February 28

Social 33

We talked about the "techniques of dictatorship" in class, and then we watched a video called "The Wave" and tried to find instances of the techniques of dictatorship that were used.

Social 10

I gave you time to work on some assigned reading from Canada Today on Western Alienation. This has been assigned as a homework assignment. If you didn't finish this in class, you were to borrow a photocopied version of the reading and finish it at home. Please remember that your brochure assignment is due tomorrow.

If you can't find the author of the website, here's how you cite it:
Title. (Date). Retrieved September xx, 2006 from the Internet: website URL.

You would use the same format for images. This is all in the student handbook.

February 27 Searching the Blog

Searching the Blog

I've been blogging as part of my teaching practice for about 3 years now. There's a lot of information contained on this blog. I have well over 400 posts, and several thousand comments. If you're every looking for something in particular that we talked about in class, or you're looking for a study guide, why not search the blog? Here's how you do it (click on the images below to see a larger version):

Does this map help?

February 27

Social 10

I showed you a couple of videos from the CBC News in Review series, the first one was a retrospective of the 1970 October Crisis, and the other was on the 1995 Quebec Referendum. I then gave you the remainder of the period to work on gathering information for your French-English Relations Timeline assignment. I also collected your Regionalism booklets.

Upcoming Important Dates for Social 10 Students:

• Regional Brochure is due Thursday, March 1st
• French-English Relations Quiz is on Friday, March 2nd
• Regionalism Unit Final is on Monday, March 5th
• French-English Relations Timeline Assignment is due on Tuesday, March 6th
  

Social 33

We finished off one of our last concepts in democratic systems, that being proportional representation. We also started dictatorial systems in dramatic fashion. If you missed today's class, you missed out. I gave you some "Notes on Dictatorships" and some other handouts on "techniques of dictatorships". We'll be talking about the techniques of dictatorships in subsequent classes.

Democracy Unit Final Study Guide

1. Key Concepts/Key People/Key Terms:

• Thomas Hobbes
• John Locke
• political spectrum
• radicals
• moderates
• liberals
• conservatives
• reactionaries
• absolute monarchy
• dictatorship
• democracy
• fascism
• communism
• anarchy
• rule by many
• rule by few/elites
• direct democracy
• representative democracy
• first past the post
• proportional representation
• universal suffrage
• majority rule
• minority rights
• Canadian Constitution
• Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• political parties
• media
• interest groups

2. Advantages/Disadvantages of Direct Democracy (ppt)

3. Advantages/Disadvantages of Representative Democracy (ppt)

4. Techniques/Characteristics of a Democracy (ppt)

5. Canadian Political System:(handouts)

• executive, legislative, judicial branches of government (roles)
• Prime Minister and Cabinet (which branch? what roles/responsibilities do they have?)
• Leader of the Official Opposition (roles/responsibilities)
• the Queen and the Governor General (roles/responsibilities)
• MPs in the House of Commons (roles/responsibilities)
• the House of Commons and the Senate (which is elected? which is appointed? what is the purpose of the Senate? which branch do they belong to?)

6. American Political System:(handouts)

• executive, legislative, judicial branches of government (roles)
• checks and balances in the U.S. system of government
• separation of powers
• President and Cabinet (which branch? what roles/responsibilities do they have?)
• the House of Representatives/Congressmen (roles/responsibilities)
• the Senate/Senators (roles/responsibilities)
• different terms in office, voting methods for President (4 yrs), House of Representatives (2 yrs), and the Senate (6 yrs) --WHY?

7. Political Spectrum (know it VERY well), print off Ideology notes from the blog (check under Social 33 links)

Upcoming Important Dates for Social 33 Students:

• Democracy Unit Final is on Tuesday, March 6th
  
  

February 26

Social 33

We went over the chart from the reading called Canadian and American government at the beginning of class. Next, I gave you a series of readings: one entitled "the Presidential System", another that compared parliamentary democracies to presidential systems, and finally I gave you a reading on political parties, interest groups, and the media. I would like you to answer the following questions based on that last reading:

1. What is the purpose of political parties, interest groups, and the media in democracies?
2. What is the ultimate goal for each of the previously mentioned groups?

