11 & 14 January

Today's starter was: Have you ever had a really good idea - I mean a really good idea - and when you shared this idea with other people they either didn't like it or they may have even put your idea down.  Tell me about it -

Today we watched a little bit more of A More Perfect Union.  As we watched it we also paused to take notes on the Virginia and New Jersey Plans, as well as the Great Compromise.  We then looked at the early influences of the Constitution.

9 & 10 January

Today's starter was: Was the Federal Government under the Articles of Confederation weak or strong?  Why did they make it that way?

After discussing the starter we reviewed the important points from our last class session:

• Constitutions limit the powers of governments and list the rights of the citizens
• The first government of the United States was the Articles of Confederation
• This government was intentionally weak - the states had most of the power
• The states feared the return of a king or a government that would take away their rights

Today we looked at the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation, as well as its strengths.

We began watching A More Perfect Union: America Becomes a Nation.  This movie was made by Brigham Young University and it does a good job of outlining the events leading to the Constitutional Convention, as well as showing the creation of the Constitution.

7 & 8 January

Our starter for today was:  What is the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution?  

We collected the starters today - these will be the last set of starters that will be counted on term 2.

Please take a look at your grades on Skyward - there will not be any new assignments added to this term so your grade can not go down.  If you would like to have a higher grade for Term 2, please turn in any missing assignments or complete any re-dos by Monday at 2:00 at the very latest.  I would prefer all late work/re-dos turned in Monday morning.

I gave each class 20 minutes to work on the Revolutionary War Theme Park (test).  This will be due next Tuesday (for A days) or Wednesday (for B days).  It will be the first grade on Term 3.

Today we began our study of the U.S. Constitution.  We began with a very brief overview of different political systems that are used throughout the world.  We briefly discussed what a constitution is and how it is different from simply being a collection of laws.  We then looked at the Articles of Confederation and some of their weaknesses.  We will go into more depth on the Articles next time.

17 & 18 September

The 17th marked the 225th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America.
 

The starter for today was: What information can you find in a constitution?

We took the test on Explorers.  If you missed the test, or would like to re-take the test, come in before or after school or during TEAL Time.

We created our own constitutions in small groups and then looked at the structure of the government under the Constitution.  We also looked at the Bill of Rights.