Dictatorship Rules Civic Mirror Country Pandora

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Civic Mirror

On Monday, October 25, Pandorians, a class lead by instructor Cheryl Payne at The Woodlands School in Mississauga, Ontario,logged into their Civic Mirror Accounts to this message from Member of Parliament Tommy:

People of Pandora…
I am sure that what has happened today has distressed you, for i too am distressed. However, we have to give people chances… for no one, not even the members of Pandora First, knows that will happen.

If this dictatorship brings equality and justice to our country, then so be it…

However, if this dictatorship creates a country of no voice or equality.

Then we the people of Pandora are allowed to take actions in to this.

However, in order for this to work we need to co operate and they need to co operate with us….

Honestly, what is a government with no people…

An example is when Jason S. thought he had no power in the beginning, we realized he had one of the most. He was usually the one to finalize the yes or no to the Bills.

Therefore, people of Pandora, I urge to stand firm and realize the potential power we possess, not as an individual but as a group.

If this dictatorship brings no positive impact in the public general sense then we, the people of Pandora, will take action.

My final Message:
We can make this work, if co operation exists.

Citizen Stella remarked,

“I personally think that, by having a dictatorship is already not what I would call equality. It’s as if our fate lies in their hands. It’s true they said that they want to help us, but if we propose something that (unintentionally) goes against their Hidden Agendas, they will simply just reject what we proposed. So by having only them to decide everything is already inequality.
Notice that they have already disapprove of HoC, Town Hall, Court, etc. So, no voting on anything what so ever…

Citizen Usman replied,

“Hey, Tommy you took my quote
I posted kinda the same thing
I partly agree, but already in the year 2000 we are in a bad situation
I don’t want to experiment with the same party in power for next year.”

Citizen Andrew commented,

“So much for Pandora FIRST!!”

Citizen Joshua left a sobering, but important comment,

“I was never “Pandora First!”
Its always been ‘get a good mark first”

Posted in CM News | Tagged dictator, equality, leader, parliament, Politics | Comments Off

Civic Mirror Country Discuss Country Scarcities

Posted on October 21, 2010 by Civic Mirror

Dodojota instructor, Ms. Fruend, begun the day on Tuesday October, 12 with this question:

After our open market, there were definitely some obvious imbalances between citizens of Dodojota. Do you think this is something people just have to accept or
could and should they be minimized? How?

Dodojotians responded with different amounts of passion and idealism:

Citizen Vikrant was the first,”I think they should be minimized by either making some kind of law where citizens have some kind of equal chance in getting the different units and apartments or some other fair way where all the citizens agree.”

Citizen Rebecca had an important and vital understanding,” I believe that the imbalances between people should be minimized, but I see no way to properly do that when we live in a society where every hex produces only half the units needed for everyone in the country. I think that everyone should be able to buy food and powered housing at least, because there is enough of that to go around. Even that would help imbalances a little. There is no way that everyone could have the same number of well-being points without the government totally controlling who is allowed to trade for what, which rather defeats the purpose of democracy. I think that as long as everyone has the essentials, the only other thing we can really do is make sure everyone has a chance to get something else.”

Citizen Keren came forward with a similar perspective but a different understanding of that perspective,”After the first open market I know that there are imbalances between the citizens because some citizens have little or no money but are living fairly well and there are also other citizens with a lot of money but no house, food, or other necessities. I think that we should minimize the imbalances by creating laws which allow every citizen to have an opportunity to purchase what they need for their family. Citizens can also take action by signing a contracts with their neighbours to get what they need and repaying them later.”

MP Emma had a personal reason to grieve,”… I do NOT think this is something we just have to deal with because i think Zebediah Bold Prince, Demon Defender, and Nobel forest knome have already died in my family… those were the best 3 names, too…”

Then Citizen Ryan shared an opinion on poverty and welfare,” I think this is fair. Ideally, the government should only support those in poverty that are living like this because they didn’t have chances and opportunities. (EX in the game: not having much money to start) People that are living in poverty but lost all of their money because of their own faults really shouldn’t get support….”

