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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.  

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.

            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.

• Three Branches - Legislative, Executive and Judicial

  • For EACH branch identify TWO positive and TWO negative examples of how the branch of government impacts your life. (can be STATE, LOCAL or FEDERAL)

• Identify at least one reputable source for each of the 12 different pieces of the project. DO NOT USE WIKIPEDIA AS A SOURCE
• Cite the source using the MLA format

• Write a one paragraph for each of the 12 pieces that summarizes the law, bureaucratic office or court case AND then EXPLAIN how that law/bureaucratic office/court case positively or negatively impacts your life. **If you would like to communicate the information in some other format than writing... clear it with me, I am open to creative suggestions. I REALLY welcome a more creative approach, don't be boring. please.

For instance... for me I would write for one of the legislative negatives:

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

"No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" Pub.L. 107-110 January, 2002. 23 Dec. 2009. <http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html>.

No Child Left Behind is a piece of legislation that brought stronger federal control over individual state and locally run schools. Under this legislation, federal monies were only disbursed to those schools and districts abiding by the stipulations outlined within the law. Throughout the tenure of this legislation, schools have increased the number and intensity of multiple choice testing to adhere to the accountability requirements. After beginning my teaching career in 1997, I was given free reign to teach the content and in the manner that suited project based learning. After the passage of NCLB, project based learning became an unpopular approach to teaching because of its inability to easily assess the student's learning. This devaluing of project based learning has had an overall negative impact on the teaching and learning that I witness in the vast majority of schools. In effect, this law has turned my profession into a less thoughtful and reflective career, thus negatively impacting my life.

• Three Branches - Legislative, Executive and Judicial

  • For EACH branch identify TWO positive and TWO negative examples of how the branch of government impacts your life. (can be STATE, LOCAL or FEDERAL)

• Identify at least one reputable source for each of the 12 different pieces of the project. DO NOT USE WIKIPEDIA AS A SOURCE
• Cite the source using the MLA format

• Write a one paragraph for each of the 12 pieces that summarizes the law, bureaucratic office or court case AND then EXPLAIN how that law/bureaucratic office/court case positively or negatively impacts your life. **If you would like to communicate the information in some other format than writing... clear it with me, I am open to creative suggestions. I REALLY welcome a more creative approach, don't be boring. please.

For instance... for me I would write for one of the legislative negatives:

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

"No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" Pub.L. 107-110 January, 2002. 23 Dec. 2009. <http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html>.

No Child Left Behind is a piece of legislation that brought stronger federal control over individual state and locally run schools. Under this legislation, federal monies were only disbursed to those schools and districts abiding by the stipulations outlined within the law. Throughout the tenure of this legislation, schools have increased the number and intensity of multiple choice testing to adhere to the accountability requirements. After beginning my teaching career in 1997, I was given free reign to teach the content and in the manner that suited project based learning. After the passage of NCLB, project based learning became an unpopular approach to teaching because of its inability to easily assess the student's learning. This devaluing of project based learning has had an overall negative impact on the teaching and learning that I witness in the vast majority of schools. In effect, this law has turned my profession into a less thoughtful and reflective career, thus negatively impacting my life.

Jesse Weinberg

Process paper

National history day

My Topic was how the process it took the Civil rights Law to sign into the act. I choose this topic because without this law beginning signed into place there would America would not look like the way it is formed today. A lot of things would be separated with individuals going to separate places due to their ethnicity and race. The majority of individuals do not realize how hard it was to get Freedom for African Americans and what had to be done.   Equality is the biggest issue that was around.   Equality was the biggest issue because people who believed in non -violence and got murdered just for trying to make peace.  Just because people believe in non- violence do they deserve to die just for trying to make changes in society? Some of the individuals that got murdered was MLK,  Gandhi just for believing in non- violence and making changes in society.  This made me realize that certain individuals can be really cruel to people and do things just for no reason just because they can but in the end they got what they deserved what was their death.  To this day I still wonder why people who try so hard to get what they have to be murdered just for no reason. Even though a law was signed and passed there is still people that are still prejudice towards other people.   The design I chose to do was a weebly. I choose to do a weebly because I thought it is the best way to organize information and the clearest way to present the information The way I went about going and doing research is that I went to different websites containing different information. One of the best websites I went to was the digital website which gave a lot of information. This one website helped me a lot for the project. It taught me a lot that I didn’t know about the civil rights act law being signed into law and also a lot of new information that I didn’t know about.  The civil rights law taught me a lot it taught me not to be judgmental towards others people and it taught me how hard you have to work to get want you want. Doing this research made me realize that certain individuals can be so cruel to others and that people have to ignore them and continue being who you are. Don’t let other bring down the person you are. Continuing and being that you are will have a positive effect in the long run.  Being an individual that brings other people down will have a negative impact on you latter down the road. People will have a difficult time understanding of this.  “ What Comes around Go around.”  As the saying goes. This saying plays a key factor in society. Most people don’t realize that this saying can play a major role down the road. 

