Another Wednesday

Why do I persist in writing each day? I don't know. I seriously thought about "bailing" on tonight's entry. Would Eddie write a note saying, "what, no blog today?" I feel this is getting to be a chore, rather than something of an inspiration.

I was happy with the class today. You all settled down and completed the reading which was great to behold. You also seemed interested in the videos. The Jon Stewart video was funny and very truthful in terms of the ridiculous lengths that campaigns (and interest groups) go to in order to "smear" the other candidate. Rather than stating what a candidate stands for, it's much easier to tear one's opponent down....

The "60 Minutes" segment on the drug lobby was disheartening. It's amazing what big money can do in order to muzzle reform or to stand in the way of something like providing affordable pharmaceuticals to senior citizens. Some of the same big money and lobbying is behind the attempt to defeat meaningful health care reform. To be very clear. This is not a problem for which one party can be blamed. Both Republicans and Democrats are equally guilty of receiving vast amounts of money from lobbyists and are therefore, significantly influenced. To get a better sense of this, go to: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00007360 I linked you to Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Speaker of the House. Check out her top donors. What do you think of this?

Anyway, tomorrow we will quiz on Subato, listen to my lecture and then possibly watch a video clip.

See you tomorrow.

Tuesday

Thank you for a stress-free class today! I felt we go a lot covered. Keep reading forward on Interest Groups in Sabato. Work towards the end of the chapter. There will be yet another quiz tomorrow on the reading. I will try and find something productive (no lecture) for us to learn about Interest Groups tomorrow. Ciao!

Monday

It's Monday again. Today we started Unit 3 on "Interest Groups, Political Parties and the Media." You should continue your readings from 154 to 162 and beyond. There will be 10 more Subato questions tomorrow on the reading. We will also have a lecture tomorrow. I tried to introduce the Unit but felt that rude students basically killed my introduction. If distractions continue (students talking out of turn, particularly when I am talking), I will be moving current student seating arrangements. I felt today that I had to compete with students who were talking when they should have either been working or paying attention. I am very pleased as mentioned, with the results of our second unit test, so a lot positive can be said about that. See you tomorrow.

MJF 2009

Saturday

Hello. At the end of yesterday I ran over to the scantron grader and passed your tests through the machine. You will be happy to know that the results for the Unit 1 test are far better than those from Unit 2. Clearly the Review Session, and the Jeopardy game were factors for improvement. Thanks to you for your suggestions. Your feedback on how you best learn is incredibly important to me since this is my first "go" at teaching the class. I am convinced that the daily quizzes and the lecture were very important as well. Breaking the lecture up and inserting student led activities (such as reading groups) are also important. My point being that the execution of this unit was far better than the first one. Let's keep improving!

Thursday

Glad the review was helpful today. Good luck on the Unit 1 exam tomorrow!

Study Guide Review for Tomorrow

For those who want an early start on tomorrow's review--

The Powerpoint Study Guide on Constitutional Underpinnings can be found at: http://mtbarclay.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/apgounit1review.ppt

The Word Notes that accompany the Powerpoint are here: http://mtbarclay.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/apgounitonereview.doc

Yours Faithfully,

Mr. Barclay

Wednesday again

Here we are again. I don't know how productive having you do a group read on the Constitutional Underpinnings Notes was. A couple of groups seemed to make their way through it, while three other groups seemed more interested in chatting. Needless to say, you should continue doing the reading tonight (the six pager) as well as review the lecture notes. We'll have a another review for tomorrow.

