April 10

The social studies department required that all teachers give a 9 week test, but it was the same for all government classes so that they could see how all of the students do as compared to all of the other students who are taking that course. There was quite a bit of the information that we haven’t gone over yet, but I wanted them to take the whole test so that I could see what they already know of the information that we will be learning about in a couple of weeks. No one did spectacular on the test (I made it count for 10 HW points so that the students would take it seriously), but some students definitely surprised me. DR did amazing; I wish she would perform this well all the time. KM did extremely well as well, but she said that she guessed on most of it. This is what I worried about; I took the test before I gave it to them, and there was definitely stuff that I did not know but I could figure out the answers because the test was so poorly written.

Block 3 is getting really into it.

AM is back and she jumped right in; maybe this is something that she excels at more than written notes and quizzes, etc. RM is very vocal and opinionated; I am glad to see that she is so excited about the process. Hopefully this quarter is off to a better start than last semester.

My CT is finally starting to let me take over more which I really appreciate. I am having a lot of fun with this simulation.

I started grading the bills today, and that rubric needs more work than the floor work and bill presentation rubric combined. Everything is so vague and the point system seems completely arbitrary. I think an actual rubric would be best; I would explain it more in depth here, but it is so complicated that it is something that I am going to have to type up. The only way that I can properly explain the changes that need to be made is to redo the rubric and attach it to the old one.

I was really unsure of how to respond to my first bill, but I talked to another veteran teacher and he helped me figure out a response. It turned out that the bill was unconstitutional. JM, the bill’s sponsor, was not happy about my veto, as I knew he would be. He tried to override the veto, but it did not pass as the other students understood my reasoning for the veto and agreed with it.