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do not click HERE, that is not the Benchmark, or is it?

I went about choosing the items for my 12 laws by just googling and researching things, at first I looked up Laws, cases, and functions involving school and education because that would most commonly affect me because I got to school, Then I tried thinking outside the box and finding smaller things that affect me such as curfew and smaller things. Then I searched laws that should be repealed or laws that benefit general people and found some laws that were generally affecting to my life.

The Process for the project was tedious, It wasn’t hard writing it up, but there was a lot of research to be done for this project, I know we had a couple examples that we could use and I welcomed the examples with open arms when I used them, but I still needed to spend hours looking for things that affect me directly and what part of government they apply to, It was time consuming.

I do think my life will be more affected by the government as I get older, because as I get older I will have to worry about Taxes and Jury duty and stuff of the kind that applies to adults. Right now I’m living at home and my aunt is taking care of everything that needs to be taken care of to live, Working, Taxes, and health insurance.

Doing this project makes me think how much the government has an impact on how I live my life, and without knowing really, I do things that the government has set-up for me as a person to be able to do, and I can honestly be thankful for that, however, I know the negatives the government has set-up for me much more clear because it negatively impacts my life. Looking at this with that perspective I would disregard the positives that government has set-up for me and criticize the government for having negatives, which is very biased. You win some, you lose some, it’s the basis of life, can’t have everything you want.

Here is the place to find my history benchmark.

This benchmark to me was definitely one that I learned from as I went along. Yet when it came to the process of working on this benchmark I did have complications. From choosing the correct tops to include and also actually writing each paragraph there where many little complications along the way. Still I continued to work hard in order to get the full amount that I could learn out of this project.
 
 When it came to choosing my topics I tried to think of things that related to my life. Such as for looking into the judicial branch I found it easier to look into Supreme Court cases about students. Executive branch & legislative was easier to look into things I encounter everyday. Once I got to this point I then went onto pointing out specifics in order to narrow down my topics. From there I went on to researching, formatting and writing. Writing the paragraphs was the most complicated part for me as at times I was unsure what to say.

 With this benchmark I realized how much of a role the government plays already into my day to day lie. From what I see I know that this wont change. As I get older attend college, get a job, eventually my own home, etc. The government will always be there in some way playing a role in how I live and what I do. The ways it will be present might change compared to now but who is to say.

Ashley Hinton
2nd Quarter Benchmark 

Link to Benchmark: 
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1cN1bSqGRcspJmrf2mtrBE_u-NYPkFluB2c-KWrOpCB0

Benchmark Reflection: 

 I’d have to say this benchmark was the most useful and straight forward project we’ve had in this course. I went about choosing the 4 cases, 4 laws and 4 offices by thinking about how exactly the government intervenes with my life directly and indirectly. With the help of Ms. Laufenburg i found some very useful websites that gave me lots of information on the curfew laws and drinking laws in Pennsylvania because they were most interesting to me. The only part about the process that was a little difficult was separating the cases from the laws and the laws from the offices and so on. Although we’ve spent a lot of time learning how to differentiate between the three its always a little confusing for me. As i get older i anticipate the government affecting my life more because there are a lot of laws in the world, most of which doesn't apply to minors. The thought process throughout this project was essential in getting the project done. Overall,i feel like this project was a great way to understand how laws directly affect our lives and this is extremely important to know.

1.  Go to D Band Voicethread.
2.  Register for an account.
3.  Add one image to the collective voicethread.

• Choose one of your 12 items from the benchmark to highlight
• Locate an image that best represents that item - you can use the flickr Creative Commons to find an image if you do not have one
  
• Narrate your paragraph that accompanies that item from your benchmark

4.  Comment on at least two other 'pages' from the collective voicethread.  Ask a question.  Push back on their reasoning.  Affirm their position.  Be thoughtful