Tuesday's Post

Okay, we've finished the lecture notes. Now is the time for students to review the entire Constitutional Underpinnings lecture and the unit overview which was provided to you on Monday. You also should be reviewing Subato's Chapters 1-3 placing particular emphasis on Chapter 3. You should have a working definition of federalism (ie. a constitutional separation of federal and state power). You should know the basic stages on how federalism has changed throughout the history of the United States, understanding that during crises, the federal government has asserted tighter control over the states. You should also know the various differences between block and categorical grants, mandates, and etc. You should also understand the significance of the 10th Amendment to the Constitution and how states have asserted it in order to assert more of their control. Keep the review going for the next couple of days. Your exam will probably be given on Friday. There will be 30 multiple choice questions as well as an FRQ. The FRQ undoubtedly will be on some aspect of federalism. Many of you performed respectively on the Terms quiz. At least 30% of you receive 50% or better on the quiz. We only had a handful who got at least 3/5 on the FRQ. We need to continue to improve on FRQ's. The Constitutional Underpinnings quiz was much better this time than our first terms quiz on Political Beliefs and Culture. The Jeopardy review helped significantly. Thanks to Teddy I. for the suggestion. Tomorrow, we will have some review of both the lecture notes and the unit overview. Students will work in groups to cover the material. See you tomorrow!

Monday's Post

I should have the results of your quizzes on vocabulary and the FRQ ready for you by class time tomorrow. For tonight as mentioned, please review the study guide that I released to you today. We will be using it for our general review in the next couple of days. I plan to give the unit exam no later than Friday. For tomorrow, I will deliver the final lecture of unit one. I was struck by a student's comment today that our AP government course was considered a high school class until one passed the exam ( and received college credit). That's not the way to look at it. In fact you are taking a college course and will pass if you put in sufficient amounts of time studying the readings (between 1 and 2 hours a night), take good notes, and participate in class-with clarifying questions as necessary....

Follow up

I appreciate your feedback. Therefore, we will have the quiz on Monday. Thanks!

Thursday

So, I hope you enjoyed playing the Jeopardy game today. I also hope it was a helpful form of review for you. Tomorrow you will take a quiz on the "Constitutional Underpinnings" terms. There are two quizzes with about 20 questions or so. Additionally, you will be tested on the FRQ concerning federalism.

For the FRQ, you will define what federalism is as well as demonstrate in writing how federalism has allowed both the national and state governments to assert their own control. You will need to incorporate the following terms into the FRQ: "block grants", "categorical funding", welfare reform, and the 10th amendment. You will have to demonstrate how these terms impact whether federal or state governments are in control. You may not write your essay in advance this time. Please study your terms as well as re-read sections on federalism (consult the photo copy reading on federalism and grants-in-aid).

With any remaining time, I will start the movie on Harvard Law school called "The Paper Chase." See you tomorrow...

Wednesday

Well, another Wednesday in the books. The lecture material is long, but an absolute necessary. If you find this sort of thing too hard to bear, than you need to seriously consider whether you should go on to a university such as the University of California which is research based and the professors tend to stand up at the podium and 'spray and ....actually, many of them don't pray. They feel it is up to the student to capture their shared 'brilliance.' I hate to say it, but the stand up lecture (oftentimes without visuals) is the predominant method of teaching delivery at many a university, even today (mostly at prestigious private schools and the UC's.) I honestly believe that this is not the best way to 'educate' students, but times have not changed. This method has been around since the very beginning of formalized teaching. Students have to learn by listening, reading, as well as participating in seminars (which requires reading ahead of time so that you don't come across as 'clueless' to either the professor or the Teaching Assistant.) It takes a lot of hard work. I'm talking literally of hours in the library or in your home study without distractions....

For tomorrow, something new and different. We will have a Jeopardy Game over the "Constitutional Underpinnings" terms. This will take most if not all of the class. I'm sure you will enjoy this over another lecture....You can sneak peek it on my webpage at: http://mtbarclay.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/constitutionalunderpinnings_jeopardy.ppt
Happy hunting...

Tuesday, the 13th

Did you like the Standard Deviants? It is a humorous way to present the material we are covering. I am trying to go at it teaching this stuff from a few angles. Tomorrow, I will have some more lecturing to do. We will start with quiz number four from Subato, so be sure and complete the reading. There will definitely be an FRQ for Friday--probably the one we covered in class today. We will need to be wrapping up this unit within a about a week or so. The unit test will be coming up next week. I realized that quarter grades are coming due. Some of you have not turned in your notebooks. 150 points can really affect your grade. I will still accept some late assignments. Perhaps, some of you should check on your grades to make sure you know where you stand before Thursday. I will try and post a hard copy before class tomorrow.

