If it was made up purely of WASPs. Okay, to be fair, it is the most multi-culti it's ever been. Here, take a gander. And what would it look like if it were more reflective of the nation?
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Although a joke about Boy George and Karma Chameleon is kind of, well. Ironic.
But, I got pretty excited for a minute. Oooo. Insider feel of the hallowed halls of D.C. I am on it. Cloture club... a bit more expansive into the entire culture of the Hill... (I had a friend who was a staffer once. She said it was awesome. She got paid a non-liveable wage to work ten hour days doing things like re-typing documents the legnth of the King James Bible before lunch. But the after hours parties were to die for. Remember... that's heresay.) But with cool, glitzy infographics... fun games like Ask a Staffer, Member of the Week, and Lady K Street... what's not to love? Enjoy. It's sinful. Coolest thing I've found in a while. Can I get this in a poster size please? I am preppin' for Congress... and I have run across this **beautiful** infographic quite a few times. So, I figure... why not? This is kind of a variation of the Game of Life, and I am all about playing games for sequential processes like this. There are other great resources out there, too... If you want to do some Flipped Classroom stuff, and are all about using federal resources... try this nine video B2L extravaganza from Congress themselves A few years ago, I found this game... and I took each individual square and typed it into a power point. At B2L time, I would print the powerpoint in slide view... find a vacant hallway, and spread the game out. The kids would be the game pieces, and I would hand each of them a die to help them role... First one to the end got something I would dig up in my classroom. But I have since transitioned to a B2L project that takes place outside of my classroom... The kids are assigned to work in groups and write lyrics to an original or otherwise song... and perform it live or via video on youtube. I do this for a few reasons. 1.) I free up time to teach other stuff that is not a process and therefore (for the most part) memorize-able. (I frequently marvel at how I remember the state song even though i don't remember who forced me to learn or during what grade.) 2.) The kids (unless they're lying, which is possible.) actually get excited for this project... not all of them... but a lot of them... And my present Seniors will actually contact their graduated buddies to tease them for the videos they have made... 3.) It's allowing my more artistic kids an outlet. 4.) I love to see what they come up with... there are some pretty cool things I have gotten from this... including cameos from Congressman Frank Wolf... with recorded scenes in his CONGRESSIONAL OFFICE!!! 5.) It's another reason to torment my students, which is the real reason I teach. (j/k... that's what they think anyways.) Look, I am not saying that notetaking and lectures don't work. I have peers who do it, and do it well. I, however, cannot. So, here is some inspiration to stop procrastinating and help your students help themselves. Edutopia had a great summation of how different kinds of kids can do notes in your class in a way that suits their needs. Got a kid who is out of town? Let them record the class. Got a kid who is a doodler? Find them an app like Evernote, Penulitmate, or PaperPort Notes. Want to stress communal learning? Have the kids make a shared notebook, like Cynthia McClelland. Want to link sound and notes in real time? Try AudioNote or SoundNote.
And finally... if you want to have the kids look for learning in the real world when you're not there, try Field Trip... which gives kids (and adults) a chance to do some authentic exploring on their own. And have them take notes! And share it with you! :) The march towards flipped classrooms continues, and I have another fun resource for you and your educational peers. It's called Crash Course, but the Green brothers. John Green does WAY MORE than history. He, together with his brother Hank, do lit, chem, ecology, etc. And the videos are fun and easy... a great intro to topics. Keep in mind, you are getting some bias and snarky, mature sarcasm... so you should PREVIEW before you VIEW. But, there are about 40 10 minute videos in US History alone that serve as a great foray into Constitutional underpinnings, politics, and economic theory. They fact check with educators to make sure they're not getting history WRONG... and they've been picked up on YouTube for Schools, along with the Khan Academy and other vloggers who are ready to bounce into your virtual classroom. In the spirit of the Tip and the Gipper (yep, still reading it.), I will give some credits where credits are due, even if it's not me who is creating these gorgeous sites. I am learning that competition is good for the soul. (Really?) I was digging around while my kids are taking their quarter exams, and I ran across this great website that has the top 25 teaching blogs of 2012. As the site suggested, I did indeed move on over to the post on teaching (government) thematically on Diana Laufenberg's Living the Dream blog. While I don't teach history, government is really thematic. Our units weave history, current events, science, philosophy, math, data analysis, sociology, psychology, ehhh. Well. A lot of stuff