we also talked about the flag burning case of Texas v. Johnson. A recap of that, which found that burning the flag was a protected form of speech, can be found here.

High School As A Prison: At the end of class, I read a Rolling Stone article aloud and had students respond to the following questions:

1. Have you ever felt targeted by someone in power? If yes, what happened? If no, why do you think that is?
2. Do you feel more or less comfortable with SSOs with guns at Westview?
3. Do you feel like adolescent students deserve more rights than they currently receive? Can you think of an example? If you were to make a list of 10 rights that every student should have, what would it consist of?

Thanks for your focus and effort in class! Have a great long weekend!

The Political Spectrum and Constitution - Class Recap

This is the room inside Independence Hall in Philadelphia where the Constitution of the United States was debated and signed. Picture taken in 2008.

Dear class,

Thank you so much for another great day of talking, listening, and debating! I hope that you found it as interesting and enlightening as I did. Here's what happened today:

Learning Targets Addressed:

SS.HS.KN.ALT.04: I can explain how different ideological movements and philosophies shape politics.
SS.HS.CO.ALT.05: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: “Get Up, Stand Up” by Bob Marley. Selected for today because we were talking about the Bill of Rights! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/5/14:
News Brief
Political Spectrum
Finish Constitution Questions
The First Amendment

Homework: Read the blog! Next news brief: Eddy.

News Brief: Today's news brief was brought in by Emi. She chose this article to talk about: CNN.com - Court: School was within its rights to ban U.S. flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. This is interesting, especially considering our discussion about the Bill of Rights. Did the students have a right to free speech violated?

I also talked for a while about the ongoing situation in Ukraine, where the U.S. government is trying to help ensure that Russia does not take over.

Political Spectrum: I have kept referring to the different political parties and philosophies in the US government, so I thought it would be good to just go over what they are. Here is a link to the PowerPoint I went through during class:

Google Drive - Political Spectrum PowerPoint

The link to try and do your own political compass test to find where you are on the spectrum (like I did on the last slide of the PowerPoint) is here: Political Compass Test 

Finish Constitution Questions: Next, we went through the answers to the rest of the questions about the Constitution, in regards to how our government is set up. We talked about elements of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the US government.

The First Amendment: At the end of class, I passed out a handout which asked you to think about various aspects of how the First Amendment to the US Constitution applies to our lives. We will have a bit of a debate on this next class!

The Constitution and Bill of Rights - Class Recap

Fireworks over Niagara Falls, in 2009. 

Hi everyone,

Welcome back from your weekend. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets Addressed: 
SS.HS.KN.ALT.04: I can explain how different ideological movements and philosophies shape politics.
SS.HS.CO.ALT.05: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: “We Like To Party!” by Vengaboys. Selected for today because hopefully the weekend was fun! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 3/3/14:
News Brief
Quiz Review
The Constitution
The Bill of Rights

Homework: Read the blog! Next news brief: Emi.

News Brief: Today's article was brought in by Reed, who selected this story: NYTimes.com - Obama Starts Initiative for Young Black Men, Noting His Own Experience. A very interesting story - we know for sure that our young men of color need help. Hopefully this government program will do just that.

Quiz Review: After the news brief, I passed out graded quizzes from last class. I actually felt like I was pretty easy on the grading, but the class average was still around a D for it. If you did not hit proficiency, you definitely need to study and retake it, please! If you have not taken it, please find a time to do so soon.

The Constitution: Finally, we started going through the worksheet answers about what makes up the U.S. Constitution. I enjoyed all of your questions and trying to explain the answers!

The Bill of Rights: The first ten amendments to the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights. To start this section, I showed this clip from The Daily Show, looking at what some people working for FOX News had to say in regards to the Bill of Rights and the Boston Marathon bomber:

After this, we went through the Amendments and tried to put them in our own words. Next class, we will work on the second worksheet for a bit. All of this is so important - it is how our country runs! See you on Wednesday!