This post will be open to all classes…we may only have one more after this.
Posting Options: You are encouraged but not limited to the following suggesstions for topics when posting…
1. Tell us about what you “liked” or “Disliked” about the course (I mean what you learned the most from, or least from…and what was it that you learned???).
2. You can reference discussions we have had, reading from the textbook, articles we have discussed, etc.
3. Suggesstions for the class next year…or your hopes for your own experience next year as a senior.
The only requirement is that you make connections to class.
You choose the topics…feel free to post links to online sources for reference.
Post thoughtfully and post often…I love it when my phone buzzes, it makes me feel important and everyone around me thinks I’m very busy all the time.
Happy Blogging
Mr H
Well, I’m doing this in your class because that stupid website we were working on kept logging me off. So, here goes.
I wanted to talk about the A.P. test that’s coming up. I actually feel a lot more confident about this one than last year’s one, but I’m also taking 2 A.P. tests this year and that’s a lot of work. Environmental science isn’t that hard, so I’ll probably study more for this one, but still, I’m excited, anxious, etc.
I also wanted to comment on the whole discussion about fairness with school rules. I mean, I am, at this very moment, wearing a Paul McCartney shirt, and this is the first time I have ever gotten away with going against a school rule. That sounds really bad, but it’s true. I’m kind of conducting a test here, to see what will happen to me for wearing this. I see people all the time wearing band shirts and getting away with it. I’ve personally had people brag to me about how much they get away with reguarding the dress code and I honestly never get away with anything. By the time I get to Frau’s class 9th mod she will be yelling at me for this shirt, as long as she sees it. Also, there’s the whole tattoo thing where some people have their tattoos completely visibile, like on their neck or leg, but if a person has one on their back and their shirt accidently comes up and someone sees it they get in trouble.
I’m just venting here.
But, I’m gonna go now because I’m missing choir and you’re watching me post this anyway.
=]
I agree with coblentz! i feel alot more confident about this AP test than i did last year. maybe because i already took it once before, but i still feel more prepared. the websites are really helping and so is all the review in class! oh, and also i really liked this class!
we didnt just learn about our federal system, but more of the physcological veiwpoint of it which definitely helped me keep interest! In this class i actually stayed awake and learned something, unlike in other classes where i could pretty much take a nap and later just teach the chapter to myself. thanks for making 4/5 mod interesting mr. hos!
First off I just wanna say I didn’t like this class at first. I have always had bad things happen comes to history classes and I didn’t think government came as anything different. (As you can kinda tell by my grades towards the middle of the year >.<;;) But I have learned a lot and you have became one of my favorite teachers. There’s teachers who will actually teach, but then there’s teachers who have discussions and encourge us to think for ourselves. (That’s you!
) I’ve learned a lot for standing up for what you believe in and the steps you may have to go through to get what you want, even though you may get in trouble along the way.
But there are so many issues that if we just look around and really see the injustice in our community and government, there are so many things that we could be trying to change and it’ll all start with our generation.
that someone was proud? was the word because their own generation (older than Mr.H, but same older group) never fought for anything. They just layed back and took whatever ame. But we’re the ones who won’t take it 
I’ve learned through your class that we need to try our best to fix the injustices. (Yeah we learned some government stuff too, but this is the stuff that’s really gonna always stick in my mind haha)
We really should try to keep our class discussion going even in the summer… keep our minds fresh. Jk doubt anyone will wanna do that haha.
We have to be the generation that fights for what’s right when the government is pushing us down. Maybe I’m a bit of a radical, but oh well!! Change needs to be made everywhere, and I’m willing to start looking for something to fight for. Like the AP Art. Yep, we’re having our class next year and I am so totally pumped. But we really didn’t do anything, sadly it was GB That had to sacrifice to keep our class.
I was told, during our little AP Art crusiade
Anyways, thanks for a great year
Wow A.P. Government…what can you say, really? xD It’s been fun, boring, exciting, thought provoking, and a lot more. We’ve had some pretty amazing discussions/arguments. I’ll always remember when we were writing our own bills and Eric being the only guy voting for my groups gay-rights centered bill lol
.
As a class, especially the last half of the year, we’ve grown as students and members of society. Things like this discussion bored and getting off topic for half an hour on some random topic that we all have opinions on made up for the *ahem* boring stuff.
Also I feel so better prepared for this A.P. exam than the one I took last year. That is in no way a dis on Mr. Jentes. I just feel this was a more engaging class. And thanks Mr. H for all the support and encouragement. Julie and I agree on this. You didn’t talk at us like we were kids. You let us make our own paths and guided us a bit too
Oh I totally think we should have discussion board topics over the summer. Maybe I’m just a dork/nerd for wanting that but I think it’d be cool.
hey mr H. i wanted to try another AP practice test on that online site that you showed us, but the link takes me to the infohio site and im not sure where to go from there..
Elle,
The info Ohio website is the correct site…then click on “log in” there should be a button in the middle of a paragraph or something…after you log in click on college preparation…advanced placement (second one down) then ap government & politics. Let me know if it works.
Mr. H
p.s. very impressed with the creative use of the blog to contact me…well done
lol no prob!
alright. either my computer doesn’t want to let me or i’m just stupid but i can NOT get to that site that we were on in class. can you send me a link or something?
try googling “infoohio” and see if it takes you there…our class website has the link on it too…you could copy and paste it if the hyperlink is not working….go to http://mrhostetler.hopto.org then “links” then “AP Government”
Hope this helps…
Let me know if you get it to work
Mr. H
I liked the class this year. I usually don’t like social studies classes, because I just don’t see the importance in learning it. Butttt i learned a lot this year about the economy & government which will help me in the future. The government portion of the class, tought me how to vote when I am able to, who to vote for, and most importantly that i’m clearly a democrat. In economics i learned how to keep track of my money, and just how important it is to do so. I’m not going to further my education in social studies next year, so i’m not gonna include thatttt.
LeeAnn Windemuth
This year has been really fun. i must say i enjoyed the project where we had to find a job and manage payments. it was fun and i learned sacrifices so i could live in a house. i also enjoyed the group work. working with groups is nice as long as everyone works
. this class has defiantly opened my eyes more to government and economics. before this class i prbly nvr picked up a newspaper or was aware of wat was going on in the world. lol.[it's not that interesting what can i say =D] but none of it ever seemed worth reading because all everyone does ne more is complain. it has been nice to be able to discuss certain issues and understand why everyone seems to complain about them. overall this has been a great year. GREAT JOB MR. H!!!!!! 
