Analysis of a real-life bill

Today you were supposed to look at a bill currently in Congress and analyze it. The questions for analyzing are in the make up tray.

The bill we analyzed was H.R 7110 about economic stimulus and job creation. This is an appropriations bill and remember appropriations is a fancy word for government spending. Appropriations bills are the only kind of bill that must start in the house of representatives. Any other kind of bill can begin in either.

Here are some resources for researching the bill:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2008-660
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/98xx/doc9816/hr7110.pdf
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/legislativealert/alerts/upload/house_stimulus092608.pdf
http://blog.ntu.org/main/post.php?post_id=3781

Monday 10/6: Mrs. Abshire is absent

I was sick:(

While I was gone the assignment was to complete the end of chapter questions for ch. 11.

Friday 10/3: Election Update and Committees

On Friday you got an election update about how the candidates for U.S. president felt about the war in Iraq. For later classes we found out in real time that the U.S. Congress and President Bush agreed to pass the $700 Billion bail out package for the economy.

Don't forget: watch any of the debates between presidential candidates and tell me what they said about the issues for extra credit. It will replace your lowest classwork grade!

When we got to work on Congress, we remembered from the days before that the most important step to a bill becoming a law is when the bill is in committee. A LOT is decided there.
We practiced assigning bill to committee. For example, a bill about government spending would go to the appropriations committeel; a bill about a treaty with another country would go to the foreign relations committee; a bill amending the No Child Left Behind Act would go to the committee on Education and Labor; a bill proposing a $700B bailout of the economy would go to the joint economic committee.

U.S. Congress Research Project

Today we began a research project that requires you to use reliable internet resources to research the background, voting record of certain members of Congress as well as the leadership structure of Congress. You will find the research questions and rubric about the project in the makeup work tray in the classroom.

The most common mistake made today that you need to avoid is that people were choosing to research a member of the Texas Congress rather than the United States Congress. Make sure your choices in research are about United States Congress at the federal level.

Some very helpful websites for completing this research project are:
http://www.texas.gov/
http://www.house.gov/
http://www.senate.gov/
http://www.votesmart.org/
http://www.opensecrets.org/

If you choose to use other websites that's fine but be careful. Some of the websites you find on the internet were written by random people and don't have any credibility, and sometimes it's hard to tell what these sites are. For example, wikipedia is a popular place to look up topics but it is not necessarily credible because anyone can go on the website and change things. Be careful when you're researching. Usually anything you find on the school district's library resources page will be good.

How a bill becomes a law

You're never too old for cartoons, especially educational ones. If you are not on an SBISD internet connection I suggest you go to youtube and look up the school house rock song, "I'm just a bill". (If you are on an SBISD computer, try teachertube) We watched "I'm just a bill" today to figure out the steps for how a bill becomes a law. If you were absent today, you need to go to the make up work tray and get the scrambled steps for how a bill becomes a law, cut them out and glue them to a piece of paper in the correct order.

Remember, the most important step in a bill becoming a law is when the bill is in committee. Go to http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/ to see the list of different committees and to see what they're up to.

New Unit: Congress

On Monday we began a new unit, and for the next few weeks we will be studying how the Legislative branch that we call Congress works. Your first assignment was to explore Article 1 of the U.S. Constitutions and answer questions about it. You will find the questions in the make-up work tray in the classroom. You should have also outlined Article 1 in your copy of the Constitution.

Here is some vocabulary that you should know:


•Expressed Powers- powers the Constitution specifically grants to the national government

•Implied powers- inferred from the express powers that allow Congress to carry out its functions.


For example the constitution specifically says that the Congress is allowed to coin money. But nowhere does it say they were allowed to charter a bank. But the power to coin money implies that you need a bank to put it in so the Congress used the Necessary and Proper Clause also known as the Elastic clause to say that they have to power to create a bank.

Another example is that the Constitution specifically grants the Congress the power to Declare War but no where does it say that it gives the government power to collect intelligence. But the power to declare war implies the need to fight war effectively so the government created the CIA.

Over time the Elastic clause has allowed the National government to expand its power.