Lastly, Citizen Joseph’s point is worth quoting,”The difference in financial and economic prosperity is very visible after the open market. To some extent these differences have to be accepted. There are some inconveniences that cannot be controlled. For example, students who are absent from class have no way of catching up after events such as open market. These differences can still be controlled but to a degree. In order to do so, I plan, on the next House of Commons day, to pass the Limit Law. This law will limit the amount of units an individual may purchase. In this way everyone has a greater chance of getting what they need. The government welfare system will also work to counter this by supplying less financially stable citizens with enough money to bring them up to the average of money owned by citizens.”

Is the unfair use of resources inevitable in every country or can everyone have equal access? What is the best way to move towards equality? Should we move towards equality?

Posted in CM News | Tagged economics, imbalance, poverty, scarcity | Comments Off

Civic Mirror Citizens Debate Power and Authority

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Civic Mirror

On the morning of October 13, Snickersvillian instructor Jeff Phaneuf, posed this question to Snickerville, a grade 10 civic class at St Ursuline College in Chatham, Ontario:

Identify similarities and differences in the ways power is distributed in groups, institutions, and communities (e.g., in families, classrooms, municipalities) to meet human needs and resolve conflicts.

Comment on how this process occurs in your simulated nation and whether or not you believe it is fair or unfair.

Snickervillians took almost no time to reply. Citizen Claeys took the bull by the horns to reply first,

“I think it is fair that everybody should meet their basic needs for a low price, but also at the same time it is not fair for the person who paid the money to buy it and sell it for a lower price. Therefore, they lose money out of that (ex. drake bought a food hex and people wanted him to sell food for 500$ he would lose money out of that. That is why it can be equal and not equal at the same time.”

Citizen Lindsay had a similar answer while presenting a different opinion, “This is fair, because the basic needs are available. You just have to buy them and work to get them.”

While Citizen Whaley, though eloquent in response, could not seem to decide, “The similarities are the way power is distributed in groups, institutions, and communities to meet human needs and resolve conflicts… The differences…are that when it came to court we had bribing and friends (like assumed) sided with friends.

So far I believe that or government and what not, is so-so. We’re not that fair (i.e we side with friends.) But we’re not totally unfair (The government tried there best to be fair).”

Citizen Corso’s comment showed brevity, “It is similar in our nation because everyone is trying to achieve their basic needs and trying to move forward in the game.

I believe it is fair because it is not hard to achieve the basic needs. They are available for you to buy.”

MP Zimmer was the last to comment, ” I think it is fair that the power is sold equal to everyone so everyone can meet their basic needs but its not in the persons favor because you cant sell power for how much you want, but in this case its the government so it’s fine .”

Each citizen has a different idea on what constitutes fair and unfair. The key, is to be able to put those ideas together to create a successful country. The other option is collapse.

Posted in CM News | Tagged Economy, fair, social studies, taxes, unfair | Comments Off

Civic Mirror Country Paltopia PROP to Ramp Up Policies

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Civic Mirror

Monday October 4, citizens of Civic Mirror country Paltopia, a 10th grade Civics class from Brampt, Ontario, lead by instructorMs. Rebecca Cook at Turner Fenton Secondary, awoke to an announcement from Citizen Natassya:

“…we’ve realized we needed to make a few changes in our policies to adapt to our citizen’s needs.

Based on the pre-game prices, we’ve come up with a new tax system that will be practical, and realistic to meet your needs.

These are our approximate prices for each unit:
Food- $300
Health Care- $800
Education- $800
Energy- $800

We have raised our taxes, but they are suited to the needs of the people, and are now affordable…

For incomes:
lower than $2000, we will be charging 17% tax
$2001-$3000, will be 24% tax
$3000+, will be 26% tax

This way, we will be providing a $150 on one unit of food, health care, education and energy, per family, which we consider necessary for each citizen.

*We still stand for equality among ALL citizens, we have no tolerance for discrimination, and we want to provide opportunities for all citizens to prosper. We also are focused on our environment, and providing renewable energy sources to be available to all citizens, and to keep our economy going strong.”*

Citizen Asad replied with vigor:

“Let me get this straight, you are taking away about 1/4 of the people’s money (richer people) and providing them with a very small discount of $150, that wont help, what if the owners deceide to jack up the prices, what if they deceide to not sell anymore and wait until you give in to their higher prices? Everybody is going to try and benefit themselves before the rest of the country, so why take away the citizens’ money and give them almost nothing in return? Its a lose-lose situation.”