This year I really enjoyed all the projects we did. Most classes just make us take notes, do worksheets, and then take a test, but you really made us apply all the concepts we learned in class. I think doing the projects actually helped me learn the material more, because you made it relatable to us. Also, I know all the projects will eventully help me in the future. Your class also made me want to get more involved in government. I applied for the student rep. position on the Board of Education! I’m really excited to take your Political Science class. Thanks for being a great teacher.
I loved ths class. I love how we got to talk about current event and what’s actually going on in the world and apply it to class rather than reading something that i don’t really care about out of a textbook from the 70′s. I feel more like I matter as a person in society from this class and I can actually do something about what I think is wrong/corrupted. This is mostly why I want to take the political science class next year. I’m really excited.
p.s. i think posting on the blog this summer is a cool idea. i’ll be on for sure! =]
1.I liked the face we learned about real life situations. It was nice to get a jump start into economics because that will become very handy in the real world. I also liked the fact we learned how government. The only thing i disliked learning was about poverty because it is sad. But you need to know how the world works.
2.Well the budeting project was the best. It gave me a real life situation and i had a high paying job so it was eaiser, until i got sued for 70000 dollars and it got much harder to budget..
I feel that less preojects could be given and more book work. Also more out of class homework.I really enjoyed your class.
I pretty much liked the course over all. I wasn’t all “OH MY GOSH GOVERNMENT. YAY!” coming into this year but after awhile, I actually started to enjoy the class. I have to admit not everything we did in the government half of the class was exactly my forte but I really enjoyed the economics part of the class. Why? Economics deal with real life situations and wasn’t just something drilled into your brain. I loved the budget activity because it gave you a real feel on actually being out in the “real” world. It was very difficult at times when you had to cut things in your budget to make everything fit, but that was the most realistic part.
My only suggestion for next year, I would have to agree with Stoffer. I agree that there should be less projects and more out of class assignments.
Oh and I liked the discussion board idea. It lets us voice our opinions and allow open discussions with other students. Yay for use of technology. ;]
The class in the begining of the year was not that fun for me because i dont like social studies and all we were doing was looking back into it. But after awhile it got a lot better and i begin to enjoy all of the projects we got to do. Also when we started economics that was a lot of fun. I really liked the project where we had to budget our own money it gave me a good out look on what people have to do almost everyday to make sure that there not going to go over there budget. I dissagree with stoffer, i liked the projects because it gave us a chance to learn things creativly and also was worth a lot of points. But i do agree with Stephanie and i did like the discussion board because it let us see what our other classmates were thinking and gave me help.
Overall I had a good time in Goverment class and i liked it
Tiffany Sharlow
I’m not too big on history. I’ve always felt that, in the line of work that I intend to enter, I needed a small amount of history knowledge if any. As for government, I believe in anarcho-communism (we will enact our take over as soon as we get all 6 billion to support). But I’m just a Hobbes-ist who wishes that Locke were right. I definitely feel that I got what I wanted from government class, I just got a teeeeeeeeeny bit more. I’d rather leave political science to people who care about the way the nation runs; that leaves more people like me to go with the flow (see previous “coping” comment). Sure, I will grow up with low political efficacy (I learned that too), but all I ever intended to do for my government is vote. I’m looking forward to the economics unit; it’s something that can be very handy in life. Thanks for giving me all I ever wanted to know about government. <a;)
A thousand people turned their heads.
All in all i have enjoyed the class. It hasn’t been all that difficult of a class and has kept my intrest most of the time. I did enjoy all of the group time that we got in the class, but not always the projects that the groups entailed. I really hated the woll reader lol. POlitics isn’t my favorite thing in the world but it was a good thing to learn about.
Thank you for teaching me about government and politics.
I agree with Cav in saying that politics really isnt my thing. I think that all of the political people get too caught up in their ideologies and their party to do much good for the country. Most of the time politicians are more worried about what he said what she said instead of having the will to compromise or run a clean election. An example is when in class we were talking about the election and Obama’s comment about the whole pig and lipstick thing. The republicans got all upset because woman where lipstick so they thought Palin was being called a pig. Everything got blown way out of proportion and that was the only thing on the news for days instead of the real issues like the war and the economy. Stuff like that turns me off of government completely. My political efficacy is damaged everytime it happens to because i know no matter who I vote far they will default to negative campaigning and name calling instead of focusing on their jobs in Washington. lol i learned that all from class!
As i sit here reflecting on this years course, I remember a lot of random things that we learned in the class that will probably change my outlook on politics and just general life for years to come. I really enjoyed the lessons on the general election (mainly of how it functions and works) and when we studied supreme court cases. I really didn’t like the economic portion of the class nearly as much but I can’t say I will never use the lessons learned from the personal finance lessons. My favorite thing about this course was freedom. Most teachers are kind of picky in what you can choose to do for topics and kind of limit what you can learn about. But whenever I wanted to do something different in the class I was encouraged to do so. I really hope you never lose this aspect of your class, because this is what makes it enjoyable (at least for me) and it really helps the students retain more when they actually have a desire to learn about the topic. I know you are looking for complaints in these, but I’m coming up empty. I guess one thing that kind of bothered me was that you would show us these random videos in class spouting a million statistics about the future but we never really went into much detail about solutions for these or what is already being done. Maybe you just want us to think about these topics to let them soak the information in and come up with our own solutions but it still bothered me.
well im not really all that much of a government supporting kind of girl so that part was probably the worst for me. however this whole economics thing is very interesting for me. i liked discussing the different events going on for the world and this class was really my only link to the news and such. i really liked the monthly budget activity. it REALLY applied to real life and i think i’s one of the very few things that i can take from school and actually use in my life. and i also love how you included videos in class… it made it feel more… cool (i guess) and not so dull and boring.
thanks had fun!
oh and i also learned that im a
non-liberal anarchist… yeah….
i guess that’s …er… sweet?
I liked this class this year. i thought it was kinda different from all my other classes. we didnt have alot of homework…that was a plus! and we did alot of group projects which is always better then trying to sit there and listen to a teacher go on and on lol but over all this class was good.
Kristie Schaub.