Federalism

Thursday and Friday in class, we spent time going deeper into the concept of Federalism. Not just what it is but how it works. In previous classes, we learned that Federalism is one of the principles we believe in American government. The concept of Federalism is that some power belongs to the National government and some power belongs to state and local governments. Some powers they both share.

Hurricane Ike was an excellent example of Federalism in action.

We watched clips of President Bush speaking about what the federal government. He urged citizens effected by the hurricane to listen to their state and local authorities who made decisions for their safety. Notice he did not say he himself would be making these decisions. He also said that the federal government would be providing the money needed to recover from the disaster. This was the national response to the disaster.

The local response to hurricane Ike was much different. The city and county governments were responsible for things like issuing mandatory evacuations and city curfews. Local government will also be responsible for things like cleaning up debris and picking up trash from the storm. They will also have to fix stoplights and other public utitilities that were damaged.

Federalism doesn't just kick in when there is a disaster. There are differences in the responsibilities for government every day too.

Here is a chart that shows the different responsibilities of the national and local government on a day to day basis.

You will also need to know where there are examples of Federalism in the U.S. Constitution. If you look at Article 4 you will find three clauses that dictate how the states are to interact with each other:

Full Faith and Credit- each state must recognize the valididty of the laws, public records and court decisions of every other state

Priveleges and Immunities- states cannot discriminate against people from other states

Extradition- rules for how states must turn over their citizens to other states where that citizen has committed a crime

You should also know that when the U.S. Constitution was written, no one ever imagined the national government would have as much power as it does today. The power has been streched over time with the "Elastic Clause" also known as the "neccessary and proper clause" that says the Congress can make the laws that it needs to in order to do its job. The 10th amendment which says all powers not given to the national government are reserved for the state often gets lost in the shadows of the elastic clause.

Principles of American Government

The good news is your presentation for your projects is cancelled. The bad news is the presentation for your projects is cancelled. Some were excited and relieved. Some were disappointed because they had been so creative and wanted the chance to show their good work. In any case, I was very proud of the work that went into the preparation of these projects and they will still be graded accordingly.

BUT that leaves 20 more points in the project to make up so here is how to earn the last 20 points on your project: explain each principle of government in a way that shows me you understand it. You can do this on notebook paper or the sheets the others used in class. Here are notes on the principles which will also be available in the make up work file in the classroom:


Popular Sovereignty
Power of the government comes from the people not from itself. People rule the government and not the government rule the people.

Limited Government
The government has to follow its own rules. Government can’t just do whatever it wants or abuse its power

Separation of Power
To prevent the abuse of power, government is separated into three branches: Legislative, Executive and Judicial.

Checks and Balances
There is no point in separating power if one branch gets enough power to take over and control the others so each branch is given certain powers to check up on the others.

Judicial Review
The Supreme Court’s power to ultimately declare an act of congress or the president unconstitutional. Note it can’t exert this power whenever it wants only when the case is brought to them.

Federalism
Some powers only the national government has. Some powers only the 50 states individually have. Some powers they both can do.

Structure of the U.S. Constitution

Far too many people could not define what a constitution is on their exam. They were confusing it with the Declaration of Independence. We need to clear this up pronto:

The Declaration of Independence is a letter. It is not law. It does not say how to govern. It was written by Thomas Jefferson for the purpose of informing Great Britain that the United States of America was now its own sovereign nation-state and it included a list of grievances against them.

A constitution is a plan of government. Remember that one of the requirements for being a state is having a government. You don't know how your govenrment is supposed to run unless you write it down and that's where a constitution comes in. So while the Declaration of Independence is an important letter in history that Americans are very nostalgic about, the U.S. Constitution effects us every day because it is the way our government runs.

I can guarantee I will ask about this difference on your next exam.

Today I handed out a copy of the Constitution for you to keep. We began an outline of it so we can be familiar with the structure of the constitution. We will constantly refer to this U.S. Constitution every day so you need to bring it with you to class. From now on you may as well call it Constitution class rather than government class.

Exam Day

We took an exam today. If you were absent, you need to make an appointment to take a make-up.

Election stuff/Test on Monday!