Monday

Well, we had a couple of distractions in class today-a couple of visitors. Fortunately, I don't have too many students coming to see me. I think it best for the student to let me know ahead of time if he or she plans a visit. I can't just stop everything when someone comes. Try to keep this in mind if you plan a visit down the road in a year or two. My former student teacher, Mr. Smith actually was not imposing at all. I enjoyed working with him a couple of years ago.

I hope you are doing your reading for this evening of the article I assigned to you. I may end up calling on you to see if you indeed did the reading and answer sheet. For the last 30 or so minutes, you will be watching a "Standard Deviants" video on Federalism. This video is humorous. See you tomorrow.

It's Saturday!

Hope you all are having a great weekend! I am enjoying myself. Went out to my son's school carnival/fundraiser near Coral De Tierra (Highway 68) for most of the day. My children are growing up fast. They are a complete joy in my life, though sometimes a challenge. They are totally worth the effort!

I hope you enjoyed the West Wing episode ("Mr. Willis of Ohio") . There were a number of important points at play. The census is counted every ten years in the United States. It is used to determine the number of congressional seats in the House of Representatives. Additionally, federal funding and other important matters are determined by a state's population. Nearly 1 million Americans count the +350,000 million, plus or minus in our population. The homeless, recent immigrants, and inner-city minority groups often go uncounted and thus, unrepresented. These groups tend to vote more for the Democratic Party so that is why in the episode, the Bartlett administration wanted to make sure that sampling continue to be an option for the next election cycle. By the way, this episode imitated a real life event (see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/aug98/census25.htm
As it stands the US Supreme does not allow for statistical sampling to completely replace the traditional "head count" method. There are simply too many chances for bias in a sampled survey. Many would argue (as Toby Ziegler did in the episode) that to allow sampling as the official method of census taking would set a bad precedent and would be undemocratic. See you on Monday.

In My Absence...

Hope you all had a good day today in my absence. Mr. Cisneros is as good as they come in terms of someone I would trust to sub for me. I hope you listened to him and got some constructive work done. As mentioned, block and categorical grants are a very important aspect of Federalism. They tie both national and state government together. Federal grant funding is one way by which the national government tries to impose some form of control over states- packet from today-it is your homework. Hopefully, tonight you will do your reading in preparation for being "called out." I may ascribe points to your performance tomorrow, so be prepared.

Tired Tuesday

Well, a number of students really struggled with the FRQ. I have not graded them all yet. We definitely need to get in more practice. Fifty percent of your AP exam relies on your ability to answer most elements of the FRQ. If you do not develop proficiency, you will not pass the exam, plain and simple.

I spoke with Ernesto Garcia today. He is responsible for the AP program at Alisal. He mentioned that the test actually costs $50 and not $85. Also, there is a good possibility that funding will exist to pay at a minimum, a portion of the tests cost. We can also explore potential fundraising opportunities, if necessary. In speaking with my wife, her company provides a charitable matching program. If, for example students could come up with $25 dollars a piece, the company will cover the rest. In other words, there are many options, so don't worry about it. Just keep working to do your best.

Remember, tomorrow Mr. Cisneros will be subbing. I expect that you will cooperate with him and go over the assigned reading as well as present in class. This section is very important. I noticed that categorical and block grants have been covered on pretty much every past APGOPO test in the last 7 years. See you on Thursday.

Monday's Post

Here's something that will greatly assist you in answering the FRQ for tomorrow. There are advantages to following this blog:

http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/mmontgomery/american_govt/sample_freeresponse.htm

Write up the answer tonight (i.e. copy from this guide) and turn it in tomorrow at the end of the FRQ write up. DO NOT SHARE THIS WITH YOUR CLASSMATES TOMORROW. If you do, I will know. I have ways of finding out. I have secret powers. I will put a curse on you. Big Brother is watching you....

Not Coming In

Mr. Barclay at his computer on Facebook. He doesn’t see his wife come up behind him with the rope. As she tightens it around his neck, she changes his status: is DEAD!

WON'T BE COMING IN TOMORROW