Changing Gears
Posted by mrlane on 27 October 2008
Over the weekend I began really sorting through some of the issues that are before the voters on Tuesday, November 4. There is so much to keep in mind as one votes: our involvement in two wars and the current economic slump being two of the major issues. No matter how one votes we, as a country and people, will be changing gears some how. The changes that occur may range from the massive to the minute. But no matter what we will have a change of historical significance: there will be a first in the Executive Branch – either a woman will be Vice-President or an African-American will be President. Truly incredible…
And did you know that not many people actually know how the President and Vice-President are elected? Watch the Common Craft video “Electing a U.S. President in Plain English” to see how we elect people to the Executive Branch of our government.
Pretty interesting, hunh?! It appears that are Founding Fathers didn’t completely trust the “common folk” to make important decisions. But the system we are using is the same one that was used when George Washington was elected in 1789 (and again in 1792) and every four year since then so it must work pretty well. You will spend some more time learning why we use this system as you continue your study of the growth and development of the United States in your history classes.
In the meantime, continue your exploration of our candidate’s positions, the election process, and current predictions by using Larry Ferlazzo’s blog post The Best Sites To Learn About U.S. Presidential Elections. Keep in mind that this site is designed for teachers but it has many links that you will find interesting. Just so you know, Mr. Ferlazzo teaches at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento.
As you look around and find places of interest remember to share them with the rest of us by submitting a comment to this post. I will do my absolute best to get them approved as soon as possible so that we can maximize our learning potential by using each other as resources.
October 27th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Glad you find the resources useful. Just for future reference, I’m creating student self-access versions of my “The Best…” lists at http://larryferlazzo.com/Thebestwebsites.html.
Larry
October 28th, 2008 at 1:37 am
Abortion: I think that abortion is wrong,women should have to go to court before getting an abortion to state why they are.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Well that was one way to easyly learn how to show how an election works.
Um well something to give out is that information on Barack Obama can be found here at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Hussein_Obama_II.
And information on John McCain can be found here at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sidney_McCain_III.
Well hope that that should be enough information…I am looking for other sites that hold presidential information but neh….oh well
October 28th, 2008 at 1:46 am
I really liked the video. I finally understand how the president is elected. I think the video was a good idea.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:46 am
on this website alot of the games are fun and the brainpop vidoe was good,my only dislike is that the sound on the website.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:47 am
i think the video helped me understand what the whole election thing is about now.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:51 am
If i was to vote
for the president i would vote
for obamba because he is really
smart, and he knows what hes doing.
He is also really intelligent
October 28th, 2008 at 1:52 am
http://www.nationalmockelection.org/game/ is okay because it shows what the canidates have to go through.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:53 am
I think the election is going to be very important this year because who ever wins its going to be history, because if obama wins he is going to be the first black president aand if mccain wins his vice president will be the first female vice president so i think this election will be very important.
If i could vote, i would vote for barrack obama.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:53 am
I think this election commming up is the most important election in the history of united states.
If I could vote, I would vote for senator Obama.
I would vote for himn because he would get the troops out of Iraq and stop spending 10 billion dollars a month to fund the army and whatnot.
so by keeping all that money in the U.S, it would help the economy,which would help businesses…which would help me.
I need P.I.M.P
Paper In My Pocket! so when this economy is fixed. my business will have more money and I can eat
October 28th, 2008 at 1:54 am
I am uncertain about unique sorces of political information for this year, for I have only used the most popular sites supported by google to get my information. On the other hand I want to say everybody’s vote counts, but never have I heard of a situation where one vote has made the difference of the president, but it is true that only a few thousand votes often decide which state is picking which president, so in turn a small ammount of votes can decide the president.
October 28th, 2008 at 1:58 am
the video is actually easy to understand and it tells alot about how people vote…
October 28th, 2008 at 2:00 am
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/09/20/the-best-sites-to-learn-about-the-us-financial-crisis/ this is a really good site to reasearch the finacal crisis on.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:02 am
ok from the video help me understand what vraybody has been saying all about the election
October 28th, 2008 at 2:02 am
i really think this video helped me out alot in understanding how the president is elected.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:07 am
oh and i found this website that might let you understand and know
what the future president will do when they get elected.
http://www.barackobama.com/learn/meet_barack.php
http://www.johnmccain.com/Undecided/WhyMcCain.htm
October 29th, 2008 at 1:29 am
That video I saw was interesting because it showed me how the electon works. I was surprised when I found out that the senators are the ones who do the voting for us.
October 29th, 2008 at 1:31 am
I am understanding how elections work. I used to think that we our voting for the president, even though the electorals our voting for the president.
October 29th, 2008 at 1:47 am
This video helped me a lot because it showed me how the people elect and vote for the president.