Students, today we will be discussing the President’s State of the Union Address as well as talking about money and current tax rates…get pumped!

Mr. McClung

Due to the fact that we are currently engrossed in our Arkansas City Project, our normal Weekly Ten will be postponed for this week…which means 2nd period still holds the crown of champions for another week.

Mr. McClung

For the past few days we have been using an excellent website in class as a resource for our Arkansas City Project. We have been using a site called Encyclopedia of Arkansas, this site offers up a wide variety of information and resources that are useful to any Arkansas history teacher. You can visit the site by clicking here.

Mr. McClung

Above is a short screencast I made to show you how to register your Glogster account…click here to visit the Glogster EDU website.

Above is a quick example I put together for my science class to review protons, electrons, and neutrons. Feel free to explore the website and check out the wide variety of options available to you…click here for more examples (better than mine) of Glogster posters.

Mr. McClung

Beirut is an American band which was originally the solo musical project of Santa Fe native Zachary Francis Condon, and later expanded into a band. The band’s first performances were in New York, in May 2006, to support the release of their debut album, Gulag Orkestar. Beirut’s music combines elements of indie-rock and world music. The band has released 5 albums, including their latest titled “Rip Tide”…which was released in early June 2011. You can hear the song titled “Santa Fe” from that album by clicking on the player below.

Mr. McClung

Lesson One – I Hate Politics

It’s political season again…don’t look so excited. While some people really get amped up for the presidential election I really have a hard time doing so. I’m not a fan of the attack ads, two-faced candidates, mud-slinging, and just the entire politics of the entire process. I stumbled across the video above a few years ago and I feel like it really embodies exactly how I feel about the whole political process.

Lesson Two – Pop Sensation…Camryn

The circus has officially come to town. Today we had an aspiring artist pop sensation come to school today to perform during lunch. Needless to say this caused quite the commotion among the students today and dominated much of the conversation at school…which makes it real easy to try and teach Arkansas History. However, it seemed like the kids did have a good time and that is truly all that matters.

Lesson Three – Vilification

Speaking of mud-slinging and attack ads, I was the victim of such attacks earlier this week. My students were asked to create a poster/pin/sticker for an ad campaign for a fictional or real person. One of my students, Mr. Wagstaff, decided to pick me as the target of his smear campaign. He took a ad slogan from the 1964 presidential election and used me as the center-piece for this ad…oh yeah, and did I mention that he distributed stickers for everyone in the class as well? Well…he did. Despite the fact that I have been exposed for being nuts, I still got to admit that it was a brilliant submission for this assignment.

Mr. McClung

With all the excitement running around about the current republican nomination and the upcoming presidential election in November, we decided to get into the spirit ourselves. My students were asked to create a poster/pin/sticker for an ad campaign for a fictional or real person. They were asked to use symbols and slogans in their project that they might see in a real campaign.

The result of this project was really cool, my students came up with some phenomenal projects. Including ads that supported and discredited me as a candidate. Other persons of interest for this project included Justin Bieber, Drew Brees, George Clooney, and of course the real candidates that are running for president. In addition to creating the ads, students were asked to identify and explain the slogans and symbols that they used. Like I said before, this was a very worthwhile project to under take and I’m very proud of the finial product.

Mr. McClung

Feeling lucky? Not particularly…the image above is the view of Google’s homepage in response to the SOPA and PIPA acts.

The past week we have been talking quite a bit about the governmental process and how, theoretically, our voice as citizens is heard through a representative democracy…and today a perfect exercise of how this works fell into my lap.

As you may of heard, today websites like Wikipedia and Google are protesting the proposed SOPA and PIPA acts that are making their way through congress. In short, these acts are attempting to get rid of online piracy, but can ultimately have a negative effect on the well being of the internet in the process…in the opinion of some. In response, Google and Wikipedia have altered their website in protest…Wikipedia has blacked out for 24 hours, and Google has created an online petition in response to these two pieces of legislation.

Anyone can get involved with this process and exercise your duty in a representative democracy, you can visit the Google website and sign the petition, or visit Wikipedia and access a direct line of communication to your state’s representatives. You can also track the progress of these bills by visiting Trackgov. In my class we will be tracking both of these bills as well as discuss the positives and negatives of both of these bills.

