Back to the past
by JORGE M
November 9, 2009
The following and last week of October every class was normal, except Mr. McMurray's.  Behind his door all you could see was a large brown piece of paper blocking most of the entrance.  Usually light would of spill out from beneath and around the the piece of paper and reflected off of the glossy white bricks.  But no light was coming out from behind the piece of paper.  

When finally a class came in, students were surprised to see that Mr. McMurray's room had turned into an enclosed room that was faintly illuminated by electrical candles that were set on desks.  The entire room was wrapped tightly with brown construction paper to block off any natural light.  The desks too were wrapped in the paper only on the front.  The desks were mostly divided into groups of three that each faced the front.  Each group represented a state out of thirteen states of the old America.  As students sat they noticed that there were wannabe quills in empty in small metallic cups. Also on each desk was a laminated mask of the characters.  People were surprised.

The lesson mainly was on the Constitution and how it was made in the constitutional convention.  Each student was assigned a role to play in the coming week's class periods.  All the classes would participate separately in their class periods holding a meeting to come up with a constitution for the United States.  The meeting was supposed to simulate the making of the Constitution.  The roles handed out were actual people that attended the convention in which the Constitution was made.  The role indicated what your opinion was on issues that were going to be presented at the meeting.  Also we were each handed a small biography of the character we were to portray.  No one really knew what to expect of this meeting.
 
The sessions started with Mr. Mac introducing himself as George Washington.  He told us how we needed an new plan for the states.  He proposed issues in which we had to resolve for us to build the new constitution.  Each of us had an opinion what to do to resolve the issues.  Everyone had a chance to speak when called on, on which way to resolve an issue.  Classmates tried persuading each other on solutions.  When someone made a motion to vote for a solution, everyone had one vote per table group on agreeing or disagreeing with a solution.  If majority voted yes, then the issue was resolved with the desired solution.  If there wasn't majority vote for a plan then the plan was dropped.  This went on until we came with an agreement.  

At times we were told to read our book in the light of a candle to answer some questions in a packet. Everything was disguised to be how it would be like making the Constitution.  After all issues were resolved, everyone got to sign a piece of paper attached to a copy of the real Constitution in the end.
 
"A whole different way of learning things," said Kourtney K, 8th.
 
"It was fun, not just out of the book learning," said Kyle G 8th.