Oh campaign finance. The wonderful world. {take a deep breath and continues to pretend it’s super fun!} *I take 2 regular and 1 block day for this. On Friday, I assigned Citizens United v. FEC. They are not writing the DBQ, but using the documents (including Federalist 10) to prepare for a Socratic discussion on…
Tag: Best Practices
Breaking Down Foundational Documents To Make Them More Manageable in an Online World
The AP Government curriculum has nine foundational documents, all of which I’ve written about at some point. Federalist No. 10 Brutus No. 1 The Declaration of Independence The Articles of Confederation The Constitution of the United States (Including the Bill of Rights and following Amendments) Federalist 51 Letter from Birmingham Jail Federalist No. 70 Federalist…
Focus on the Outcomes
I received an email this morning that I needed to choose my daughter’s mode of instruction for the 2020-2021 school year by July 10th. (Arizona starts early and the district is on a modified year-round schedule). I froze. Like me, most people are going into this next school year wondering what in the hell they…
Reflections on Teaching Remotely
I’ve been writing this in my head for three weeks. In my 17 years of teaching, I never knew something like this could be possible. As a National Board Certified Teacher, I am constantly reflecting and changing things. I am currently 3 weeks into remote teaching and 5 weeks out of school (because of spring…
Extended School Absences/Closures
We are in unprecedented times. It’s uncertain. And many are wondering what we are going to do for the AP test. As someone who has a chronic illness, I think about MY extended absences a lot, and have safeguards built-in for days I need to be gone. We have one more week of our scheduled…
Teaching AP Government in a Shortened Semester: Week Four, Impeachment, and an absence
Week 4, Days 14-18 What was covered this week: Day 14- Quantitative Analysis FRQ review as a class as a warm-up (My students struggled and we will be looking at this more) As an activity, students made flow charts or cartoons about how the legislative process using the Library of Congress as their resource. Days…