Why are there British pirates?

Jefferson's foreign policy took up most of the discussion today as well as a new set of notes titled, "Problems with Foreign Powers" which comes from Chapter 10 section 3 in your textbook. Jefferson and the United States faced a dilemma because France and Great Britain were at war and we didn't want to get involved but some how we were pulled into it...those darn pirates and girls I'm not talking about Jack Sparrow. Don't forget your 50 States Test will be on Friday. If you would like to prepare for the quiz, follow this link: http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/usaquiz.html

Cutting Out the Fat?!?

Today regular classes read through Chapter 10 Section 2, pages 302-307, "The Louisiana Purchase & Exploration" using a reading/summarizing strategy known as Cutting Out the Fat. Each student was assigned a sub-section of Section 2 on pages 302-307, after reading their sections to themselves, students then wrote out a sentence that would be summarize their sub-section but they could only use the amount of words that Mr. Xanders gave them (10, 13, 12, 11, etc.). Once they've come up with their sentence, then they get together with the other students who were assigned the same sub-section and they create a sentence or edit one of their own but using less words. Afterwards, one student from each group comes to the white board and writes their group's sentence down for the entire class to see. We will continue this strategy tomorrow with more of the discussion aspect.

Pre-AP Presentations & John Adams becomes President

Pre-AP classes began presenting their Branches of the Government projects which should take another 2 days to complete. So far, I've been impressed by their research, especially the Judicial Branch students because Supreme Court cases are not the easiest to understand.

During the Regular classes, we finished discussing the John Adams section of the notes, "Retirement, Arguments, & Escargot." We discussed John Adams' Presidency and the United States' rough relationship with France, the Alien & Sedition Acts, and the how Madison and Jefferson reacted to John Adams decision to take actions against foreigners in the states.