Constitution Day 2011

Constitution Day commemorates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution by thirty-nine brave men on September 17, 1787, recognizing all who, are born in the U.S.or by naturalization, have become citizens!

Do you know that many US citizens have never read any part of our Constitution.

So, let's start small: Here is the preamble to our Constitution. Read it!

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

What are YOU doing?

• Today, you are going to encourage the students and staff @ Hanover to READ and be familiar with some aspect of our US Constitution.



• You must have an part of an excerpt and a cool fact from the Constitution included on your visual.
  

What type of visual you choose and how you will do this will be up to you. We will display them throughout the campus.

Be creative! Due Monday 9/19.

Don't feel limited to web 2.0 tools, but here are some that I dig!

http://bighugelabs.com/ Make motivational posters, magazine covers and more....

http://www.wordle.net/ Fun with word clouds...

Awesome article, I suggest you check it out! http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2079445,00.html

Thanksgiving Response

Comment on the excerpt from Lies My Teacher Told Me from class today 9/15. Responses can range from your thoughts, opinions, theories on why many history books fail to mention some of this information. Must be at least 2 paragraphs. A paragraph is between 3-5 sentences.

Honors Civics: 2nd block 9/13

Here are your questions from the article today 9/13.

Please answer all questions and all parts of questions on a separate sheet or log in with a google account and comment on the blog. Repsonses due by Thursday 9/15 @10pm.

1. Define: Molotov cocktail, counterterrorism
2. “Because of the widespread distribution, and because of past controversies like a 2009 report on right-wing extremism that irked Congress and veterans, the reports are typically stripped of sensitive detail.” This refers to a Homeland Security memo arguing that returning veterans, and people angry with government in difficult economic times, might take up terrorism. Would this have been more useful to law enforcement than the other examples in the article?
3. Why do local officials find the information that Homeland Security sends to be useless? What kind of information would be useful to stopping terrorists?
4. What reason would a Homeland Security agent have for sending a useless memo? What would be the potential consequences, to the agent or the Department, of not sending the memo?
5. What reason would a Homeland Security agent have for not sending a useless memo? What are the potential consequences, to the agent, if he sends the memo?
6. How could the Homeland Security Department know what information will be useful to local governments and what information will be useless?
7. Is it possible for one agency to know, ahead of time, what information another agency will need to prevent an attack? Why or why not?
8. Before a terrorist attack happens, how well do you think an agency will know what information may prove crucial to preventing the attack? How well do we know this after the attack happens?

Modern Governments

Hey 2nd block! You are probably wondering what to do with the map. Well, follow the directions first but add a different color for each country. Go the extra mile and create a color key to correspond! Have fun!

Reflect on these questions:

1. What do you notice about the locations of these countries?

2. Do you notice a pattern?

3. Why do you think these types of governments exist there?

4. Have you ever wanted to travel to any of those places?

5. Would you like to live there now knowing the political structure that is in place?

TOTD 5/23-5/27

Read the above article and answer the following questions:

Article 1: Republic vs Democracy
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/opinion/06brooks.html

1.What are some ways that the Constitution restrains the people? Why would the people ever agree to restrain themselves?
2. How often have you heard someone talk about “the will of the people”? Will people be likely to restrain their passions if they believe the will of the people is the highest authority?
3. Brooks says that aversion to debt “has clearly been overcome.” Why does he say this? Do you agree? Explain.

Article 2: U.S. Effort to Remove Drug CEO
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704123204576283283851626952.html
1. Why do you think government officials are trying to force out the Forest CEO over Forest’s violation?
2. What is the difference between holding a company responsible for violating the law and punishing its CEO?
3. Is a CEO responsible for everything that his company does or is the owner or Board of Directors responsible? Explain.
4. Why does government have so much power over what drugs the poor and elderly use? Should it use its power in the way that the article describes?
5. Will government’s actions against Forest’s CEO lead to fewer violations of the law by drug companies? Explain.

TOTW 5/16-5/20 (2 articles)

Now, to Find a Parking Spot, Drivers Look on Their Phones

Click on the link below to read this article and answer the following questions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/technology/08parking.html#

1.Why don’t people have to try very hard to seek out most goods?
2. Why hasn’t this been true of public parking spaces?
3. What has the private sector done to make parking easier?
4. In economics, “quantity demanded” refers to the number of people who will want to purchase a good at a given price; “demand” refers to the set of these numbers for a good at all possible prices. Explain what is wrong with the author’s use of “demand” in this sentence: “Eventually officials hope to be able to make regular adjustments to pricing on parking meters…so they can spread out demand, raising prices in areas where competition is fiercest and lowering it elsewhere.”
5. Is it fair that only those with smartphones will be able to take advantage of the system? Explain.

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Families along U.S.-Mexico border face tough school choices-Washington Post


http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/families-along-us-mexico-border-face-tough-school-choices/2011/04/20/AFEDlMTG_story.html

Click on the link above to read this article and watch the short clip. Make sure to respond to the following questions.


1. Why do nations and borders exist?

2. Why do states and districts have residency requirements for students?

3. Why do these people think Martinez needs to be with her kids? Why don’t they think Perdomo needs to be with them?

4. Why did the school principal talk to the Washington Post about his opinion of what Martinez should do? Why did they ask him?

5. What is more important- having a good home and family or a good school? Do the girls have a good home and family now? Would they if their mother separated from their father?

6. What would you have done if you were Princess Martinez?

Japan's Nuclear Crisis TOTW 5/9-513

Check out this story and answer the following:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/04/japans_nuclear_crisis

1. What does the Economist think about comparisons of Japan to Chernobyl?
2. How do you think this disaster will impact the US?
3. What are your thoughts on this issue/article?