You will write your Democracy Final next Tuesday, so I will post a study guide for that test tomorrow.

Social 10

I delivered a presentation on "Plagiarism" at the start of class. I will be sending this presentation to you today, so please check your inboxes. When citing your sources for this project, and any other Social Studies assignment or project that you will do for me this year, please use the following citation format. The actual format guide is on pages 22-25 of this PDF document. It is recommended that you make a copy of this guide as this the accepted format for citing sources that I will use this year. I then distributed the next assignment in Social 10 which is the French-English Relations Timeline Assignment. I gave you the remainder of the period to work of information collection for the timeline from the Canada Today textbook. You can find helpful information in Canada: A Nation Unfolding as well, so it's not a bad idea to investigate that resource as well. Please feel free to go to outside sources for this project, please just remember to cite your sources properly. You will have a quiz on French-English Relations this Friday, here is the study guide:

French-English Relations Quiz Study Guide:

• Quiz format: Fill in the Blank Study the "History of French-English Relations" (ppt) that I have sent to you
• Know the key events, key pieces of legislation, key concepts (terms), key people in the history of French-English Relations in Canadian History (know those French names!)

You will also have your Regionalism Unit Final next Monday, March 5th. Here is the study guide:

Regionalism Unit Final Study Guide:

1. Regions of Canada (review your notes/worksheets and the PowerPoint presentation)

• physiographic regions
• climatic regions
• physiographic regions (chart)
• basic Canadian geography (provinces, territories, capitals, rivers and bodies of water)

2. Regionalism (review your notes/worksheets and the PowerPoint presentation)

• what is regionalism?
• causes of regionalism in Canada
  

3. Regional Disparity (same as above)

• what is regional disparity?
• what causes regional disparity?
• "have" and "have not" provinces
• what does the government do to ease regional disparity?
• shared-cost programs
• personal transfers
• equalization payments
• indicators/signposts of regional disparity
• know the key concepts!!

4. French-English Relations (review notes from the timeline assignment and the PowerPoint)

• Treaty of Paris (1763)
• Quebec Act
• Constitutional Act
• Act of Union
• Confederation
• Riel Rebellions
• WWI Conscription Crisis
• Quiet Revolution (1960-66)- Jean Lesage
• FLQ Crisis (1970)
• Parti Quebecois-Rene Levesque
• 1980 Referendum
• Meech Lake Accord
• Charlottetown Accord-referendum
• know the key concepts!!

5. Western Alienation (we'll be covering this topic later this week)

• Causes of Western alienation (root causes)
• Development of Western alienation (Great Depression)
• formation of regional political parties (UFA, Social Credit, CCF/NDP, Reform, etc.)
• regional political party ideas/objectives
  

Upcoming Important Dates for Social 10 Students:

• Regionalism booklet is due tomorrow at the beginning of class
• Regional Brochure is due Thursday, March 1st
• French-English Relations Quiz is on Friday, March 2nd
• Regionalism Unit Final is on Monday, March 5th
• French-English Relations Timeline Assignment is due on Tuesday, March 6th

February 23

Printing PowerPoint Presentations

When I send you presentations, here is what I recommend that you do: keep an electronic copy of the presentation, preferably in an appropriately named folder. Next you'll need to print it off. I recommend that you print off 4 slides per page. Here's how you do it. Open the presentation up in PowerPoint, then go under File and select Print. Then set things up like the picture below:

Social 33

You wrote your Democracy Quiz today in class. Then we watched an episode of the Simpsons where Krusty runs for Congress. Please make sure that you have that chart completed in that Canadian and American Government comparison for Monday.

Social 10

I delivered a presentation today for most of the period called "A History of French-English Relations" which I will be sending to you today. Please print it off and add to your notes. This is your only weekend that you will have to work on your Regional Brochure assignment. Your Regionalism booklet will be collected on Tuesday.

