All Blog Posts (29)

WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!

For some of us, if we were to walk into this classroom and see students gesturing wildly, standing up, walking around their chairs and mimicking the teacher, we might think there was a problem with class control. But for many classrooms, it is the exact opposite. These…

Last month, our Forum site lit up for a several days with discussion over the challenge of using INTERACT materials in a small classroom. Teacher’s Center member Michael Hutchison started the conversation with a query about using the Government Activators II unit entitled “Campaigns, Elections, and Political Parties” in his small class of ten students. The…

During his second inaugural address, President Obama drew extensively from America’s founding documents to give us a social studies lesson… and a call to action. From the Declaration of Independence he reminded us of importance of equality and inalienable rights for…

It’s now January, and teachers are looking toward the second half of the school year. The election is over, the president has been reelected, and Congress hasn’t changed much in political composition, partisanship, or in the opinion of the American public.

On January 21, 2013, Barack Obama will be sworn in as president for a second term and will deliver his second inaugural address. In…

This past November, I presented at the 2012 National Council for the Social Studies National Conference “Opening Windows to the World” in Seattle, Washington. The conference theme might have been a veiled nod to Seattle-based Microsoft, but there were far more iPads and iPhones in teachers’ hands. The conference was well attended and featured high-profile speakers such as Sandra Day O’Connor and Rick Steves as well as three days of some very interesting…

The YouTube video “The Voice of the Active Learner” has been making the rounds across the Internet for a few months. On its surface, it’s well produced and stimulating, has attitude, and predicts an exciting future for 21^st-century students. It’s important to note the video was produced by a company promoting its products and services for online education. But the video contains a lot of good ideas and glimpses of the future and has also sparked discussion and critique among…

In his seminal book Democracy and Education, John Dewey wrote that there was no better site for political and democratic action than the school.[1] A noteworthy example of Dewey’s idea occurred this fall in Sharon Springs, Kansas, at Wallace County High School. A group of teachers and students created a music video called “We Are Hungry” to voice their displeasure over the calorie limits in lunches served at…

I know many of us use INTERACT simulations in the classroom and find that students’ vivid imaginations make the activities realistic and meaningful. Butcher paper, blankets, rearranged desks, and clothing and props from home can create backdrops, walls, dwellings, and objects to be used in the simulation. Students flow along with the idea and allow themselves to be immersed into the action.…

Watch This!!

Is it hyperbolic to say digital technology is revolutionizing everything we do in education? It is changing the way we work with students in the classroom, how we track and record student…

Teacher’s Center was developed to help educators understand how to use active learning strategies in the classroom. “Active learning” can be defined as an approach to learner-centered education that uses instructional techniques that involve students in reading, writing, discussing, reflecting, and creating in order to help them learn. Since Teacher’s Center was created, we have presented information on active learning strategies in variety of contexts: active learning in higher education,…

Just this past week, CNN correspondent Martin Savidge reported on an amazing North Carolina high school senior who held down an after-school job, was a straight-A student in three advanced placement courses, and received a full ride to Harvard College. That might not be completely extraordinary, but the story gets better. The student, Dawn Loggins, had gone to four schools since eighth…

Last month, President Barack Obama awarded Rebecca Mieliwocki (pronounced Mil-WAU-kee), a seventh-grade English teacher at Luther Burbank Middle School, in Burbank, California, the 2012 National Teacher of the Year Award. This honor dates back to 1952, when elementary teacher Geraldine Jones was honored. The award is a project of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) rewarding excellence in teaching.

This…

I recently read an interesting article in the March, 2012 edition of Educational Leadership magazine entitled “Teaching for Historical Literacy.” Written by two literacy consultants, Anne Goudvis and Stephanie Harvey, the article stresses the importance of teaching students the difference between information and knowledge, and that, if information is to become knowledge, students need to think about what they’re reading.

The authors review current concerns over…

This year’s political election contains a plethora of rhetoric related to the economy. Candidates on the left are accused of “instilling policies that promote class warfare,” “raising taxes on the job-creators,” and “promoting a socialist agenda.” Candidates on the right are accused of “belonging to the party of ‘NO,’” “favoring Wall Street and ignoring Main Street,” and believing that “corporations are people.” 

Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the rhetoric and the emotion of the…

In deciding what to write for the February blog, I was scanning through some past issues of the National Council for the Social Studies’ professional journal, Social Education. I came across an article title that caught my eye from January/February 2009 entitled “Teaching Social Studies as a Subversive Activity” (January/February, 2009, p. 40-42) and I thought, “Hmm…sounds interesting.”

The article, written by Charles L. Mitsakos (recently retired professor of…

In last May’s TC blog, I wrote about what 21st Century Education needs to look like for all students—college bound and those working in the trades—to succeed and be competitive in a global world. Over the summer I read an article that speaks to the challenges in meeting this goal. The article is “21st Century Skills: The Challenges Ahead, written by Andrew…

We hear a lot about how the working environment of the 21^st century will be very different from that of the 20^th century. Constantly we hear of the need to prepare students for a “brave new world.” Education experts extol the virtues of technology and how schools and teachers need to modernize in order to keep up with their students and prepare them for careers in an interconnected world. Pundits and politicians (it’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference…

For those who may be working on an advanced degree, you might be aware of how colleges and universities are implementing active learning strategies into their instruction. But for those of us who finished our Masters degrees “back in the day” you might be amazed at how extensively many colleges and universities have embraced the methodology and in departments other than education. To be sure, the majority of classes in higher education still rely heavily on the one-way lecture method to…

Over the past six months, I’ve been posting information on active learning strategies in a variety of contexts: adopting INTERACT simulations to current events with “Black Gold” to explore oil spills and “Gateway” and “Immigrant Journeys” to help students understand U.S. Immigration policies; exploring ways active learning strategies can help address the national dropout problem; incorporating active learning strategies into Advanced Placement classes; and looking at how active learning can…

If any of you caught President Obama’s State of the Union speech last month, you might have noticed some common themes to my January TC blog “Teaching for America.” The president talked about how the world has changed, how international competitors has gotten stronger, how countries like China and India are adjusting to these changes, and how America also needs to adjust in order to “win the future.” He spoke of the need to educate our kids to meet the challenges of the 21^st…