Political Participation by Charles O'Connor

Political Participation

coconnor15 — 2018-11-09 18:28:50 UTC

Please share feedback with the class about what you take away from our Political Participation Unit.
(a) An activity from the unit you found meaningful. Why?
(b) An activity from the unit that felt useless. Why?
(c) How has your opinion / idea / knowledge of the democratic process (elections, ballots, voting, etc.) changed from before we did this unit. (2-3 sentences)

Political Participation

sr_gcoleman — 2018-11-09 18:55:33 UTC

(a) The most meaningful activity in my opinion was gathering all of the signatures. This activity allowed for us to fight for our petition and voice our opinions in a meaningful and thought-out way. It taught us how to respectfully pitch an idea to a fellow student without simply handing them a pen and paper and just telling them to sign.
(b) I did not find the portion of the project where we had to make calls to political figures or organizations very useful. Most of the people we reached out to or contacted did not give us a defiant answer to our question or just didn't respond. Most people seemed annoyed that we were emailing them and ignored us which was frustrating.
(c) My knowledge of the democratic process has changed because I used to think that it was an opportunity for everyone to voice their opinions, but the reality was that it is still very exclusive. People are still barred from voting as though their opinions mean nothing. In addition to this I learned just how complex the voting process really is! I never knew how many steps, politicians, legal requirements, and aspects that voting had. It is not as simple as simply putting your vote in a box and walking away, there are so many steps that must happen for someone to be elected into a political position.

Nice O'Connor

2018-11-09 18:56:24 UTC

(a) I found it meaningful to get signatures from other students around school and hear their input on the proposition.
(b) Calling representatives was a waste of time and useless because no one answered.
(c) My opinion has stayed the same, but I feel like I know more about the whole process itself. I didn't really know about the whole process but I feel more enlightened.

2018-11-09 18:56:40 UTC

I found researching the Propositions meaningful because it helped me be more informed about the Midterms and be able to take a valid position. I felt like the constant updating of the WWK/WWNTK was a little useless. I think an initial doc and updating it at the end of the project to see if we answered all questions would be more beneficial. After starting this unit, I feel like I solidified my stance on certain issues the propositions were centered on.

a) An activity from this unit was emailing/ calling politicians because we had the opportunity to see well researched opinions on the propositions.

2018-11-09 18:56:46 UTC

b) An activity from this unit that I found useless was the requirement of talking to teachers because many of them had no clue what the propositions were or did not want to speak to us.
c) My opinion on the democratic process haas changed from this project because I have learned the importance not only of voting, but of educating oneself on it. I observed that many citizens were ill informed. If people don't know whats on the ballots, how is our state / country supposed to improve? - It won't.

2018-11-09 18:56:46 UTC

A: I found having the template for how to write the letter was the most useful because it gave us a chance to put it together before making our final draft.
B: I think an activity that was useless was emailing the people because we rearely got any responses.
C: I think it definilatly made me look more into politics but im still uninterested in them.

A. The activity that was most meaningful was the research of the propositions.

2018-11-09 18:56:54 UTC

B. An activity I thought was useless was getting the signatures from students it would have been more useful if it was only adults to make them talk about what there actually doing.
C. This unit was good way better than the enlightenment. Also this project was good since it was happening right now and was recent and impacted us individually.

2018-11-09 18:56:54 UTC

(a) The most meaningful activity from this unit would be the calling and emailing people that work for our state government. This allowed us to gather information and form our opinions.
(b) I found gathering signatures to be useless because a lot of people just signed it without really knowing what they were signing for.
(c) I have a more positive opinion on the democratic voting process because I didn't realize how important a single vote is and the difference it can make. I also learned that even though we aren't old enough to vote, there are still ways that we can make our voice heard.

Political Participation

2018-11-09 18:57:16 UTC

(a) One thing that I found meaningful in this unit was calling all of the political figures because it helped me work on skills such as note taking and talking to people in formal conversations.
(b) One activity that I thought was useless from this unit was the petition. I don't know what the point of this was. We just passed around a paper and people signed it without even thinking.
(c) My opinion hasn't changed. I still think that our democratic process is broken and it should be a direct democracy .

Political Participation

2018-11-09 18:57:38 UTC

A: I thought that the most meaningful part of the project was reaching out to other people and having conversations with them. This allowed us to gain a better understanding of the propositions as well as make sure that people are able to share their opinions.
B: I thought that the six word memoir was useless. My group and I thought of one in a couple seconds and didn't even think about it again.
C: My opinion has remained the same, but I feel much more knowledgable. I finally understand how the propositions and elections actually work.

