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Elliot Borg

Learn About Congress: Interactive Learning Modules - 4 views

  • module allows you to c
  • the typical textbook process with the more realistic "dynamic" process, and you will see how our untidy process
  • has produced solid results
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  • This module illustrates ways in which Americans can participate in the democratic process, and highlights individuals who have made a difference by getting involved
    • Elliot Borg
       
      Many of these links correspond with instructional goals. Social studies classes are supposed to make students into informed citizens, so teachers could find "The importance of civic participation" very useful.
    • Elliot Borg
       
      I would find this site very useful for teaching an American government class. It is a useful supplementary site to show how our principles of government as found in the Constitution manifest themselves today.
  • Developed for students as well as the general public, these interactive learning activities are designed to give you a fresh perspective on how the United States Congress works, your role in the process, and peoples' perceptions about Congress. To open the modules, click the graphic.
    • Elliot Borg
       
      This site provides links to other organizations or foundations that have created lessons. They also have state standards and lesson plans for teachers to use as guides.
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    This site explores various aspects of current political life (E.g. criticism of Congress, how Congressional members decide to vote, how the legislative process works, etc) via interactive links for students to explore for themselves
Lindsay Andreas

National Governors Association - 0 views

  • increase student participation in rigorous college preparatory courses, better align expectations between high school and postsecondary education, hold these systems accountable, and ensure students graduate from high school ready for college or the workplace in the global economy.
    • Lindsay Andreas
       
      An important part of our mission as secondary educators is to prepare students for either post-secondary work and the workplace.
  • While states invest significant resources in education programs, governors also recognize and appreciate the federal government’s contribution to provide additional resources or assistance for those most in need.
    • Lindsay Andreas
       
      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.
  • In this new economy and era of education reform, now is the time to reform postsecondary education by increasing relevance and rigor, accountability, and linkages with kindergarten-12th grade (K-12) education and the workplace, and by expanding financial aid to students of all ages.
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  • Provide capacity-building incentives to states to increase teacher supply and retention, as well as education research.
    • Lindsay Andreas
       
      On the national level, you only seem to hear about accountability but it is refreshing to see that the NGA takes a lot more into account. I really feel like they are better in touch with the realities of education policy.
  • Authorize states to provide diverse learning options and assessment options, including the option for growth models, determined at the state level.
    • Lindsay Andreas
       
      Again, they are concerned with other models of assessment for accountability. I think it is safe to say no one disagrees that there should be accountability but the approach varies greatly and I am more aligned with NGA approaches.
  • Congress should refrain from establishing any federal mandates to ensure maximum state and local flexibility to create aligned systems.
  • A one-size-fits all approach to high school learning is outdated and does not support the diverse needs of students. Governors encourage Congress to support state and local policies and programs that expand the availability of learning opportunities for students of all ages including, but not limited to, virtual school options, service learning, internships, apprenticeships, programs addressing out-of-school-youth, alternative learning programs, and the availability of financial aid.
    • Lindsay Andreas
       
      Thank you! School choices and meeting diverse needs. I really like their recommendations, they want to leave room for discretion.
  • Maximum flexibility in designing state accountability systems, including testing and other indicators of achievement, is critical to preserve the unique balance involving federal funding, local control of education, and state responsibility for system-wide reform. Maximum flexibility in state testing will help improve how students are assessed for academic proficiency and postsecondary readiness. Flexibility should include the option for states to utilize growth measures to assess student performance.
  • Teachers and school leaders must receive the professional support and training needed to provide students with the skills necessary to compete in a global society, particularly in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), literacy, and international and language studies.
    • Lindsay Andreas
       
      I think the support issue is very relevant because of my experience at McKinley. They are in the process of introducing AP and a STEM program but the teachers are confused about how it should work, I think if they were given more support and guidance, things would run much more smoothly.
  • High schools must compete with other more highly compensated professions for teachers and school leaders, especially in the areas of mathematics and science. Congress should continue to support and expand state-administered pilot projects on performance pay, especially in critical shortage areas or hard-to-staff schools.
    • Lindsay Andreas
       
      There are a lot of bright young people that don't think about getting into the education profession because it doesn't pay enough and doesn't get enough respect. I really do believe we must make the profession more attractive in order to get the best pool of professionals.
  • Federal policies should encourage—not discourage—promising state efforts in dual enrollment programs that permit students to obtain high quality college-level credits or provide the opportunity to earn an industry-recognized credential while still in secondary school.
  • Congress also should support state efforts that encourage more students to enroll in Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) coursework and pay for student AP testing.
    • Lindsay Andreas
       
