Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Week of 18 October 2010

This week is all about Congress. The highlight is the movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." From 1939, this classic movie, featuring James Stewart, demonstrates how members of Congress can be corrupted and how the system can easily hide the corruption. Despite the movie being over 70 years old, the message is just as clear today as it was in the 1930s.

This week we also learn how technology today has made it easier to get in touch with our elected officials and keep tabs on how they are voting on the bills. The websites for the House of Representatives and the Senate make it easy to look up your representatives and sites, like THOMAS, make it easy to follow their actions. And iPhone apps, such as Congress Bills, allow you to track members of Congress right in your handheld device!

Thursday this week we will also be testing on the current unit, Unit 4A: Political Parties (chapter 9) and Congress (chapter 6). And students should be preparing for the end of the quarter (which is little more than a week away) by checking SPAN to make sure they have all their tests and quizzes and homework turned in! We don't want to have any unnecessary zeros being averaged into the quarter grade.