When I started the assignment, my instinct was to look up laws or cases that revolved around education. Out of all my roles, I value my role as a student more than anything. Although, I had much difficulty trying to pinpoint exactly which ones I wanted to do, I was able to find some neat sources and websites. It was also nice to look into and play up on my minority card, which I don't do very often or use. I kind of anticipate my life becoming a bit more affected by the government as I get older because a lot of the ones I chose were about me being a student and a minor. As I get older, those won't apply to me as much anymore. But new and probably more laws and such will take the place of those. During my research, I was a bit surprised by how much my life would be different if certain bills weren't passed or court cases didn't happen. It was very interesting to see how they were ruled also. Learning this made me more interested in how government works and makes me want to stay more engaged or involved in the things the government do.

You can find my benchmark Here.

1.   Upload a link of your PUBLISHED work to the SLATE class blog.

2.   Write a reflection narrating these points:

a.    How did you go about choosing which items to include in your 12 identified laws, cases, or offices?

b.   Was this an easy or a difficult process? Elaborate.

c.    Do you anticipate your life becoming more or less affected by the govt. as you get older?  Explain.

d.   Any other thoughts on your learning process.

3.   DO NOT WRITE THIS AS A LIST.  Write paragraphs that flow like writing rather than like a worksheet.  Thanks!

Published Link!​

2) 
 I chose my items based on how easy they were to compare to my life. Al ot of the items were easy enough to compare to my life but others were difficult and almost impossible.  It was an easy, but time consuming process.  The idea of it was easy, finding all of the items and writing about all of them became a time consuming task as the days went on though. i believe that my life would become more affected by the American Government. I plan to diverge myself as much as i can into politics because i want to know exactly whats going on when im voting or buying things from stores.  

The link above will take you to a google doc the describes what effects me personally from Laws, court cases, and offices from the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches. Choosing the item though was a bit of a challenge.  So what i did was ask my teacher for help in finding link the could help me. Also think about what thing I have to do now. Like Driving, College, Affirmative action plan so that was real bases on how i got them. It was a little bit because searching for them was no easy task. I do expect my life to get more difficult because their are more things i have to apply for. But also my things I will have to pay for.

LINK

A: I tried to choose topics that would most relate to my life, So I went about this process by searching through the most widely important cases I could find.

B: The only really difficult process to me was actually finding how each of these cases are classified.

C: Yes, I can see it getting way more dependent on the government seeing as I am going to be using a lot of government funds to get through college.

Click for a link

This benchmark turned out to be far more difficult than I originally anticipated.  I didn't realize how hard it would be to find examples, especially negative ones.  When looking for laws, court cases or executive functions, Just typing in "beneficial laws" didn't get so far.  I decided the easiest thing to do was to think of a life situation first, instead of trying to find any random law and make it applicable.  For example: I'd think of something that I wish I didn't have to do or could do, and then find the law that makes it so.  This helped mitigate my struggle a great deal.  

As I said before, this definitely wasn't an easy benchmark.   I wish I had organized myself more carefully.  I should have found all the examples I  wanted to use first, and then done all the paragraphs.  

I definitely think the government will affect my life more as I grow older.  It will happen as I gain independence and become more involved in politics and national interests.  Some laws won't apply after a while, like student education laws, but others apply more with age and work.  

The reasons I picked the 12 topics i picked is because they all effected me in some way that really hurt my life and damaged some of the things that I was able and not able to do. At first it was easy to pick which laws, cases, and offices but the hardest part was thinking what part of my life did it affect. I was always jammed up at how it effected my life and was it really a direct effect or a indirect effect. After doing this benchmark I think my life will be more affected by the government because I have a feeling the laws that are set now against the teenagers, the age limits might go up. Then again, it might just stay where it is seeing how society status with teenagers and drunk driving is going so far. This benchmarked helped me realize some bad decisions the government has made and how it has severely effected my life and somewhat traumatized me. 

