Welcome

Welcome to my website.  It is dedicated to the social studies classes that I will be teaching this year at American Preparatory Academy.  My hope is that it will become a great resource to students who are motivated to succeed.  Please explore and give any feedback that you have - are there any elements or features that would be useful?  E-mail me at gstoddard@apamail.org, or just leave a comment.

12th Grade - Jon Stewart on the Bill of Rights

I am a big fan of Jon Stewart's The Daily Show.  While his language can be a little colorful at times, the analysis he provides of current political issues is usually pretty fair and can be really funny.

Click here to see a clip that he did after the Boston Marathon bombing last year that has to do with Unit 5 in We the People.

12th Grade - Vote!

For a great video on the importance of voting, check out this website.

8th Grade - Leave it To Beaver

Leave it to Beaver was a sitcom in the 1950s that illustrates the principle of the "nuclear family," a mom and a dad and their children living at home, Watch the clip below and note the differences between the Cleaver family and the types of family you see on TV today.

12th Grade - Political Ideology and Parties

Don't forget to go to http://www.politicalcompass.org/test and take the political ideology test.  A print out of your results will be due this Friday.

Also, if you're still not quite sure what the answer to "What's a Democrat?" is, check out this video:

12th Grade - Constitution USA

To view the rest of the Constitution USA episode you watched with the substitute, or to view other episodes in the series, click here.

8th Grade - World War II Disney Propaganda

Walt Disney created some fantastic World War II propaganda.  Check out these videos:

8th Grade - World War II Timeline Song

Here are the lyrics to our World War II timeline song.  I've also embedded the music video for OneRepublic's "Counting Stars" so you can hear how the song goes if you can't remember the tune.

Chorus:

In Sep-tember 1939 

Germany invaded Poland in a short time. 

Ju-ly ‘40 Battle of Britain. 

Pearl Harbor attacked 12/07/41. 

Star-ting Au-gust 1942

Battle of Stalingrad

(a bloody battle, true).

D-Day - June 6, 1944 

Germany gives up 

May 19-19-45. 

Chant:

Hiroshima, Nagasaki

Bombed in August of ’45.

Japan surrendered a month later. 

And that ended World War II.

Let the Voting Begin

The time has come for all second semester U.S. Government and Citizenship students to vote for the $25 gift card they would like to win for achieving perfect scores on the daily homework quizzes.  Right now, there are 10 options to choose from.  To vote, simply click the link for your class below and you will be taken to the survey.

**YOU MUST BE SIGNED IN TO YOUR apastudents.org ACCOUNT TO VOTE!**

1st Period, click here.

6th Period, click here.

You may vote as many times as you would like, and you will want to frequently because as the semester progresses, I will be deleting options that do not have many votes.  Once you have voted, be sure to go and study so that you can earn some raffle tickets!

8th Grade - World War II in Europe - A Day by Day Look

Here is the rest of the World War II video we watched in class today.

We the People, and the Republic We Must Reclaim

This video provides a few more hopeful solutions than the article about economic inequality did.

Cornell Note Tutorial

If you are still struggling with figuring out how to take Cornell notes effectively, watch this video: