Civic Values Comic Strip!

I think it came out beautifully. I spent 45 minutes working on it, after all. Those hand positions are killer, if I do say so myself.

Classroom Blog 5

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Yesterday in class we participated in an Edcafe, which was like a huge divided discussion. We talked about all the different rights and freedoms provided by the First Amendment and discussed quick topics regarding each one. It was more fun than I expected, and I was able to take a lot of notes on each topic. My topic was freedom of speech, which was a pretty easy topic. My personal favorite wound up being the right to petition the government. I didn't know that that was aspecifically a right, and I thought that was pretty cool.
Today in class, we took a test on this unit. I studied, but when I got to the test, I blanked on a few of the answers. Other than hose few, I think I did pretty well. I hope so. After the test, we received a bunch of papers for the next unit, which I have to sort through now to make sure that it's organized.

Classroom Blog 4

This blog is late due to problems with Firefox.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

On Monday, we continued to look at the Bill of Rights. We received a paper listing the first ten amendments, and then received a scenario. Once we read through it, we had to answer questions about which amendments could help the people in the scenario appeal their convictions. Besides the fact that the scenario was extremely amusing due to the fact that Madonna was a major player, it was a pretty cool activity. I would think that I'd listed all the possible amendments, and then I'd find out that there are actually two more hiding in the next amendment down. It's nice to know that I'm thoroughly covered from any injustice on the governments part. Although, in Madonna's case, I think it might be to late to appeal, considering she's already been hanged.
On Tuesday, we learned about the first party system in the U.S., which was basically just two parties. The Federalists, mostly unchanged, and the Democratic Republicans. The Federalists still believed in a strong central government, but they had further developed their views and now campaigned for the country to be run by the wealthy and well-educated elite. Their ideas about how the country should be run favored traders and merchants, and they saw the Constitution as loose guidelines. The Democratic Republicans favored the small states and farmers, as they saw the Constitution as strict guidelines. Looking at the beliefs of both of the parties, I could see little ideas and beliefs that are present in the major parties today. It just goes to show just how much we are still very connected to our original roots.

Timeline of the Constitution

My timeline which I painstakingly researched and constructed on timetoast.com: I hope you enjoy it!

Classroom Post 3

Thursday, September 20th, 2012

On Wednesday, we learned about the ratification of the constitution. We got copies of the arguments either for the ratification of the Constitution or against it. My group got for the ratification. We then copied down the leaders of the group, which were Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, the five biggest arguments for the ratification, and then a quote that summarizes they're argument best. After we finished, we paired up with someone who had the other argument and shared information. Then, with our new buddies, we got huge sheets of paper and made magazine covers either for the Federalists or Anti-Federalists. My group did Federalist, and we laid down on the floor to draw our cover with our Federalist box of crayons. Today, we went to the computer lab and played a cool game where you get to run a law firm for 8 days and protect people's constitutional rights. It was really fast-pace and super fun; I got 4800 on my first try! It's been a good two days.

Civic Values in my Friends

This is a post about two of my best friends: Jess Macey, who I've know and goofed around with since fifth grade, and Hannah Cagney, who I met in 7th grade.

Branches of Government Diagram

We had to draw this out because our devices weren't working.

Classroom Post 2

Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

For the past two days, we learned about the different branches in our government and how they interact with each other. On Monday, we read three different plans for the Executive Branch by Edmund Randolph, William Paterson, and Alexander Hamilton. Using a chart, we marked down the differences between each plan, like how many people should be in the Executive Branch, what general powers they should have, term length, etc. It was cool to see which ideas made it through to be part of the Executive Branch as we know it today. Today, we received a packet describing the structure of our constitution and congress, and a packet describing the checks and balances between branches. We then got into groups and made diagrams showing either how the checks and balances worked or the three branches of government and some of their characteristics. My group chose to draw a tree with actually branches depicting the judicial and executive branches as well as the two part of congress.

Classroom Post 1

This post is late due to my blog being flagged for spam on Friday.

Friday, September 14th

For the past two days in class, we have been learning about the debates that took place in Congress while forming the government of the United States. On Thursday, we shared information that we had gathered regarding the arguments of William Paterson, James Wilson, George Mason, David Brearly, James Madison, Roger Sherman, Elbridge Gerry, Charles Pinckney, and Oliver Ellsworth. The debates were over bicameralism in the Congress, the Modes of the Election, and the "Right of Suffrage." On Friday, we went over assignments to make sure that everyone was on the same page with when things were due, what was currently assigned, and the specifics of each project.

The Question of Representation fake Twitter URL

Here's the URL from my group's conversation:

www.cheezburger.com/6578255104

Family Civic Values

The URL to my Rewindy Civic Values storyboard.

http://private.rewindy.com/story/LoKGL43S/view/1

Three Artifacts blog

9/6/12

G Period

If, in the future, someone were to dig up three artifacts that helped to describe my life, they would be:

My color guard practice flag. I practice my flag work with it often in order to learn new tosses, memorize work, and maintain muscle over the summer. Both color guard and winter guard are huge parts of my life, as we practice three times a week, participate in competitions, and in the fall, preform at football games as part of the marching band. It's so much fun to do, and everyone on the team becomes close friends. Last winter, my first season, we won the NESBA championship! Since then, my flag and I are inseparable.

My quote book, which was a customized gift from a friend. I always have it near by, and it's continuously filling up with quotes from TV shows, books, video games, friends, and the occasional lunch-room conversation. I keep a quote book just so that I can remember the best moments of a show, day, or book. When I get older, I like to think that I'll be able to look back through the depths of my quote book and reminisce about old friends and the things I used to (and perhaps still do) enjoy.

My ever-expanding library, which, not counting those put away in the attic, currently occupies three and a half shelves in my room. I have classics, science fiction, fairytale, supernatural, historical fiction, and more. Some of them are childhood favorites which I someday hope to pass on to future generations, who will most likely be so buried in technology they will loose track of good literature, some are things that I will reread again and again, and some are books that I know back to front and love completely. As a read more books, they too will be added to my collection. It, like my quote book, is something that will never cease in expansion.