February 22

Social 10

For almost the entire period you had time to do some research for your Regional Brochure assignment. This is the first and only class time that you will receive to do research for this project.
The following is not meant to be an exhaustive list of websites, however it may be useful to examine them as a starting point in your research.
Canadian Landscapes Photo Collection (click on "Search by Physiographic Region")
Canadian Tourism Commission Photo Gallery
Images of Canada from VIA Rail (select a photo album to view)
The Parliament of Canada Photo Gallery (only useful for St. Lawrence Lowlands region)
Statistics Canada: Thematic Maps (may be useful)
Canada Infolink (lots of information, useful images)
Get2KnowCanada (looks pretty useful)

Whenever you do Internet based research, please keep in mind the following: anyone can post information on the Internet. Just because it's on the Internet does NOT mean that true. Approach any website with a healthy dose of skepticism. With any new piece of information that you encounter online always consider the following:

• Who is the source?
• What am I getting?
• When was it created?
• Where am I?
• Why am I there?
• How can I distinguish quality information from junk?

For more information on this topic you are STRONGLY encouraged to read the information at the following hyperlink: Media Awareness.When citing your sources for this project, and any other Social Studies assignment or project that you will do for me this year, please use the following citation format. The actual format guide is on pages 22-25 of this PDF document. It is recommended that you make a copy of this guide as this the accepted format for citing sources that I will use this year.

Social 33

I did a homework check on the remainder of the Chapter 4 booklet questions on American government at the beginning of class. We then broke into groups to brainstorm similarities and differences between the American and Canadian political systems. As a class we shared our answers. I gave you a reading Canadian and American government, I would like you to complete the chart for homework tonight. We will go over the answers tomorrow in class. I then showed you a video from the CBC News in Review series on the 2000 U.S. elections. Here's a very useful hyperlink to a website that will help you understand American government and politics even more, it's called Ben's Guide to U.S. Government. If you have time check it out. Here is the hyperlink to the study guide for tomorrow's Democracy Quiz.

February 21

Social 33

We did some "housekeeping" at the beginning of the class (homework checks). Next, I gave you a diagram of the seating plan of the House of Commons. I then gave you a handout on the structure of the American government, which you were to take notes on as I was lecturing. For homework tonight you are to complete the Chapter 4 booklet on the American government. I will be checking this tomorrow in class, please make sure that it's finished. I will be giving you a Democracy Quiz on Friday. Here's the study guide:

Democracy Quiz Study Guide:

Quiz format:

1. True/False Section
2. Matching Section
3. Short Answer Section
4. Definitions Section

Quiz topics:

1. Political Spectrum (know the beliefs and values of the following, and where they 'fit' on the spectrum):

• radical
• reactionary
• conservative
• socialism
• liberals
• communism
• conservatism
• NDP

2. Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government-what do they do?

3. Advantages/Disadvantages of Direct Democracy (from ppt on Democracy)

4. Advantages/Disadvantages of Representative Democracy (from ppt)

5. Key Terms:

• democracy
• periodic elections
• independent courts
• free press
• representation by population
• referendum
  
  
  

Social 10

At the start of class, I had you read a CBC News Indepth article on the equalization program. If you didn't finish this in class, please finish it tonight at home. I then discussed what you need to know about the program for Social 10:

• Alberta has received equalization payments in the past
• Ontario has never received equalization payments (it came close in the 1970s)
• Currently Alberta and Ontario are the "have" provinces and don't receive equalization payments
• The equalization payment program is built into our Constitution, it would require a constitutional amendment to get rid of the program
• The rationale behind equalization is to "level the playing field" and allow "have not" provinces offer social services at comparable levels to "have" provinces
• Key issue in the news today: how will equalization payments be calculated in the future?

I gave you the Regional Brochure assignment. You will get one research period for this tomorrow in the library. Please come to class, and then we will go to the library together. It is due on Thursday, March 1st. You will be working on this assignment individually. I gave you the remainder of the class period to finish the "Regional Challenges" section of the Regionalism booklet. I will be collecting the Regionalism booklet next week (date to be announced).

