It was a honor to teach you guys. Now, go conquer the world.

Ms. Holland

Finding "Truth" on the Internet

click here.

Interesting...and weird

http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_koblin.html

Presentation for Community Organizing Notes

http://prezi.com/rzanyvkki9cx/community-organizing-and-human-rights-steps/?kw=view-rzanyvkki9cx&rc=ref-18683796

Ms. Holland’s Final Study Guide

1.        Know five different types of government, be able to define them and supply a country that is an example of each.

2.       Be able to explain the checks and balances between Congress and the Executive branches of government.  Use these words to explain your answer:

                                                              i.      Veto power

                                                            ii.      Power to issue executive orders

                                                          iii.      Power as commander in chief

                                                          iv.      Legislative oversight power

                                                             v.      Senate advice and consent power

                                                          vi.      Budgetary power

3.      Know 5 big political parties in the United States

a.       Be able to explain political interest groups and what “dark money” means to politics.

b.      Know redistricting and why it is important.

4.      Know what federalism is.  Be able to discuss the relationship between federal and state power (see that graph in your notebook/text book)

a.       KNOW THAT BECAUSE THE NORTH WON THE CIVIL WAR, FEDERAL POWER ALWAYS WINS OVER STATE POWER because the southern states wanted to keep state power to keep slavery legal and protect their agrarian (farming) economy.

b.      Know why powers are delegated (given) to the states and which powers are delegated (given) to the federal government AND power that they share.

3 TED Videos, the note for these should be in your notebook

1.   Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXsLtHqfdM

2. Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

3.   Five Steps to Tyranny Video

Free Courses at MIT

In science BECAUSE it is important AND FUN!

At what people say is the BEST school to study science at, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

The END of oil

http://www.ted.com/playlists/58/the_end_of_oil.html

Information for your City Pamphlets!

City of Los Angeles
http://www.lacity.org/ForResidents/index.htm

San Pedro
http://www.sanpedro.com/

Barcelona
http://w3.bcn.cat/XMLServeis/XMLHomeLinkPl/0,4022,196254847_196260579_3,00.html

San Francisco
http://www6.sfgov.org/index.aspx?page=2

London
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/Pages/default.aspx

Press Release Format

Format

There is a fairly standard format for creating press releases. It will help your credibility and chances of being published if you present your material this way. Each press release should include the following:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:	These words should appear at the top left of the page, in upper case. If you don't want the story to be made public yet, write "HOLD FOR RELEASE UNTIL ...." instead.
Headline	Just like a headline in an newspaper. Make sure this describes the content of the story.
City, State/Country - Month Day, Year	These details precede the story and orient the reader.
Body	This is where the actual story goes. There should be more than one paragraph, each paragraph no more than a few sentences. If there is more than one page, write "-more-" at the bottom of the page.
Company/organization info	Include any background information about the company or organization featuring in this press release.
Contact Information	Include contact person, company name, phone/fax, email, physical/postal address.
ENDS or ###	This indicates the end of the press release.
(xxx words)	If you like you could include the total number of words contained in the press release.

Interesting story about a Head Usher who ran the White House

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irwin_%22Ike%22_H._Hoover

Redistricting

How California Redistricts:

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Redistricting_in_California

Democracy is not a spectator sport - Zinn

Watch.

Register to VOTE!

http://registertovote.ca.gov/

Choose Your Political Party Quiz

http://www.people-press.org/political-party-quiz/

Want to take a class at class at America's top universities for FREE!

https://www.coursera.org

seriously!  check it out!

Protest Chart

1.  Find four issues you would like to change in the United States (immigration, class sizes, etc).

2.  At least TWO must be modern issues that are relevant to today.  The other TWO can be historical if you want.

3.  Answer all the questions on the graph you copied in class, there is also a copy below.

Directions:  As you examine the four examples, put a check in the box if the example meets the specific criteria.  After you investigate all of the examples you will be able to compare and contrast them using the chart. 

Data Retrieval Chart

Examples	Does the example emerge as a result of suffering, estrangement, and/or alienation?	Does the example challenge the status quo or “tradition”?	Does the example diagnose a problem and suggest a solution?	Does the example identify the various sides of the challenge?
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4

Government Hours

A townhall meeting to discuss the events happening at the other campus will be tomorrow!  They want students to come and say something! Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood council meeting TOMORROW 9/24/12 from 630pm-930pm.  

Our New Class President Is....

Christan Akens!

Here is the talley:

Christan Akens - 17 votes
Summer Haynes - 10 votes
Nichelle Spencer - 9 votes
Johnny Purvis - 4 votes
Jeorge Herrera - 3

Excellent class today guys!  It takes A LOT of guts to stand at the front of the room and put the work in.  Very proud of all of the Presidental nominees.  If you lost remember this, it took Thomas Edison 10,000 tries to make the lightbult.  He said,

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways not to make a lightbulb."

Culminating Project #1 Constitution Rubric

Rubric for Constitution Project

I have purposely not given specific guidelines on how your constitution should look because I encourage creativity and demand effort.  You have to put the work in i.e. I won’t accept some words randomly written on lined paper. 

This portion has two parts:

1.     The first part is composed of the answers to the questions below. 

2.     The second part is your constitution.

Use your imagination.  You have just been handed the power to create your own government and that is a lot of power. What would your government look like and why.

1.     Answer these questions below to guide you in creating your constitution.  Then, use the answers for the written portion of the assignment.

a.     Pick a political philosophy (direct democracy, republic, dictatorship, socialist, communist etc) and design a government body around with laws.

Answer these questions below to see what kind of political philosophy you might agree with:

                                                        i.     What are your beliefs on equality?

1.     What laws would you create to protect/define equality?

2.     What would your government look like to protect and enforce the equality laws you make?

                                                       ii.     What rights to you believe we should have?

