Executive Branch, Day 3 - Class Recap

Then Senator Barack Obama when he visited Portland near the start of his Presidential campaign in 2007.

Dear class,

Today, we started the Cabinet Project! The Presidential Cabinet is a very important part of how the Executive Branch functions. Here's what happened today in class:

Learning Targets Addressed:
Knowledge LT 2: I can demonstrate an understanding of the role of governments in current issues.
Knowledge LT 5: I can demonstrate an understanding of the principles, structures, and functions of different branches of U.S. government.
Critical Thinking and Reasoning LT 3: I can apply understanding of ideas and concepts to a new context or problem.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Research LT 1: I can effectively conduct and apply research.

Soundtrack: "Step in the Name of Love" by R. Kelly. Selected for today because of us stepping to start the Cabinet Project later in class. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 4/20/17:
News Brief - Jacob Mr. Fritz
The Presidency
Cabinet Project
Work Time

Homework: Read the blog. Study the cabinet descriptions reading. You might want to download the pdf and then rotate the page (because it is in landscape format). Or, just turn your head, I guess)! Continue working on Cabinet project. Next news brief: Saige.

News Brief: Jacob had the news brief today, but was not in class, so I filled in and selected this article to talk about with the class: CNN.com - Judge denigrated by Trump as 'Mexican' will hear key deportation case. We talked briefly about this article, and then discussed the horrors of ACT day yesterday, before moving on.

Julio was assigned to do the next news brief.

The Presidency: We finished going through The Presidency reading and questions:

Google Drive - The Presidency Reading

These are the questions that go along with the reading:

Google Drive - The Presidency Questions

Cabinet Departments: For this section, we went over what the various different presidential cabinet departments are responsible for. We also watched this video, so everyone could see what it looks like in real life:

We will be doing a similar sort of activity in class, with me playing the role of the President and the class taking on the various department heads!

Cabinet Project: Here's a link to the cabinet project (advising the President) that we worked on in class today:

Google Drive - Presidential Cabinet Assignment Handout

As a heads up, obamawhitehouse.gov might be better than whitehouse.gov currently for this assignment, since President Obama's has 8 years of content and development, while President Trump just started and does not have much there (if you can find stuff, please go ahead and use the current president's website)!

Here are the sign ups for each of the cabinet positions:

Agriculture: Mariah
Commerce: Nicole
Defense: Autumn and Jesus
Education: Sarah and Fatimah
Energy: Taylor and Colleen
Health and Human Services: Tsering
Housing and Urban Development:
Interior: Darius and Jacob
Justice: Julio and Anakin
Labor: Ziggy and Ja’Quay
Transportation: James
Treasury: Nate and Genevieve
Veteran’s Affairs: Isaiah and Jason
Homeland Security: Alyssa
Environmental Protection Agency: Seth and Ethan
US Mission to the United Nations: Arafat
State: Jacki and Kendall

If you missed class, please see where you are on the list and who your partner is!

Work Time: We spent the second half of class working on Chromebooks on this assignment. We will also spend much of next class doing this, and the cabinet project assignment will be due on Wednesday.

See you next class!