I’ve enjoyed a.p. gov’t this year. I feel that i have learned a lot and now I may be able to carry out a good conversation with someone who knows a lot about it. I learned the most from the notes and the least from the Wahl Reader(didn’t know what it was talking about most of the time!!! ). I liked the open discussion we had and they brought up some great points. I feel like that this was a great class and that I learned a lot. O and also I really liked the group we did, plus we did a lot of projects. This was a great class, don’t change a thing Mr. H!!!
This is Jared Strasser im on Joe Stoffers blog loggin. When i started taking this class i had no intrest in government at all. Mr.Hostetler made this class better for me by doing projects and not as much class work. The budgeting activities was probably the best part in this class. Learning how to pay for stuff and actually trying to make a living was fun.
I’ll be honest, at the beggining of the year i really didnt like the class. I felt like what we were doing was pointless and I would never need to know any of it, that and i wasnt enjoying doing it either. But by the middle of the year things seemed to get more..fun? i guess you could say and I did start to enjoy the class. I really liked the project that we did dealing w/ budgeting. B.c it applies to real life and it was just..idk..somewhat fun i guess lol.
A suggestion that i have for next year is to show more notes or at least have them online [idk if you do? sorry.] for the economics section bc ik personally i was a little lost with out having notes [given by you] to refer back to.
other than that its been a great year and i’m excited to have you again next year for poli sci =]
so today’s definitely not may 8th anymore, but eh ohwell…
As I read these comments out of boredom on a Saturday night (because I have no life), I’ve realized that I agree with most of my fellow students.
And it made me recall back when you gave a little talk about how some people complained on all the projects and how those projects would make us learn better…
Well, I’ll be the first to admit that I totally was one of those kids who complained about doing all those projects, one group project after another it seemed like… But after I thought about it, I realized that I would SO want to do that type of learning rather than reading out of a stupid textbook. I’ve actually learned a lot this year, most of which I still remember (I know, right!). I actually understand the goverment now, how it works and all… and economics of course, I think the budgeting thing was a great idea.
You’ve probably heard this enough already, but I think your class was my favorite “history” class so far in high school.
Oh and one more thing, I know that I haven’t posted much this year but i would totally join a summer blog cuz I am just a nerd like that
ok i lied, ONE MORE THING again: I just wish that we started doing this blog at the beginning of the year, because I’m sure that we could have gotten in a few awesome heated debates about the presidential elections and stuff. It sucks that we’re all getting more into this is the past view weeks, at the end of the year but of course
I just want to say I agree completely with what Jake and Kyle had to say. I’m more of a math person myself, but it completely sucks because, if you haven’t noticed, most of my friends from that class are the kids who get way too caught up in politics. Thanks to your class we’re always talking about politics now and honestly, I’m not into it. I’m not trying to say you’re like tearing me and my friends apart or anything, I think I’m more saying that you’re bringing me closer to people like Jake and Tony who honestly don’t really care that much about politics or government, just enough to pass the class. Haha.
And sorry if this wakes you up or anything with your silly phone, but I was bored and I’ve slept all day so I’m not tired. Haha.
thank you all for such thoughtfull feedback…I can definitely appreciate that some of you are not that excited about the “projects” as we like to call them, hope fully the class got you to think differently….one of my biggest hopes is that everyone had at least one aspect of the class that they really enjoyed (that may be a strong word, maybe had some interest in)…but that through a “different” kind of work than worksheets and bookwork you saw, thought, or learned something different!?!?
while it would be disappointing to think that someone learned absolutely nothing in my class I do not believe my goal is to turn you all into little politic loving republicans/democrats…rather to hopefully help you think more about the society (local, national, and global) in which you live, how it works, and how to influence it.
All that but really I’m only posting at 12:00am on a Saturday to show A.D. I’m also a “nerd” and S.C. that I’m not sleeping…yet!
Mr. H
But as you get older you need more sleep. So get some sleep, old man!! haha. jk.
I really enoyed this class this year! I liked it a lot because there was a lot of group work and we got to share our ideas with other people. One of the things that I really enjoyed this year was the project where we got to choose our own career and pick a house and a car. I thought it was fun because it made you have to think in order to budget your bill wisely. You had to consider everything that you would have to pay for and meet the requirements that you had to follow. Another thing that I liked about this class was that we went over current events. I used to never pay attention to the news or what was going on in our world today, but in this class we got to go over some of those things and discuss it a little bit. I feel that I have a better understanding of economics and financing than before. Overall, I really enjoyed this class and learned a lot from it.
I loved this class this year. I mostly liked it because we didn’t have any book work or a lot of homework assignments. Also, I learned many things that apply to everyday life. I enjoyed talking about current evens and things that are going on in the world. I learned the most in class from doing all of the hands on activities. There is nothing I would change about the class. Keep up the good work!!
Well, maybe I’m the only person who feels this way but… I don’t feel like I learned all that much in Government this year. Maybe it’s because of my inability to pay attention when we’re taking notes (because we don’t need to know everything that’s on the slides my mind doesn’t want to remember any of it), maybe it’s just because I’m disillusioned with the government in general, maybe it’s because I’m used to being able to talk and express my opinion at home so I don’t need to do it at school, I would rather learn something useful. Maybe it’s because I don’t see any reason to memorize all the amendments and their numbers. Maybe it’s because we have talked about most of the things in years before. I really don’t know but I think that there is merit to all the things Mr. Hos tries to do and good intentions behind them but I truly must say that AP Gov. was my easiest class this year. I think that one way to improve would be to streamline the actual notes. Only have the things that are truly important on the screen, discuss the others.
I also think we spent too much class time on certain things. Such as discussions over what else to call socialism so that there wouldn’t be a negative connotation…. things that had very little relevance to the topic at had and no practical application.
I did appreciate that there weren’t many worksheets and very little bookwork (to the point that I only opened my book for vocab) However, what little worksheet/ bookwork we did have was substandard (review sheets, etc.) It was either things we had not talked about in class or things we had discussed so many times that writing it down again did not make a difference.
Just one more thing. I appreciate that you gave us some freedom in relation to projects. However, I believe that a little more guidance would have been helpful in some cases. The instructions/ guidelines for the projects did not fully communicate what was expected in the project.
