Friday Sept 28

We started the road to the Civil War. I talked about the Cotton Gin and how Eli Whitney's invention didn't end slavery but exploded it. We then looked at the Missouri Compromise and the Nullification Crisis and how Compromises began splitting the North and South.

Nullification
Missouri Compromise

Thursday 9/27

We watched the clip of America the story of us. It just talked about a few groups that had gone west with manifest destiny. Students then worked on journal entries as a participant on 3 of the groups journey west. The assignment can be found in monday's powerpoint notes.

wed 9/26

Students looked at the trail of tears and how the Native Americans were forced off their land during the Indian Removal Act. The other part to the story is that it showed the breakdown of Seperation of Powers in government. If the president ignores the supreme court the supreme court can do nothing about it.

trail of tears assignment

Tuesday 9/25

We finished up the notes from yesterday on the louisiana purchase, had a quickwrite on the monroe  doctrine and war of 1812, and finished discussing the trail of tears.

Monday 9/24

We continued looking at our nation's founding. We spent time looking at the Alien and Sedition Acts and finished class with some notes on Thomas Jefferson

Alien and Sedition Acts
Notes and Assignment for Monday-Thursday

Friday 9/21

We started a new unit titled:

A New Nation Struggles Until it Divides

This is the story of a new nation that is just beginning and how some problems it has begin to cause division. For most classes I compared it to a couple that started off their relationship by helping each other through a tragedy. The tragedy was what their relationship was built on though and as problems came up in their relationship they realized their differences. America will slowly realize the North and the South are more different then they originally realized.  

Quickwrite 1: 

George Washington left a legacy at the end of his presidency. Don’t get involved in other nation’s problems, don’t let political parties divide our nation, and don’t go into debt as a nation. How do you think we have done on these issues? If our nation focused on these issues how would our nation change and improve?

Among these that will cause the first main problems with our nations is political parties. Towards the end of class we got a handout on alien and sedition acts but didn't get very far. We will look at this next week in class. 

Thursday 9/20

Projects were finished today in class. Or were supposed to be!

Wed 9/19

Some students finished the written portion of test from Monday. Then they worked on their notebooks. The order is below. Lastly students worked on their projects and if done showed them to be proof read. They are due tomorrow. 

Unit 1 Notebook Order

Monday and Tuesday

Students took their unit 1 test on monday on tuesday they were working on their projects. Remember they are due thursday! proof read a lot!

Friday 9/14

Very short day with rally and homecoming. We still had time to finish the Bill of Rights and also talked about the Whiskey Rebellion. It was the Whiskey Rebellion that gave us some proof our new nation was strong, and could withstand lawless men.

Thurs 9/13

We  worked on our projects. The rough draft should be done. Project is due a week from now. There is no such thing as a late project.
Scoring: 40 points if publishable
Other 40 points: quality of paper.

Wed 9/12

Students worked on the Bill of Rights and it's importance today. I went over amendments 1-4 and talked about how they matter today.

9/11 Tuesday

Patriots Day-
We are working on our project today. Students should have begun the writing portion. If you are not on the writing portion you need to begin to catch up at home!

9/10 Monday

We had our 6th and final quickwrite of the Unit. It was on what are the limits of freedom of speech, religion and the right to bear arms? If there are such limits why even write them down. We don't write down other freedoms we take for granted in America so why those?

We then looked at the last part of the Constitution, the federalist and anti federalist debate about it, and how they decided to include a Bill of Rights at the anti federalists insistence. We will get into the Bill of Rights Wed. Here is the pages from Friday and Today on the Constitution. As well as the Bill of Rights page and study guide for NEXT MONDAY's TEST!!!!!

Work(see me if it is too blury after printing)

Friday 9/7

We talked in class about how after the Constitution was made, what they had created. Things like Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances. Students also looked at the Preamble and how it sets the foundation for what this new country would be about. There is a handout for this.

Quickwrite 5

Read through the Preamble to the Constitution. Rank in order the reasons they are building this new Constitution in order of importance in your mind. So number them 1-6 and then write why you think it is more important than the one below it.

Form a perfect Union, Establish Justice, Insure Domestic Tranquility, Common Defence, Promote the general Welfare, Secure Blessings of Liberty

9/6 Thursday

We continued on with our veteran project. Today is supposed to be the last day of research so if students do not have enough they should research at home.

9/5 Wed

We looked today in class at the work of each of our states. We looked at the Constitution and the major issues they worked through. I went through their classwork and tried to further explain it. We also talked a lot about the Virginia Plan/New Jersey Plan and how the Connecticut or Great Compromise was a combination of both plans. We have today the Senate which is based off equality and the House which is based off population.

9/4 tuesday

Today we began our project on Veterans buried in Riverside National Cemetery. This is a federal project called the Legacy Project. Students will be publishing a short narrative that will go on the Riverside National Cemetery website/app. We will be working on it tues/thurs for 3 weeks total.

Friday 8/31

Have a nice 3 day weekend!

In class students took the first school assessment. It was an SAQ(short answer question)

Students used the remaining time in class to work on their constitution work started yesterday. If you didn't finish make sure that it is done by wed.

We are also starting our class project on tuesday if you know anyone buried at Riverside National Cementary

Thursday 8/30

After briefly talking about the need for a new constitution we paired up(or individual) and students represented a specific state at the Constitutional Convention. Each state saw America a little differently, and students are supposed to see it from a different perspective. We also will have a quiz tomorrow.

Wed 8/29

We looked at the Articles of the Confederation and the problems that they discovered as they instituted a new form of government. We read a short story on Shay's rebellion and what transpired after the Articles were in place. The major idea was something needed to be changed because the new country was really weak and couldn't really do much of anything.

Tuesday 8/28

We finished looking at the Declaration of Independence and what the people who wrote it were thinking.
After that we looked briefly at how the American Revolution went. Saratoga, Valley Forge and Yorktown were major events that helped shape the war
Students had a quickwrite:

•How would you start a new country? It is not often a brand new country is starting from scratch, what difficulties may they face? What things do you think the colonists want to avoid from what they have experienced with the British?