I would like to welcome all students entering DIA (Democracy in Action) and World Cultures for the 2016/17 school year. With the coming election I hope to have an ejoyable class discussing both sides perspectives, pros and cons, and allow students to come to their conclusion for who they support. 

We will beging the year by looking at voting rights and when different groups of Americans gained the right to vote. We will then transition to elections and political parties. From there we will spend some time looking at the purpose of government and how the three branches of governemnt were set up and work together to maintain a separation of powers along with checks and balances on each other. We will also look at how this works at the stae level along with the federal level. We will also learn about supply and demand within micro economics. 

During the school year I will be showing several movies. One movie we will watch is "Selma" to deal with the Civil rights movement. At the end of the school year we will watch "The Help".

I look foward to getting to know each student this year. I also look forward to an enjoyalbe year of learning for both you and me. I say me also because I see learning as a lifelong endeavor, therefore, I am always learning new ways to make education work better. 

We will use strategies such as reader's theater, creating virtual museums, writing your own play, daily writings at the beginning of the period. These will be about the current topic and may have a specific answer or a chance to state your opinion. Stating your opinion allows for great classroom conversations. My hope is that we will learn how to have agreement and disagreement while being respectful of others ideas and opinions. 

Here's to a great year ahead.