Group items tagged

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.

This site was a research project by Daryn Cambridge while he was in the International Training and Education Program at American University. It's a great Peace Education Resource

The "Reading Guides" section has many suggestions for various peace education theorists and resources as well as some links to these sources and even some guides to teaching on these resources.

Daryn was a teacher trainer for years and all of his "Activities" are student centered, multi-sensory and action-based.

These Activities are appropriate or can be adapted to all ages.

A debate that my cousin who has a degree in The Classics from Oberlin has with my Uncle, during which he famously stated "I think you are confusing education with job training" and is definitly something that has added thought to my own education.

"In early March, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart featured former Supreme Court Justice (and current CMS co-chair) Sandra Day O'Connor discussing the importance of the civic mission of schools. Click to watch the video."

My thesis draws heavily from this report. It's fantastic. "Written and endorsed by more than 50 scholars and education practitioners, The Civic Mission of Schools report summarizes the status of and need for civic learning in schools, kindergarten through 12th grade. It analyzes trends in American political and civic engagement; identifies promising approaches to educating students for democracy; and offers recommendations to educators, policymakers, government officials and funders."

Curricula with information for teachers and lesson plan ideas. For example the "Peace Education" section has 5 units which each contain suggested activities for class, suggested reading, links to more resources, and projects and activities. I like that there are both background readings for teachers AND activities and lesson plans for classrooms.

The Community page has lots of projects that youth around the world have completed - art, video, writing, etc. This may be inspiring for students or may help to give faces to kids in other countries and places.

Sweet! Games! Definitely play any of these before you pass them on to your students, the Flag Tag game would be great for Global Studies and the Water Quiz might be an interesting introduction to a lesson on world problems. The "Against All Odds" game is SO intense, why does everyone put it up? Anyway lots of games . . .

Daily 60 second podcast!

Also, you can search previous podcasts to find ones that have to do with your specific lesson. Listening to the Podcasts could be a "Do now" activity or an activity at a station students rotate through.

Daily 1 question civics quiz! These questions are not always about post Constitutional US. Some of the questions that I have seen had to do with Enlightenment thinking, the middle ages, ancient Greece, etc.

Mission Statement From the site: The Center for Civic Education is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational corporation dedicated to promoting an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of democracy in the United States and other countries. . . . The Center specializes in civic/citizenship education, law-related education, and international educational exchange programs for developing democracies. Programs focus on the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights; American political traditions and institutions at the federal, state, and local levels; constitutionalism; civic participation; and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.

I was especially struck by this line when I thought back to Ch. 5 in Mathison - Defining the Social Studies Curriculum. It lists the goals of Goals 2000: Educate America Act. The first thing listed is "All children in America will start school ready to learn". The reality is that not all students start school ready to learn or at least at the same place. As this newspaper article acknowledges, many poor children enter less prepared for school than those with wealthier parents and this is, in some cases, despite some having access to learning programs. Would an influx of new funds from such a bill create a more organized and directed early learning strategy? And if so, I wonder how educators can really help parents take advantage of the available services.

I think a plan for reaching out to parenst will be a crucial step in making this worthwhile. Communities need to provide the structures that would enable to parents to take advantage of these options and that might include adult education or parenting classes, too.

The IB Program is a program of High School education that has been standardized in the high schools in which it is implemented. What makes it unique is that it is an international program and thus extremely helpful to those students who might move around a lot.

Unfortunately this parent is ignoring all of the other extremely important benefits of the IB Program by focusing only on math and not any other parts of his childs education.

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?

In the black townships of South Africa, many public schools do not meet the students' high expectations of career or college preparation. This article describes how students have worked for justice: protesting (at times violently) and teaching themselves lessons when teachers fail to show for work.

Apartheid is alive and well in South Africa's education system.

The author relies on interviews with current teachers, students, and administrators in South Africa. She also cites data and perspectives from the Development Bank of South Africa. In her piece she examines the current situation in a single township, then ties the issue to the entire nation.

What a conundrum this is...

Rethinking schools offers some fantastic resources for teachers. The Rethinking Globalization text has activities for all ages to start making students aware of the global nature of our lives and to help them to take action instead of being passive consumers of world goods/culture.

Articles, resources, and publications from teachers and educators that subscribe to critical pedagogy. The information is based in opinion, theory, historical documents, and cool lesson plans and curriculum ideas. I recommend checking out the articles that are here, and checking out some of their publications from a library (or from me, I have "Rethinking Globalization").

MAPS!

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.

One of the things that Duncan criticized, and about which he said he heard many complaints, was the lack of practical training that students received in their education - implying the importance of such things as practicum placements and student teaching.