2018-11-09 18:57:54 UTC

A)I found it meaningful to learn about the midterm elections by asking politicians about the propositions. I found it meaningful because I was never really interested in politics until I became involved
B)An activity that was useless was getting people to sign our petition because the petition had no impact on anything and a lot of people didn't understand that.
c) My idea of the democratic process changed a lot during this project. I thought that the process was pretty fair but I learned that there is still a little bit of unfairness. I think the process is definitely getting better but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

(a) An activity from this unit that I found meaningful was researching the propositions and having the knowledge to tell people about them .

sr_ssperos — 2018-11-09 18:57:59 UTC

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sr_jgruver — 2018-11-09 18:58:43 UTC

A) the most educational and meaningful part of the political participation unit, was learning about the propositions and how they would effect us. the entire process taught me a lot about the importance of peoples votes. B)The most annoying and useless part of the unit was when we were required to email teachers and politicians. this was a waste of time, we did not get responses half the time, and the opinions of the people we talked to had nothing to benefit except another opinion.
C) This project taught me a lot about the importance of one person's vote and the need for people to take charge of the future of our country.

a) I thought the most meaningful part of the project was contacting and talking to adults about the election because it made me feel more included in the process

sr_oclayton — 2018-11-09 18:58:43 UTC

b) One activity that felt a little useless was contacting so many people that never responded because that was very frustrating.
c) Before I never very little about the election. I didn't know about any of the propositions or who was running for office. However, after the project I feel a lot more aware and knowledgable about the election. Which I think both me and my parents enjoy.

a) An activity that I found meaningful was calling an emailing candidates. Getting to actually speak to them and hear their political views directly was very helpful.

sr_kbegley — 2018-11-09 18:58:58 UTC

b) An activity that felt useless was gathering signatures, because most students that signed the petitions didn't know what they were about, and just signed for the people who needed the signatures.
C) My opinions and ideas have changed on propositions, because I now understand the purpose of them.

Political Participation.

2018-11-09 18:59:04 UTC

A). I found that the most meaningful part was contacting political people that are running for government positions.
B). I found that getting signatures was useless even though it was fun because you would go up to your peers and just ask them to sign a piece of paper.
C). I have realized that it is very important to know what is happening in our state and country at all times. Most importantly if you are of age to vote, know both sides of what it is you are voting for.

Political project

2018-11-09 18:59:13 UTC

A) I thought the most meaningful part of the project was calling representatives for their opinions. I thought this was important because these political leaders represent us or those around us.
B) I think the open letter is the most meaningless part since we are most likely not going to get a response
C) Its changed a bit to hear about how much voter suppression goes on in today's America

a)I didn't find these activities meaningful for a U.S. history class. I believe we should be learning history currently not a midterm election.

sr_tnarvick2 — 2018-11-09 18:59:19 UTC

B) most of the work felt like busy work, didn't gain any historical knowledge. I believe this was not a good use of class time.
c) my opinions stayed the same, the only thing i learned about was the propositions, which is not what we should be learning. I hope next unit we are actually learning history.

b)

2018-11-09 18:59:22 UTC

I felt that the 6 word memoir could be useless since the people we are sending the letters to won't see it.

a. I found that researching the propositions were helpful because I gained a lot of insight into the midterm elections.

2018-11-09 18:59:39 UTC

b. I thought that talking to the SRV staff members was not helpful because they usually were very reluctant to share their political opinion with us.
c. My opinion about the democratic process has changed because I used to think of it like an amazing thing but know I think it is still good but has flaws, such as voter supression.

Political Participation

sr_zleclaire — 2018-11-09 19:00:07 UTC

a) An activity that I found very meaningful was contacting politicians and discussing the propositions with teachers because it allowed us to get input from a source we wouldn't be able to reach normally
b) I thought the what we need to know vs what we know was useless because it felt like a waste of time.
c) One thing I learned by doing this project was that it's much easier to contact politicians than I had realized

Political Participation

2018-11-09 19:00:19 UTC

a)Calling politicians and other people in government because it was nice hearing different opinions from adults not just students.
b)I thought that the petitions were kinda useless because people just sign it not even knowing what it was for but I guess it makes it more realistic.
c) I've realized the democratic process needs a lot of work especially the voting process because the government needs to work to keep everyone informed and make sure all the laws are fair to not keep certain people from voting.

A) I think the most meaningful thing we dd was calling the reps.

2018-11-09 19:00:32 UTC

B)I think it was useless to get the signatures we didn't use them for anything and no one who signed them is actually able to vote so they were literally just a waste of out time
C) Nothing about my opinion has changed I put everything that i feel into my letter.

