Period 2: Mock Trial, Day 3 (+ Mr. Fritz's Last Day) - Class Recap

A picture from the last time I visited Japan, in 2011. Tokyo will be my first stop on the trip (almost all of this was purchased using airline miles)!

Hi everyone,

Thank you for a fun last day as your teacher this semester! I really am so fortunate to have such awesome students. I hope the next two weeks go well for everyone! I'll be back at Westview on February 10th to start the second semester with my classes - please come say hello at some point! On to the recap:

Soundtrack: “Thankful” by Kelly Clarkson. I always choose this song for the last class I teach a particular group of students, because the lyrics are particularly applicable. Thank you for the blessings, everyone!

AGENDA 1/10/14:
Tort Reports (?)
End of Semester Plan
Fakin’ It
Alibis/Team Prep Time

Homework: Work hard for Mr. Galen and finish the semester out strong! Email me if needed at luke_fritz@beaverton.k12.or.us!

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Tort Reports: There was nobody signed up to do a tort report for extra credit today. Too bad. I hope that you are paying attention to the news in the future, when it comes to lawsuits!

End of Semester Plan: As a reminder, I will be submitting final grades myself, from Australia. Mr. Galen will email me with your mock trial score, which I will put into the gradebook and submit the weekend after finals. Here is (probably - much of this is up to Mr. Galen and how he wants to assess you in the mock trial unit) what will be a part of your final grade for the mock trial:

1) Annotated case packet, with important legal concepts and facts of the case highlighted and noted.

2) Case Summary (typed)

3) Role Overview Paper

4) Possible Quiz?

5) Day of Trial Presentation and Materials (everyone will have at least one worksheet they will be responsible for completing)

What Mr. Galen will probably do is give you a lesson about how trials work (like objections and impeaching the witness), then you will have the rest of class to work on the above materials in the N210 Computer Lab (which is reserved for the class every day except for finals).

Please also remember that all of your late, missing, or make up work was due to me this week and that Mr. Galen will not be able to accept such work. He will only be teaching and assessing the mock trial unit and sending me the grades for that.

Fakin' It: To provide some levity for my last day, I showed the Arrested Development episode called "Fakin' It," which is about a mock trial (with hilarious results). There were many elements of this that directly relate to our study! I hope you found it as funny as I do. If you missed class or wanted to see it again, apparently it is free on Hulu right now.

Alibis/Team Prep Time: I enjoy the alibi activity, because it really stresses the importance of witnesses having their facts down straight! Thanks for participating there. The rest of the class was devoted to getting ready for the mock trial, by either talking with your teams about the case, rehearsing your statements, or working on the case summary paper. As a reminder, your assigned roles are:

Plaintiff’s Attorneys:

1. Ryan

2. Erin

3. Tommy

4. Patrick

5. James

Defense Attorneys:

1. Quinn

2. Marsuk

3. Austin

4. Magen

5. Alekzander

Witnesses:

Plaintiff:

Andy Parker – Brendan, Luke

Johnny/i Parker – Jorden, Daniel

Marty Watkins – Tim, Kham

Defense:

Pat Mentor – Sarah, Kaitlyn

Sandy Todd – Ellen, Randi

Alex Grainger – Jaxon, Bertina

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Bailiff: Shakti

Court Clerk: Brenda

Everyone else: Jury

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Finally, I did want to give everyone some resources for keeping up with how my trip is going, so here they are. As a reminder, even though I have no problem with students following me on sites that are open to the public (you will quickly find that I am not all that interesting!), I will not follow current students on social media - sorry! I do tend to post quite a bit while I am traveling, just because I think the world is such an interesting place, so heads up on that as well. And lastly, though I'm sure everyone will be fine, the same rules apply online as they do in school. Please treat everyone (and yourself) with respect and appropriate behavior!

With all of that said, you can follow me (or just bookmark the page) on Twitter here: www.twitter.com/LukeFritz64

You can also find me on Instagram (again, public) here: www.instagram.com/LukeFritz

It is possible (but unlikely) that I might update my personal blog along the way: http://flylukefly.blogspot.com

The route map for my trip. Nineteen different flights!

