Week 13 in Mr. Bruce's History

Parents and Students,

I am sitting in the computer lab watching your kid work to complete a very cool timeline. It is so awesome how they take to new tools for creating and curating content as they learn. We finished this week leaving this project unfinished. I don't like doing that, but I apparently overloaded them with their "Creating the Constitution" project. Take a look at the Creating the Constitution page for details. Monday and Tuesday I hope to finish this project and usher in a new one, which I'll explain below.

Looking back at what we have done this week, it began with a video from PBS that explored the concept of federalism. We hear this word, or at least its commonly used relative, very frequently when we refer to our "federal" government. However, too few of us really understand the system that divides, separates, and distinguishes our federal system. We explored the typical and often used definition of federalism as a system of shared (or divided) power between a central government and several sub-units of government. If you were a good student, you would remember that from school. But our American system of federalism is little different in that it doesn't allow for a clear division of power or authority or explicitly define what or how much is shared. The result is a muddy debate or conflict between the States and the National Government that has shifted and twisted over the 227 years since the Constitution was written. This video did a great job connecting the views and desires of the Founding Fathers with the debate that still goes on today. I encourage you to view that this weekend.

This led to the transition and prep timeline project of "Creating the Constitution". It will set us up to debate the Constitution in a simulated format. The classroom will transform into the East Room of the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall). I may be asking your students to bring in things to help decorate this room to fit the mood such as candles, green cloth/sheets, etc. (see images below). We need to start by taking on the identity of one of the delegates and study his background and understand his views on the issues faced at the convention. Then we will debate the issues according to the delegates' historic positions and attitudes. As we debate, we will learn how compromise filled the air and how the Constitution we know today was formed by this group of extraordinary men we know today as the Founding Fathers.

Until then,
Mr. Bruce