Today we took some time out to talk about the Presidential Election. I am going to try my best to take some time out every Friday to talk about it. Before we started, I wanted to find out what everyone already knows and what they want to know about the election so that election discussion doesn't get boring. If you missed today's class you must turn in to me a KWL chart (what you already KNOW/what you WANT to know/what you've LEARNED) with the K and the W parts filled in. This was for a grade.


Also a very important note: Your first exam is Monday! At the end of class I released the essay questions, so you can come to class with your exam essay already prepared. I recommend that everyone do this so that they can put together a well-thought-out and organized answer using whatever resources necessary. If you come to the exam without a prepared answer you will not get to use external resources, only your brain. Here are the questions:

1. Compare two forms of government that are alike. How are they alike and how are they distinct?What makes these two forms different than other forms of government?

2. Explain how social contract theory was an important philosophy to the formation of American government.

Social Contract Theory, John Locke and the Declaration of Independence AND how we decided to write the U.S. Constitution

Social Contract Theory
To continue on with Tuesday's lesson on the Declaration of Independence, we took a look at John Locke's Second Treatises on Government and compared it to what Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration. We highlighted where Jefferson's and Locke's writing is similar. This was for a grade so if you missed it you need to find these papers in the make-up work tray in the back of the room.

Here are some things that are similar about what John Locke and Thomas Jefferson said about the social contract:
Governments get their power from the people. If the government no longer serves the people it can be overthrown.

This is why Jefferson uses Social Contract theory in the Declaration of Independence; it justifies throwing out England.

How the U.S. Constitution came about
After the United States threw England out, they were left with the task of creating their own government. They threw out the government of England because it was too strong and so powerful it abused the citizens' rights. So the Americans put together a government that couldn't abuse the citizens' rights. They made the Articles of Confederation. The problem was they made the government so weak it couldn't do much at all. After about 10 years it became clear that the Articles were failing so they decided to create a new constitution. They did so by creating the U.S. Constitution in Philidelphia in 1787.

There were problems creating this constitution too. For example: how do you fairly represent states in the legislature? Bigger states wanted more representation because they have more people leaving smaller states to be bullied all the time. Smaller states wanted each state to have an equal vote but the big states said each of our people get a smaller slice of the vote that way. They ended up with the Great Compromise which used both plans together: the number of representatives in the House would be determined by population; the number of senators in the Senate would be equal (2 per state); put them together and you've got a bicameral Congress.

The last problem was getting everyone to agree to the new Constitution. Some people said it was too strong we'd end up with another problem like England and our rights aren't written down anywhere to protect us from the government. These people were called the Anti-Federalists. The others said we have to replace the Articles because our government is too weak. They compromised by adding 10 amendments to the Constitution. These 10 amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.

Social Contract in the Declaration of Independence

Today a lot of class time went to talking to Ms. Newburn from the College Room. Please see her if you need any help with getting into college, financial aid or options for training if you don't want to go to college.

Otherwise we started analyzing the Declaration of Independence for places where it's based on Social Contract theory. If you are interested in Social Contract theory, click on the link. Tomorrow we will compare the writings of John Locke to what is in the Declaration of Independence.

Concepts of Democracy

If democracy is so great, why isn't it everywhere? Some places don't have the belief systems in place that allows democracy to flourish. Here are some examples of concepts in place that a democracy believes in:

Worth of the Individual
Everyone, no matter who they were born to or what characteristics they were born with, is important. They are a separate distinct being with worth and dignity.

Equality of all Persons
Even though we are not neccesarily born of the same intelligence or ability, regardless of the arbitrary characteristics of gender or race, we all have the same opportunity and equality in the eyes of the law.

Individual Freedom
We are not absolutely free because that would be anarchy. However we are free to act within the law. On the flip side, government cannot create law that encroaches on our inalienable rights.

Majority Rule, Minority Rights
In a democracy, the power is in the hands of everyone rather than just one or few. But not 100% of everyone is going to agree all the time. This means that the majority is going to rule. But, if the majority takes away the rights of the minority the democracy starts to destruct. For example, most of the United States does not agree with the KKK about their beliefs but we cannont take away their right to talk about them even if we hate what they say. In a democracy the rights of the minority are protected.

Necessity of Compromise
Again, with power in the hands of many instead of a few there are going to be disagreements. Compromise is where two sides of a disagreement find a way to come to an agreement even if it isn't what both sides originally argued for. If we do not agree to give up some of what we want to find an agreement we could regress into violence and the democracy collapses.