Here are the dates of my trip and where I will be, if you are interested!

Sunday, January 12:

Portland to Seattle

Seattle to Tokyo

Monday, January 13: TOKYO, JAPAN

Arrive in Tokyo/Narita at 3:45 PM

Hang out with my friend Eva.

Tuesday, January 14:

Depart Tokyo at 3:15 PM, Arrive Beijing at 6:20 PM

Wednesday, January 15: BEIJING, CHINA

Great Wall of China Tour

Depart Beijing at 5:30 PM, Arrive Seoul at 8:25 PM

Thursday, January 16: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

DMZ Tour

Depart Seoul at 8:20 PM, Arrive Sydney at 8:20 AM+1

January 17-20: SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

January 20-22: AYERS ROCK

January 22-27: MELBOURNE

Australian Open Tennis!

Men's Quarterfinals session on Wednesday, January 22

Women’s Semifinals session on Thursday, January 23

Great Ocean Road day trip on either January 24 or 25

Men’s Singles Final: January 26 (the last of the Men's Singles Grand Slam finals I will have seen in person!)

January 27-30: CAIRNS/GREAT BARRIER REEF

January 28: Reef Tour/Snorkel Dive

January 29: Rainforest Tour/Crocodiles and Kangaroos!

January 30: CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND

Fly from Cairns to Melbourne to Christchurch, New Zealand.

January 31-February 1: MT. SUNDAY

Rent car in Christchurch, then drive to Mt. Potts Station for the night (very close to a filming location for the Lord of the Rings): http://mtpotts.co.nz/home/

February 1-2: QUEENSTOWN

Drive from Mt. Potts Station to Queenstown, New Zealand. 

Day trip tour from Queenstown to Milford Sound: 

February 3: AUCKLAND

Queenstown to Auckland, New Zealand. Evening/night in Auckland.

February 4: FIJI

Auckland to Fiji. 8 hours in Fiji.

February 5 to February 4 (time travel!):

Fiji to Christmas Island (refueling stop) to Honolulu, Hawaii, arriving at 10:50 AM on February 4.

February 4 (again): WAIKIKI, HONOLULU, UNITED STATES

February 5-8: KAUAI, HAWAII

Rent car for three days.
Lihue, Hawaii, to Honolulu, to Los Angeles (enough time for an In-N-Out run!), to Portland (around 9:15 PM).

February 9: PORTLAND

Rest day, back to Westview on Monday, February 10th! :-)

It should be a lot of fun. Having said all of that, if I had known that 1) I would be extended as your teacher past November, and/or 2) I would be working full time the second semester, I never would have booked it all the way back in October. Life is funny sometimes! Please be good and work hard while I am away to finish up the semester. See you in February! :-)

Period 2: Mock Trial, Day 2 - Class Recap

Sunset over Portland International Airport.

Hi everyone,

What a whirlwind of a day! So much going on, but I think we eventually got situated with the Mock Trial and what we are doing with it. Here's the recap for the day:

Soundtrack: "Summertime Sadness [Remix]" by Lana Del Ray and Cedric Gervais. Selected for today because I will be in Australia next week, where it is summer, but I will also be very sad (really) to be leaving you all! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 1/8/14:
Tort Reports
Mock Trial Assignments
Case Work
Computer Lab Time – N210

Homework: Read the blog! Prep for mock trial. Next tort reports assigned to: on board.

Tort Reports: Brenda brought in this article and recapped it: TheGuardian.com - Black woman wins civil case against black manager who used the N-word.

Tommy needs to complete the tort report form and turn it in along with his article to get the extra credit.

Mock Trial Assignments: Here, I went through more of the overview for the mock trial, which will be your final assessment for the class. This is the document that I started to read aloud (I did not read much of the later pages): ClassroomLaw.org - Civil Case Mock Trial.