Political Participation

sr_awinograd — 2018-11-09 19:00:42 UTC

a) It was meaningful to get signatures validating that your opinion was worth fighting for.
b) Reaching out to organizations was hard because we didn't get many responses.
c) My opinion on voting has changed this unit because I realized how important it is to vote. Specifically, young people are learning to find the courage to vote in many states. When I turn 18, I'll make sure to vote!

sr_jdow — 2018-11-09 19:00:48 UTC

In my opinion i thought that the most meaningful part of the project was to ngo around and ask for students to sign our petition. I got to see what other

(a) An activity that I found meaningful was researching the propositions and having the knowledge to tell others about it.

sr_ssperos — 2018-11-09 19:01:17 UTC

(b) Something I found useless from this project was the six word memoir because it didn't contribute to are project much like the other things.
(c) Because of this project, I know feel more interested in the works of our government. It has also encouraged me to research both sides of everything when it is my time to vote.

Political Participation

2018-11-09 19:01:20 UTC

in my opinion the 6 word memoir was pretty good becuase it was a way to visualize our concept
i felt calling people and emialing peope was useless because most of them did not respond.
it made me relize howimportant voting was

Political Participation

2018-11-09 19:01:49 UTC

a)The activity that I thought was the most meaningful was researching about the propositions because before this I didn't know much bout each one. This way I was able to learn about what is being voted on and the in depth details behind each proposition.
b)An activity from the unit that I thought was useless was gathering the signatures because all of the students that signed our petition didn't know what the proposition was about and they didn't care to know what they were signing for.
c)My opinion has changed during this process because I have learned the importance of political participation by voting and being informed on what is going on during the Midterm Elections.

Political participation

2018-11-09 19:01:50 UTC

a) An activity that I found meaningful is when we researched the propositions because that is something that is going to affect our very near futures.
b)I feel like the petition signing was useless because it can be easily understood and we did not need to do it ourselves and it caused a lot of stress
c) I feel a lot more prepared to vote next election and I am not nervous any more.

sr_jdow — 2018-11-09 19:02:56 UTC

A)To me both researching the props and to have the ability to speak and talk to people about what they effected was the most meaningful. Going around and asking for signatures was really cool because we got to see how other people our own age felt about certain political issues.
B) Something I didn't find was that meaningful/helpful was to contact people. In specifically our group did not get a lot of information that we could get off of certain websites. That took up al lot of time that we could have sued doing other things for our project.
C.Knowing more of the election and voting process has given me more of an interest in this topic. Especially being aware in current issues that really effect everyone.

Political Participation

sr_smaterazo — 2018-11-09 19:03:00 UTC

(a) An activity that I found to be meaningful was the contacting the politicians or people about our propositions that we chose. It was our first step into our own political participation.
(b) I thought the petition was a little bit useless because it wasn't a petition we came up with on our own. It was an assignment for a class.
(c) My knowledge has changed a little bit. I started paying attention to the ads for the mid term elections and I realized politics aren't what they seem. It's a competition, no one cares about improving the country.

Political Participation

2018-11-09 19:07:08 UTC

(a) An activity from the unit I found meaningful was the 6 word memoir because I thought it was creative.
(b) An activity from the unit that felt useless was emailing or calling people on the petition because I felt it didn't help at all in our project
(c) My opinion / idea / knowledge of the democratic process has changed because I feel that I will be more prepared to vote than I thought I would.

sr_zleclaire — 2018-11-10 03:33:46 UTC
Zachary LeClaire 1m star_border RATE Your avatar Add comment

f

2018-11-13 17:42:56 UTC

from a fellow sandbagger...

2018-11-13 17:42:56 UTC

a) I found that researching the propositions and starting these political discussions to be refreshing. Schools like to keep controversial topics on the low, and I really appreciated hearing and seeing other students share their opinions .
b) Contacting local representatives. It had the right idea, but a majority of the people didn't respond and if they did we were directed to an info page on that proposition.
c) I feel like I am more prepared. I understand the process, but I still don't necessarily trust it.

Political Participation

2018-11-13 19:41:26 UTC

a) I found that having to contact teachers, politicians, and organizations was super beneficial. Not only was it fun to contact professionals about politics but was a good way to learn about different perspectives.
b) I think the what we need to know vs what we know was not as meaningful. I felt that it didn't really have a purpose.
c) It's changed my perspective because I've learned about voting discrimination and the importance of voting. I've learned more about politics and specific propositions as well.