Category: constitution
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History in the Kitchen: Origins of the Supreme Court, RBG, and Ratatouille
Marbury v. Madison The tradition of judicial review began with a Supreme Court Case decided in 1803. In Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court used the power of judicial review for the first time- that is, their power to determine whether a law is constitutional or not. When it became apparent that John Adams, a…
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History in the Kitchen: Women’s Suffrage & Marshmallow Tea Cakes
Women’s suffrage in the United States has layers. Lots and lots of layers. In any historical analysis, it is important to identify all of the key players: the ones that are seen very clearly because of history books and the ones that were there- and had loud voices- but don’t get as much attention.
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Political Philosophy BEFORE the Revolution
In reading text books over the years, I’ve noticed that many mention that the colonists sought the “British rights” to which they were entitled as a cause of the American Revolution. Among other things, taxation without representation angered them and they were incensed by the Crown denying them trial by jury. However, in these same…
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Race & Judicial Review
After our study of Marbury v. Madison, we have always had students look at judicial review through a modern lens. For many years, students studied and argued federal Supreme Court cases related to children and education. They could choose to work with cases such as Tinker v. DesMoines or NJ v. TLO. This year, however,…
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Empowering Students
Wow! What a whirlwind of a week. After the mass-shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018, several students approached my colleagues and me about how to take on the issue of gun violence in schools and on the streets. They wanted to walk out of school…
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Know Your Rights!
Image Credit: https://teachinghistoryherway.com//wp-content/uploads/2017/02/bor-20graph34.jpg Studying the U.S. Constitution is one my favorite parts of the curriculum I teach. There are so many ways to make the Constitution relevant to students and several ways to “do” the Constitution in class. What I find to be the most important part of my job is to make our Constitution come…
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The Constitutional Convention- 8th grade style
Hello faithful readers. I apologize for the long break between entries, however with the holidays upon me I had no time to write. Though it may seem otherwise, I do things other than teach. The last week has brought me to the point in the year that I enjoy most- the month long unit about…