Thursday, January 4, 2018

State and Local Government, Day 1 - Class Recap

The beach at Puerto Vallarta, on Christmas Eve, 2015.

Dear class,

Welcome back from Winter Break! Today, I introduced the last major assignment of the year, with the State/Local government project. 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. 

Soundtrack: "Welcome Back" by Ma$e. Selected for today for obvious reasons. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 1/4/18:
News Brief – Mr. Fritz
Welcome Back
State/Local Government
Project Work

Homework: Read the blog. Turn in any missing/incomplete work - especially the Citizenship Paper from last class if you did not finish. Next news brief: Jacqueline.

News Brief: I had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - Sessions to nix Obama-era rules leaving states alone that legalize pot. This was a story that just came out this morning, which could potentially have impacts on the state of Oregon, as we have legalized recreational marijuana.

I also talked about the reason I was absent from school just before Winter Break started: my uncle and aunt were killed in a bus accident in Mexico that made the news, here: WashingtonPost.com - Americans among 12 killed in bus crash during Mexican cruise excursion. After my dad's death, I became even closer with my Uncle Andy and Aunt Jody, so their deaths are especially hard to fathom, as well. The memorial service for both of them is this Saturday in Olympia, Washington. It was a very challenging break, for sure. I appreciate everyone's kindness and understanding during this time.

Jacqueline 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 class 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! The rest of the class was spent working on the Chromebooks, 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!

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