      I don't necessarily know if I believe in these programs, I'm undecided. I did AP in H.S. and I don't know if I get the point exactly, however, if you are going to do these programs, make sure it is clear the goal of having such programs.
  • The use of a high school graduation rate in any accountability framework must serve as an incentive to promote state and local innovation to better engage and educate every student, and count all students who graduate from high school. Congress and the Administration should work closely with governors to ensure the proper use and application of the NGA Voluntary High School Graduation Rate.
    • Lindsay Andreas
       
      I think this is so on point, sometimes we do all this testing and numbers/stats but don't even know why we are using them. If we use them to better innovate, that seems like a good thing to me.
  • Governors believe that career and technical education programs and career and technical education teacher certification requirements should reflect the need to better integrate career and academic curriculum and integrate career professionals into the career and technical education teaching corps.
    • Lindsay Andreas
       
      Amen! I believe in a balance between theory and practice, you need both! Let's invest in prep, it's not the most popular thing because it takes time to see the results but I think it is important and worth the wait.
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    This is the National Governors Association, education policy website, specifically, I have selected the policy position on High School Reform, as it is most pertinent to us, the end goes into higher education but that is for another time. The NGA is one of the best education policy sites. As we know, the states are the primary forces in setting education agendas and it is important to see what bi-partisan work they are doing. Governors are usually very influential in education politics.
jbdrury

Herblock's History (Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium): Library of Co... - 3 views

    • jbdrury
       
      Herbert Block's bio is very impressive, and this section could be used as a resource for students were you to introduce the analysis of political cartoons as a strategy
    • jbdrury
       
      Herbert Block's own essay "The Cartoon" on the role political cartoons play in our view of history and current events, could also be an invaluable material source for any lesson plan on the analysis of political cartoons.
    • jbdrury
       
      The Library of Congress organized these exhibits, centering on different points in history (and Herblock's career), thereby making it easier to search for a specific cartoon, as well as some ideas for how one might use it in the classroom.
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    This next post connects back to the lesson plan on interpreting political cartoons. This website - published through the Library of Congress - is nothing short of fantastic. Herbert Block's career covers an incredible span of the 20th century. Using this website as a resource, you can find insightful political cartoons of almost any event from the Great Depression to the Clinton era.
Adrea Lawrence

The Library of Congress - 0 views

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    The Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, and it serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with more than 120 million items. The collections include ...
Michael Sheehan

Learning Never Stops: Chronicling America - Huge Digital Newspaper Collection from L.O.C. - 0 views

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    Huge digital collection of historic newspapers by the Library of Congress!
Margit Nahra

Creating the United States -  Exhibitions - myLOC.gov (Library of Congress) - 9 views

    • Margit Nahra
       
      Great source for lesson plans, primary sources, bibliographies and web casts to supplement teaching about the documents governing the United States.
    • Margit Nahra
       
      The drafts featured on this site would be great to illustrate the points of compromise negotiated by the Founding Fathers and to get students to think about how the documents and ultimately, our country's governing principles, might have turned out differently.
    • Margit Nahra
       
      This site also features helpful teacher training materials for how to evaluate and utilize primary sources.
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    This site uses primary sources to document the source and evolution of key phrases and concepts in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Samantha Greenwald

Bill of Rights: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Lib... - 2 views

    • Samantha Greenwald
       
      This can be used especially on Constitution Day (September 17th).
    • Samantha Greenwald
       
      A bibliography is provides as well as other external resources for students and teachers to explore.
    • Samantha Greenwald
       
      This site provides exhibitions and primary source documents which provide more detailed descriptions of certain events/people which teachers can use to expand student learning.
    • Samantha Greenwald
       
      This is one site of three that provides primary documents. The other two discuss national expansion and reform and the civil war and reconstruction.
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    This Library of Congress website provides access to primary documents including letters, notes, papers, Washington's inaugural address, and copies of the amendments to the US Constitution.
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    Any other ways in which teachers might use this site?
Maria Mahon

About Us | StoryCorps - 1 views

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    Story Corps is an amazing nonprofit project - the goal is to record people's stories and copies are then placed in the Library of Congress. When I worked at the Phillips Collection, StoryCorps came and recorded stories that related to migration because of the Jacob Lawrence Migration Series Exhibition. The stories were very powerful and you could see they way younger generations really responded to hearing the stories of both their own families and strangers. It made the experiences seem so real and connected them to real people.
Scott Hambrick

American Memory from the Library of Congress - Home Page - 7 views

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    Contains histories from the Library of Congress by topic
Anissa Madrill

Congress for Kids - Interactive, Fun-filled Experiences About the Federal Government - 0 views

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    Great site for kids to learn about American Government
jbdrury

