Tinker vs. Des Moines

                  

While all of the court cases were interesting, the one that I thought was the most interesting was Tinker vs. Des Moines.  I thought it was interesting because I can relate with it in a way (ABC Countdown). 
John and Mary Beth Tinker, in order to protest the war that was going on, wore black arm bands to school everyday.  Even though they weren't doing anything to harm themselves or others, many teachers thought that this act would cause a big disturbance among the school.  John and Mary Beth were given the option to either take off the arm band or get suspended.  Both of them refused and were suspended.  All they were trying to do was voice there opinion about the war.  They could have chosen a more violent route but instead, they chose a symbolic protest.
I found this interesting because this story reminds me of what is happening now with our ABC Countdown.  All we are trying to do is have some fun because we are seniors.  I think we have earned the right (w/ all 4 grueling years of high school) to break a couple dress code violations or whatever.  Some of the teachers are just finding ways to try and shut us down but we will keep finding ways to get around it (just like John and Mary Beth Tinker)  :D

Things I learned about the Government :D

While working on our children's book, I learned a lot of new things about the Illinois State Government.  I was actually surprised that some of the stuff (and not just the fun facts) were interesting to read about.  The fun facts were cool too but I can't write about them :)           

One of the things that I found interesting is the three branches in the government.  I knew that there were three but I didn't know much about them.  The first branch is the executive branch.  It is run by the governor but also shares power with five other elected constitutional officers: Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Comptroller and Treasurer.  This branch controls the state budget, appoints department, and does other important things.  The second branch is the Legislative Branch which is head by the General Assembly.  It is made of the 59 member Senate and the 118 member House of Representatives.  This branch introduces and passes legislation involving policy and administration of state and local affairs, taxes and spending.  The third branch is the Judicial Branch which is head by the Supreme Court.  The seven member Supreme Court interprets the Illinois Constitution (and laws) and hears final arguments in certain legal cases.  I don't have a favorite branch :) 

Something else that I learned that wasn't included in our children's book is more information about our Education System.  I learned that the Illinois State Board of Education sets educational policies and guidelines for public and private schools, preschool through grade 12, and vocational education for the benefit of more than 2 million children in Illinois.  I found this interesting, especially the part where they set the policies and guidelines because I thought that they teachers set that stuff!          

I learned more about the history of the state capitol while working on this project.  I thought that the capital has also been Springfield but I was a little off on that one :)  The first capitol was Kaskaskia, the second was Vandalia, and then it was changed to Springfield.  Illinois has also had six capitol buildings.  One was built for Kaskaskia and then when the capital was changed to Vandalia, a new building was built.  That one was destroyed in a fire and so, yet again, they built another building.  After a while, that one was torn down and another one was made with bricks (UPGRADE!!). 

I learned a lot about working in groups during this project.  Something very important I learned is that as team leader, you need to be strict when assigning homework and getting things done.  I was a little timid while being leader but I have learned from my mistakes :)  In my group, we all worked well together.  We started off a little bit slow; we had a really hard time picking a story to write about.  We also had trouble starting the story.  Once we started it, it was easy to write the rest.  Our story turned out ok, not as good as I was hoping but it was fine :)

I WANT YOU......to be the next president :)

As far as who I want to to win the presidential election goes, it comes down to either Rick Santorum and Barack Obama.  The both have good qualities and ideas that they can bring to the table.

I would like Barack Obama to be re-elected because he has done many good things all ready and he has so many other ideas that could help America.  He has created many jobs,  successfully fought to cut taxes,  and made new healthcare plans.  Alot of people say that Obama is doing a terrible job as president and that he should not be president but that is only because they have no one else to blame.  When Obama became president, he was thrust into a world of problems left by former president Bush (thanks George).  In his campaign, he always talked about changing things.  I think that people expected him to change everything overnight which obviously is impossible.  I think he is going at a good pace and if given another chance, he will be able to change alot more.

On the other hand, Rick Santorum is also on my list for becoming the next president.  I think a fresh face in the white house is something everyone would like.  He also has alot of great things he wants to accomplish.  He wants to make an immigration policy which we REALLY need.  He thinks that an education is very important(which suprisingly not alot of people do).  He has many plans that could help America out and if elected, I think he would do a great job at making those ideas happen.





I honestly cannot predict who will win this election.  I think only a physic could tell you that :)  There are so many undecided voters, obama haters, obama lovers, and "who cares, America sucks anyways" voters.  This election will be unpredictable until maybe the last couple days until voting.

Past 2 weeks of Gov :)

The past two weeks of government has been fun/crazy/excited/difficult!!  I have learned so much about a lot of things.  The coolest thing I have learned has been this Gmail business.  I have had a Gmail from a previous class but I never used it until now.  It is so easy to send things, forward things, and make copies of stuff using Gmail.  I also got a bit distracted changing the background :)  I like when we have documents that we all share because it is easier to add things.  Projects go so much quicker when we all have the document that we can put information on instead of finding our stuff, sending it to whomever, and then putting it on the project.  Speaking of projects, ours is going really well.  Beth is our team leader which is a good choice because she knows how to get stuff done!  Pretty much everyone is on task and does what they are supposed to do.  When someone is gone, we all pick up the slack and get the job done.  We all worked well together and when there was something to fix, we fixed it and made it better.  We got our project done ahead of time and it turned out really nice :)

Our group researched Voting Regulations and Congressional Elections.  I learned a lot of information on both topics from all the research we did over the past 2 weeks.  From researching voting regulations, I learned where you can register to vote and where you can go to vote.  I also learned about bilingual voting ballots.  If you don't speak English, you can ask for bilingual ballots which I thought was very nice to have for non-English speaking people.  Congressional Elections were harder to research but I did learn some things.  I learned that this year is the 57th presidential election and also that the senate and house elections are on the same day as the presidential elections which I don't think happens often (Election Day is on November 6th).  I learned that we are in District 8 and that some of our representatives are Joe Walsh, Richard Durbin, and Mark Kirk.  I did the research on Joe Walsh but I wasn't really that interested in it because he is a Republican :)  This project was really fun and it was interesting to learn all these things.  They will definitely be helpful in the future :)

The Perfect Website :)

It is always hard to find a website that you would actually want to use to find information.  Some websites are full of long paragraphs that you turn away from as soon as you see it.  Other websites don't have enough information or are just filled with random pictures and advertisments.  Then there are the perfect moments when you find the perfect website.

The perfect website for me would consist of a couple of things.  For starters, NO long paragraphs!!  The reason we look for things online is to find a quick answer.  There is nothing quick about reading a giant paragraph that has some informartion on your topic and the rest is filled with "fluff".  I like when I find a website that has a main topic in bold with bullet points of info.  I also like when there are some pictures that help explain what the information is about.  This may seem weird but if a website has colors (not too much though) I am more likely to stay on that website.  I also like creativity in websites.  Straight forward directly to the point websites are kind of boring.  It is hard to explain what I mean when I say "straight forward directly to the point" but it makes sense to me!

Those are mostly all of the things that a website has to have to be a "perfect" website :)