In my opinion this year in government and economics has been fun and i loved it. I’m ready for the year to be over but in a way im not. But this year i have enjoyed it, not so much the beginning of the year cause im not the best in government, history, ect.. im not saying im bad lol but im just not the best. But i enjoyed the economics part of this year, i found it to be interesting and fun for the most part. The reason for this is because economics deals with “real life” situations like stephanie said and we all need to be learning that kind of stuff about budgeting our money, what kind of jobs we are going to have to have suit the house or car we want. I also think the projects were fun too expecially the one where we had pick a job and then figure out what we could and could not buy, it was fun picking out our own house and car. It was also helpful how we got to work with partners to help each other out, it makes it more enjoyable. But over all i think this year has been fun and i learned alot from it. But, i dont really have any suggestions for next year cause i enjoyed sitting in your class besides the takeing notes part lol!=)
This whole blog posting is a good idea too =)
BOB GOTHOT MOD9
This year has been great! One thing that I think was a good help for the class was the videos that you would show. they were entertaining but also teaching about current events. the class descussions helped me get involved in the class and learn stuff easier. the games were also fun but educational and i learned things without even knowing it. I didnt like the meetings that we had to go to but is good that i got to expirience them. Your class is very informative and a lot of fun!
#50
This class has taught me alot this year. The display of information has helped me with learning the content. The amount of projects kind of hurt me but I managed getting them done. The biggest help was the new way the test has been administered. Being able to change questions has helped. If I’m not sure about a question I can make it about something I did learn. This class has been great and one of my best yet.
I have to agree with hillensbeck. I like projects but not to many. I also like the idea about having to go to gov. meetings. I got to learn about things that were going on in the city, that I would never have known if i didnt go to the meetings.
A suggesstion for next year: maybe make the grading scale a little different. I think the tests were weighted to much. it is hard to get your grade up even if you only fail one test.
But other than that the class has been great!
I’ve actually learned a lot this year about government and economics; I normally forgetting all I learn about history by now. ^^; I liked how it was more of a laid back style class to where you actually listened to our opinions and didn’t make us all conform to what you thought or conform to the ‘perfect American citizen’ mold. As probably evident by this far into the year that I’m not exactly all for government and the people who run it but now I feel like I can understand SOME of there reasoning; I just hoping they would think a little less about money or sexism and more of the real world issues.
I like how we got to do a lot of group work, watch videos, and group projects, I personally thinking it is a lot more fun that way.
Thank you so much for teaching me and a majority of the Junior class!
:]
P.S. If there were just random blogs on here during the Summer, I would come and post. xDDD <— Nerd too.
P.P.S. ElOhEl, Mr. H, you just got an email!
This year was one of the few years I actually retained things that I learned in history. I usually just learn what I need to for the tests and then i forget. I wasn’t looking forward to taking government because I do not like politics. Mr. Hostetler made the class better and more enjoyable then I thought it could be.
One thing that I didn’t like that much was doing a whole bunch of “projects” one right after the other. The only good thing about doing all of them was that we got a lot of class time to get things done, so in reality, it wasn’t that bad.
This class has taught me a lot this year. The videos almost everyday was awesome because they related so much with what is goiong on in the world arond us. Also all the hands on projects we did throughout the year were fun as well. The projects we did while studying economics were interesting to me because the helped me understand how life as an adult is and what i have to look forward to after high school. This was the funiest history class i have ever had
This course put a different spin on any type of gov. class that I have taken before. I enjoyed the class to most, if not every, extent. I liked how we took real life aspect of everything that we did this year b/c it made understanding the material very easy. Being interactive helped out a bunch too. Getting to blog and discuss material to fellow classmates was a major asset. I would also like to make a statement regarding my class: WE ARE THE BEST MOD (mod 3) and I believe that our mod could take on any of the mods in a blog discussion, or plain out discussion period.
Additionally I would like to add that I have done well in all of my history related classes that I have taken in the past, and the same is true still looking back on the year. I plan on using some of the information that we have learned about at some point in my life.
wow i dont even know where i should start
this year i thought just going into this class it would be just like every other history class i took. but i really did enjoy it because it was about what is actualy going on in the world today. i loved that we got to talk about the election and it was an election year…it really helped me see how crazy people can get about them. i will actualy take things that we have learned from this class…where in other history classes i wont remeber or take anything with me. the economics part of the class was tough to understand at times but i loved the project to get us involved like it was our real live. i cant really say that i didnt enjoy anything we did in this class because as the year went on you let us become more and more independent for notes and test and that sort of thing and i think it will really help us in college 
all of my past history classes i have always struggled it but this was the first year i enjoyed enough to care 
and i did well 
thank you for a great year and i love this whole bloging thing to by the way 
Mr. Hostetler,
I enjoyed your class so much this year! We always had so much fun and I really liked that we didn’t use our books as much, but instead incorporated real life situations into our studies. I learned a lot from your clas…even if I acted like I never did..haha (: Thank you for being a great teacher, and always taking the time to help us whenever we needed it. I’m going to miss your class next year, but I will being seeing you when I babysit your adorable little baby! (: hahaha.
this class has been cool. i think it was good that we got to talk in class discussion cuz it kept me interested in the class. the one thing i didnt like was the jo simulation but i did think it was still helpful cuz ill have to know that stuff soon. the gov meetings were kinda cool they were tough to plan for during sports but they were cool to see how the meetings functioned. overall the class was preatty sweet
When i look back on the year I realize how much I learned. About policy(fiscal and monetary), the constitution, roles of president and congress, bureaucracy, and so much more. I really enjoyed not always taken notes and implying group work. Even though sometimes we talked a lot. One thing that will always stick with me is the whole idea of the iron triangle. I have one negative comment and that is that we spent to much time on certain subjects. The year was more fun than i thought it was going to be. You made things more interesting and less born then other teachers i have had. Thank you for a great year and have a great summer
well…what else can i say? ap gov has been crazy this year. =] I really enjoyed the class discussions and you putting up with our class’s “what if…” questions.
I didn’t so much like the annoying multiple choice questions on the tests (they killed me every time OMG) but i could live with that most of the time. =p
Overall, our dicussions and projects were the most beneficial, in my opinion, because we got to collaberate with our friends and think of new ideas and just have fun (or argue and get mad) with each other. I especially loved the bill writing and court cases.
