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Turmoil in Yosif Town Hall

Josh Thompson Reports from Mountain Park School

Ms. Rutland’s Gr.9 Social Studies Class in Calgary, AB

mountain_park

Today in the 2002 Yosif Town Hall meeting there was absolutely no progress made. The citizens either suggested problems, or constantly tried to promote a dictatorship! Nobody showed any interest in finding solutions to the problems discussed, and it was a very chaotic first meeting with the Conservatives in power.

town_hallThere were accusations made: the Prime Minister was accused of giving people the password, the three apartment owners were accused of planning to kick everyone out of their apartments so people would die, and another accusation that someone given the government password was offering to sell it. A pretty rough start to the Conservative’s reign in power.

There was only one or two legitimate grievances relating to the game, while the rest were either comments about who Yosif’s “Gossip Girls” were, or rumours (just a reminder citizens, rumours are not true facts), and, if there was a legitimate concern, someone would always comment about how we should all vote for the W.A.N.D.P. (We Are Not a Dictatorship Party) Is this what Yosif is coming to?A place where 90% of the citizens want a dictator party?

Your government has actually done a really good job! You don’t have any idea how good you all have it. You have actually had some pretty good governments. A big shout out to the patience of our Conservative government, who went through a pretty frustrating ordeal today, as well as our town hall moderator, Tahany K, who showed extreme patience as well, even though some people purposely tried to make her angry and frustrated. This year’s town hall has been a frustrating experience for Yosif. Perhaps next year’s town hall will be more effective…

Posted in From the CM Trenches | 1 Comment

The Fight for Justice in CM Country Mountain Dew

Written by Alec Gain & Rana Hamdy, 

Reporting from Nelson High School, Burlington, Ontario.

justiceOn Friday, April 1st 2016 the nation of Mountain Dew was enthralled by a court case between two of its most prominent citizens.

The accuser, David.Sanders took local farmer Anna Ljungberg to court, where he accused her of violating the constitution and doing him personal damage in the process. “I feel my rights have been violated.” Said David. “And I will not stand for this.” He decided to sue and sought $2500 and a free yearly food unit as compensation.

The accused, Ms.Ljungberg, seemed extremely calm and unaffected by the accusations against her. “I think it’s pretty funny that he’s trying to sue, he has no evidence and I have nothing to be afraid of.”

However Dave’s Lawyer, Mac Fletcher, was extremely confident about this case and said that all they wanted was justice for the people of Mountain Dew. And he was sure they would get it.

Dave sued Anna on the grounds that she had sold him a food unit for $600. Which was more than double what the constitution allowed her to charge. He claimed that due to this unfair treatment he did not have enough money to buy other necessities. Additionally, he claimed Anna had egregiously violated the nation’s constitution and laws. His intrepid lawyer shocked everyone with the amount of evidence they had compiled for their suit, which included screenshots of the trades that had taken place.

NelsonlogoDespite the overwhelming evidence the prosecution had assembled. Anna pleaded not guilty. She said that it was her own private business and she could do as she pleased. She also mentioned that in the beginning Dave offered her a smaller amount, and when she elected to reject it, he increase the offer. She claimed it was her right to refuse to sell to him, and his fault for offering her more money.

After much debate, prosecutor Kirby. Allen declared. “She was ill prepared for this case, she will have to pay a 750$ fine to Dave and another $250 fine to the government due to her lying”. Ms.L agreed to all the terms.

Posted in From the CM Trenches | 3 Comments

“Wrath” Strikes Fear into Mountain Dew at Nelson High School

Written by Mac Fletcher

mountain_dewIn Ms. Leslie Knowles Civic Mirror classroom at Nelson High School, in Burlington, Ontario, terror has struck in the nation of “Mountain Dew”. Reportedly, a man only known by the moniker “Wrath” attempted to spark Nation-wide fights by turning students on each other. His method of doing so? Threatening to reveal a hidden agenda.

This writer was there to cover the whole story as a regular Town hall meeting turned into a 45-minute argument with accusations and insults being thrown all over the classroom and friends become enemies. Prime Minister Thomas MacDonald was able to contain the situation however, and investigations are currently under way to discern just who “Wrath” really is.

Many suspect local laughing stock ‘Alec Gain’, due to him being out of town at the time of the incident. Others have even turned on their best friends. Stay tuned to see how this story pans out, and be on the lookout for “Wrath”.

Posted in From the CM Trenches | 5 Comments

Peak Academy Students Elect Student Prime Minister

Submitted by Ben McLeod, Student at Peak Centre Academy in Ottawa, re. Country Called “Swarm”

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The country of Swarm elected their first Prime Minister yesterday in a thrilling election. After the results were tabulated, the honorable Mr. Darian MacTavish was elected to the post. Joining Prime Minister MacTavish in his new role will by the honorable Mr. Merrick Rippon as Minister of Finance and the honorable Mr. Cedrick Andree as Speaker of the House.

