Civics Education

If money is all that a man makes, then he will be poor. Poor in happiness and poor in all that makes life worth living."

--Herbert N. Casson

Today in methods (our last day!) we had a guest speaker, Meg Heubeck, from the Youth Leadership Initiate at the Center for Politics at UVA.  She showed us some really cool civics stuff to do with students, like the Budget Hero game that lets students mess with the nation's budget in a simulation and then see what the outcome would be.  Students would love that because it's a game, so they're going to get competitive and try to win, but of course there are no winners, just learners.  Their website: www.youthleaders.net has great resources for teachers too, like lesson plans for free and an e-Congress.  Students write bills, submit them, they form virtual committees with other students from across the country, read and vote on bills from around the country, then vote on the bills that make it to the virtual House.  I would have loved that as a student.  If I teach US History or Civics, I'm definitely going to use that.  And maybe I'll use some of their lesson plans too, no sense in re-inventing the wheel.

Off to finish some lesson plans to turn in tomorrow.  Woo Persian Empire!