April 29 & 30

We had a little hiccup in getting things prepared yesterday.  Sorry about that.

So, today we have both the notes & lecture for the legislative branch, as well as the work that is related to the legislative branch.

Notes and Lecture:

Legislative Branch Notes

Legislative Branch Lecture  

Worksheets:

Congressional Membership Worksheet

Bill to a Law Worksheet

Congressional Review Worksheet

(Depending on what program you use to open the doc, there might be formatting issues on the Congressional Review Worksheet.  It's supposed to start with 4 columns for you to sort into: House, Senate, Both and Neither.)

April 28 - Unit 2 Test

Here's the Unit 2 Test.

Unit 2 Test

Just like last time, it is much easier for us to grade if you type it, but you can certainly write it out if you need to.

Tomorrow we will begin unit 3.

April 27 - Vocab Quiz and Review Work

Here is a link for the Unit 2 Vocab Quiz. 



Just like last time if you can email us your answers.

Here is a link for a review worksheet for Unit 2.  Unit 2 has a lot of numbers on it, so this sheet is mostly to go over those items.

Unit 2 Review Worksheet.

I think there might be a couple of questions on the review that we did not cover.  Just skip those.

Tomorrow we will post the Unit 2 test.

On Wednesday we will begin Unit 3 with notes on the Legislative Branch.

April 23 - Ideology Work and Vocab Review

Slight change of plans.  Instead of posting the vocab quiz today, we are going to post a review sheet for the vocab.  The Unit 2 Vocab Quiz will be posted on Monday.

Vocab Review Sheet

Also today we have a work sheet about yesterday's notes, interest groups and ideologies.

Ideologies Work

On Monday we will post our vocab quiz and a review sheet for the unit.

On Tuesday we will post our Unit 2 test.

April 22 - Interest Groups

Today we have our last notes for Unit 2.  It is about interest groups and ideologies.

Here's the power point:

Interest Groups and Ideologies

Here's the lecture:

Interest Groups and Ideologies Lecture

Tomorrow we will have a worksheet about interest groups and we will be posting the Unit 2 vocab quiz.

Remember that on Monday we will have some review stuff, because on Tuesday of next week we will be posting the Unit 2 test.

April 21 - Elections and Political Parties Work

Here are the worksheets that go with yesterday's notes.

Voting Worksheet

Political Parties Worksheet

Tomorrow we will have a new set of notes on Ideologies and a review sheet for the vocab.

Thursday the Unit 2 vocab quiz will be posted and a worksheet about ideologies.

Next week on Monday we will have a review sheet and then on Tuesday we will be posting the Unit 2 test.

April 20 - Elections and Political Parties

Here's a copy of the power point on Elections and Political Parties

Elections and Political Parties

And here is a copy of the lecture on the same thing:

Elections and Political Parties Lecture

Tomorrow we will post some worksheets that are about this same material.

Don't forget that there will be a vocab quiz posted on Thursday.

Also there will be our weekly zoom meetings at 10:00 tomorrow.

April 16 - Begin Unit 2

Unit 2 is:  Rights and Obligations in America.  We cover a variety of things in this unit.  First we look at the Bill of Rights.  In particular we focus on the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th amendments.  We also look at citizenship and aliens.  Then we spending some time looking at voting, political parties and ideologies. Here is the Unit Study Guide for Unit 2

Unit 2 Study Guide

For our first day's notes we are going to look at the Bill of Rights and citizenship.  Here's the power point:

Rights and Citizenship

Here is a link for a lecture going over the power point:

Rights and Citizenship Video Lecture

Because our week got a little messed up, we also have some homework today.  Here are the worksheets for today's material.

1st Amendment in Cartoons

Aliens and Rights

Remember that tomorrow (Friday) is student catch-up day, so there will not be any new material.  On Monday we will have our second set of notes and then the work for  that will be on Tuesday.  We will post our Unit 2 vocab quiz on Thursday of next week.

April 15 - Unit 1 Test

Here is the link for the Unit 1 test.

Unit 1 Test.

As previously stated it is an open note, short answer test.  Please refrain from having someone help you, but feel free to use all your other materials.

You do NOT need to answer with complete sentences.

We would appreciate it if you would type your answers and then email your completed test to us, but if it works better for you to write them and send us a picture please remember to write clearly and legibly; and to make sure your picture is clear enough for us to read your answers.

There is not specific due date, but the sooner you turn it in, the sooner we can grade it.

If you have questions about anything please feel free to ask.

April 14 - Prepare for Test

Tomorrow we will have our unit 1 test for government.

As was said yesterday, the test is going to be short answer questions.  You do not have to answer the questions in complete sentences, but do make sure you give a complete answer.

The test will be open notes, but it isn't open friends.  So please make sure you work on it on your own.

Again there is no specific due date.  Whenever you finish, you can turn it in to Mr. Merrill or Mr. Baumann by emailing your responses to them.

It will be easiest for us to grade if you type your answers and email the file to us, but you can also just take a picture and send that if that works best for you.

I will be posting the link with the test tomorrow morning.

So, please use today to finish up any of your unit 1 work that you need to complete.  You could also use today to work some more on finalizing your econ work.

Thanks

April 13 - Part 2 - A new Vocab Quiz

As I accidentally posted the quiz with the answers attached, the previous quiz won't work.

Here is the new version of the quiz.

If you took the old version it does not count.  You must take this one.


The words are drawn from the Unit 1 Government Study Guide, which was handed out in class before we left, but is also available on the blog under class resources.