The History Place - Irish Potato Famine - 0 views

    • jbdrury
       
      As this is a privately-owned website, I thought it important to provide a little info on its managers. This is taken from the Home Page information: " The History Place contains many examples of man's inhumanity to man as well as notable examples of humans rising to the occasion to fight tyranny and preserve freedom, and overall, reaffirms, in the words of the American Declaration of Independence, that all human beings have "certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
    • jbdrury
       
      Although I don't doubt the veracity of much of the information on this site, I think it is important to keep in mind who is providing the information. Also from the home page: " The History Place is a private, independent, Internet-only publication based in the Boston area that is not affiliated with any political group or organization. The Web site presents a fact-based, common sense approach in the presentation of the history of humanity, with great care given to accuracy....The site was founded and is owned and published by Philip Gavin"
    • jbdrury
       
      This account of the Potato Famine has multiple pages to flip through; I have started here as this is the page detailing the Irish flight to America.
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  • Coffin Ships
  • The first coffin ships headed for Quebec, Canad
  • Up to half of the men that survived the journey to Canada walked across the border to begin their new lives in America. They had no desire to live under the Union Jack flag in sparsely populated British North America
  • They viewed the United States with its anti-British tradition and its bustling young cities as the true land of opportunity
  • American ships were held to higher standards than British ships by the U.S. Passenger Acts, a set of laws passed by Congress regulating the number of passengers ships coming to America could carry as well as their minimal accommodations. Congress reacted to the surge of Irish immigration by tightening the laws, reducing the number of passengers allowed per ship, thereby increasing fares. America, congressmen had complained, was becoming Europe's "poor house."
  • During the trans-Atlantic voyage, British ships were only required to supply 7 lbs. of food per week per passenger
    • jbdrury
       
      Each page has a few of these contemporary images that could be used in the classroom.
  • Before boarding, they had been given the once-over by doctors on shore who usually rejected no one for the trip, even those seemingly on the verge of death
  • The poorest of the poor never made it to North Americ
  • Despite the dangers, the Irish knew that once they landed on Britain's shores they would not starve to death. Unlike Ireland, food handouts were freely available throughout the country
  • The cheap lodging houses were also used by scores of Irish waiting to embark on ships heading for North America. Three out of four Irish sailing for North America departed from the seaport at Liverpool. Normally they had to sleep over for a night or two until their ship was ready to sail. Many of these emigrants contracted typhus in the rundown, lice-infested lodging houses, then boarded ships, only to spend weeks suffering from burning fever out at sea.
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    The History Place is a privately-run website that provides content to educators on a wide variety of historical subject. I have included this section on the Irish Potato Famine, as it was one of the more compelling narratives I found on the internet.
Adrea Lawrence

For Teachers (Library of Congress) - 0 views

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    Library of Congress resources for teachers.
Maria Mahon

National Digital Newspaper Program - 1 views

  • is freely available to Internet users everywhere.
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    This webpage describes a National DIgital Newspaper Program that is a partnership between the NEH and Library of Congress. It aims to provide access to internet users. THis could be a great resource for teachers to use in classrooms... often other subscriptions to databases can be licensed and quite expensive to use.
Laura Wood

DC Vote - 1 views

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    DC voting rights are the PERFECT way to get DC students engaged with politics and government. As one student told me, "nothing gets students motivated like being pissed off." One of the teachers that I'm working with has folks from DC Vote come into her classroom and teach about the history of DC voting rights (the 23rd amendment and all) and then has students do a project on it. It gets them heated and it's critically important for them to know about - more than just a license plate! Also, you might consider using Sweet Honey in the Rock's "No Taxation Without Representation" which outlines the entire history of DC voting rights and potential avenues for action in song. ;-) As they were a crucial part of the civil rights movement this might be a nice tie in of history and current events. From the website: "Founded in 1998, DC Vote is an educational and advocacy organization dedicated to securing full voting representation in Congress and full democracy for the more than half a million residents of the District of Columbia. DC residents pay full federal taxes, fight and die in wars and serve on juries yet are denied voting representation in the House and the Senate. DC Vote is working to end this injustice."
tcornett

Episode 20: Reconstruction | 15 Minute History - 0 views

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    Host: Joan Neuberger, Professor of History and Editor, Not Even Past Guest: H.W. Brands, Dickson, Allen, Anderson Centennial Professor of History, UT-Austin After the chaos of the American Civil War, Congress and lawmakers had to figure out how to put the Union back together again-no easy feat, considering that issues of political debate were settled on the battlefield, but not in the courtroom nor in the arena of public opinion. How did the defeated South and often vindictive North manage to resolve their differences over issues so controversial that they had torn the Union apart? Historian H.W. Brands from UT's Department of History reflects on this issues and how he has dealt with them in his thirty years of experience in teaching about Reconstruction: "It's one of the hardest parts of American history to teach, in part because I think it's the hardest to just understand."
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