On a finishing note, the Woll readers were horrible just because I feel too dumb to comprehend them..but there’s always a nifty summary at the end of it that explains the whole concept in ‘dumb people language’ lol
… oh well i hope people next year dont figure that out… XD
I really liked this class, in past years I haven’t really enjoyed social studies because the teachers didn’t have as many hands on activities, which help me remember stuff better & in this class we had a lot more hands on activities and also freedom. This class was alot of fun i liked it alot
This class has been excellent throughout the course of the year. It really relates well to me as a student. I get tired of doing the same thing in our classes all day every day and the structure gets old sometimes. Your in class projects and things of that nature are a change of pace that keeps my attention more than other ways of teaching. I appreciate the way you go about your business and I would just like you to know it gets the point across very well.
This class was a pretty good experience. I liked how it was a complete 180 from Jentes’s class, however, I would like more structure. This seems completely odd for a teenager to say, but you need to crack down! I felt like I couldn’t get much done because I was so distracted by my friends, even though they’re distracting in a humorously awesome way. There seemed to be too much talking during discussions between small groups than actual group discussion.
I also liked how much technology we used. The news videos and remote question game thing were really helpful.
also, I highly dislike the wahl reader.
which is an expected comment.
in conclusion,
this year was fun.
This class was classy. I enjoyed all off the debates about the Presidential candidates with the class, despite being outnumbered lol. I loved the fact that this was a class were leanring was more up to the students than ever before. In most classes the learning is strictly by the book; I enjoyed not having that here. I wish we could’ve delved into the opposition a bit more. For example, when discussion the $787 billion stimulus bill, the class only leanred of that one and the main attitude was that we need to do something. However, there were two other proposals on the floor at the time that none knew about. Other than that, best class of high school for sure! As for my hopes as a senior I only wish that: a. I love political science b. I go to nationals in debate c. I finally find my dream school and d. I figure out what I want to study.
So with that, au revior classe!
This class has been good throughout the course of the year. It really relates well to me as a student. I get tired of doing the same thing in our classes all day every day. I realize how much I learned. About policy, the constitution, roles of president and congress, bureaucracy, and a lot more.
Throughout the school year this class has revealed many things about politics and goverment i never knew before. i had never even heard of an interest group beofore or a PAC. how a bill become a law was vague before this year. I really enjoyed the case brief activity. The only thing about this class this year was current events. i dislike them because their easy points i always forget to do. Overall this class was interewsting and fun for me, teaching me many things i never knew.
When we first started this class I thought I was going to do bad because I had thought it was going to be like a history class, and I suck at history. But I learned that your class was not, I liked your class this year mostly because you let us do things how we would want to do them, and we get a lot of group work which helps us understand some things better. I liked taking notes but also like the projects we have done because it makes us see that it’s not all notes test notes test we have to learn from them and take the test instead of all notes. I think that you should do class the same next year and they should all still have to take an exam and not get away with a project like you are thinking about doing next year. I also like how the second half of the year you added that we could do community service. No other class requires that and I think we should have to somewhere along the line. I love how your class is run, its clam and relaxing yet not out of controll and we learn something! Thanks for this year it was fun! :]
-Abbey
I will start by saying that i also agree with S.C. that i felt more prepared for the A.P. Exam this year than last year. Now, since we already took the exam, i also think that i did a lot better than i did last year (though i didn’t set the bar too high last year). I have had a lot of fun in class this year and i like the way we kept up on current events and related them to class discussion. I also really enjoyed how we spent a lot of time doing group work during class, because i think that collaborating is the best way to thoroughly think something through. I also like this economic budgeting activity that we are working on. I think it is a great thing to have experience with before we are out on our own. Overall, this class was pretty sweet.
I agree with Jordan in the fact that I also enjoyed the budgeting activity and think that it was probably the best thing we did to prepare ourselves for the real world. I also think that working in groups helps collaborate ideas and gets others peoples perspectives in along with your own. The only thing that i didnt like about the class was that when we did activities such as the budgeting activities we would be tested and I wish we could have had a day or a time throughout the activity to show what we were going to be tested on and how it related a little better. Overall it was probably the class I looked forward to the most.
The govt and economics class this year was very enjoyable and usual i would dread going to my social studies classes but this year i didnt. The classes structures and agenda is completely different from other classes. It was also, taught differently which i liked. The whole budgeting project was a good experience for me to get the feel of what its going to be like along with all of the other economic stuff. Teachin material was interesting, overall doin good job at ur plans in all. Basically ur class was grand.
Overall i enjoyed this class very much. I never thought i would be interested in this kind of stuff but i think the way you teach it makes it more interesting. I like how instead of just doing worksheets all day from the book, we actually have clas discussions on current events related to what we are talking about. Just like today when steven was talking about “looksism” and you showed us the video of the singer susan boyle. Its examples like that that make things stick better. Also i liked how often we got to work in groups and do in depth projects. Its always good to hear other peoples opinions on subjects. All in all great year!
So… yeah… I’m going to be honest… at the beginning of the year I really didn’t like this class. It’s mainly because I dislike any type of social studies with a mad passion, but politics annoy me… so much! Like when the presidential election was over, I was like finally no more politics!!!!! Then I was like ohhh waaaaait… just kidding I’m in government. =/ But as the year progressed I learned to love the class. And Mr. Hostetler… as much as you try your hardest to believe that they are not projects and that they are many little assignments with different due dates that let us learn ONE thing… they are projects… just admit it… you know you want to. =] sorry… creeper… anyways. hahaha. Although I do like the projects because we can learn “hands-on,” which I retain things better that way, I think what we are learning needs to be explained better. Like getting a PROJECT then two weeks later getting a review, I’m kind of just like waaaait… what?!?! But yeah, I love that we can have open discussions… that’s my favorite. =] Thanks for making my first year at Louisville enjoyable, Mr. Hostetler.
p.s. Sorry if I wake you, hopefully you’re phone is off. =]
alright mr. H this is too much like signing yearbooks. we talk how about the good the bad, and the ugly times (which there werent any) !! but right to business. My favorite part had to be economics. we will use this (unless you already do now and laugh at the people that dont understand it) on a daily basis when we are all “adults”. i like hands on activities and that was the best example for the class! i learned more stuff that i didnt really know, and actually payed attention the whole time! lol but it should have been longer! 2 weeks just is not enough time to show that you can be successful!! other than that the class was fantastic! lots of group partnership which i liked bc not only did you teach but our peers got to get in ! thanks for a great year and be a good boy over the summer!! =) hope ya had as much fun as i did.
