AP Gov't, Back to School Night

Back to School Night, 7 February 2007

Dr. G. Mick Smith, Room #267, Contact info: gmicksmith@gmail.com, 215.276.2300

Blogsite:
http://gmicksmithsocialstudies.blogspot.com/

Podcast:
http://www.gcast.com/u/gmicksmith/

The AP Government course, at the level of college teaching, provides instruction in each of the following six topics outlined in the Course Description:
· Constitutional Underpinnings of United States Government
· Political Beliefs and Political Behaviors
· Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Mass Media
· Institutions of National Government
· Public Policy
· Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
The course provides students with practice in analyzing and interpreting data and other information relevant to U.S. government and politics.
The course includes supplemental readings, including primary source materials (such as The Federalist Papers) and contemporary news analyses that strengthen student understanding of the curriculum.
The course requires students to answer analytical and interpretive free-response questions on a frequent basis.

Resource Requirements
The school ensures that each student has a college-level U.S. government and politics textbook (supplemented when necessary to meet the curricular requirements) as well as copies of primary sources for individual use inside and outside of the classroom.



Brief Biography
Dr. Smith earned his PhD in History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was also awarded a Masters degree in History from UCLA, and he obtained a second Masters in Theology. Smith was a Johannes Quasten Scholar in Patristics at The Catholic University of America and he holds a Distance Learning Administrator’s Certificate from Texas A&M University and the Center for Distance Learning Research. He has published over 100 mostly peer-reviewed publications in history, technology and education, and computing. Dr. Smith has been President of the American Association for History and Computing. Smith has also taught at Northeast Catholic High School, Lansdale Catholic, Villa Maria Academy, Phila Academy, and Hahnemann University. At Cardinal Dougherty Smith is Assistant Chair of the Technology Committee and Moderator of Mock Trial. Dr. Smith is a full-time single parent of the best daughter ever born and he is submitting his first novel to publishers.