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1D2KnZ8ARi1hycsoY99vVMh8bmmMA7FEY0GIq_0eyiK0

Reflection:

 It was really hard for me to find 12 laws, cases, or offices that impacted me directly. Whatever I found first I used as one of my 12 laws or cases. After much research I discovered that as I get older and as I begin to pay taxes, buy a house, own property, get my own health insurance, etc. more laws, acts, and cases will affect me. The government affects my life a fair amount right now with such acts, laws and cases like the No Child Left Behind Act, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, FAFSA, and Tinker vs. Des Moines. However, as I get older the government will GREATLY impact/influence my life, because the older I get the more I participate in society like having a job and paying taxes. All of these activities are monitored or set by the government meaning the government has more authority over my life. Overall, this project gave me a better understanding of the three branches of government, which are legislative, executive, and judicial. By having a stronger knowledge on these branches I now am more aware of my rights and restrictions, and the overall and basic knowledge of how the government functions.

So for the remainder of this assignment I'd like to see if we could come up with better questions and maybe try calling different welfare offices who actually work one on one with the recipients and see what they think. We could also attempt writing a letter to someone else (although I'm not sure who just yet) about our ideas to change the way things are​ currently being handled like giving welfare recipients an incentive to go out and do better for themselves instead of using the government checks as crutch to support them for the rest of their lives. I know this isn't much but it's where we're starting from at this point. Since our first attempt wasn't as successful as we'd hoped 

My method of communication was telephone. Ashley and I spoke with some of the representatives in the welfare offices for our city and then we were directed to their main office. We weren't really able to get a lot of feed back from them the way we'd anticipated i.e. finding out what they thought were some of their glitches with their method of doing things. The reason the feedback wasn't helpful is because the reps have sort of a biased opinion since the ones I spoke to didn't think there was anyway around their system which is clearly not true since I know people personally who find ways around doing things correctly where welfare is concerned. I think that had we had time to sit down and think of more thoughtful questions since we didn't have a lot of them, we would have definitely gotten a better response. I'd also like to see what thoughts the mayor or someone from his office had about our topic and what they'd like to see change. 

​View Benchmark Project:

            For this American Government Benchmark project, finding a way that incorporated the laws, offices, and cases, seemed difficult at first. I attempted to relate the various examples, to situations that were happening in my life at this very moment, in relation to the college process, sports, and everyday living. This process wasn’t as easy as it seemed, having an objective to find laws and regulations that affected our everyday lives.

            I would deem this project with having a very difficult and strenuous process, simply because there are certain rules which only correspond to certain people. I had some difficulty when it came to finding offices that implement the rules of a specific Executive Branch. I thought we had to find actual laws of the executive branch, but then that would coincide with the legislative branch.

            The anticipation of my life becoming more affected by the government was recognized, because once you get older and reach certain limits, then your life is then intertwined with a whole new set of rules. The older we get, the more responsibilities we take on as humans. We have to live our lives responsibly following our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

            By completing this benchmark, I now understand most of the processes of government; whether it is how it is run in perspective to its specific branches, to how a law is passed. I understand the rules and regulations I have to follow, and will result in following as I get older.

Here is my project. 

Link to my project.

The way I went about choosing the items that I felt applied was just thinking about what truly affects me in my every day life, which was easy. Paying taxes, and filling out the FASFA are things that I am facing right  now, so it was only natural that I decided to write about it for this project. I feel as though this project was harder as went a long. I say this because I knew about the items I had chosen but when I had to actually put it into words it became difficult for me. Certain parts like unemployment were easy to write about, I just did not know what pages I should link it too, and it was almost impossible to find a legitimate author for the items.

I feel as though as I get older the way the government affects my life will definitely increase. Now I am affected but once I get out on my own things will most certainly change. I'll no longer be under mother anymore and will be seen as an adult so things are going to change whether I like it or not. I feel as though the process will be very difficult to get use to because the government is always so extra. I feel as though I didn't learn that much from this project that I hadn't already learned from this quarter. The only thing this really did was make me realize how much government affects out every day life, sometimes in a negative and sometimes in a positive way.