Case Work: I asked students for their top three choices for what to do in the mock trial and eventually came up with the following list:

Plaintiff’s Attorneys:

1. Ryan

2. Erin

3. Tommy

4. Patrick

5. James

Defense Attorneys:

1. Quinn

2. Marsuk

3. Austin

4. Magen

5. Alekzander

Witnesses:

Plaintiff:

Andy Parker – Brendan, Luke

Johnny/i Parker – Jorden, Daniel

Marty Watkins – Tim, Kham

Defense:

Pat Mentor – Sarah, Kaitlyn

Sandy Todd – Ellen, Randi

Alex Grainger – Jaxon, Bertina

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Bailiff: Shakti

Court Clerk: Brenda

Everyone else: Jury

Computer Lab Time: After selecting roles, I handed out an overview assignment for the mock trial, which consisted of a one page response to this prompt: What are the legal elements presented? What are some potential roadblocks for either side in winning? What must be proven in the course of the trial?

Basically, this assignment is to make sure that everyone has the basics of the case down and can show your knowledge of the concepts you learned about this year. This should be individually done - not collectively.

If you missed the handout in class (the prompt is on the back, and many helpful tips are on the front), here it is again:

Google Drive: Mock Trial Prep Instructions/Summary Assignment

Please keep working on this! Next class, I will provide time for you to meet with your group, memorize your statement, and continue thinking about your summary.

See you on Friday!

Period 2: Mock Trial, Day 1 - Class Recap

This was how I greeted the dawn of 2014 - on a flight from San Antonio to Phoenix after the Alamo Bowl!

Dear class,

It is so good to be back! I missed everyone and coming to school - I'm not joking! Even though I am quite bleary eyed at the moment and have a lot of work ahead of me, it was wonderful to see you all! On to the recap.

Soundtrack: “Back in Black” by AC/DC. Selected because it was back to being really dark outside when I woke up this morning, as opposed to during break, when I think most of us started the day with light outside! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 1/6/14:
Status Update
Tort Reports
The Trial Process
Mock Trial Prep

Homework: Read the blog! Finish all late/missing.make up work - due by Wednesday! Prep for Mock Trial! Next tort reports assigned to: on board.

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Status Update: To begin class, I went around the room and just asked if there was anything interesting or fun students did over Winter Break. It was totally okay if you had nothing to report - I realize that not all breaks are interesting or fun! I enjoyed checking in with everyone - thanks!

As part of my status update, I reported that I will be at Westview full time next semester, after I get back from my upcoming trip (SO exciting - you have no idea!). I also went to San Antonio for the Oregon Ducks football game, kind of on the spur of the moment, which was great.

The plan for the rest of the semester looks like this: I will be leaving the country this coming Sunday. You have three regular B days after that - two next week and one finals week. You also have a finals period, so there will be four total classes with a substitute (still to be determined). Again, had I known that 1) Ms. Youngblood would be extending her leave past November, and/or 2) I would be working full time next semester, there is almost no chance I would be leaving. But life has a funny way of working out sometimes, so I appreciate your willingness to work with me on this!

For students, this means that although your mock trials and grades for that will be done by another teacher, I will submit final grades, while I am in Australia. I just feel uncomfortable with someone else making those final grade decisions, after working with you for the entire school year so far. The mock trial grade will be worth a lot - probably about as much as a test or more so. It should be a good way to end out the year!

Tort Reports: Patrick brought in this article: Independent.co.uk: GTA 5: Lindsay Lohan sues Rockstar over image theft. I subsequently used this case for a lot of references during my introduction of the trial process!

The Trial Process: To start with the introduction of the mock trial, I put together a presentation with the basic elements of how a trial works. I did not ask students to take notes, but I do want everyone to know the basics here:

Google Drive: Overview of Steps in a Trial PowerPoint

Much of this should be information you have already seen elsewhere, but it is a good refresher.

Mock Trial Prep: After the presentation, I passed out a pretty hefty packet of mock trial materials. The (fake) case we will be going through is Parker v. Paradise County School District - the case of the explosive homework! Here is the full pdf (I only gave out pages 10-29): ClassroomLaw.org - 2004-5 Oregon Mock Trial Competition.

It was your job to listen as I read the stipulated facts and witness statements and take good notes in the packet about what might be the most important aspects of this case. You will eventually be turning these notes in as a part of the final assessment. Please also be reviewing the case so that you might know which role you want to play for the actual mock trial!

Remember, please have all missing/late/make up work into me by Wednesday! Let me know how I can help. Thank you so much!