Mr. McClung

Our unit on government couldn’t have come at a better time. Right now we are smack dab in the middle of an election year and the race for the Republican nomination is getting intense. However, my students and I are fully embracing the election year. Right now my students are currently working on a project in which they are creating a political bumper sticker, pin, or poster. Students will use symbols and slogans in their piece of political propaganda, must like real politicians do. This project will be due on Thursday and I will be sure to report back with with the final project.

Mr. McClung

Of Monsters and Men are a six piece indie/folk band from Iceland…they are also the 2010 winners of Músíktilraunir (a nation wide battle of the bands competition). They have had some success in the United States with their song “Little Talks”. The Seattle based radio station KEXP recorded it live over 2010 the Iceland Airwaves festival. In August, 2011 the also song debuted on Radio 104.5 out of Philadelphia and quickly went into heavy rotation due to an overwhelmingly positive response. The rise in sales lead to a record label bidding war for the then unsigned band. Of Monsters And Men finally signed with Universal Music Group. The song has also received attention on 102.5 (CD101) in Columbus, OH as well as influential L.A. radio station 88.5 KCSN. The single is available for download on iTunes. David Fricke of Rolling Stone Magazine called them “New Arcade Fire” and Iceland’s Mumford and Sons. Their debut album My Head is an Animal was released in Iceland September 2011. The band signed with Universal Music Group and their debut single will be released worldwide in early 2012. In the meantime you can hear their song “Little Talks” by clicking on the player below.

Mr. McClung

Today in class we discussed the role of government and where the power should rest within our government structure. The charts above are from my student feedback today when I asked them who they believed should have more power…the state government or the federal government. With the exception of one class, the answers varied a great deal.

As a follow up exercise we looked at two specific cases in the US where the federal government has stepped in and went over the head of state government. Another case dealt with a state that has a direct form of democracy and how having that much power on the local and state levels have harmed them.

Mr. McClung

Lesson One – The Sneetchs

Today we are gonna do things just a little bit different. As oppose to the normal 3 or 4 lessons we have each week, this week we have only one…but it’s a big one. Today in class took the time to read to my students my favorite Dr. Seuss book, The Sneetches. This book is a classic example of the harms of discrimination from one group of people to another. In this book the Sneetches that have stars on their bellies are essentially the “haves” and those without stars are the “have-nots”.

I like to read this book to my students are this time of year because of the fact that we are about to enter a 3 day weekend as we celebrate MLK Day on Monday. I think it’s very important to realize that over generations, the meanings behind holidays tend to get forgotten and eventually become less important. My message to the kids was that the lessons we learned about ourselves from the civil rights movement are too important to forget. It’s important that we never forget were we came from as a country and continue to build upon the work of the leaders from that time period. Have a good weekend, everyone.

Mr. McClung

The past two days in class we have discussed the structure of our state and federal governments. We have talked about the branches that they are comprised of and how they all work together in a system of checks and balances…this is put into place to ensure that no one branch has more power over the other. While there are many positives to the system we have in class in the USA, we also discussed some of the negatives that go along with it. Today we will continue that conversation as well as discuss the role that government should play in our everyday lives.

Mr. McClung

Chase and other students from 4th period, participating in our “representative” style of taking notes…this consist of students becoming experts on a certain section of our content then teaching it to other groups in the class.

Wednesday and Thursday this week, we will be discussing government on three different levels…federal, state, and local. We will be discussing the structure of all three of these governments and who makes discussions for us. In addition, we will talk about how all this connects to the current GOP nomination and the up coming presidential election in November.

Mr. McClung

Today we will be discussing the GOP primary, among other things, as a part of our Three Things Thursday discussion.

Mr. McClung

This blog post was originally published two years ago, in the spring of 2009…enjoy.

Having lived in Arkansas for nearly 25 years now, I realize that while there are some really great things about our state there some things not so great…like stereotypes. The video above is one such example of a stereotype. This poor guy seems to have had his truck picked up and slammed by a tornado…and felt the need to share it with local news, then felt like he was a great representative for Arkansas to talk about the recent tornado storms in Arkansas.  Thanks CNN for fueling the fire…enjoy the video everyone.

Mr. McClung

Today we put an end to the salt-dough project. Today students took their dough models, that had sat all weekend, and used them as a canvas.

Students were given a color scheme that matched up with the six geographical regions of Arkansas. After painting each of the regions, students then put a key onto their masterpieces.