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Citizen Sells Real Food to Get By in Social Studies Simulation

Submitted by Andrew Rutz of College Place Middle School in Lynnwood, WA

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Today in our country (Elmo’s World 4) a person made churros at home and sold them in class trying to copy someone else’s idea who was selling cookies to the class and made profits exceeding 4,000 dollars. But sadly she barley made 400 dollars selling one churro at 200 dollars, while the person selling cookies sold a cookie for 300 dollars.

The two have now started working together and have copyrighted selling any baked goods and no retail and have started making profit.

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Street Artists Comment Against Big Health Care

Submitted by Mr. Nick Vassolo,  from Streamwood High School in Illinois, re. the simulated country Kawai’i.

Illinois_Blog*  *  *

In the Spring of 2001, at the town hall meeting, calm voices turned panicked and revolutionary in the midst of soaring health care costs. Initial complaints about the high price of health care and the private ownership group’s unwillingness to renegotiate turned into a fit of name calling, and threats of dissolution.

The owners of the Health Care hex were steadfast in their right to set prices wherever they saw fit, and, when threatened with a lawsuit or potential legislation, they retorted with their own defense, citing the 14th Amendment as their main attribute.

This crisis has the potential to create a sea-change in the national elections, as the heath care ownership group is also a major voting bloc in the House of Representatives.

* * *

Citizens of Kawai’i, post your reaction to this story in the comments below.

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Announcing Better Country Navigation & Trial Features

Relevant Country Switching

switchCivic Mirror allows teachers to turn the social studies classrooms into countries and their students into citizens. For teachers running multiple classes, our “Country Switch / Logout” menu has allowed teachers to toggle between their classes. For long-time users, however, the list of CM Countries was becoming way too long as it displayed all countries from years past.

Today we released features that streamline this navigation feature, so that only “Active Countries” are shown in the dropdown list. If teachers want to look at their old countries, they can do so from their Profile page, or their Manage Countries page.

Trial Expiration and Upgrade Info

For too long we have been bothered by how poorly the web-interface communicated Free Trial information to new users. This feature release also makes things much more clear in this regard.

For starters, the Country Switch dropdown now displays when trial countries expire (see below):

Screen Shot 2016-02-25 at 11.28.35 AM

And when users go to the “Manage Countries / Order” page, they will see direct links to upgrade or request extensions (should they need a bit more time).

request

And whether a user upgrades or asks for a trial extension, we now have features to make this easier too. See below, for example:

Screen Shot 2016-02-25 at 11.30.32 AM

We hope this makes your CM experience even better!

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“War Declared” at Boston College High School

Breaking News from Mr. Gartside’s Social Studies Students Using Civic Mirror.

Story by James Kester & James Martin

boston_college_HS_WarAfter the President of the Republic of Vendette earlier today showed great disrespect to the United Tribes of Kevron, the country decided to respond in the form of war. The United Tribes of Kevron state that their demands listed on the document were for the better of both countries so that both could prosper.

In an interview afterwards we were able to gain some opinions of the people. Here are some quotes,

” It was really kind of harsh what Jerrad did to disrespect both our and even his own country by destroying possible connections to ours. He gave us hope and then took it away and now I’m just sick of it.”

Another citizen lamented,

” I used to mainly go on the side of the revolution because I wanted a change in government, but now I realize that there is no way that I can achieve that if I don’t join the revolutionaries because Jerrad has abused his power and turned his role from a president to a dictator.”

This was rebutted by another citizen who said,

” Is it not the job of the president to keep the peace and do what is best for his country”

And a final citizen ended with these foreboding words:

” I said it before and I’ll say it again, we will not be reluctant to change up our strategy to get what we want. You better prepare yourself Vendette for war!”

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New Property Tax Features!

06-30-04-death-and-taxes_qjpreviewthThe Civic Mirror simulation has always included basic income and property tax features. In other words, when a student from a CM class becomes the President or Prime Minister of their simulated country and are given access to the Government Account, they have the ability to set their nation’s tax rates based on what’s decided in their Mock Congress or Mock Parliament events. This creates in-class debate and controversy amongst students because they have competing Hidden Agendas which score points differently depending on what the tax rates are set at.

Take, for example, this discussion between two students in the simulated country “Isla Clementina” from Harpeth Hall School, a girls-only prep school in Nashville, TN:

The laws I am suggesting are-
1. Higher taxes for richer people, lower for poorer people.
2. Most properties are owned by the government- that way, equality will be easy to have.

Harpeth_HallCounterargument:

I think that there should be no taxes at all, because the government all ready has a lot of money. The government also owns the most successful properties in our country.

