Category: Economics

The week started off on Monday with most, if not all, of the Sophomores attending Physics Day at Cedar Point. I don’t think I had more than 6-7 students all day. The few Juniors that showed up for Economics entertained themselves, and none of the Seniors were in attendance due to prom weekend’s extended activities! I spent the day planning for an interview at Summit County ESC, and preparing the rest of the week’s lectures and activities.

On Tuesday we began a unit on Civil Rights by seeing a short video on Rosa Parks from http://www.tolerance.org/, which helped the students better understand the events around the bus boycotts, and how that eventaually led to desegregation of not only busing, but the rest of society as well.

On Wednesday, we reviewed and debriefed the video in preparation for the primary document activity starting Thursday. Thursday started with “late start”, where students show up two hours later, and the staff has professional development in the morning.

4th and 7th periods were able to get started on Thursday in the IMC, investigating nine primary documents around the bus boycott, noting what they had learned in their self-made learning log.

On Friday we got all the classes up to speed, and worked on analysis in the IMC.

In economics, we charged hard with lectures on Taxes, the Government, and Fiscal Policy. Some of the Seniors will be taking the econ final exam next week, a little early, so hopefully they are preparing themselves for that. The rest of us will wait until finals week for the final exam. All of the review terms are available here, so please make sure to check them out.

On Friday in Economics, we took the day off since it was such a nice day out, and I introduced the students to a Swedish game called Kubb. It’s a lawn game that involves quite a bit of strategy and skill, especially the longer you play it. The students enjoyed it a lot, and I’m thinking we can probably throw in another day or so next week, depending on how classes go.

Here are the Kubb World Championship Rules for those of you who want to investigate more, or make your own set!

In US History, we began the week with another work day due to circumstances last week, and it fit in the schedule just fine. Students worked on their 16.3 homework, and we talked about the upcoming week. Tuesday we started our culminating activity for the Cold War by seeing the animated version of Dr. Seuss’ The Butter Battle Book, which parables the Cold War, but in a Seussical fashion. Students compared the Butter Battle to real Cold War actions using a T-chart, and we ended the class with a group discussion on the items.

On Wednesday, we started on our one-page Dr. Seuss inspired Cold War adventure, where I asked them to create a page to go in a book. The requirements included an illustration in color, a paragraph using Seuss rhyming scheme, and weaving in of Cold War terms. If they made up new words, they got a small bonus! I provided the markers, paper, colored pencils, about 20 or so Dr. Seuss books from Stow Library, and of course, toast. I brought in my toaster, several loaves of bread, and butter – all so we could have our own in-house “Butter Battle”. We enjoyed the toast, and we got a lot done. Thursday we finished up, and Friday we ended with The Week in Rap, presentation of our Dr. Seuss pages, and preparing for Space Week.

In Economics, we spent Monday and Tuesday continuing on the Food, Inc. / Six Hats Project, which went really well. Those projects will be graded soon, and we’ll present them next week (or at least a selected few). On Wednesday, we began a new section Market Structures, with discussions on Perfect Competition, Monopolistic Competition, Oligopoly, and Monopoly. Lots of vocab, and understanding what they different structures do, and how they operate. I showered the class with examples of where to find the different structures in real life, and we touched on non-price competition, especially how it effects the gas station markets around our school, and really everywhere. With gas prices at $4/gallon, it’s starting to hurt… How will that impact the other services the gas stations provide? Will you still get that drink if you’re shelling out for gas?

On Friday, we ended by playing Monopoly, using a quick start method, as well as using some financial tools allowing us to play without using the cash money, which makes for a quicker game. Read more about how we do that here.