February 20

Social 10

The goal for today was to finish off the Regionalism booklet, specifically the last section on "Regional Challenges". You will get some class time tomorrow to work on this. Then if you haven't finished this booklet, by tomorrow you should start coming to tutorial to finish it up. I will be taking in the entire booklet next week.

Social 33

Today I checked your homework assignment from Wednesday, which was the first part of the Chapter 4 booklet on Democratic Systems. You were to finish the Canadian part of this assignment. I also gave you a handout on the structure of the Canadian government, which looked like this:


You were to take notes on the structure of the Canadian government as I lectured. If you missed class, you will have to get these notes from one of your classmates.

You do have a homework assignment tonight, which I will be checking tomorrow. You must do the Internet Assignment that I gave you in class today. Please visit this hyperlink to complete this assignment: CanadaInfo-The Federal Government.

February 14

Happy Valentine's Day!

Social 33

You wrote your test today (finally). Please finish the Canadian government section in the Chapter 4 booklet. This will be due on Tuesday next week.

Social 10

You continued working in your Regionalism booklet. I also delivered a presentation/lecture on "Regional Disparity". I have already sent this presentation to you, so please check your e-mail. If you didn't get this presentation please let me know. Have a great long weekend!!

February 13

It will be interesting to see what was accomplished today. The roads were so bad, I'm wondering if many of you even made it to class in the first period. If you're wondering where I was, I was at a workshop in NE Calgary, and it took me almost two hours to get there this morning. Fun! See you tomorrow.

February 12

Social 33

I went over a couple of items today. First, we dealt with the range of political ideas spectrum that I gave you in Friday's class. Next, I delivered a presentation to you called "Introduction to Democracy". I will be sending this presentation to you. Please read Chapter 4 tonight!! If you don't get any of these presentations, then please send me an e-mail and I will respond and send them to you directly. Please remember that you have a test tomorrow. Here is the study guide:

Introduction to Political Systems Test Study Guide:

1. Key Concepts/Key People:

• ideology
• government
• politics
• to govern
• economics
• individualism
• collectivism
• fascism
• conservatism
• liberalism
• radical
• conservative
• reactionary
• liberal
• absolute monarchy
• democratic socialism
• communism
• representative government
• Thomas Hobbes (ideas/beliefs)
• John Locke (ideas/beliefs)
• norms
• mores
• rule by few/elites (dictatorships)
• rule by many (democracies)

2. Political Spectrum:

• similarities/differences between groups
• values supported by each group (radical, liberal, conservative, reactionary)
• placement on spectrum of various groups

3. Forms of Government:

• advantages/disadvantages of each type of government that we have examined (absolute monarchy, democratic socialism, communism, representative government, fascism)
  

Test Format:
30 multiple choice questions
1 writing assignment (letter to the editor on a particular issue, information is given to help you write your letter)

Social 10

Today we continued our work from the Regionalism booklet. You should have completed Part "B" of "The Effect of Climate and Physiography" during class time. I also think that you should have filled in some of the gaps on your "Physiographic Regions Chart" from the Canada Today textbook. Ideally, you should be working on "Population Distribution" and the "Location of Population and Manufacturing in Canada" from the booklet. If you're not there yet, you're officially behind.

February 9

Social 33

We met in the Blenheim computer lab today to write a pop quiz on "Collectivism and Individualism", and to do a survey on the political spectrum. Next week we will be picking up the pace significantly!

You will be writing a test on the introductory material in Social 33 on Tuesday, February 13th. Here is the study guide:

1. Key Concepts/Key People:

• ideology
• government
• politics
• to govern
• economics
• individualism
• collectivism
• fascism
• conservatism
• liberalism
• radical
• conservative
• reactionary
• liberal
• absolute monarchy
• democratic socialism
• communism
• representative government
• Thomas Hobbes (ideas/beliefs)
• John Locke (ideas/beliefs)
• norms
• mores
• rule by few/elites (dictatorships)
• rule by many (democracies)

2. Political Spectrum:

• similarities/differences between groups
• values supported by each group (radical, liberal, conservative, reactionary)
• placement on spectrum of various groups

3. Forms of Government:

• advantages/disadvantages of each type of government that we have examined (absolute monarchy, democratic socialism, communism, representative government, fascism)
  

Test Format:

• 30 multiple choice questions
• 1 writing assignment (letter to the editor on a particular issue, information is given to help you write your letter)
  

Social 10

You wrote your Canadian Geography Quiz today. I will give you the results on Monday. We will continue to work from the Regionalism booklet next week.