Now, Specific Types and Kinds of Properties Can Be Taxed Differently

Since CM launched, students could only set a flat property tax rate for all kinds of properties (or hexes). For example, if property tax rates were set at $200, regardless of

  • a) type (i.e. business, residential, wilderness) or
  • b) kind (e.g. farms, apartments, mansions, etc.),

… All hexes would be taxed $200. This meant that – if governments wanted to tax certain types of hexes more – they would have to manually calculate and collect these additional taxes.

emilyStarting now, student governments can set specific tax rates and the program will automatically calculate and collect these taxes at the end of a simulated year. 

Let’s explain with an example. As the image to the right shows, Emily owns an Education hex. This property produces education “units” which she can trade or sell to her classmates. She makes lots of money selling these units, and a left-leaning government sympathetic to the poor people in this country decide to tax business owners more.

Now, using the “Additional Property Taxes” features, Emily’s government can – and has – set three different property tax rates:

Screen Shot 2016-01-08 at 9.52.06 AMi) Base Property Tax: This has been set at $100. This means that the owners of every hex in the country will be taxed $100 at the end of every simulated year.

ii) Hex Type: The government has chosen to tax the owners of every business hex $600 (which gives it a running total of $100 + $600 = $700).

iii) Specific Hex: And the government (in an effort to pressure Emily to sell her hex) has created an additional $45 tax that the owners of Education hexes have to pay (bringing her total property tax bill for her one education hex to $745).

This is so cool because now students will literally be able to focus their taxation debates on certain types of hexes and why. For example, one teacher has told us that his students were debating in the Town Hall whether owners of Mansions should or shouldn’t have to pay additional taxes considering how many more Well-Being Points they score for being able to live in them. This, then, turned into a debate over the U.S. Constitution’s Preamble, where Mansion owners said this tax prevents them from “pursuing happiness.”

Emily_taxes2Returning to our example, we can see in the image below that at the end of Emily’s simulated year, she was taxed $745 for her Education hex, and an additional $100 for her Wilderness hex, which did not incur the additional types of taxes.

We hope you enjoy these new taxation features!

Sign Up For a Free Trial Today!
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Civic Mirror Mis-Sends #3

Civic Mirror is a fun social studies simulation (as messages below will reveal) that allows a class of students to run their own country. When they receive messages from classmates, an email notification is sent from our system. These email notifications always start the same way:

“DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL”

Some students, however, compose their replies to us here at Action-Ed, and they can be enlightening as well as hilarious. This is the third instalment of our Civic Mirror Mis-Sends Series. All names have been changed to protect anonymity. Enjoy!

Bad-Dining-EtiquetteEvicted Tenant Being a Jag

CM Auto-Message: Hello,  Alan has evicted you from your House at e3.

Kyler: You are being a jag.

Alan: What does jag mean? I needed a place to live.

Kyler: A jag is a man or woman with no social etiquette or manners.

 

Screen Shot 2016-01-06 at 7.13.30 AMUnwavering Pessimism

Evan: hey i think we would crush as a party with a few others. up down?

Iza: Depends on their views.

Evan: k what do u think about all those things.

Iza: Well, I don’t think government should own a lot of things. What do you think?

Evan: yeah honestly i think that the government should be a figure to monitor and not interfere. the people should deal more on their own.

Iza: Yeah although it’s all fun and games until the country crashes and burns.
~

CM Abuse Report

An Abuse report has been submitted by Wyatt of X Block
– – – – – – –
Kyle is stealing my house. This isn’t cool!
– – – – – – –

Illegal Activity

Stewart of Farskvatten: Would anybody please send me a message about any illegal or suspected illegal activity. This will tighten our security and will make sure that we are being honest and are trustworthy. I have already discovered one illegal action taking place and we will review it in court.

Alam: Uh huh, what illegal activity. Don’t waste my time or I’ll waste yours.

~

Abuse Report Over Corrupt Government

This one is kind of funny because it’s an abuse report to the CM Team over a matter that is clearly a simulated country issue, and one that we can’t do anything to resolve. What it does emphasize is how effective Civic Mirror is in helping students realize how awful it is to live in a tyrannical and/or corrupt country or community.

absolute_power_corrupts_absolutely_trucker_hat-rc867ff9ec73f446c960cf74cd04fc134_v9wfy_8byvr_324Submitted by Mike from Kanto Region: The government has been corrupted and the ruling dictator party has the majority of the votes in the government with a lot of bias from the speaker. All laws are always passed if the PM proposes it. Anything the PM says, goes. PM has seized power over all hexes and money. There has to be a way to undo the transfers and a setting that keeps a citizen from owning more than $10,000.

– – – – – – –
Reproduction Steps: All I wish is that the property transfers to the government are undone and the current government is abolished and a re-vote for a new government will be issued. This isn’t fun!

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