What in the World?

What should the title of this map be?  Make a key for this map and explain what it means.

Who was Elbridge Gerry and how did he change American politics?

How will Ohio Issue 1 change it back?

US Citizenship

Do you know more about America than the immigrants who want to become citizens? 

Click here to find out.

Are these questions fair?  What questions should we be asking?

What are the steps to become a 'legal' US citizen?  Why does it take so long?

Should millions of illegal immigrants be allowed to stay?

Is immigration good or bad for the USA?  Why?  Take the poll.

What are the 'myths' about immigration?

Collective Bargaining

Collective bargaining involves representatives of both labor unions and management in negotiations about the terms of a contract. Today, the procedures to be followed are governed by federal law. This simulation activity is designed to allow students to participate in the process through which workers and big business owners attempted to settle their disputes without resorting to strikes and their potential for producing violent confrontation.

Penny War

Penny Debate: Should the United States keep the penny or get rid of it?

The U.S. Cent, or penny coin, has almost no purchasing power today. The cost of making the pennies (1.26 cents each) is higher than face value, and the melt value of pennies ranges from more than 2.4 cents for the pre-1982 copper pennies, to nearly a full cent for the zinc pennies. However, the penny is a very sentimental coin to most Americans, and many people fear that eliminating the penny would raise prices because things would need to be rounded to the nickel.

Love them or Hate them pennies don't seem to be going away any time soon.

Read this article and then make a 'T' chart showing the pros & cons of the 1 cent coin.

Are pennies still accepted as 'legal tender?'

Has the United States gotten rid of coins in the past?  What was a 'hay' cent?

Are foreign countries like China melting down our old pennies for the copper?

What coins are currently in circulation? Who is on them?  Why? Should we keep them?

Is there an Obama Coin?  How much is it worth?

I Will Fight No More....

Chief Joseph made a promise to his dying father to never give up his peoples land where he would be buried. Joseph never signed a treaty giving this land to the US Government but they took it anyway. In an attempt to keep his people free he made a desperate run to Canada to join up with Sitting Bull. He came up 40 miles short.

Do you wish he had made it?  Why or not?

Labor Day

What did you do this weekend to celebrate Labor Day? Did you grill out or go to the pool? How many of you went downtown to see the WEBN fireworks? But do you know the real history behind this holiday? Watch this video to find out and then answer these questions in your notes:
1) Who proposed labor day?

2) In what American city was it first celebrated?

3) Which President made Labor Day a national holiday? Why?

4) What has happened to America's once great labor force today?

The Crucible

The Crucible is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693.  

In the 1950's the fear that communists both outside and inside America were working to destroy our way of life created a reaction known as the Red Scare.  Pop culture reflected this fear of communists invading and taking over Americans minds.

Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the U.S. government blacklisted accused communists.^[1] Miller himself was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities.

A little known senator from Wisconsin, Joseph R. McCarthy charged that more than 200 communist agents had infiltrated the highest levels of our government. The charge provoked a furor and a witch hunt that quickly spread to all levels of American life.

Compare and Contrast the Salem Witch Hunts to the McCarthy Era. Who was persecuted and what was the evidence? What recourse did the accused have? Which was more dangerous: the accusation or the actual witches?

Analyze the Primary Documents.

Who was Edward R. Murrow and how did he respond to these allegations?

What predictions did Mr. Murrow make about the future of Media in America?