Sorry for the confusion.

April 13 - This week and an update on lots of things.

1) Economics: There is a long post on the Econ blog about all of the things you can do to finalize your grade in Econ.  Remember that your grade cannot go down since we left school on March 13.  So, if you are happy with your Econ grade, you can consider yourself done.  If you are not satisfied with your grade, then you can do as many of the things listed in the post on the Econ blog as you would like.

2) Government Grades: 

Government Students/Parents,

This notification is to inform you of the latest information released by the county regarding your child’s grade.  As noted, students have a choice to accept their grades as of March 13, 2020 as final grades for the 2019-2020 school year OR Continue to earn grades for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year to improve their grade(s).  For US Government and Honors US Government, students had not started this course before school closed and do not have a March 13^th grade.  It is very important for students to participate in the learning activities and assignments made available by their government teachers in order to earn a grade in that course.

-----

You may have seen a similar bit of language in your other classes.  This particular paragraph is a bit different because we did not yet have any grades in Government.  Overall government will work the same way as other classes.  No new grade can bring your class average down.  Missing assignments will not be put in as a zero.  Instead they will be left empty.  A student can make up that assignment at any point until the end of the semester.

The difference is that since we don't yet have any grades for government, there was nothing in the grade book on March 13.  That means once you do turn something in for a grade, it will be graded; and then you will begin to have a grade in the grade book.

3) Government Schedule: If you didn't see it, Cobb County sent out a post last week that says the school week will now be Mon-Thu.  Friday is now going to be only for students to catch up on work.  There will be no new work given on Friday's.

This means we will have to adjust our schedule.  Generally the new government schedule going forward is:

Mon: New Lecture
Tue: Work Related to that Lecture, Zoom meetings.
Wed: New Lecture
Thu: Work Related to that Lecture
Fri: Student Catch-up day.

This schedule is only tentative for each week.  It will change from time to time based on other things like tests.

Both Mr. Merrill and Mr. Baumann's class will try to have Zoom meetings on Tuesday around 10:00.  However, that also may change from time to time.

4) This Week: Despite having just established our schedule, this week we will be deviating from it.  We have finished Unit 1 of Government.  But we need to do a few things before we move on to Unit 2.  Thus our schedule for this week is:

Mon: Gov Unit 1 Vocab Quiz, Work on Finishing Up Econ
Tue: Finish up Unit 1 Government work.  Study for Test.  Zoom meetings.
Wed: Unit 1 Government Test.
Thu: Notes and work for day 1 of Unit 2
Fri: Student Catch-up day.

Some of these will be explained in more depth below.

5) Constitution Timeline Project: We gave you the instructions for the Unit 1 Timeline Project before we left school in March.  But in case you've lost it.  Here is the link again:

Unit 1 - Timeline Project

That project can now be turned in.  If you haven't finished it and want to turn it in, you can turn it in at any point going forward from today.  To turn it in, either scan your timeline into your computer or just take some pictures of it.  It will be easier for us to see if you divide it up into more than one picture and get close to the page so we can read what you've written.

6) Vocab Quiz:  Here is the link for the Unit 1 vocab quiz.  Since we have to do things a bit differently, the format is different from our normal quizzes.

The words are drawn from the Unit 1 Government Study Guide, which was handed out in class before we left, but is also available on the blog under class resources.



There are now 20 questions to a vocab quiz.  You are still giving a word for which we have given a definition.  Since you are at home, it is an open note quiz.  When you are done, just take a picture or scan in your answers and email them to your teacher.  You can take the quiz whenever you are ready to do it.  There is no specific deadline for when to turn it in, but the sooner you turn it in the sooner you can get a grade for it.

7) Unit 1 Government Test:  The Unit 1 government Test will be posted tomorrow to the blog.  It will be a "written/typed" test.  It will be an open note test.  Again, there will be no specific deadline for the test.  You can take it and turn it in when you are ready.  It will be easiest for us if you type the answers and then just email us your work, but you can also print it off, write your answers and then send us a photo.  If you do it that way, please be sure the photo is close enough to the pages that we can read what you've written. 

8) Questions?  If you have any questions you can email us, or just wait and ask them tomorrow at the Zoom meeting.

Honors Econ Update

There is a new post on the Honors Econ page about what you can do to improve your grade and finish Econ.

April 3: Today's Work and Some Information

Today's Notes:

Here are the worksheets related to yesterday's notes.

Constitution Scavenger Hunt

Unit 1 Vocab Practice


Additional Information:

I know everyone is probably wondering how things are going to work in Government given the current situation. 

We have spent the morning and the afternoon in meetings trying to work all of that out.  Though I know you will find this frustrating, we want to get everything organized and figured out before we make an official post.  As such we will be posting that information on the Monday after Spring Break.

If you have specific questions you can email Mr. Merrill or Mr. Baumann.  If we can give you an answer we will, but the answer might also be that we will let you know on the Monday after Spring Break.

Thanks for bearing with us.

April 2 - The Constitution and the Amendments

Here are today's notes.  They are about the Constitution and the Amendments.

PPT Today's Notes:

The Constitution and the Amendments

Video Lecture of Today's Notes (Broken into two videos):

Constitution Video Lecture

Amendments Video Lecture

Remember under the new schedule Monday and Thursday will be notes.  So go through the notes and make sure you understand the material.

On Tuesday's and Friday's there will be some assignments related to the previous day's notes.  So tomorrow look for those.