What is Liberty?

Today in class homework was checked in and we received our seats for the quarter. We then did some brainstorming about the notion of liberty, responding to the following prompts:

• What is your definition of liberty?
• What is its purpose?
• Who has access to it?

We ended class by trying to come to some conclusions about what Foner was trying to say about liberty in the chapter prepared for today.

HW for Wednesday is on the assignment sheet in the Unit One tab above.

Early "American Values" and Ebook Instructions

Today in class, we'll begin class by asking a few students to share their most recent blog post about what it means to be an American. Then we'll make a list about the American values and ideals that emerged from these readings or our common cultural experiences. Next, we'll see how some traditional "American values and ideals" have their roots from the earliest American settlers by exploring two documents, The Mayflower Compact and John Winthrop's Model of Christian Charity. 

For HW for Monday, you have an assignment in your textbook. Our primary textbook this year is Give Me Liberty (Brief: Fourth Edition) by Eric Foner. We will be using the online book for which you should have received your access code from Mr. Kramer. Here are your Ebook registration instructions:

To redeem your code, visit:http://books.wwnorton.com/books/webad.aspx?id=4294981961 
Then:

• Click the Access button on the left of the page.
• If you are not logged in, you will be prompted to do so. If you do not have a Norton account, please follow the instructions to create one.
• Once logged in, you will be taken to a product registration page, where you will choose your state and high school and then enter your registration code.
• After registration, you will be taken to your dashboard. To read the ebook, click “access”.
• After you have clicked “enter,” a VitalSource window will pop up and will prompt you to register for a Bookshelf ID. Please be sure to temporarily disable pop-blockers so that you may view this window.

That’s it! You can read your ebook online.

• For offline access:
• Once you have completed VitalSource registration and have opened the ebook, click “Bookshelf” in the upper left corner.
• At the top of your Bookshelf page, you will be prompted with the question, “Want to read your books offline?” and may select download instructions for your device.
• Once you’ve created a VitalSource Bookshelf account and have downloaded the VitalSource Bookshelf App for desktop or mobile, you can read your ebook offline through the app on your device.

What Does it Mean to Be an American Sharing Day

Today, your task will be to do some reflection, analysis and interpretation about how the essays that you read for today are influencing your answer about what it means to be an American.

1. Begin by reviewing your annotations from last night. Gather your thoughts (potentially even do a short prewrite in your notebook) then make a new post to your blog in which you respond to the following: What do these readings suggest about what it means to be an American? (You might want to think about political, social, economic, and cultural issues.)  How are the two readings similar/different?  Using your annotations, identify the passages/ideas that you agree with and/or disagree with the most.  Discuss why.  
2. Next, you will be commenting on what your fellow group members wrote about the essays that they read. You'll begin by reading the excerpted version of their reading in your packet in order to give you a bit more context about their post. Then read the post that your classmate wrote and post a comment to it. Make sure that you publish this comment. Repeat this step for as many rounds as you can until your teacher says to stop.

Round	Person A	Person B	Person C	Person D
1	Blog on your own readings: Boorstin and Zinn	Blog on your own readings: Baldwin and Reagan	Blog on your own readings: Billington and Kushner	Blog on your own readings: Kingsolver and Gregorian
2	Read excerpts from Baldwin and Reagan.  Read and respond to D’s blog	Read excerpts from Billington and Kushner.  Read and respond to A’s Blog	Read excerpts from Kingsolver and Gregorian.  Read and respond to B’s Blog	Read excerpts from Boorstin and Zinn.  Read and respond to C’s Blog.
3	Read excerpts from Boorstin and Zinn.  Read and respond to C’s Blog.	Read excerpts from Baldwin and Reagan.  Read and respond to D’s blog	Read excerpts from Billington and Kushner.  Read and respond to A’s Blog	Read excerpts from Kingsolver and Gregorian.  Read and respond to B’s Blog
4	Read excerpts from Kingsolver and Gregorian.  Read and respond to B’s Blog	Read excerpts from Boorstin and Zinn.  Read and respond to C’s Blog.	Read excerpts from Baldwin and Reagan.  Read and respond to D’s blog	Read excerpts from Billington and Kushner.  Read and respond to A’s Blog

3. For tomorrow-adding a layer
1. Read the comments on your blog.
2. Read the Crevecoeur and Stegner selections (end of your packet).
3. Final blog post: Where are you now in your thinking?  How do Crevecoeur and/or Stegner influence what you said before? How have the comments to your initial post influenced your thinking? Be sure to identify at least TWO speicific readings/comments that challenged you to think differently or expand your thinking.  

Entering the Public Square: Let's Blog

Welcome to U.S. History! Today you will all become part of what is known as the blogosphere, a modern day adaptation of the public square.  In a tradition that has it's roots in early American society, the public comes together to explore the interesting and provocative ideas of the day.  In 2015, that universe has expanded to allow anyone's ideas to be put into the marketplace for the world to see or hear.  Today, you will set up your blog that will allow you to do just that.  Our blogs will have a variety of different uses over the course of the year, allowing us to explore United States History and to continue to delve deeper into the question of what it means to be an American?

So, let’s make a blog! (Note-make sure that you are signed in with your school gmail account).  We are going to use Google's Blogger platform to create our blogs.  Find it in your Google Apps or you can click here.  Note-it may ask you to create a Google+ profile which you may (although this takes longer) or you can continue with a limited blogger profile, either one should work for our purposes. Then:

1. Click the button to create a new blog. 
2. Decide on a catchy title for your blog.
3. Identify an available URL for your blog.
4. Choose a template to begin (don't worry, you can customize this later)
5. Then click "Create Blog" 

Some things to consider as you begin to blog

• Choosing a design-many different templates and ways to customize  Click on the Template link on the left side to choose.
• The layout tab allows you to change the layout of your blog and add gadgets-gadgets allow  you to post links, add pages, have newsfeeds, etc.
• Click on the settings tab and then language and formatting to change to Central Time Zone.
• Warnings before going too far
  • Audience
  • Privacy - no full names, personal information
  • Expectations - tone, respect, acceptable topic

Blogging-so now that your blog has been created, you are ready to post.  You can create a new post from your blogger dashboard or from your blog itself (as long as you are signed in).  Remember, anyone can see and comment on your post so consider your audience.  You can also incorporate images, videos, and links in your posts.  As we continue to blog this year, I will show you how to do this.  You will be doing your first post in class tomorrow.

Need help?     

·         http://www.google.com/support/blogger/

So, by tomorrow, you will need to :

1.  Create a blog!
2.  Think of a catchy title.  Make sure you add a description of what you want your blog to be or to express.
3.  E-mail Mr. Kramer with the name of your blog and its URL address.  He will create a link to it on the class blog.
4. Complete step one of the assignment posted on the assignment sheet.