FHS Current Events

Internal Memo: Pennsylvania Legislative Process

2009-04-16T04:27:00.000-07:00

The Pennsylvania legislative process is lengthy, and passing any particular idea for a law is difficult. As a part of your work in the lobbying firm, provide your clients with a memo describing how your group will affect the future of the proposed bill as it makes its way through Pennsylvania General Assembly. If your group is in favor of lowering the drinking age, you’ll look for ways to help the bill along at each stage. If your group is against lowering the drinking age, you will look for ways and places to kill the bill. In your memo, describe specific steps you would take, and demonstrate an understanding of how a law gets passed. Your memo should trace the steps a proposed bill will take as it moves through the committees and chambers of the house and senate.

When finished, type your memo in word and post it as a file in your wiki page. You will also need to print a hard copy to be turned in to Mr. Brinling.

How are laws made? Lowering the Drinking Age, a collaborative project

2009-04-12T20:01:00.001-07:00

How are laws made?
There are two general areas of law: civil and criminal. Most of the laws that affect your life and mine are made at the state level. In this project, we will look at the process in Pennsylvania; and examine a potential change in state law.

Collaborative Project: Lowering the Drinking Age.

You and the members of your group are part of a lobbying firm who has been hired to express their views on a potential piece of legislation.

Some state senators are considering lowering the state drinking age to 18. Backed by Restaurant Groups and some University Presidents, they argue lowering the drinking would decriminalize behavior that is detrimental to students and generate lost revenue for restaurants and bars due to the smoking ban.

Opponents like M.A.D.D argue this would result in more traffic deaths due to alcohol impaired driving, and some University Presidents counter decriminalization would lead to even more reckless behavior.

The job of your group will be to research for information supporting its claims. You will post this information on a wiki page at www.currentevents001.wikispaces.com (002 for second period). Your material must be representative of the facts and point of view of your client. The material should be well organized, with transitions so outsiders can read the research. Your group will then compose a letter addressed to our State Representative John Evans expressing and detailing your client’s position. Finally, your group will present its views to the class, in a presentation.

We will use the 60 Minutes investigation “The Debate On Lowering The Drinking Age - CBS News” as a beginning for the discussion.

International Events ....And In The Rest of The World

2009-03-30T05:43:00.000-07:00

Although our focus has been on local issues and national economic news lately, the rest of the world continues experience economic trouble and political wrangling. This week you will post about a issue from the international stage.

Read UPFRONT magazine’s …And In The Rest of the World from pages 10 – 13. Choose one of the ten issues to learn about in more detail. Find at least three additional resources and bookmark them in diigo. Share them with the group and highlight.

Create a blog post detailing the situation with hyperlinks to the names of people and places described.

Topic Selected:
Blog Post
Title _____ 1 pt
Summarizes Information

Describes History _____ 3 pts
Updates Most Recent Information _____ 4 pts
States How this Affects Americans _____ 3 pts
Provides Opinion/Reaction to Events _____ 5 pts

Research
Resource 1 _____ 3 pts
Resource 2 _____ 4 pts
Resource 3 _____ 5 pts

Diigo Skills
All resources Bookmarked in diigo _____ 3 pts
All resources Highlighted in diigo _____ 3 pts
All resources Shared to group _____ 3 pts

Hyperlinks
All resources hyperlinked from blog post _____ 3 pts
Provides hyperlinks to information explaining people and places _____ 3pts

The Rising Debt - Ten Trillion and Counting

2009-03-29T16:04:00.001-07:00

As President Obama and his economic team have been travelling the country and made the news and even the talkshow circuit; they are wrestling with big choices with tremendous consequences for the future. Watch this PBS Frontline presentation Ten Trillion and Counting describing the current state of the federal deficit, and the future debt we all face.

As you watch the presentation, write your thoughts about the history of debt and the decisions to be made. Write a blog post stating your opinion, and your feelings about the future debt we all will carry.

Headlines Assignment and Scoring Guide

2009-03-20T05:05:00.001-07:00

Headlines Assignment
Select an article from a major news source. Bookmark, highlight, and annotate it using diigo. Share the article to the group. Write a blog post summarizing the article and your thoughts and reaction to it. Create a hyperlink within your blog post going to the original article. Be sure to give it a title on your blog.

Article from major news source _____ 5 pts
Title:
Source:
Diigo
Bookmarked _____ 3 pts
Highlighted _____ 2 pts
Shared to group _____ 1 pt
Blog Post
includes summary of article _____ 3 pts
includes thoughtful reaction _____ 3 pts
hyperlink to original article _____ 3 pts
Total 20 Pts ______

What Should Be On Everyone's Blog

2009-03-13T03:51:00.000-07:00

What Should Be on Everyone’s Blog

After doing grades this week, it is clear that not everyone is keeping up with the assignments on their blogs. Perhaps this is due to some of the computer difficulties this week, perhaps because the assignments are not listed.

