Skip to main content

Essay Contest

    ALL JUNIORS (and those seniors who choose to) are required to write a 500-word essay for the Congressional Seminar National Essay Contest. The essay is for a grade (extra for seniors) and should be typed, double-spaced, and formatted according to MLA.

    The essay question for this year:
    "If you were a presidential candidate, what domestic issue would you consider the most important, and what would you do about it?"

    The most discussed domestic issues, in my estimation, are the economy, the energy "crisis", the health care "crisis", immigration, and the pro-life/pro-choice debate. You are welcome to tackle any other domestic issue, but please limit it to one. In your paper, you will establish the issue (or problem) and provide solutions. The information you use should be documented (discussed in class next week), and a logical place to start is the candidates themselves.

    The presidential candidates still in the mix:

    Of course, there are other candidates (i.e. Ron Paul, and Dennis Kucinich), and you can look those up if you'd like.

    IN FACT, try out this handy candidate calculator to see which candidate best matches your opinions on the issues (here's another)!

    DUE DATE: Wednesday 1/16

    Popular posts from this blog

    O Brother, A Response Paper

    Hello Freshmen... Your assignment for the weekend is to write a 250-word (one page) response paper on O Brother, Where Art Thou . Please type and format according to MLA. You may choose from the two topics below: (1) Respond to the lyrics of one song from the film. Using your lyric sheet (or the internet ), connect the lyrics of one song to the movie's characters/setting/events. In other words, explain how the lyrics are relevant to the film. (2) Choose one of the historically relevant elements of the movie and look up an article on Wikipedia . Print out the article; then, summarize it and connect it to the movie's characters/setting/events. Be careful not to plagiarize the article, which should be stapled to your reponse. Ideas discussed in class include The Great Depression, con artist, chain gang, Populism (George Wallace, Huey P. Long, W. Lee O'Daniel), Ku Klux Klan (William Joseph Simmons), and George "Babyface" Nelson.

    ACT Prep

    Good luck on the ACT tomorrow, those of you who are taking it. To help you prepare, and for future reference, here are some materials for you to work with at home: ACT Prep - from the official site - including sample tests Test Prep Review - has "self-assessment modules" in several subjects ACT Sparknotes ACT Test Questions

    Career Search

    A good place to start with your career search is a personality test. There are several online to choose from, and there are many career aptitude tests, as well. Generally speaking, my advice is to look for a career that combines your interests and your aptitudes (both in your personality and your skill set). Look through the following and see if any are helpful: 16 Personalities (based on the Meyers-Briggs ) Skills Profiler (from the U.S. Department of Labor) Princeton Review Career Quiz Free Career Aptitude Tests (a list from The Balance ) Later this week, we will try to match up your aptitudes and interests with a career by looking at College Board's BigFuture site. We will also look at the ACT in detail ( Planning Your Future e-book ). Finally, we will explore the Occupational Outlook Handbook to see more thorough descriptions and projections.