Free Enterprise
In a democracy, businesses are run by private people and not the government. It would be a paradox and improbable for people to be free within the law but business run by the state. The businesses are extended the freedoms that people have in a democracy.

Classic Forms of Government

Today we learned about he classic forms of government that are most commonly used by a state.


Feudalism-
The dominant political system in medieval Europe. Based on the rule of local lords bound to a king by ties of royalty. Peasants are ruled by the feudal lords, and lords are ruled and given title by the king.

Classical republic-
A representative democracy in which a small group of elected leaders represent the concerns of the electorate.

Absolute Monarchy-
A form of government in which a king or a queen hold total control of the military and the government.

Authoritarianism-
A form of government in which an individual or group has unlimited authority. No effective restraint on the power of government exists

Despotism-
Rule by a despot, a ruler with absolute power who uses his rule tyrannically.

Liberal Democracy-
Based on the protection of individual rights and freedoms and the consent of the governed. This form of government focuses on protecting individual rights from the tyranny of the majority.

Totalitarianism-
A type of government that attempts to control all facets of citizens’ lives.


Here are some things you should be thinking about when you study these. Who is ruling? and Who is getting ruled? What is the relationship: In a democracy or a republic general populations participate where in the other forms of government the rulers have unlimited power over the people.

the State

Have y'all ever seen Will Smith in the movie Enemy of the State? The state referred to in the title is the Political Science definition for the State. There are 4 requirements a place must meet before it can be considered a state:

It has to have definite borders.
It has to have a population
It has to have a government or in other words an institution that makes and enforces public policy.
It must be sovereign or in other words it rules and controls itself.

This is confusing because most of us already think of states as places like Texas, Florida, New York and California, but this is a different definition. By the definition of "state" that we learned today none of these places is a state because they're not sovereign; they are ultimately part of the United States. For our purposes, examples of a state include the United States, Mexico, Canada, England, France, etc...

There are several theories about how the state came to be.
Force theory says that someone used violence to create and control the first state.
Evolutionary theory says that being the head of a family evolved into a government and when tribes became stationary rather than nomadic, the state was born.
Divine Right theory says that God created the state and kings get their power from God to rule.
Social Contract theory says that men started in a anarchic state then used reasoning to decide to start a society. The state is accountable to the people. This is the most important theory for us because it is the foundation on which our democracy (and most democracies) is built. Philosophers like Hobbes, Rousseau and Locke are famous for writing about it.

Assignment #2 today was:
1. Pick the political theory you think is the most likely. Why is the one you chose the most likely? Are there any flaws in the other theories?
2. Define the state.

Government Class Expectations

Today we went over the class syllabus. All class expectations were exlplained. By tomorrow you should have a notebook so that you can keep all classwork in for notes to study from. Remember you'll need it because tests and projects are worth 50% of your grade. If you need a reminder of what the classroom rules are, here you go:




Assignment #1 today was:
1. Finish the sentence, "Government is..." Include your notion of government. It could be our government or government in general. What do you think government is for. Include all your thoughts.

First Day of School

It was so nice to meet everyone today. I am really glad I made the move to Northbrook. Don't forget to bring back all your papers signed by your parents to your first period teacher. Tomorrow we will be going over the class syllabus.

Thing #23: I've made it.

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
My favorite exercise was the exercise on commenting on other blogs. Before that thing I wasn't really looking out for blogs to read or find applicable one for me. Now I'm looking for blogs and even subscribing to them through an RSS feeder.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
This program has assisted me in my lifelong learning goals by giving me tools through which to learn.

Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was surprised that there was so much I didn't know about. I'm pretty technology savvy (or at least I thought I was) but this has opened up so much more.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Actually I thought it was an excellent concept. The format is fine too. Some times I'm kind of overwhelmed by the amount of links included in an explanation of a thing. Some seem repetitive. It looks a bit cluttered sometimes. Also, I'm surprised that there was nothing about Skype a tool with a lot of potential for the classroom.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
Yes, most likely.

How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things learning activities?
This is the program for any teacher who wants to effectively integrate technology into their classroom