Welcome to The Dirksen Congressional Center's Communicator - a web-based e-newsletter providing educators with news and ideas to improve the understanding of Congress -- http://www.webcommunicator.org.

1. People Who Served in Congress
2. Congress Defined
3. Official Debut: Congress In The Classroom® Online
4. Congressional Power, Organization, the Differences Between the House & the Senate – Criticisms Then & Now
5. New Cartoons & Related Lesson Plans
6. Getting Your Point Across to Congress
7. What's New on CongressLink?
8. Senate Seeker & Trivia
9. Postscript Information

1. PEOPLE WHO SERVED IN CONGRESS
Sketches of famous and not-so-famous Senators and Representatives

Jeannette Rankin. Rankin, a Republican from Montana, was the first woman elected to Congress and the only Member to vote against U.S. participation in both World War I and II. She served two terms in the House: 1917-19, 1941-43. She was an unsuccessful candidate for the Senate in 1918.

Born in 1880, she graduated from Montana State University in 1902 and worked briefly as a social worker. In about 1910, Rankin became a professional lobbyist for the National American Women Suffrage Association. After her first House term, she divided her time between pacifism and social welfare by working with a number of organizations throughout the country. But the threat of war in 1940 brought her back to Montana and to politics, and she beat the Republican incumbent to regain a seat in the House. Hers was the lone vote against entering World War II after Pearl Harbor—in her words, “As a woman I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.” She did not run for re-election in 1942.

At the time of her death in 1973, in Carmel, CA, Rankin, then 92 years old, was considering another run for a House seat to protest the Vietnam War.

Sources:

Women in Congress, 1917-2006, prepared under the direction of the Committee on House Administration of the U.S. House of Representatives by the Office of History and Preservation, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives (U.S. Government Printing Office, 2006): 37-41.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Rankin

Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress: http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=r000055

About.com:Women’s History: http://womenshistory.about.com/

2. CONGRESS DEFINED
Words and phrases that describe congressional processes

Committee ratios. The allocations of majority to minority members on committees. Usually, the ratios of most committees reflect party strength in their chambers reasonably well. If one party has 55 percent of the total chamber’s membership, most committees will allocate about 55 percent of its seats to the same party. In the House, however, the ratios on major committees, such as Appropriations, favor the majority party more strongly to ensure firm majority party control. Leaders of the two parties in each house negotiate the ratios at the beginning of each Congress.

Source: Congressional Quarterly’s American Congressional Dictionary, 3rd edition, ed. Walter Kravitz (Washington DC: CQ Press, 2001):51.

3. OFFICIAL DEBUT: CONGRESS IN THE CLASSROOM ® ONLINE

September 12, 2007, marked the official debut of The Dirksen Congressional Center's new online version of Congress in the Classroom® –– http://moodle.congressclass.org –– an award–winning course for teachers. This improved version of the course uses a more interactive approach, featuring many options to engage you (and the instructor) in the course materials.

Congress in the Classroom® Online will help you understand today's Congress and suggest ways to teach about it. The self–paced online course is organized around the twin responsibilities of Congress members: representation and lawmaking. There are more than a dozen individual units on such topics as "What Makes for Effective Members of Congress?" "How Representative is the Membership of Congress?" and "Lawmaking: Understanding the Basics." All the information you need to complete the online course is available with just a few mouse clicks.

Do you teach social studies, American government, American history, or civics? Are your lessons about the U.S. Congress out of date? Is it hard to engage your students in learning about the House and Senate? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then Congress in the Classroom® Online is the course for you!

If you need help or have any questions about getting into the course, please contact one of the following:

Instructor: Frank Mackaman [fmackaman@dirksencenter.org]

Moodle Admin: Cindy Koeppel [ckoeppel@dirksencenter.org or moodle@congressclass.org]

Take a look –– http://moodle.congressclass.org!