so. AP. what can you say really. It was awesome to finally hear the truth about our government in an unbiased way. My favorite thing about your style of teaching is that you dont actually tell us your view points. I cant tell you how many times i would ask you a question and you would turn around and be like “What do you think the answer is?” You never really gave me a definate answer but i had to think for myself and i was no longer spoon fed ideas about our nation. My favorite thing that we did all year was definately the mock trials. Ive never been so angry at a teacher before. =] the day with the discussion on affirmative action really got me fired up. I HATE WOLL READERS but im sure you already know that. I think that next year it would be beneficial for the AP kids to see some sort of judicial process first hand. Can you say field-trip?sorry my post is late by the way. i totally forgot. =]
This year government has been pretty good. I liked how you showed us how to teach ourselfs, and how we learned more from experience. I like how you made us think about what we think, because gov./econ. really isn’t something that has a definate answer to everything. It has been a good year, and ill miss the class
I liked the class this year and looked forward to it on most days. What i liked the most was the real world situation were i found out how to budget and got to buy a car and house. I also liked the open ended questions that asked how to apply what we knew and not just what we memorized.
Government class for me this year was not the hardest class. However, that does not mean I could do anything in there without effort. I had to put effort in that class to get the grades that I did. For the class itself, it was good and I did learn something in it like the four Ps in refernece to advertising. I would say keep the CPS remotes. However, I would say for improvement is probably with the economics material and perhaps starting it earlier so students can learn more.
I thought government class was fun and was a good learning experience. The class activities such as the budget where we bought a house, car, etc. and paid the bills were a great way for learning about the real world and applying it to our lives. I thought this class was enjoyable and not too tough.
Logan Hathaway
I felt that Government class was a very educational class. I liked how we did alot of group work. Working in groups helped alot of people who usually struggle in Government and Economics.
This year i had a really enjoyable time in government. I thought the way we had discussions in class were not only effective but fun. We also did activites such as looking at old types of media and new types of media and comparing them. some improvements might be to have a better way of notetaking because i never knew which things were importatnt to write down.
I liked our AP government class this year…even though it was a huge class I think it was very beneficial. We always had a ton of discussions in the class and you always let us go on with them.
I also liked how you let us do revisions on our papers after we turned them in. Talking in small groups always gave me new ideas to put in my paper and you let us write down things that we thought should have been in the paper.
I also think the blog post was a really good idea. You actually let us get involved rather than just telling us what we should know. Overall I think this was a great class.
Starting out this year in your class I didnt know what to expect. I heard you were a tough teacher and I wanted to be ready for anything. But as we got into the year I leanred a lot more then I thought I would want to. I think many things that taught me something new was doing all the projects. Being able to pick our own partners and help eachother on things we dont know but still able to have a fun time really got me through the year. The class wasnt all easy but it was a lot easier because of the way you stepped in and helped us when we needed it. I must say that some of your testing was a little rough. As a student I would say there were many answers that I got wrong because review didnt cover it. Maybe if you have classes actually read the section for some homework it might help. Other then that the class was fun and taught me a lot I will hopefully use in the future! See ya next year in Political Science!
~Cari~
Though this blog thing was fun at time really forgetfull students like me probably wont do this so I wasnt a fan of blogging!
this is davis. not cari.
this year, there were some things I enjoyed and some things I didn’t, but overall there seemed to be a great balance of the good and the bad things. at the beginning of the year, government was just another class i had to go to and take notes in. over time, i understood how you lectured and it made it a lot easier to listen. instead of trying to write down all of the notes on the smartboard, i just tuned into the most important details. i know you had said this at the beginning of the year, but that’s what every teacher says and it usually doesn’t work for me. but it was different in your class. I enjoyed how you connected things together to today and now. the most enjoyable thing for me was when we started economics. by letting us do our own balance sheets, etc. i really learned the most in this section that i learned all year. great applications for my college life ahead of me. your class was good. thankyou.
I really like the class a lot it had a different teaching style which formed around actually watching things that are going on talking about what can be attached to what we are learning and i say bravo to that, i actually learned a lot. Some of the assignments could be explain a bit more in depth when we started them but either way he explained them well if you were not sure what was going on. The budgeting part of the year was a good assignment that teach many of us that one can’t spend more than they have. I loved the style of the class and never loathed going to it, perfect work style that I’ll remember the class forever. keep it up Mr. H perfect style.
B. Reynolds
Your class this year was probably one of the easier classes i had, jus because of how you helped us and rele explained everything to us. i think its kinda funny that i didnt open the history book once all year. But other than that i liked everything except for some of the activities that were kinda pointless but mabye they had a point, im not sure. i liked how you did history first and then economics bc i kno if it was the other way around i wouldnt be studying at all and at least i have some common knowledge of economics. But your class was fun i loved it and im excited to take political science with you next year!
Just so I can be a little bit more honest anonymously… I believe that your teaching style could use a lot of work, Mr. Hostetler. Notes could be more streamlined. You could make it necessary to open the book more than just to do the vocabulary. You need to have at least a little bit more structure in your class room. Projects use up too much class time and have little to no benefit (especially the court case projects. You learn a great deal about your case and very little about any of the others.). The review sheets did not contain much of what was on the test. You don’t explain key concepts well. There was too much stupid or meaningless discussion. Much of the information tested was a matter of rote memorization rather than concepts. Too much time was taken on certain aspects of government (The Iron Triangle, Monetary v. Fiscal policy, etc.). The wohl reader was too confusing for many of the people in class so reading it in groups gave little to no benefit. You don’t always understand what your students are asking when you do give a direct answer. The way the class was set up varied too much and, in some cases, hampered the ability to pay attention. Also, when you grade papers it doesn’t seem like you really read them. The grade seems to be based off length and a few sentences off of every page (my best grade was on my longest paper which was full of fluff and a huge section of quotes which took up more of my paper than the things I actually wrote did).
A few good points, the blog was a great idea (once you figured out how to work it). The wii-mote activities generally helped for the tests (because some of the questions were exactly the same). The budgeting part is interesting (not looking forward to the scenerios on Mon. though). It was nice that you let us pick partners and sit beside people we could work with.
That about wraps it up. Just wanted to be a little more honest than I felt like I could be.
