World's Shortest Political Quiz

Test this out next after you've posted your reactions to the NY Times articles.

What next?

Alright, so now we have student blogs created, and we even have some students linking, quoting, and ranting about current events on their blogs. That's definitely a good start. We still need to clear up some technical difficulties: inviting me as a co-author, tinkering with the templates to remove the navigation bar, adding the rest of the class as links on the sidebar, and limiting comments to registered users.

I want to find a way to get students used to the mechanism of blogging (links, block quotes, commenting, etc.) without turning them off to the idea of blogs. Yes, there will be some "blog-homework" throughout the year, but I really hope that the blogs become a continuous online discussion and a chance for students to express themselves. We might have a fun "blog meme" this week just to jump start the process and to help us get to know each other.

As a way to encourage our new bloggers, I'm going to try and use this space for more than just daily assignments. (We'll still have our assignments up on www.mrdaly.com and at www2.ccs.k12.va.us/teachers/daly/--click on homework for this week's assignments). I'd like to use this space to "teach transparently" and give a look into my thoughts on blogs and teaching. Ideally, this will also include thoughtful suggestions from students (and maybe even parents).

This week we'll get all of the student blogs listed on each other's blogrolls (links) which should encourage them to read and begin to comment on each others blogs. Hopefully less technical problems than last week. Wish us luck.
- Mr. Daly

Bomb blast in Russian province

test 3rd period

here's a place for 3rd period to post their test comments.

- Mr. Daly

UVa special teams

uva special teams.

1st period comments test

Here's a place for 1st period to test out the comments function. Please post a comment on this page to let me know that your account is active and working.

thanks for putting up with our technological difficulties this morning!

- Mr. Daly

Welcome to Government & Politics

Welcome to Government & Politics with Mr. Daly at Charlottesville High School.  We will be using this blog and your own blogs to discuss current events, analyze political events, and debate policies and ideologies.  These will take a few weeks to really get going, but I envision these blogs as a way to bring interesting articles and essays to the attention of your classmates.  I expect that our classroom discussions and debates will borrow from our online blogging and vice versa.  We will use this as an additional medium for student expression and collaboration. We're going to keep these blogs outside of the moodle website (www.mrdaly.com) as I am comfortable with Blogger and think that it will allow use to post articles, photos, and links quickly and easily.  These blogs will be visible to the public (although I will not be listing them on Bloggers site).  Please keep this in mind and conduct yourself in a safe and professional manner.  Please do not use full names or include pictures of yourself or fellow classmates.  This warning does not mean that you should censor your opinions or beliefs; in fact we should be encouraging each other to be open, honest, and even controversial. Government and Politics is an ever-changing subject and we all should have passionate feelings about many topics that will come up.  If you find that some postings challenge your beliefs, you should feel free to respond with your own thoughts and ideas.  This free exchange of ideas is vital (both in politics and blogging).  I expect classes to start off with "I saw something interesting on _________'s blog last night" or "I linked to an article in the Times that really made me think about something _________ said in class last week."  We may wander a bit from the syllabus and calendar, but that's perfectly ok (and a much more realistic way of learning).  If these blogs are only viewed as "homework" it will be a great disservice to us all. Again, welcome to Government & Politics at CHS.  We're going to have a great year. - Mr. Daly