February 8

Social 10

I delivered a presentation/lecture today on the Regions of Canada, which I will send to you later tonight. You also started labelling two new maps, one on physiographic regions of Canada and the other on climatic regions of Canada. You will get a chance to finish those maps tomorrow in class.

Social 33

I collected your homework assignment from yesterday at the beginning of class. Next, we looked at the political spectrum for most of the period. I had you do a short activity on the political spectrum, which we discussed in class. Your homework assignment for tonight is to print off and read the notes that can be found under Social 33 links. Scroll down the right hand side of the blog until you find "Social 33 Links", and then click on the link there called "Political Spectrum-Ideology Notes". Print off those notes and read them over tonight. Remember to go directly to the Blenheim lab tomorrow.

February 7

Social 33

For most of the period we watched a video called "Forms of Government: What's the Score?" which, although cheesy, did provide a lot of information. I then collected a short opinion piece that you wrote in class. Please make sure that you complete yesterday's homework. I will be checking it tomorrow. speaking of tomorrow, we will begin examining the political spectrum in tomorrow's class. Please make sure that you understand the concepts of collectivism and individualism! You have a pop quiz on these concepts this week.

Social 10

I gave you some class time to work on the "Basic Canadian Geographical Information" worksheet. If you didn't finish the worksheet in class, you either have to come to tutorial to finish it, or ask for some help from your classmates here on the blog. You have your Canadian Geography Quiz this Friday, be prepared for it! I also collected your maps at the beginning of class today.

February 6

Social 10

I remembered to go over the remaining answers from the "Ultimate Canada Quiz" today. I gave you more class time to work on your two maps of Canada (both of which must be completed for tomorrow). I also reminded you that you have Geography Quiz this Friday. I will post the study guide for this quiz here as well. I would also like to remind you to check your e-mail inboxes for a message called "Regionalism Booklet". Please follow the printing directions included in the e-mail message, print it off, and bring it to class tomorrow.
Here is a helpful map for completing you mapping assignment:

Important Dates for Social 10 Students:

• Political and Physical Maps of Canada are due tomorrow (Feb. 7th)
• Canadian Geography Quiz is on Friday, February 9th (please see the study guide below)

Study Guide for Canadian Geography Quiz:

• Know the provincial/territorial capital cities
• Know the location of major bodies of water
• Know the location of major lakes and rivers in Canada
• Be able to locate the major cities in each of the provinces (not just capital cities!)

Social 33

At the start of today's class we did a small group activity where you have decide what position an individualist or a collectivist would take on an issue. This was very well done. I gave you the remainder of the class period to work on the worksheet that I gave you yesterday called "Ideas About Political Organization", this worksheet, Parts A and B are due tomorrow. Please don't forget about your Individualism and Collectivism Pop Quiz, which is happening sometime this week.

February 5

Social 33

Today we covered a few new concepts, namely ideology, individualism and collectivism. I delivered a very short presentation on this topic which I would like to send to you soon. I also gave you some exercises on identifying examples of individualism and collectivism. Please make sure that you check you e-mail accounts and respond back to my original test message. I would like to get the e-mail distribution list up and working so I can start sending you notes.

Social 10

I would like to remind you to double check your e-mail accounts for my original e-mail test message. I really want to get the e-mail distribution list up and running so I can start sending you notes by e-mail.
Today, we started doing a mapping activity on Canada. This assignment is NOT for homework, you will get class time tomorrow to work on it. You have a quiz this Friday on the geography of Canada. I will give you more details on this quiz tomorrow in class. Also, I will try to remember to finish going over the answers to the "Ultimate Canada quiz" tomorrow in class.

