The beach at Puerto Vallarta, on Christmas Eve, 2015.
Welcome back, everyone!
It was really great to see you all today in class. I'm thankful that I have a job that I am so excited to come back to after Winter Break, to see everyone! Here's what happened in class today:
Learning Targets Addressed:
Knowledge LT 2: I can demonstrate an understanding of the role of governments in current issues.
Knowledge LT 6: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different levels of U.S. government.
Research LT 5: I can effectively conduct and apply research.
Critical Thinking and Reasoning LT 3: I can apply understanding of ideas and concepts to a new context or problem.
Knowledge LT 6: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different levels of U.S. government.
Research LT 5: I can effectively conduct and apply research.
Critical Thinking and Reasoning LT 3: I can apply understanding of ideas and concepts to a new context or problem.
Soundtrack: "Welcome Back" by Ma$e. Selected for obvious reasons. Lyrics here.
AGENDA 1/6/16:
News Brief – Mr. Fritz
Unit Overview
State/Local Project
Library Computers
Homework: Read the blog. Turn in any missing/incomplete work. Next news brief: Alex.
News Brief: I started off class by checking in about Winter Break, then talked about this article as my news brief for a recent story affecting our government: TIME.com - Read Barack Obama’s Speech on New Gun Control Measures. Specifically, I read this section, which reminded me of some of the Forced Choice debate questions we engaged in as a class at the start of the semester:
Now, I want to be absolutely clear at the start — and I’ve said this over and over again, this also becomes routine, there is a ritual about this whole thing that I have to do — I believe in the Second Amendment. It’s there written on the paper. It guarantees a right to bear arms. No matter how many times people try to twist my words around — I taught constitutional law, I know a little about this — (applause) — I get it. But I also believe that we can find ways to reduce gun violence consistent with the Second Amendment.
I mean, think about it. We all believe in the First Amendment, the guarantee of free speech, but we accept that you can’t yell “fire” in a theater. We understand there are some constraints on our freedom in order to protect innocent people. We cherish our right to privacy, but we accept that you have to go through metal detectors before being allowed to board a plane. It’s not because people like doing that, but we understand that that’s part of the price of living in a civilized society.
I also talked about the Republican opposition to President Obama's plan, in wanting to focus more on mental health treatment. An ongoing debate, for sure!
Alex was selected to do the next news brief.
Unit Overview: Today, we started our work with State and Local government unit (our last main one before the end of the semester). To begin, I had students do a simple fill-in-the-blank overview of the main concepts. The completed form is here:
State/Local Project: The final assignment for the unit is this project, which is a two page paper, with at least three MLA citations, about a local issue that you care about. It will be due in a few days (we have at least the next two days in the library to be working on it), and you will probably be asked to give a short (like a minute or two) presentation. Here's the handout:
I went through the assignment in depth in class, and talked about possible issues for students to research. Basically, go with something you are interested in! It's really up to you - just run it by me, first!
Library Computers: The rest of the class was spent in the library on the computers, researching for the State and Local assignment, I think most students are set with knowing what their problem is and how to research it. We will continue doing this next class. Thanks!
Now, I want to be absolutely clear at the start — and I’ve said this over and over again, this also becomes routine, there is a ritual about this whole thing that I have to do — I believe in the Second Amendment. It’s there written on the paper. It guarantees a right to bear arms. No matter how many times people try to twist my words around — I taught constitutional law, I know a little about this — (applause) — I get it. But I also believe that we can find ways to reduce gun violence consistent with the Second Amendment.
I mean, think about it. We all believe in the First Amendment, the guarantee of free speech, but we accept that you can’t yell “fire” in a theater. We understand there are some constraints on our freedom in order to protect innocent people. We cherish our right to privacy, but we accept that you have to go through metal detectors before being allowed to board a plane. It’s not because people like doing that, but we understand that that’s part of the price of living in a civilized society.
I also talked about the Republican opposition to President Obama's plan, in wanting to focus more on mental health treatment. An ongoing debate, for sure!
Alex was selected to do the next news brief.
Unit Overview: Today, we started our work with State and Local government unit (our last main one before the end of the semester). To begin, I had students do a simple fill-in-the-blank overview of the main concepts. The completed form is here:
This was meant as a general overview. We will get into some specifics in the coming days.
State/Local Project: The final assignment for the unit is this project, which is a two page paper, with at least three MLA citations, about a local issue that you care about. It will be due in a few days (we have at least the next two days in the library to be working on it), and you will probably be asked to give a short (like a minute or two) presentation. Here's the handout:
I went through the assignment in depth in class, and talked about possible issues for students to research. Basically, go with something you are interested in! It's really up to you - just run it by me, first!
Library Computers: The rest of the class was spent in the library on the computers, researching for the State and Local assignment, I think most students are set with knowing what their problem is and how to research it. We will continue doing this next class. Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please enter your comment. I will review the comments before posting them to the blog, so do not worry if yours does not pop up right away. Remember, do your best with spelling and grammar! :-)