What You'll Be Working on While I'm Gone....Hopefully not the best week of social classes for you

Like I told you guys last week, while I am in Kananaskis, you will essentially be teaching yourself.  I will not be going over this material again in class, but if there are things you don't understand, please feel free to send me an email or ask me after Spring Break.

On your vocabulary pages, with everything that we did last week, you should be able to complete all terms up to Voter Apathy and Reform.  That should be one of the first things that you complete this week.

Also, I have booked out the Chrome book portable labs for our class the entire week.  There is not a full class set of 20 (I believe there is only 15) so if you can bring your own laptop, please do.  Since there will be a few different videos you are watching over the course of the week, please bring headphones daily to class.

Ukraine Explained in Simple Terms - Why is there a conflict?

Here are couple different websites that you can use as reference and review of what we covered last week.

Read p. 343 in your textbook on Proportional Representation

First Past the Post

America's Government System vs. Canada's Government System

Canada's Political System, Explained

Monday and Tuesday

• Hand in your double bubble map from Presidential and Parliamentary democracies.  If you and your partner put the EXACT same thing, please just hand in one copy, with both names on it.
• Vocabulary should be completed for the following words: Minority Government, Majority Government, First Past the Post, Electoral College, and  Constituency 
• Positives and Negatives of Democracy
• Watch the video and read the article 
• Make note of at least 5 reasons why democracy works and is a good thing and at least 5 reasons why it fails and is not very efficient

• For the first 2 days this week, you will be working on the Power Point slides in Dropbox titled "Does Democracy Really Work?" There is a PDF copy of the notes handouts, as well as the actual Power Point.  You will need a laptop/Chrome book for internet access as there are several videos to watch, so please have ear buds with you.  You will also need your textbook to go through certain parts of readings.
• Once you have completed that, go back to your vocabulary and write and draw out the description for voter apathy.
• The work on these two days must be completed before going on to Wednesday and Thursday activities.

Wednesday and Thursday

• For Wednesday and Thursday, you will be using the Power Point called Reform in a Democracy.  You can work on your own, or you can work with a partner.  Go through the 5 slides of notes and add information from the handouts that are in Dropbox.
• Then, on your own, go through slides 7-9.  Make jot notes and answer the questions on the slides. Here are the links to the articles/videos you need:

Slide 7

Slide 8

Slide 9

http://goo.gl/HE4aDk

http://goo.gl/GDReAI

• Once all the people at your table have completed going through the slides (should be done on Thursday), discuss and compare your answers for each of the different .
• At the end of class on Thursday, you will write at least a one page write up for whether you think the Senate should be reformed or abolished.  I will be marking this paragraph and using your rant rubric to mark it - so it will be a mark out of 10.   This needs to be handed in by Friday at the end of class.

Friday

• Finish writing your one page (or more) answer to the Senate situation
• Read the article in Dropbox called "How Democracy Created a Monster"
• Once you have done that, work on the questions on Dictatorships Chapter 5 which are in Dropbox as well.  These should be done for Monday.

Democracies........What You Always Wanted to Know....And Then Some

If you haven't already checked out Dropbox, I did put the answers to the activity that we completed on Thursday.  You will need that completed this week, so please make sure  that you have it done and in your notes for class.  As well, the notes that you need for Monday and possibly Tuesday are already in Dropbox.

On a completely side note to what we will be talking about in class, I strongly encourage you to be paying attention to the situation in Ukraine, specifically in Crimea region (which is a peninsula that is geographically part of Ukraine, but ethnically there is a large Russian population).  This is a situation that we can monitor from afar, as it does not directly deal with our region.  However, if the situation escalates, there is the potential for a conflict to develop between multiple nations.  Last week, it was announced that there would be a referendum in Crimea about whether or not they wish to secede (break away) from Ukraine.  Our Foreign Affairs minister, John Baird, has stated that Canada's position on this referendum would be that we will not accept it, seeing as 10 days is not enough time to hold a vote, especially while Russia is occupying the region.  I also was listening to CBC radio (because I am that cool) and heard one caller's perspective that this whole situation has been engineered by the United States and NATO from the actions of both over the last 60 years - an interesting perspective that does make sense.  Listen to the radio and news; read blogs; read articles; look at multiple perspectives.  This is history in the making and it's important to look at this from more angles than what mainstream media tells us to.

The following video is a good discussion on why we need democracy...

What Shall We Be Covering This Fine Week?

Monday 

• Democracy Introduction video with Questions
• Go through the basics from Thursday - you will need that large colourful sheet you filled in with pictures, as well as the notes printed off from Dropbox
• Vocabulary - Representative Democracy, Representation by Population and Proportional Representation 
• Presidential vs. Parliamentary Democracies

Tuesday

• Electoral Systems - introduction video with questions
• How can we be represented - Rep by Pop vs Proportional Representation
• Please bring a calculator, colouring tools and a protractor
• What's Your Vote Worth Article
• Which is the best system?

Wednesday

• Vocabulary - Minority Government and Majority Government 
• Canada's Electoral System vs. American Electoral System
• First Past the Post, Electoral College, Constituency/Riding

Thursday

• Rants by  Denton  and Melissa - I know somebody else asked to go this week, but I couldn't remember who :( I am only perfect 99% of the time
• Voter Apathy - How do we deal with it?

Friday

• REFORM Friday - Our system isn't perfect, so why not change it? 
• Senate Reform
• Partisan Politics Reform

Political Systems.....SO very exciting!!! In the realm of Social 30....I guess...

"Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal."
Aristotle

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."
Winston Churchill

"Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education."
Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Every one of the world's dictatorships can and does claim to be acting in the name of the people."
Harold H. Greene

"Dictatorships start wars because they need external enemies to exert internal control over their own people."
Richard Perle

"Sometimes it's better to have a benign dictator than a dumb democracy, to be honest."
Serj Tankian

That's right, kidlings! We're going to start our next unit which has to deal with Political Systems.  Essentially, we will be looking at a democratic vs. dictatorial systems.  Through this, we will analyze:

• What are the roles of the citizens in these systems?
• What are the roles of the government in these systems?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of both systems?
• Where did these ideas originate from?
• Is one system superior to the other and why?
• The different ideological beliefs of the systems of government

And lastly,

• Whether or not these political systems live up to their ideals 

I am really going to stress to you guys to try to keep an open mind during this unit.  Please, don't assume that democracy is the be and all of political systems, because there are some major flaws.  I am not saying let's have a dictatorship, rather I would like to analyze the system we have in our nation and what can be done to improve upon it.

So what's on the agenda for this week?

Monday

• Partner Exam - retake the test with a partner
• Work on planning for essay tomorrow

Tuesday

• In-class writing assignment.  If you are not in class, you must hand in your rough copy the next day you are in class - I will not remind you to do so - if you want feedback before you do your good copy

Wednesday

• Political Liberalism - what it is
• Influence of the Enlightenment and historical influences
• Assignment - similarities and differences between democracies and dictatorships.  You will need either a data seeking device or to bank on using a chrome, which is not necessarily available during class time.



Thursday

• Rants by  Alison and Keyton
• Democracy video
• Article discussion
• TED Talk Video and debate 

Friday

• Vocabulary: Accountable Government, Representation by Population, Proportional Representation
• Canada's Electoral Process