together, right? So, I get this! I really do! I then moved onto her learning visually post, primarily because I am developing a visual literacy unit with materials from the National Portrait Gallery this month, and I am trying to get some background before I roll my old bones down there. And, bam! Hello, beautiful! Here are some gems... resources, thoughts, approaches... So, Diana is the kind of educator I want to be... ripping down what she does and reconstructing it in a way that kids get and *shockingly* retain. And then, OMG, I read this post and saw about half the dudes and dudettes I work with embedded between the sweet prose of this stream of consciousness. So, I think I am a convert to teachbad, too. Now, I could wax philosophic about my career choice... (As one student of mine told me not twenty minutes ago, I am not rich because I chose this field and that was a risk I took. Thanks, citizen of the week. You know who ya are.) ...but I am not gonna do that. Not here. Not usually. It's cathartic, I know, but taking me away from what I set out to do. But, perchance you need a little cathartic exercise. It's Friday. Come on. Now. Last coolio item for this post. Since I so love and advocate for tech in the classroom, here is a fun infographic that I may send out to the next parent who is totally skeptical of the BYOD policy in the school. Thanks, topmasters. Flipping your classroom is all the rage these days. *Meh* Creating interesting, informative, concise, and accurate videos about all things gov. I wouldn't have time for a thing else! I have been watching the boards on Edmodo (see below)... and a consistent contributor is Keith Hughes. I am already a big fan of his newest jam on the <<Debt Ceiling>>. So, do you want him to jump into your class and explain the 10th Amendment? the Preamble? Electoral College? SCOTUS? Looking for a little video assignment so you can
FLIP FLIP FLIP your classroom? (painlessly?) My man, HHH, is to the rescue. Warning. This is a PTA Purchase.
These little bad boys are a ready-to-rock lesson plan, complete with student debate, pre-selected readings, and a written response. And about a billion teacher support documents on how to teach DBQs. Our district is all about writing these days (which they should be... cuz the kids can't write.) and this is how we are accomplishing these goals. I tend to dip into one of these a quarter, as they fit with my curriculum. They are a time sucker, but you get what you put into it. You do have to teach the kids how to sort documents (they cutely call it "bucketing"), how to write a strong thesis (aka the chicken foot), and even how to debate. Some great ideas that I picked up from the DBQ gurus when they came out to visit FCPS include handing out poker chips to kids, requiring them to cash them in for each point they audibilize. (Thus keeping the conversation monopolizers in check) Another great idea is requiring the kids to reference a document for each point that they make, because they have to do it when they write, too. Anyways, it is a great resource; well worth the cost to your SCHOOL. It must be great to have the Congressional record. If C-Span doesn't catch a member of Congress's carefully crafted and expertly delivered speech, they can go back and amend it before it is official entered into the annals of U.S. legislative history. Certainly, C-Span has made things difficult for members to shy away from unflattering comments, but even there... Congress owns the cameras and therefore the camera angles... and so you only see what they want you to see when they want you see it. (That's why you never see the wide-angle shots of the all the seats in the House... folks asleep, tweeting, gabbing... doing crossword...) Even recent attempts for more candid camera angles resulted in, well, nothing. Anyways, that tweeting. They all do it. I love to follow McCain's twitter feed... especially during omnibus bills. He loves to itemize all the earmarks... But there are some folks out there who love watching the tweets. And CATALOGING them. You can read up on what your member of Congress tweeted and then regretted. Politwoops. Defender of the Universe. ... I shuffle over to my FCPS peer, Ken Halla's catchall website. He runs a blog for all of the VA state required Social Studies website... in his spare time. When he is taking a break, the other FCPS Gov rock star, Frank Franz, moonlights for him. (Another god among G-O-V men and (some) women... cause we're so few in number). Ken is a **rock star** in the social studies community. I don't know if he knows that or not, but I didn't know that until last year. We had a fresh crop of student teachers in our building for a while, and I overheard one of them gushing over how he was going to meet Ken at some event, and he was sooo excited because he was going to talk tech shop with Ken. So, Rock Star Ken... here is why you have so many fans. (As if you didn't know.) He collects TONS of multi-media material to use in the classroom. My favorites that I saw this morning were video tutorials on the concept of Obamacare for use in the classroom. Brilliant! He also peppers in best practice tech apps for use in the classroom... like flipping your classroom, Quizlet, QR codes, etc. It does make class a lot of fun. I am down with it. |
Photo via Flickr/Ted Eytan
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