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