Government, Day 1 - Class Recap

On the roof of the Bundestag building in Berlin, Germany. This is where the government of Germany meets. Photo taken in 2013.

Hi everyone,

Welcome to a shortened week, with Veterans Day tomorrow! I really enjoyed the discussion today in class. I'm sure it was a nice change from all of the writing students have had to do in the last few days for the class! Here's what happened in class:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 17: I can explain how and why world societies organize themselves and how power is established and maintained.
Communication LT 1:  I can use language and  style that is appropriate to the content area.

Soundtrack: "The War Was in Color" by Carbon Leaf. The reason I chose this song for today is because it is all about a veteran describing war to his grandson. We have Wednesday off of school because of Veteran's Day and it is important that we honor the service of those in our armed forces. Lyrics (which I read part of in class) here.

AGENDA 11/10/15:
News Brief – Rachele
Culture Presentations
Forced Choice
Reflection

Homework: Read the blog. Turn in any late/missing/incomplete culture work (especially DBQs). Next news brief: Emily

News Brief: Rachele had the news brief today and selected an article about this story: NYTimes.com - Russia Says Stalled Arms Deal With Iran Is Signed and Active. We found the Iran in our world maps and noted that we did a news brief on the country. I also mentioned that the deal restricting Iran's nuclear weapons also means that Iran will have some sanctions relief in terms of the United States allowing Iran to have access to funding and ways to improve their economy.

Daisy was selected to do the next news brief.

We also watched the BBC World News one minute update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

BBCNews.com - One-minute World News

I also asked about the weekend and what people were up to, before moving on.

Culture Presentations: Because I wanted to give as much time in class last time to writing the DBQ, we did not have the time for presentations (for the students who chose to do a presentation for the culture project). I enjoyed everyone that went today! Thank you for your effort in crafting great presentations and visuals.

Forced Choice: This is one of my favorite activities of the year. I had the class answer the following questions and choose YES or NO to each of them. Then, we split up the class so that two sides were facing each other. With each question, students moved to the side they felt best represented their opinion on the matter. These are difficult ethical questions and I am glad that we have the type of classroom culture that students feel able to talk about them! The questions were:

1. Giving up some of our rights (like our phones being searched without a warrant) is necessary for our own protection.
2. Everyone in the US should have the right to own guns if they want.
3. Private businesses should be able to choose to not employ people who have a sexual orientation they disagree with.
4. Marijuana should be legalized everywhere for recreational use.
5. Public schools should strictly enforce a standardized dress code.
6. Organized prayer in public schools should be allowed.
7. The government of a country should be able to make unpopular decisions.
8. Should the motto “In God We Trust” be removed from our currency?
9. I agree with the death penalty option for convicted murderers.
10. People in power are always corrupt in some way.

We only made it through question 2 today, so I will pick and choose next class as to which questions we will discuss and debate, before writing a reflective piece about the experience.

In class today, Jonathan F. asked about overall break in rates in the United States. I said I would look up that information, which I am going to assume meant robbery (meaning that people were home at the time). Here is the data for 2014:

FBI.gov - 2014 Crime in the United States: Robbery

It looks like robbery rates have decreased recently, though there were still 325,802 reported in the United States last year.

I love these discussions and I think we did a great job of following the Ground Rules that we established at the beginning of the year.

Thank you for your participation, everyone! Be ready to keep talking next time.