So to be clear, at this point each blog should have the following.
1. State of the Union My Thoughts – a reflection on President Obama’s speech and the Republican response. (2/26)
2. The Erie Insights Problem Statement – the post of your problem/issue (2/25)
3. Headline – choose a story from a major news source. Bookmark and highlight it using diigo and share it to the group. Write a blog post summarizing the article and your thoughts and reaction to it. (3/6)
4. The Erie Insights Possible Solutions – list possible ways to solve your problem (3/8)
5. Headline – choose a story from a major news source. Bookmark and highlight it using diigo and share it to the group. Write a blog post summarizing the article and your thoughts and reaction to it. (3/11)
6. The Erie Insights Recommended Solution – state the solution to the problem you recommend and state your reasons for it. (3/11)
7. Headline – choose a story from a major news source. Bookmark and highlight it using diigo and share it to the group. Write a blog post summarizing the article and your thoughts and reaction to it. (3/12)

Please check your blog, and be mindful of the list above. Additionally, You must comment on the Headlines blogs of at least three other people. You will then post a link to your three comments in the comments section of this post.

Blogs are an excellent way to communicate and complete assignments. I don’t anyone to miss the opportunity. Hopefully with computer problems behind us we can move forward in our understanding of current events and law.

Lesson Plan for March 5th

2009-03-04T17:56:00.000-08:00

Good Morning Class!! Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to be there with you today. My hope is to be in class tomorrow….

First, I want to thank Jeremy Gindy and Carole Kossbiel for hosting the discussion this week. I’d like each of these students to give a summary of the class feelings regarding their topics. I believe Pat Fourspring and Darren Smith are ready to lead a discussion this week. Visit their blog and respond by the end of class on Tuesday, March 10th.

Today, your task is to post your “Erie Insights – Possible Solutions” to your blog. Your post should include hyperlinks to articles and resources you have bookmarked and highlighted in diigo. This should be posted to your blog by the end of this class.

Tomorrow, you have a post due for an article you identify in the headlines. You need to bookmark and highlight your source to diigo, then write a post for your blog. In the post include a brief summary of the story, and state why you chose the article. Include a hyperlink in this as well.

Finally, Step 3: Recommending a Solution
Now that you have found three possible solutions, suggest the one you think is best. Include in your reasons for recommending this course of action. Who will your solution effect? What would change if your solution would be implemented? This will be the subject of the final blog post for the “Erie Insights Project”.

Remember to follow class procedures, and be respectful. Have a terrific day, and I hope to see you tomorrow.

State of the Union - My Thoughts

2009-02-24T19:44:00.000-08:00

As I watched the President’s State of the Union Address on CNN, I was logged into Facebook for the live rolling commentary. Each person who watched and commented included thoughts both deep and shallow.

For my Current Events classes at Fairview High School, on February 25th we will watch the speech in it’s entirety. The speech was closely followed by the Republican response led by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. The class assignment is to create a blog post with both your deep and shallow thoughts of both speeches. What connected with you in the speech? Was there a message you liked? You may want to refer to your Open Letter to President Obama from the weekly discussion of week one. Was there a message in the President’s speech you didn’t like? What did you think about the President’s tie or Nancy Pelosi’s dress? I did say both deep and shallow thoughts.

Post your thoughts on your blog. Give it the title of “State of the Union” My Thoughts. This response is due by Friday, February 27th.

In changing its treatment of suspected terrorists, President Obama released Justice Department memos regarding the authority sought by President Bush.

Erie Insights - Blog It

2009-02-22T12:25:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago, our FHS Current Events classes were assigned to find a local issue or topic. Each of you created a problem statement, defining your issue and stating the problem as you understood it.

Your task now is to take your problem statement and begin a student blog. A blog, or web-log, is a journal of your writing and research. As a Current Events class, we will create blogs as a way to further our understanding of the Erie Insights Project, and as a way to exhibit our understanding, analysis, and use of events in the news at the local, state, national, and international levels.

Some of you may have a blog through another class. If this is the case, use it. If you have never created a student blog before, we can do so very easily through edublogs.org or through google. Once your blog is created, use your problem statement as your first blog post. You may want to update your problem statement with current information and further research.

I recommend that you enter hypertext so that we can see further information. Check our President Obama’s release of public documents.