Quote of the Week and Thanksgiving Weekend!

Part I: As you may know, last Friday was the 50th anniversary of John Fitzgerald Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, Texas. JFK was the 35th president of the United States and was well respected by Americans at the time. JFK once said:

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Explain this quote. What did JFK mean by it? What does it mean to you? Do you agree or disagree with a quote like this and how important is its meaning to you? Be thorough and thoughtful in your response please :)

As a second part to your post, this Thursday is Thanksgiving.  What are your plans for the day?  Do you have any plans for the rest of the week with your extra days away from school?  What do you have in your life to be thankful for?

Thanks for your response and we will be beginning current events shortly :)

Serving You Community (Part II)

Good Morning!  Happy Monday and Welcome to our 2 day week!!  This morning for your blog I would like you to narrow down the response you gave on Friday regarding a variety of community issues and choose one.  For today's blog you should make a proposal to address a problem in your local community.  One way to do this is by proposing a solution.  Think about the following questions as you write your blog.  Remember that we have limited time for this class project - if there is a large, complex issue that really holds your interest think about ways to break it down into smaller chunks and view your proposal as the first step of the solution or just a small part of the solution.  Your post should address some, if not all, of the following questions:

• What is the problem your proposal will address?
• Who is affected by the problem?
• What is causing the problem?   What is its history?
• Has anyone tried to address this problem before?   How?   What happened?
• How do people in the community feel about this problem?
• What might some possible solutions be?   Weigh the pros and cons of each.
• What questions do you have that would help you come to a possible solution?
• What resources exist that might help you address this issue you have chosen?

Take your time - this is an important step in the process of choosing an issue!!  We will discuss as a class in a few minutes!

Serving Your Community!

Good Morning and Happy, Happy Friday!!  For today's blog, we have a 2 part question:

Part I:  Do you know that young people today in 2013 are serving their communities at record numbers. Each year, approximately 13 million teens give 2.4 billion hours of service back to their communities. Brainstorm as many ways that you could think of that you could "give back" and/or "serve" your community.  Can you give any examples of ways that you already have helped support your community?  List as many as you can and, for each one, make a note of how your action would and/or has benefited your community.

Part II:  Problems are part of life -- they go together with being alive. And every community has problems, too; they go together with being a community. Can you name the leading problems in your own community?  Below are some questions you can think about as you attempt to identify some issues:

• The problem occurs too frequently. (frequency)
• The problem has lasted for a while. (duration)
• The problem affects many people. (scope, or range)
• The problem is disrupting to personal or community life, and possibly intense. (severity)
• The problem deprives people of legal or moral rights. (equity)
• The issue is perceived as a problem. (perception)

Keep in mind that what is seen as a problem can vary from place to place, and from group to group in the same place.

Current Bills in Congress

Good Morning and Happy Monday -

Having just finished looking into and better understanding how an individual thought can become a law (and the process it takes) a natural next step seemed to be looking into a few bills that are currently being considered in Congress.  Using the Thomas Web site (http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.php) choose several bills which are currently being considered in Congress or that have been proposed but not acted upon by Congress. You can find some valuable information as well at onopencongress.org under “Bills”.  Ultimately, you will select one bill. Research the bill and respond to the following questions.

• Who are the authors of the bill?
• What is the purpose and intent of the bill?
• Which interest groups have a stake in the outcome of this bill and why?
• Is this bill promoting the common good of the country, the special interest of a select group, or perhaps even harming the common good of the country? Explain
• Which committee or committees are hearing the bill?
• Is support for the bill divided along political party lines, and if so, why?
• Who is the chairperson of the committee and who is the ranking member of the minority party on the committee(s) which will hear the bill?
• How many members does each committee have, and how are they divided among the two political parties?
• In closing, state and describe the key arguments for and against the bill in your own words. How will this impact you and your community?  

Following your write-up, you will be asked to briefly summarize the key elements of the bill you have chosen.  You may be interested in looking into what some of our local congresspeople have either authored or supported (Diane Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Jackie Speier, Anna Eshoo) but that is not at all a requirement.

Thanks!  

Your Idea can Become a Law!

Good Morning!!  Today we have a block day and what better way to spend it than looking closer at how a bill becomes a law!  This concept will be critical to you being successful in our final project of the year as you work to develop ideas and concepts that are critical to the betterment of your community!!  You can change your community, school, state and country!  Yes You Can!

To get started today, we are going to watch a short video cartoon about how a bill becomes a law.  You can watch it on your own here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0 if you were either late to class (or absent).

For your blog post, please highlight as much as you can about how a bill becomes a law. You can begin writing your post during the video (I will show it twice).  In addition, please note why you think it is particularly important for people to know this process!

Thanks for your thoughts - we'll get started as a group shortly!

Getting Back On Track

Good Morning and Happy TUESDAY!

I really hope you had a great 3 day weekend and are ready for a wild end to the first semester.  Can you believe that 2 weeks from today will be our final class before heading off for the Thanksgiving holiday?  Then, we come back for a whopping 2 weeks before finals!! That really means 3 weeks, dead week and then finals.  For today's blog, please respond to the following questions:

1.  How was your 3 day weekend?  What was the single most fun thing that you did?  How did you spend the majority of your time over the weekend?  Did you work, play with friends, go shopping, spend time with family, etc and what did you do?

2.  What are your academic goals between now and Thanksgiving?  How are you feeling about your classes here at M-A?  Are there any you are either struggling in or stressed about?  Is there anything you are struggling with that is not related to your courses at M-A?  Work?  College Applications? Scholarships?

Thanks for your thoughtful responses!  We do have current event presentations today and we will get started shortly :)

The Birth of our Constitution

Good Morning and Happy Happy Friday!

This weekend is a 3 day weekend!  After all, Monday is Veteran's Day, a day to honor those who have served in the armed forces.  This week we spent a significant amount of time working on a packet that discussed the basis for our Government - the legislative, judicial and executive branches, how they came to be and some of the nuts and bolts of how our government operates.  For your blog post today (and before we take a brief quiz) describe what you learned about our government from completing this packet.  You can discuss any of the many topics that were discussed in the packet and that you were not aware of before!

Thanks and I hope you do have a better understanding of our Government now that you have completed this assignment!

Election Day!

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday -

Today is November 5th and while we won't take much time to discuss the various measures on the ballot

today, today does represent another perfect example of how our democracy works as people have the opportunity to go to the polls and choose what they believe is best for both themselves and community.  Today I would like you to take a look at the following site:

http://www.smartvoter.org/2013/11/05/ca/

Choose a measure that seems interesting to you and discuss the following:

1.  What is the ballot measure trying to accomplish?
2.  What is the cost to the residents in that town/city/county?
3.  What percentage of people need to vote in favor of this measure in order for it to pass?
4.  What do you think of this ballot measure?  Should it pass or fail?

Thanks for your insight!  Maybe it will help some of us at the polls today :)