Constitutional Amendments

My dear 7th grade bloggers,

Before you go on to enjoy your Thanksgiving break, I want you to ponder about the upcoming prompt. Take your time discussing, researching, and talking to your peers to write a good blog!

Here is your prompt:

You are a West Virginia senator. Your goal is to propose a new amendment concerning the problems, freedoms or rights of your choice through a persuasive blog to convince the Senate at the nation’s capitol to accept your new idea. The writing of this new amendment must be in clear and concise language and have relevant media to accompany the blog to help you render the message. This information must be backed by at least three reasons that are not your opinions but stem out of the facts you have gathered through your research. Don't forget to cite the sources you have used to gather information.

Good blogging!

Mrs. B.

Adding Navigation

We have been working very hard on adding navigation to the scenes for your game. This week has been very difficult for some, but you still have made it! Chuckie certainly added tons of work to his projects page and showed his progress through the week. Check out Clyde's, Josh's, and Angel's pages where they are showing their work following the tutorials, experimenting on their own, and working with me. Garrett can be proud of his drawing and tracing abilities. Check out his page as well!
You all have done a great job, and today is your time to reflect about this week's unit.

• What have you learned about Flash?
• What was easy for you and what was challenging? How did you manage to overcome your challenges?
• What have you learned about the content of your game (what research have you done about civics topic you are covering?)
• What questions do you still have about the unit?
• Do you need more time to work on adding navigation or are you ready to move on?

Good writing!

Mrs. B.

What does being a productive citizen mean?

Being a citizen of a county is a right that is not enjoyed by everybody. However, it is a tremendous responsibility, as a citizen who exercises his/her rights can influence legislation and change many things around. Power of one in the United States cannot be underestimated, as many great changes in this country were started by small groups of forward thinking individuals. When I think about the individual citizens affecting the change by their actions, I think of the story of Rosa Parks, but there are many more other examples of individuals can affect events taking place in our country.



Think for a moment about an issue you feel needs to be addressed in your county, state, or a country (it can be a pressing current issue, such as swine flu, health care reform, tragedy in Ford Hood, or the veterans' life and care after they get back from war; or a pressing global issue, such as finding renewable energy sources, dealing with increasing gas prices, or helping citizens of the countries around the world fight for their rights). Why is this issue of a concern to you? Write a letter to your senator trying to convince him to support your views in legislative vote or new legislation. Remember that your letter shoud be compelling for the senator to read and take action. So, do your research for the facts to back your opinion, or your letter might not be as persuasive as you might think. Use multimedia to enhance your writing!
Watch this video that tells about universal human rights- you might get some ideas about the issue you would want to share in the letter.
This CNN Video tells about H1N1 flu (aka Swine Flu).
Good Blogging!
Mrs. B.

What about Your Game?

My dear students! You have worked really hard on imagining your game and creating a paper prototype. I know that you still have a lot of ideas to put on the paper, but while I am away, and you cannot get to your paper prototyping, I would like for you to write a blog post answering the following questions:

1. What is your game topic and how does it relate to civics?
2. How will a player learn more about civics while they play your game?
3. Where does your game topic fit into the Civics Knowledge Framework? Does it teach about an ideal of government, a function of government or about citizenship? Please explain.

Below, I have outlined the Civics Knowledge Framework. Please, take a look at it and try to match your game to one of the components and talk about it when answering question 3.

1. Ideals: key principles and values underlying US government
· Origins/history of key ideas and values
· Government systems (democracy, dictatorship, communism, monarchy)
· Majority rule
· Minority rights
· Separation of Powers
· Individual Rights and Freedoms

2. Function: How does the US government work?
· Local, state and national/federal levels of government systems
· Local, state and national/federal court systems
· The three branches of government (executive, legislative, judiciary)
· Role of citizens and outside groups (unions, lobbyists, media)

3. Citizenship: How to be an active and effective citizen at any age?
· Stay informed (locally, nationally, globally)
· Explore a variety of sources and perspectives
· Develop a position on local, national and global issues
· Volunteer and participate in community service
· Take action!
· Develop a strategy for achieving results on the ground
· Learn to use action tools: protest, petition, letter writing, town meeting
· Lead and/or support at different capacities and levels (student government, community, local, national, etc.)
· Vote
Good Blogging!
Mrs. B.

My dear students! As always, your blogs are a great read that gives me tons of information about you and your work in Globaloria. You are all ready to start on paper prototypes and get to seriously thinking about your games. Your game ideas are great and overflow with creativity. The Spikers are rocking for the Constitution; Tigers are playing hoops to learn more about the branches of the government; Smarties are exploring the White House; The Dancing Goombas of Zoom!!! are embarking on the historial journey following the footsteps of Lewis and Clark; and Halo Machines are trying the cases in the court house. The Fox Racers are racing to answer educational civics questions, as the Blond Chicks are exploring student rights and responsibilities. Make sure you go to check out each other's team pages and blogs to find out what students are doing in your class.
Now, let's go to our weekly prompt. Last night I played Supreme Decision game and spent a lot of time thinking through the judges' decisions concerning the student freedom of expression at school. Go to play this game and blog about your impressions. What does freedom of speech mean to you? Are there any restrictions to your expression of views, likes, and dislikes? If Mr. Campbell forbid you to wear your favorite shirt to school, would he be right in doing so? If your locker was searched, would you have a right to refuse a search? Why?
Take your time thinking about the answers and base your responses on what you have learned throughout playing the games, reading different blogs, and doing research for your topic.
Good blogging!
Mrs. B.

So far, so good...

Thinking about my blogging habits, I can surely say that they could be better. I do blog weekly, but it's mostly done for my students as I am trying to introduce the complex topic of civics through this great tool for reflection and getting to know the topic. Today, however, I am taking time to reflect on our progress and experiences in the class this year.

Honestly, starting the new year scared me, as I had an amazing group of kids last year who went above and beyong of what the class offered. However, I did not do my current students and Globaloria itself enough justice. Every child is amazing, and our building on the students' interests and their preferred way of learning will bring their uniqueness and brilliance out thus helping them unleash the creativity so needed to be productive on the global scale, which is so vital in the contemporary world and in the world of future.

As of these first days of October, we are progressing wonderfully. Students are taking giant steps into their learning and are not afraid to tinker and be challenged. I will not bore you with the minute description of their progress but rather post this Wordle of my students blogs on their progress thus far from the last week:

The image has been taken from http://www.wordle.net

What can you do?

Time flies when you are having fun! The first month of Globaloria has gone by very fast, and I hope you all have been having fun and learned a lot! Working on the wikis and blogs as well as thinking about the possible game topics were hard but truly rewarding. I hope that all of you are as excited as I am about our great start in Globaloria!

Yesterday you have finally formed teams and really got to talking about the topics for your civics games. As you think about your games, keep in mind your possible audience. Who is going to play your games? Think about yourselves last year- what would have helped you learn more about civics? For your blog assignment today, I would like for you to think about your specific topic (whether it be the branches of the government, the history of our country, individual rights and freedoms, Bill og Rights, etc.) and try to find any blogs to add to your blog roll that would help you learn more about your topic throughout building of the game. Post your reasons for choosing the specific blogs and introduce your classmates to your choices.

As you are thinking about your game topics and searching for blogs, check out this activity and reflect on the role government plays in our lives. While researching, I have found this video on three branches of government that makes a connection with sports. So, for some of you, sports fans, and others who are looking for the ways to teach about civics, here it is:

Good Blogging!
Mrs. B