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An important part of our mission as secondary educators is to prepare students for either post-secondary work and the workplace.

It is important to remember the break-down in financing, and therefore, where real power lies. If we want policy change, we need to know the most effective avenues for lobbying. We may think Obama sets the education policy agenda but the reality is, governors have a lot of power and persuasion in the field. For example, it always amazes me how different public higher education systems are, and this is because certain states have made it a priority to fund higher education greatly.

Some notable audio/mp3/ipod selections from the DC Public Library that I feel would be great for Social Studies, specifically. The Civil War (Shelby Foote) He is considered a top scholar, along with James Mcphereson. If there are two names you should be familiar with for Civil War scholarship, they are it! My Brother Sam is Dead. You may have read this when studying the American Revolution, a great way to incorporate literature into the study of history. Thomas Jefferson & His Time (Multiple Volumes) TJ, enough said!

For the visual learners of your class. Some PBS Home video selections, a very reputable education source.

This doesn't relate to Social Studies directly but I think it is a pretty cool feature, language tapes can be really expensive, why not utilize a free library membership?

From the website: "Based in Providence, R.I., What Kids Can Do (WKCD) is a national nonprofit founded in January 2001 by an educator and journalist . . . they felt an urgent need to promote perceptions of young people as valued resources, not problems, and to advocate for learning that engages students as knowledge creators and not simply test takers. Just as urgent, they believed, was the need to bring youth voices to policy debates about school, society, and world affairs. Using the Internet, print, and broadcast media, WKCD presses before the broadest audience possible a dual message: the power of what young people can accomplish when given the opportunities and supports they need and what they can contribute when we take their voices and ideas seriously. The youth who concern WKCD most are those marginalized by poverty, race, and language. On this website, WKCD presents young people's lives, learning, and work, and their partnerships with adults both in and out of school. Our community of readers stretches from youth organizers in some of this country's toughest urban areas to policy makers at the national level. We believe that a good story well told crosses geographies, generations, class and race, and position. Our publishing arm, Next Generation Press, honors the power of youth as social documenters, knowledge creators, and advisors to educators, peers, and parents. WKCD is a grant maker, too, collaborating with youth on multimedia, curricula, and research that expand current views of what constitutes challenging learning and achievement. Starting in 2006, WKCD began working with youth worldwide. WKCD has become an international leader in bringing the promise of young people to the attention of the adults whose encouragement can make all the difference."

Here they have collected various articles about how youth around the country and around the globe have been actively involved in policy making and shaping. This may be great to get teachers and students started thinking about project ideas or to inspire students (and teachers!) that students really can make a difference.

ARG! My diigo isn't working at all. Very frustrating. I have to highlight stuff four times and then add the comments in on this page. Technology is not my friend this week.

So if you do a rad civics project with your students, students can then write an article about what they did and send it in to WKCD. They will then put it up on this cite and your students will have something to be uber proud of. This is another reason to make sure you photo document rad projects.

Educational videos!

I find this a difficult claim to deny, especially given the fact that global relations are becoming closer and closer due to changing technologies.

Maybe it allows students to learn at their own pace, but I feel that having a teacher present would encourage more interaction and allow teachers to quickly pick up on areas of struggle.

The teachers at Takoma Education Center told me about the protests and I think it really emphasizes how much of an impact the lay-offs have on the students themselves and the level of personal investment they must feel in their education.

I thought our classmates doing their placements at McKinley would be interested in this!

The teacher that I'm observing for my thesis research (let's call her Teacher 2) gets tons of these every month and distributes them to all of her students. They use some of the articles, cartoons and pictures for their class but I've also heard other teachers say that the kids just read them in their down time. SWEET!

Oops, sorry, they're biweekly. That means twice month, right?

Each issue contains a cover story, International story, National Story, Technology story, Environment story, History portion, Columns and Cartoons (and more!). The content is designed for teens. They also newly have an Ethics column, where teens can exercise critical thinking, opinion forming and values exploration.

OKAY! So "Times Past" has historical events framed in a modern context. Each issue a different historic event is featured. If you were collecting these things, pretty soon you'd have a whole curricular arsenal of articles written for teens, framed in a contemporary lens, about history. It might be interesting to contrast these against newspaper articles from say the 1979 Iranian Revolution.