February 2

Social 33

Today, I tried to make sure that I collected everyone's e-mail address so I can set up the e-mail distribution list. I will probably send you a test message soon, so please respond back to it when you get it. I gave you an idea of "the big picture" by giving you a concept map of the topics that will be covered in Topic A of Social Studies 33. For most of the period we did small group discussions about the impact of politics and government on our daily lives, and decision-making. Again, I would like to thank you all for your participation in this activity, you had some great answers and you were on-task as well. I also assigned a short assignment for you that I would like you to finish for Monday. Please write a letter of introduction in which you write about your personal interests, your hobbies, your family, your friends. If you spend more than 45 minutes on this letter, that's probably too much time. It should be about 3/4 to a page in length. Please have it ready to hand in on Monday at the beginning of class. Have a great weekend!

Social 10

For most of the period you tried to answer questions from the "Ultimate Canada Quiz". Don't worry if you didn't know the answers to all of the questions, since there were some tough questions in there. I'll finish with the answers in Monday's class. Speaking of Monday's class, please make sure that you bring some pencil crayons, they'll come in handy. Please check your e-mail over the weekend. I'm going to send out a test message, and I would like you to respond back as soon as you get the message. Have a great weekend!

February 1

I thought that I would post some of my classroom rules and expectations of behavior on the blog this year. Also, I will also write down some ground rules for using the blog this semester.

Classroom Rules/Expectations of Behavior:

I think that I have very simple, straight-forward classroom rules and expectations. I will be discussing these in class tomorrow, but here's a quick recap:

• Please be on-task during classroom time (visit later)
• No cell phones (as per school policy); if your parents really need to get in touch with you, they should call the office. Please don't bring cell phones to class, or if you do, please remember to turn them off!
• Please don't listen to music on MP3 players or iPods during class time, unless I have given you permission to do so.
• Be polite. You should be listening during class lectures or when your classmates have questions to ask (you might have some of the same questions).
• Be on time. If you are late, please enter the classroom quietly and apologize for being late. If the door is locked, I have started the lecture or there is a class presentation in progress; I will open the door and let you in as soon as possible.
• Clean up after yourselves. Please don't leave garbage on the floor. I like my classroom fairly neat and tidy.
• Don't bring junk food to class. Healthy snacks only. Or you could always wait until lunchtime.
• You may chew gum in class on the following conditions: don't chew like a cow, I don't want to see the gum or hear you chewing it, that's just gross.
• Late assignments: 10% is deducted for every day an assignment is late. If you have an excused absence, then there is some flexibility with this rule.
• Please make sure that a parent or guardian calls the school to have absences excused. If you miss a test due to an unexcused absence you will be assigned a mark of "zero".
• I will be contacting parent/guardians if you have unexcused absences.
• Please adhere to the school's academic honesty policy which is on the back of your course outlines.
• If you are going away on holidays (please do not schedule holidays during examination periods in January and June), please let me know in advance. I can prepare materials for you, let you know what you'll be missing, and even give you handouts in advance. This way you won't feel "lost" when you come back from holidays.
  
  

Posting on the Blog:

Here are some simple rules that I have established for using the blog, and some other informational items:

• Please post on the blog anonymously.
• If you feel the need to identify yourself, or clarify which grade you're in, please use your initials and your class and section (for example, K.G. in Social 33-1).
• Some of you may have your own Blogger accounts. Please don't post on this blog using your Blogger ID, otherwise you may have people visiting your blog that you may not want to see what you're posting.
• Please be courteous, polite and respectful when posting comments on the blog. Don't be rude to your classmates on the blog.
• Please be patient with my response time.
• Please post comments and questions on the blog prior to 10 p.m.
• Between 6-8 p.m. I am usually not online.
• Wednesday nights are particularly busy for me, this is the night that I have a Masters class at the University and then I play in a volleyball league. I'm rarely home before 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. on these nights.
• Please do not post links to questionable materials.
• Inappropriate comments will be deleted. Please don't do this, it's a waste of my time, I could be doing more productive things, like answering questions that you may have.