Tomorrow we will take a bit of a break from geography as we begin our first official unit in Arkansas history. Tomorrow we will discuss stereotypes and how we as Arkansans can over come them.

Mr. McClung

Your band of the week is Young the Giant.

Young the Giant is an American alternative rock band that formed in Irvine, California, in 2004. The band’s line-up is Sameer Gadhia, Jacob Tilley, Eric Cannata, Payam Doostzadeh, and François Comtois. Formerly known as The Jakes, Young the Giant was signed by Roadrunner Records in 2009 and released its eponymous debut album in 2010.

Young the Giant spent 2010 touring with Minus the Bear and Steel Train while working on its debut album with producer Joe Chicarelli. After the band finished recording in early June, they played additional shows with Marina and the Diamonds, The Futureheads, Neon Trees and New Politics. Several songs—including “My Body”, “I Got”, and “Strings”—were leaked online in advance of the album’s release. On October 26, Roadrunner Records digitally released the eponymous Young the Giant album, which Amazon.com hailed the third best rock album of 2010. The album received a physical U.S. release on January 25, 2011. The album was released in the UK on May 2.

Since the release of the band’s album, the band has experienced great success. You can hear the song “Cough Syrup”, from the band’s album, by clicking on the player below.

Mr. McClung

On Friday we went through phase two of our Arkansas geography project. Students were asked to make a mixture of salt-dough in order to create a physical feature map of the state of Arkansas. On Thursday students created their mixture and Friday they put pen to paper…so to speak. Students took their mixture of dough and put it on to a piece of foam board that they had already traced the state of Arkansas onto.

Upon pipping their dough onto the board students then made their dough take the shape of Arkansas by making it fit their outline that they had previously drawn. Students used their fingers, rulers, pencils, and whatever else they could get their hands on to make the dough look like Arkansas with mountains and valleys. On Monday we will begin the third and final phase of our project by color coding the map.

Mr. McClung

Lesson One – High Cotton (Updated)

Although we have only been in school for two days this week, majority of the conversations around the school have been dominated by the 2011 Cotton Bowl. Living in a college town it’s no surprise that a Razorback game be the talk of the town, but it has been especially thick this bowl season because of the aspirations that the Razorbacks have had this year.

Updated version, Arkansas took care of business and handled K-State in the Cotton Bowl…showing the Wildcats how a real teams plays. Take that EMAW!

Lesson Two – Bad Christmas Presents

This lesson was originally posted in January of 2010, but it always makes for a great discussion piece after the holidays.

Christmas is always a memorable experience….sometimes it may not be a pleasant memorable experience but memorable at best. This week my students and I discussed bad Christmas presents throughout history, and I shared with them my story about the rock tumbler I received one Christmas. I was about 11 or 12 and at the age where parents are not quite sure what to buy you anymore….toys are no longer cool and your not quite into clothing at this point.

For those of you not aware of what a rock tumbler is, it is basically a container that you fill with a set of rocks and a “secret” mixture then place on a motor that spins (or tumbles) the rocks for about two weeks. After the end of the two weeks, you then take your rocks and rinse and repeat with another “secret” mixture….for another two weeks. At the end of a month you have nice pretty rocks that you are not quite sure what to do with….turns out they are great throwing rocks. Can you beat this bad Christmas present? If so, leave us a comment.

Lesson Three – Arkansas History

The picture above is a copy of the tattoo that can be found on the back of my arm…pride, stupidity, or maybe both?

Starting this week we will be changing our curriculum from social studies to Arkansas history. This is a semester course and will highlight the role that Arkansas had in many important events in American history. For many of my students they have been dreading this switch for quite sometime, but for me I have been really looking forward to the switch. I really enjoy teaching Arkansas history because it allows me to teach American history while instilling a sense of pride for being from the great state of Arkansas by explain how we fit into the big picture. Often times the thinking of students, in regards to Arkansas history, is that nothing cool has ever happened in Arkansas…however that couldn’t be further from the truth. As Arkansans there is plenty to celebrate and there are also many events that happened within our own borders that have shaped our national landscape. Hopefully once we are finished with this semester my students will feel the same way that I do and start taking pride in the fact that they are from Arkansas as oppose to thinking nothing cool has or ever will happen in our state.