Walton Middle School

Ripped From the Headlines

DC TRIP IS OFF - I wish I could report all good news in today’s blog, but unfortunately we had to cancel the 8th grade’s annual Washington, DC trip on October 10^th.  It was a tough decision and one that required a lot of deliberation on our part.  We held out as long as we could to wait and see if some sort of funding would be passed by Congress.  Finally, we had to cancel because we were holding on to payment checks and the bus company had to know if we were going sign a contract or not.

On the positive side, the students had real life experience with the budgetary process and the lawmaking process which are part of the 8^th grade Civics & Economics curriculum.  Several have also exercised their First Amendment right to petition their government in order to let them know how they feel about this situation.  We are in the midst of our Constitution unit, so the daily headlines become part of our instruction each class.

Coming Soon To Our Classroom:  Some of our upcoming events in Civics & Economics class are the Living Constitution Project, the lawmaking simulation where students get to write, debate, and vote on bills to submit for President Plumb’s signature, and a trip to the Virginia Capitol in November.  This is a highlight of our class because students get to tour the Capitol and have a legislative session where they will get to do the same thing in the House of Delegates chamber.