-An AP Gov. Student
I forgot the blogpost…again so I’m posting late… again. lol Partial credit?
I LIKED- I thought the use of internet, video clips, recordings in class worked really well and helped illustrate some points really well. (Also it really showed how a Smartboard can be used to its fullest) Our class discussions (for the most part)were also very beneficial. It was nice to hear what everybody else thought, which actually helps see several sides to an issue. I also liked the small group talks before turning in essays for the same reasons. Also, the chance to make revisions and changes before turning in a paper was really nice as well.
I DIDN’T LIKE–There isn’t something huge I hated about the class. I mean homework is dumb and if I wouldn’t fail I wouldn’t do any but whatever. My biggest complaint is notes. For me atleast just talking about it in class was enough and I didn’t need to take notes…so I stopped about half way through the year. I know I’m a bad kid.
SUGGESTIONS–I’m with Katie on this one–feild trips! No but seriously it would have been really neat to see some government stuff processes outside of the classroom.
Overall the class was really great. Thanks
Students,
I want to thank you all for participating so thoughtfully (in most cases) in this post, and for the most part refraining from personal attacks. I hope you all understand how difficult it is to allow people to openly criticize what you have devoted your life and studies to and will someday follow suit because it can be very useful. The positive feedback has been very encouraging, even if you only posted to get the points….
I am more than happy to continue posting over the summer…I think it would be GREAT!!! and I will go over details about it in class if any of you want to continue.
Most of the feedback and criticism is going to be very helpful to me for next year. Based on comments about notes, review worksheets, and difficulty “knowing” what may or may not be expected learning during activities/projects/etc. I am going to give an adjusted version of the review worksheet, that looks a little more like an outline of concepts with some questions worked into it as a study guide/guide of study. This will be given at the beginning of the unit before a project/activity/assignment/paper to try and clarify concepts that should be learned. This is just ONE example, but I have some ideas thanks to YOU!!
Hannah, I believe half credit is fair…I am just happy to get your feedback.
“z123456789012345678901234567890″, a.k.a. “An AP Gov. Student”…and others who feel this way, because I am sure there are more than just one of you, I always feel particularly bad when a student is this upset/dissatisfied with my class. My hope is that all students can get something out of the course, and hopefully you did, or looking back still may!?!?…I do feel compelled to address some of your concerns only because it did get a little accusational/personal in your post…
1.) I assure you I do read ALL of your papers, many of them two or three times. I am sorry if that did not come through. I do often overlook “fluff” and often question whether what you consider “fluff” is at times what I consider a thoughtful synthesis of information resulting from analysis of facts, quotes, data, etc.. “Fluff” to me is restating the same thing over and over and over again but re-wording it to try and trick a teacher, or going way off on unrelated tangents or digressions. Any statement that is relevant to the topic is NOT “fluff”…it is writing…it may or may not be “good” writing, but it is writing, and something you will be asked to do OFTEN in college, with five pages being a minimum.
2.) The review guides/worksheets were not meant to be the only thing you needed to study for tests, from day one I said they were only to get you thinking about the topics that would be addressed on tests. I have heard this before and one year even had students go through tests matching test questions with topics addressed on review worksheets, they quickly realized that EVERY test questions falls under at least one question/topic on the review worksheets…the test do require a lot of thinking, and the questions are AP test questions, they are difficult and meant to inspire thought as opposed to memorization. (for all, reading chapters, reviewing notes online and from class, studying vocab, etc. were the ways you were to study for tests).
3.) If at times I misunderstood students’ questions I sincerely do apologize. Despite my ability as teacher, I hope you all realize that even as a bad teacher I still care about you all very much, this includes your questions and what you have to say. Related to that, I may not have always given the clearest answer for two reasons…first, I am not the keeper of all answers and wanted to try and encourage you all to think about it for yourselves, there is a lot I don’t know, in fact, the more I go back to school (now in my 9th year of post secondary work) the more I realize I do NOT know, second, because our government/society/economy are very complex systems that “experts” tend to make sound simplistic on TV but hopefully you know they are often WRONG when they tell us what is or will happen, I did not want to make that error.
4. I have always believed in depth of knowledge as opposed to breadth (this is kind of contrary to AP philosophy at times), so with the cases I want you to learn one really well rather than memorize ALL.
5. Memorization is a type of learning. It is a type of learning that results from me listing on a board what you need to know then asking you to recall that exact phrase, statement, or concept as it was given to you. I could lecture, give a worksheet, give a review that conceptualizes the exact things you will need to recall for the test, but all that is doing is encouraging memorizing “stuff”…i don’t do that, and never will. ALL research in education discourages this type of teaching, unfortunately most of you have been conditioned to “do it this way” since an early age. Now it is what you have come to know as “good” teaching and it makes learning easier. It does not seem like any of your grades suffered doing it differently, since that is what many of you are ultimately concerned with in high school…and rightly so, since that is what colleges and companies look at for admissions/hiring.
6. Lastly, my class hopefully encouraged three things all from the perspective of participatory democratic citizens ; A.) Learning content (government structures, concepts, etc.); B.) Critical Thinking…about policy, how it works with you, issues of citizenship, what your role can or should be in our local, national, and global society; C.) Learning how to negotiate a less familiar way of learning about the world around you…through socializing with peers and teacher in situations that encourage you to think about how and what to do…in come cases with unclear answers from the teacher (ON PURPOSE).
…I did try to explain some of this on the day we had our little “talk” about how and why I teach the way I do and the class is set up like it is, it may not have come through as much as I would have hoped.
This should have been a class that was easy to pass, tough to get an “A” (for most of you)…and hopefully got you to think and question the world around you. If this happened to most of you then I consider the year a great success…if it didn’t…I am very sorry.
Sorry it is so long…just wanted to give some feedback of my own as a member of “our learning community”. I hope this did not seem like I am upset or defensive, I am NOT at all…I appreciate ALL of your comments, suggestions and help with this feedback…I had the option of approving a few of these posts if they were first time posters and made sure I approved them all, after I read them…and have not deleted any.
Sincerely thanking you!!
Mr. H
p.s. FYI for all…you are not anonymous on this to me since I am the administrator. All posts allow me to see any information you may have used to create your account, including email addresses I thought I made that clear when we started…I do believe you anonymous to your classmates and I assure you if you are, I will respect your anonymity.