4. * NEW LESSON PLAN * CONGRESSIONAL POWER, ORGANIZATION, THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE -- CRITICISMS THEN & NOW

During our annual Congress in the Classroom® workshop –– http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_programs_CongressClassroom.htm –– participants are asked to introduce the lesson plans, resources, and techniques that have proven successful in teaching about Congress in their classrooms. A 2006 participant, Ellen Fox, Ridgefield High School, Ridgefield, CT, presented her lesson entitled, "Congressional Power, Organization, The Differences Between The House And The Senate – Criticisms Then & Now." Background information for this lesson follows:

In Federalist No. 51 Madison wrote, "In a Republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates. The remedy for this inconvenience is to divide the legislature into different branches." The Framers of the Constitution took great care in organizing the legislative branch of the United States government into a bicameral system to avoid overpowering the other two branches. There are distinct differences between congressional power and organization of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

In this lesson, students will discuss among their group why the Framers chose to organize the legislative branch of the U.S. government in the manner that they did. Find Congressional Power, Organization, The Differences Between The House And The Senate – Criticisms Then & Now at: http://www.congresslink.org/print_lp_congpower_org_dif.htm.

5. NEW CARTOONS AND RELATED LESSON PLANS

Last month The Dirksen Congressional Center announced the completion of the Editorial Cartoon Collection project: http://www.congresslink.org/cartoons/index.htm.

The editorial cartoons and related lesson plans from The Dirksen Center will teach students to identify issues, analyze symbols, acknowledge the need for background knowledge, recognize stereotypes and caricatures, think critically, and appreciate the role of irony and humor.

This month we have posted three new cartoons and related lesson plans:

Caption: 1950 Senate Campaign
Caption: 1960 Presidential Campaign
Caption: The President's Program

6. GETTING YOUR POINT ACROSS TO CONGRESS

How do you break through the "noise" to communicate with a member of Congress? Stephanie Vance of Advocacy Associates, LLC, has the answers. Stephanie, referred to as the "Advocacy Guru," advises clients on how to reach Congress people effectively by understanding how congressional offices function and process information.

During our 2007 Congress in the Classroom® workshop for teachers –– http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_programs_CongressClassroom.htm –– Stephanie presented How to Get Your Point Across to Congress. Her PowerPoint for this presentation can be found at: http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_programs_CongressClassroom.htm#Vance

You can also see the "Advocacy Guru" in action during the workshop which was recorded on the Illinois Channel –– http://www.illinoischannel.org/CommunicatingWithMembersOfCongress070802.htm.

Congress in the Classroom® is dedicated to the exchange of ideas and information on teaching about Congress. The 2007 program featured a broad overview of Congress with special attention to the new 110th Congress with the Democrats in charge for the first time in more than a decade.

Read what our 2007 participants had to say about the workshop: http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_programs_CongressClassroom.htm#say. We will keep you updated with more information about the 2008 workshop in future announcements.

7. WHAT'S NEW ON CONGRESSLINK?

A current CongressLink RSS (or Really Simple Syndication) Feed, that's what is new!

This new feature offers free content feeds from our site that contain news, site updates, article headlines, summaries, links, and much more.

To start using our RSS Feed, you need a special news reader or aggregator that displays RSS content feeds from Web sites like CongressLink. There are many different news readers available and many are free of charge, for example, FeedReader –– http://www.feedreader.com/. Most are available as desktop software that you download and install on your computer. Several Web-based news readers are available as well.

Once you have set up your news reader, simply click on RSS Feed at the bottom of CongressLink's index page –– http://www.congresslink.org –– next to the green icon. Copy the .xml address that opens in a new window –– http://congresslink.org/news.xml –– and paste it in your news reader as a new feed.

With this new RSS Feed, you are certain to not miss a thing happening on CongressLink! Give it a try!

8. SENATE SEEKER & TRIVIA

Senate Seeker –– an online game where you actually create a candidate and run for Senate! You can run ads to either strengthen yourself or to attack your opponent, you can give speeches about various issues, you can sell out to interest groups, you can fundraise to get money, you can prepare for the debates, and you can visit actual schools. Good luck winning!

Find Senate Seeker at: http://www.congressforkids.net/games/senate/2_senate.htm and have fun!

Trivia:

Senator Rebecca Felton of Georgia was the first female senator, being appointed to fill a vacancy in 1922. How old was she when she became a senator?

A. 71
B. 15
C. 87
D. 63

*Find the answer in next month's issue.

Answer to August's Fun, Facts, and Trivia: http://www.webcommunicator.org/classroom%20resources/funfactstrivia_ans0807.htm

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