The Last Statesman Class :(

After 3 years of teaching statesman, this was Sister Nokes last class ever.  She may be relieved about this, but I wanted to say thank you so much for giving us this opportunity!! 

To begin the final class we held a debate. 

There were 2 debates, with 3 judges and 3 people on each team.

Resolve: The United States government should open her borders to illegal immigrants.

We were given the topic ahead of time, but we did not know if we would be arguing the negative(U.S. should not open its borders to illegal immigrants) or positive(U.S. should open her borders to illegal immigrants)

The Negative side won both debates very closely

  When the debates were finished we did a team building activity. We each got a bag of 12 different colored M+M's, and we had to go around the room and bargain until we had all of the same color.

 This activity used our skills of convincing people to give us the M+M's we needed. It was much harder, even impossible if you chose a color several other people chose. In the end Micheal and Parker Nokes combined and won the rest of the M+M's

For our next team building activity, we all had to hold hands in a circle and pass 2 hula hoops around the circle without  letting go.

 This activity resulted in a lot of laughs and very tangled people:)

Micheal caught cheating;)

One of the hula hoops was sent around the wrong way, so a few unfortunate people ended up with 2 hula hoops at once going in opposite directions. I think you can imagine how that turned out;)

 Finally we played jeopardy.

The first person who stood up got to answer the question (the bells were too big of a distraction)

 The final score was not even close, I credit that to the fact that one team had a few hopping frogs to answer for them. Either way it was a ton of fun!

And a BIG thank you to our wonderful teacher, Sister Nokes! You taught us so much and we are so grateful for all the time and effort you put into our class!

Justice

Today's lesson was based on Chapter 6, Justice, in Our Country's Leaders and Founders, by William J. Bennett. 
Alex Worley gave an outstanding presentation about slavery and how the founding fathers were very against it, even though they themselves owned slaves
Then Sister Nokes talked about the court system, and we watched a video clip of a college debate.
We talked about the amendments that affect the court, the levels of the court, and the difference between criminal and civil trials.

 

Then we did 2 team building activities , the first we were all blindfolded, and had to make a square out of string on the ground, its a lot harder than it looks!!! This definitely showed us how essential teamwork is.

The next team building activity we had one person be "it".  Then we chose a leader who would do a hand motion and when "it" was turned around they would change the hand motion, and "it" would have to guess who the leader was

Next class we will be getting assignments for our debate:)

Resolved: The United States Government should open her borders to illegal immigrants

Industry and Frugality

       Today's lesson was based on Chapter 5, Industry and Frugality,

in Our Country's Founders, by William J. Bennett

                         Micheal gave an excellent presentation about how the founding fathers

                  all thought of frugality and industry in different ways, and how some of them took

                                          it to the extreme, when truly it is all about balance.

                      

                      Then Suzette, who was absent last class, gave a great presentation on Chapter 4,

                                                       education of the Head and Heart.

                           She talked about how the founding fathers strongly believed in good

                            education, and how we need to get a good education today, because

                                                we are the future leaders of America

Afterward we did mini debates on whether or not video games are good or bad for you ?

Pros(video games are bad for you)

• they rot your brain cells
• you could be doing much better things with your time
• when played too much they can start consuming your life
  

Cons(video games are good for you)

• they are fine when played in moderation
• there can be video games that are good for you(like wii fit)

                                                   Overall the Pro teams won

 After the mini debates we all received different amounts of play money

then Sister Nokes auctioned off a single doughnut. The top offer was $10

until some very eager boys combined their money and paid $26 for the doughnut.

                                    Then Sister Nokes brought out an entire box of doughnuts, and

                                                              they started selling for only $1

This showed us that when there is only one of something

people will pay A LOT more for it, but when there a bunch of that

same thing, people aren't willing to pay near as much

Afterward we did a hula hoop team building activity where

every team member had to go completely through the hula hoop

faster than the other team.

  Then we learned about the Free Market System that the Founding Fathers put together

it includes:

• The freedom to try
• The freedom to buy
• The freedom to sell
• The freedom to fail

This also states that the government's job on the matter is to:

1. Prevent force
2. Prevent fraud
3. Prevent monopolies
4. Prevent debauchery

My Mom Forgot the Camera

so these pictures were all taken after class was over.  It's been more than a month since this class was held on December 2nd, but I vaguely remember being in awe of Mrs. Nokes' awesome wisdom.   The end. 

"Wreaths Across America" video to explain service field trip to Arlington National Cemetery

If you would like to donate a wreath, go to

www.wreathsacrossamerica.org.

Civility and Friendship

Today's lesson was based on Chapter 3, "Civility and Friendship" in Our Country's Founders:  A Book of Advice for Young People, by William J. Bennett.

                      Alec Webb gave an excellent presentation about friendship and what the founding fathers thought about it. 

Then we read some of George Washington's rules of civility, including:
 

-Gaze not upon the marks or blemishes of others, and ask not on how they came

-In the presence of others sing not to yourself with a humming voice, nor drum with your fingers or feet

- Every action in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those present

 

 Then we thought of some of our own 

 contemporary rules of civility:

- Do not use electronics at public or social events, unless absolutely necessary.

- Respect your elders.

-Be compassionate and pleasant as often as possible.

After that we did a team building activity that taught us how to use creative solutions to solve a problem. We split into 2 teams and had to work together to get from point A to point B ,without touching the floor, and using only 3 pieces of paper.

\

                                 

Team 2 finished first, but that's only because most of the people cheated.  ;)

 

Then we did another team building activity that taught us how to effectively communicate with others. We split into groups of 3 and blindfolded  2 from each group.

The person who was describing the shapes had to descriptively explain step-by-step what they looked like and the blindfolded people had to listen carefully to try to replicate it. 

Today, we had fun, yet still learned a lot about friendship, civility, and working together. :)
Thanks Sister Nokes for a great lesson!!!

Today in statesman we...

Listened to great reports by
Zac Wright...

and Avery Wright about Love and Courtship, chapter
2 in "Our Country's Founders".

Then for our team-building activity we got to act 5 years
old again and play with TINKER TOYS!!!!
We split into 2 teams.
Then team 2 watched team 1 make their creation --32 inches tall in just a minute.

Then team 2 made their own creation
unfortunately watching team 1 didn't
help much...
and it turned out a disappointing 12 inches. :(

It didn't quite go as planned, but what this activity was supposed
to display is that companies often base their business plans off of other
companies' successful ideas

Lastly we learned more about proposition 8 in California, and the
differing viewpoints of both sides.
We also discussed the differences between unalienable rights
and vested rights and how they affect Prop 8.