Oh, and H.F. not taking notes does not make you a bad kid…if you are so conditioned that there is some degree of guilt for not taking notes we have done you a disservice. Notetaking is a skill that can help you in college but frankly notetaking tips can be learned in 30 minutes online and employed virtually instantly upon reviewing them…this is an indication that it is not a “high level” skill…however, listening, thinking critically, synthesizing ideas in writing…these are all more valuable skills that will serve you in college more so than notetaking. Nice job this year!
Mr. H
Don’t worry Mr. Hos. I wasn’t worried about keeping my identity from you. (Maybe my attacks were a little personal, I just got started on a rant and you know how that goes sometimes.)
I do want to stress that while there were points I didn’t like there were good points too. Sorry if my comment came out sounding negative DX.
Not at all…I understand that not everyone “likes” my class, I do sincerely hope that you felt you learned something during the year. Even if what you learned was more about understanding how you learn best through realizing what we were doing was not how you learn best? If that makes sense.
What I love about your post is how it is a great example of what I hope we all learned to do (in my class or elsewhere) and that is to be critical of the systems in society within which we live. Many of those systems have authority figures, processes, and procedures that seek to ‘control’ us, because controlling the people (or in the classroom, students) is a lot easier than empowering them with learning, thinking skills, and a voice (which is what you are having now) and then hoping everything goes ok. If nothing else, hopefully all of you realize that my class is supposed to be different, that it is less “structured” (authoritarian) on purpose, and that everything I did has a reason (although you may not always see it). In doing so I was hoping you all would be responsible for your own learning and thinking, instead of me “making” you learn and think; that you all would understand the world around you and how to influence it through a variety of institutions and actions; and that you all would use your understanding of the class, society, whatever to make decisions. People often say “when you get into the real world” or “you have to learn to be citizens”, but you are in the real world now, you are citizens now and there is no reason why 16, 17, 18, 19… year olds can’t have a voice…
now I’m on a rant…
anyway, despite your (and others, I’m sure) disappointment(s) with the class I do hope you got something out of the experience.
Mr. H
So, I am really terrible at remembering about blog posts. )-: I really don’t expect credit or anything, I would just like to participate still at the least.
Overall, this year…I thought that with history, and social studies being my favorite subject- government, too would come easily to me. Not that it didn’t, but the class was a lot harder than I had expected. Now, I’m not saying it was hard- then again it was NOT easy. I really liked that you made us apply ourselves instead of just giving us notes and things to memorize, but instead making tests and quizes more about understanding, by extended responses and stuff. I really enjoy learning about government and economics..and you made it even more enjoyable (-:
BUT, what I did not like about the class, was the amount of projects. I liked the projects–but not the fact that towards the end of the year, they were all continuous. I think that economics is semi-confusing and we should have referenced the book a tad more. The projects deffinately made me understand things more, but I don’t think that we should have had project after project.
other than that, which really didn’t even bother me, I loved the class and had a good time! Thanks for everything (:
hey mr. hos!
this year was great even though im not that big of a fan of history but i stilled enjoyed your class! i like how you made us apply ourself to government and economics. i liked how you gave us the option to make up our own questions on tests and quizzes. i really liked learning more about economics because im good with numbers and math. and economics is all about that! but it would of been more helpful if we referened to the book more for economics because i felt more confused with economics then with government. i liked how you gave us the option to print off notes and take our own notes on the side. that really made it easier to comprehend.
sorry i just now was able to get to a computer, and i always tend to forget about the blog posts.
i enjoyed everything we did and i had a lot of fun in your class. Thanks
and i really liked doing these blogs online too because it was easier then cutting out a newspaper article and writing a summary about it.
*you really did explain things through well too and that helped me a lot!
This year has definantly been different than previous years in a history class. But different dosn’t mean it wasnt good. I liked that for once we had a teacher that was laid back and friendly like the students for a change, and that really helped us as a class to relax and actually feel comfortable in your class. I liked the fact that we could debate for our opinion without the teacher telling us we were wrong. I also liked the structure of the learning. i think it was probably one of my more challenging classes but the way we were required to think and apply what we learned to real life situations and current events was great. I do agree that a more thourough (cant spell) explination of some of the processes would have helped in some areas such impacts of different court cases. also, the group work would have been a better tool if the questions being asked of us to discuss were not so complicated and difficult to the point where the entire class made it look like they were discussing the topics while actually talking about football or the latest episode of american idol. I did truley have a lot of fun this year and class and i think ur different approach to teaching really will help me out when i finally get into college
I liked how we learned so much more about the way government works. It was so interesting to learn about it in more detail than just Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches lol. Before government i didn’t even know what an interest group or a lobbyist was!!! Now i could probably write a book about them lol. I also liked discussing issues that we, the students, thought were interesting. Most teachers just teach the stuff they need to and dont ask us for our opinion but Mr.H… good job to you for picking topics we liked to discuss. I thought that was probably the most interesting part. For next years class…well have them do blogs the whole year round and keep doing what your doing and they’ll love the class. lol. Thanks Mr.H
-Paige S.
i know i asked you monday if i could do this but i completely forgot so at least now i remembered. haha. so this year has been quite interesting. at the beginning i didn’t really like the class and thought the year was going to be terrible but then as we got going i started enjoying the debates and the off-topic rants that were somewhat significant to say the least. my favorite part by far is the economics. it applies so much to real life and i can truly see the connection between the class and life later on. i didn’t really like the woll reader, which who did? and sometimes i didn’t like that certain topics were just drawn out to the point of boredom. and i agree w/ theresa…you gotta crack down! lol. i felt that when i did truly want to work too many people were talking and it just wasn’t..idk..helpful. lol. but i would most definetly say that the class was overall helpful and enjoyable…but i like politics in general too so maybe that helped? lol. idk. but thanks for making this class great Mr.H and can’t wait for poli sci next year!
This year was a lot of fun. i feel like i learned a lot. the thing i liked most was the beginning of economics. i liked this a lot because i feel like it is preparing me for the real world. its like giving us a little taste of what were gonna have to do after and during college. i also felt that i learned a lot about the different types of governments. i really liked how we did the fold book. i think that really helped. the one negative thing that i would have to say (no offense) is that i sort of thought that the class got a little dry and boring especially at the beginning of the year, i think thats why i fell asleep a lot lol. but other than that, i had a lot of fun, and thanks for a great year mr hoss