 I have witnessed a complete turnaround in regards to the support it received in the senate. Originally, it was placed inside a larger defense bill; however, rejected the bill, deeming it too complex to be able to sufficiently debate the topic before the Christmas break. When the bill was apparently dead, Susan Collins presented the bill in a piece of stand alone legislation as a last attempt to get it through the senate, and on December 18, In a 65-31 vote, the Senate passed the repeal that would allow thousands of Americans to serve in the military being openly homosexual. This was a historic achievement by president Obama. This victory was symbolic of several victories Obama added to his repertoire throughout a very productive lame duck session. Although failing to pass the Dream Act, he was able to sign a nuclear arms treaty with Russia, and cut taxes for millions of Americans.

This was a pressing civil rights issue that had taunted the gay community for 17 years. I personally agree with President Obama who strongly advocated for soldiers to serve in the military being openly gay. "I don't know what it's like to be picked on for being gay. But I do know what it’s like to grow up feeling that sometimes you don’t belong. It’s tough.” This was a historic moment in Obama’s presidency.  He was able to come through on a campaign promise that reigned in thousands of voters, and he was able to repeal a law that had hindered our nation’s security and the freedom of thousands of Americans.

I started this patch quilt during the first marking period. I have crotched the entire thing over the passed few months. I would have never been able to produce such work if it wasn’t for my great-great aunt Stella. This special woman taught me how to crochet when I was seven and I haven’t been able to put the habit down since. My piece that I am in the process of working on now is a giant patch quilt with many colors. I am crocheting rows of patches and then going to crochet them all together to form a quilt. This piece is going well because I am following my own pattern and crocheting my own way. When I say my own way I mean my style of crocheting with adjusting the tightness of the stitch and flow of the yarn. This piece isn’t quite finished yet because it takes a long time to construct such a large quilt and will need more time to finish.

            These pictures were taken in this way to symbolize my great-great aunt Stella and what she had taught me. In the background you see another quilt in which she made forty years ago. I put my work over top of her quilt to show how great her skills were and how it inspired me to make a quilt of my own. My great-great aunt was very skilled with crocheting and she passed this skill down to me with her teachings and patience.

            Crocheting to me is very soothing, and relaxing. My favorite thing about my work is that I can just sit down with my piece in my hands and watch television or have a conversation with someone. I can be creating a piece of artwork while relaxing and having time to myself. I see this as a major stress reliever in my life.  My favorite tool to my artwork is my needle. With my needle I can create just about anything I put my mind too. My needle is my gateway to my finished product.

            Finishing my product is the best part for me. My quilt isn’t finished yet but I can feel that point coming soon. The process of completion is satisfying, but not as satisfying as seeing my finished product lay out, nice and pretty. Then I can reflect on this work and think about how much hard work I had put into this piece. I look now at my rows and rows of finished patches and I think about all of the hours I had put into making these squares with neat and tight stitching. That brings me to think about my hands. My hands really wove all of this yarn into something big and useful without giving it much thought. My hands are my main tools and with them I created this giant patch quilt. 

            My favorite color in this quilt is the dark green. It is very appealing to my eye and engages the sense. The color has good qualities such as blending in with all of the other colors I used. It engages my senses and gives me a sense of warmth because it is a gentle color and it is on a quilt, which is warm. If I were to crotchet this entire quilt all over again, I would have made sure all of the yarn was of the same thickness or gauge. Some of the patches are thinner than others, which are fine, but in order to maybe look better, the same constancy of yarn should be used. I would have kept the tightness of the stitches the same because they are very well held together and will probably never rip apart. That is what makes a quality quilt! 

Eran once por la mañana y estaba nevando. Vi un chico tenía siete años. Él era muy adorable, bajo y gordo. Llevaba manoplas no hiciste juego con el uno al otro y zapatillos viejos. El chico entró la tienda. Sacó una mochila y se llevó un manzana y dos polos. Como Él era saliendo la tienda los polos empezaron derretirse. El chico salio corriendo de la tienda. Se quito los zapatillos y manoplas. Fue un mapache. Subió a la motocicleta se fue de prisa.