Regardless of if it’s a presidential, a mid-term election year, or an “off” election year, it’s essential to incorporate voting and elections into your civics or government class every single year. It... Read More
Teaching civics during a presidential election year is always exciting. Kids are more engaged, there are endless resources available, and, of course, there’s the much-anticipated finale of Election Day results. ... Read More
No matter how you structure your Civics class, you’re doing a Three Branches of Government unit. There’s no way around it. And it’s for sure your biggest unit, with endless... Read More
Asking questions seems easy enough. But after spending any time at all teaching you know it’s not. Certainly, not asking great questions anyway. It’s one of those subtle yet fundamental skills I... Read More
Never before have teachers, especially civics teachers, been in such a delicate, but essential, position to be reliable, non-partisan, and unbiased sources on current politics. The 2016 election left so... Read More
We all know about the amazing iCivics web-based curriculum, the generous endeavor founded by former Justice Sandra Day O’Conner. In fact, it seems to be recommended so much in Facebook groups that... Read More
We call it Civics, not Government, class because the purpose is to instill a sense of citizen duty and participation, not just a memorization of names, flow charts, and Constitutional... Read More
You probably went into teaching social studies because you have always been a bit of a nerd for learning the real story behind the accepted narrative and somewhat politically involved... Read More
It’s not enough to simply mention people of color in your lectures and station activities or stress the American ideals of equality and justice. Being an antiracist educator, especially one who... Read More
Content can be a killer. It dominates everything in secondary social studies. But that doesn’t mean it has to be all drill and kill. While PBL and thematic units are my jam,... Read More