1.     What laws would you create to protect/define rights?

2.     What would your government look like to protect and enforce the rights your citizens should have?  For example: will you have a Supreme Court to protect rights, a Congress to make them and Executive to enforce laws?  If you are dictator, will you have a strong police force?

3.     Are your rights “unalienable” rights?

4.     Do you have a Constitution and/or Bill of Rights? Why or Why not?

                                                     iii.     What do you define as liberty?

1.     What laws would you create to protect/define liberty?

2.     What would your government look like to protect and enforce the liberty?

                                                     iv.     What do you think is opportunity? (think education, small business loans things that help people move out of poverty)

1.     What laws would you create to protect/define opportunity?

2.     What would your government look like to protect and enforce the opportunity?

b.     Compare and Contrast your government/constitution to the United States Constitution.  Specifically, explain how your laws and government differ or are similar to the American Constitution and Bill of Rights.  Does the “central” government is Washington D.C. hold more power than the state or does the state hold more power than the “central” (Washington D.C.)? Why? Why not?

c.     Cite at least 3 founding ideals and why you agree or disagree with them.

Everyone must create a constitution for themselves, but if you get lost feel free to talk to me for guidance.

Checklist (I will use this to grade your project)

Student    Teacher

_______   ________  Constitution has a political philosophy(direct democracy, socialist, etc)

_______  ________   It must be clear what kind of government you have made (democracy etc) and why you have made it that way.

_______   ________  Does your government have a structure like a Congress/Supreme Court etc  

                             (a way of running)?

_______   ________  Are the laws of your constitution understandable, easy to follow and enforceable?

_______  ________   How is it different from the American Constitution?  Give examples. 

_______  ________   Did you answer all the questions above?

	Exceptional	Proficient	More Effort Needed
	100   points	80   points	30   points
Focus	Totally on topic; all parts of the assignment are fully addressed	Mostly on topic; all parts of the assignment are generally addressed OR one aspect of the assignment is not addressed	Vaguely or not at all on topic; many parts of the assignment are not addressed or are only superficially addressed
Substance	10 points	8 points	3 points
	Fully developed ideas with coherent reasoning and/or supporting	Ideas not completely developed; some sloppy reasoning or poorly selected examples	Ideas not developed; lacking sufficient detail to understand the thoughts behind the words
Clarity	5	3.5	1.5
	Logical organization of ideas; complete sentences; very few spelling and grammar errors	Somewhat logical sequence of ideas; mostly complete sentences; some spelling and grammar errors	Disorganized thoughts; multiple sentence fragments or spelling and grammar errors that distract from the ideas being expressed

Creativity Bonus – You may earn up to 3 extra credit points for taking an exceptionally creative approach to the assignment or for being particularly insightful.

Civil Rights in times of crisis

Dear Class,

I appreciate all your participation in class today.  I also appreciate that all those different opinions can make for strong emotions, but ideas and discussion of those ideas are the core of freedom and American government.  So I present you with this video of Dr. Martin Luther King, and I beg you watch it.  Not because it is required, but because he felt his death upon him, faced his fears and pronounced his beliefs.  Pay careful attention to his references to the mountain top and how he might not make it with you but "he has seen the promise land."  

He was murdered the next day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1IQfRRl_W4

Another very brave person, that many people do not know about, is Dolores Huerta.  Who was a pioneering woman that is as much responsible for the rights of farm workers as Cesar Chavez!

This is Ted Kennedy's speech at his brother Bobby Kennedy's funeral.  Ted's oldest brother Joe died in World War II, his second oldest brother John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 while President of the United States, and his third brother, Bobby, was assassinated several years after JFK.  This is Ted's eulogy (speech) at the funeral of his brother Bobby, the third of his family to die.  It speaks of the will it takes to change the world.

Grades

I have uploaded grades for those who turned in the stories on democracy, the summaries and your notebooks.  

Homework Due Thursday 8/30/12 Current Event & Notebook

The next step of this assignment is to write a summary, in your own words, of an article on democracy.  Democracy is hard to attain and even harder to keep.  This is what I want:

1. Go to our new class news reel at:   http://hollandsbiz.blogspot.com/
2. Pick one of the stories that your fellow classmates have found and write what you think of it. (YOU CAN ALSO USE YOUR OWN STORY THAT YOU SUBMITTED TO ME TODAY.)
3. Email me your summary at ms.saraholland@gmail.com OR bring it on Thursday 8/30/12.
4. Pat yourself on the back for doing your work.
5. Smile.
6. See notebook rubric below 

NOTEBOOK Checklist and Rubric

Principles of American Democracy

FIRST NOTEBOOK Checklist Rubric – DUE THIS THURS. 8/30/12

Student Check	Teacher Check	Assignment
		Question 1:  What ideals are important to you?
		Question 2:  What makes a state?
		Question 3:  What political philosophy do you support?
		Question 4:  Respond to this quote by John Adams.  “The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking and writing.”
		Question 5:  Can you think of something you have done that is courageous?
		Question 6:  Can you think of historical acts of courage?
		Classwork:  Five ideals with definition, theorist quote, founding father quote.
		Question 7:  Write one law for each of the five ideals of the US government.
		Classwork:  Graph of Six Big Ideas of the Constitution

READ THESE!

·       Your notebook MUST contain all of the above to get credit.  This checklist along with the graph is available on the class blog:  www.mshollandsgov.blogspot.com

·       THE NOTEBOOK MUST ALSO BE NEAT.  If stapled or glued it must be placed in notebook nicely.

·       Please label each of the assignments as labeled above, so I can indentify it easily.

·       You are also being graded on how well you completed the work.  One sentence answers will not do.