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