Citizen Madison disagreed:

“In your eyes it is a lose lose situation. You have only talked about the ‘rich’ people. What about all of the citizens of Paltopia? We are trying to look out for everyone especially the people that struggle to make ends meet. Your platform is already starting to divide the community into different classes ‘rich’ or ‘poor’. PROP looks out for everyone to provide a fair and healthy community!”

The class moved to a discussion of class and capitalism versus a more socialist or communist society:

Citizen Asad: “If there is no division is classes, then that is the beginning of a communist society altogether. Eventually if you keep taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor, where will the class be? ‘Communism is a sociopolitical movement that aims for a classless society structured upon communal ownership of the means of production and the end of wage labor and private property.’ – Wikipedia Definition.”

Citizen Madison: “We are actually trying to get the rich richer but at the same time we are trying to get the poor richer as well. At the end of the day there are still going to be classes but they won’t have large gaps.”

There was some back and forth as to whether the government was supporting the rich or the entire population. There were arguments that the gap between rich and poor would continue and that there was enough resources for everyone involved.

Citizen Jasreen ended the discussion with a new idea in terms of what to charge taxes on, “…we are actually trying to get the rich richer but at the same time we are trying to get the poor richer as well. At the end of the day there are still going to be classes but they won’t have large gaps…”

Clearly, societies need taxes but there are many schools of thought on how and whom to charge. Will Paltopian taxes help the “common man” or aid the rich?

*small parts of this passage have been deleted to better fit the length of the post

Posted in CM News | Tagged capitalism, economics, resources, scarcity, socialism, taxes | Comments Off

Hexvillian Citizens to Propose Laws

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Civic Mirror

On September 28, 2010 Hexville Instructor/Fearless Leader Mr. Phaneuf offered/assigned Hexville citizens to write bills in this post:

1. Respond to this posting by proposing 2 laws for the government to consider making into law for your country (keep your hidden agenda in mind). Make sure you watch the wording of these laws so there are no loop holes that can allow someone to cheat you. Here is an example;

Bill F1 Farmers are only allowed to sell his/her food units for $250 to citizens and only to people who have not consumed a food unit yet.

Loophole: Riley(farmer) makes a deal with Amanda (who hasn’t consumed any yet, even though she bought one from the other farmer) to sell her (for $250, like the law states) all his food units only if she re-sells them to other citizens for $450 and kickback $100 per unit to him. Riley and Amanda haven’t broken any law because of the wording of the law. Since Amanda isn’t a farmer she can sell it for any price she would like.

Hexvillians took very little time to repond. The first was MP Lozon with this idea,

” No one is to start construction or demolition on any hex without the approval from the government first. At the end of the year, for every hex a person owns, they will pay a property tax of 50 dollars. This tax is for every hex type”

Prime Minister Gillier had some ideas as well,

“Bill F-1
All citizens will be able to buy one (1) food unit every time new food units are produced.
They will be sold for a maximum of $300 by everyone. Everyone except farmers are allowed to
be in posession of only 1 food at a time.Farmers can only eat 1 food everytime food is produced.

Bill E-1
All electricity shall be sold in order of necessity of goods or services needed for a
maximum of $450, to the owner of the hex. the order of necessity is as followed:
Farms,Apartments,Houses and Mansions, Education and Health,and the Community Center.This
is the list that tells what order they are sold in, not the order in which they will be
used by the citizen.

Bill F-1
All trees and water hexes will be protected by the goverment.unauthorized building on any taxes will lead
to either a direct halt to the project or another hex owned by the citizen used for regrowth
of trees or a fine of up to $5000.”

Citizen Duenas had an idea that may shape the look of the government itself,

“The Government must own at least one of every type of hexes that provide food, education, health,security and energy. If there is only one hex that provides a type of unit such as the Power Station, the Government will offer a price to such hex that will be reasonable for the owner. But if the owner declines the offer or if the Government funds are insufficient to satisfy the owner, they may keep this hex but the owner must pay a “service hex ownership tax”. The service hex ownership tax can cost up to $700 to $1000 per season depnding on the Prime Minister’s descision.

Another law I would like to be passed is that Each citizen May only purchase one food, education, health, security, and energy units per year. And they must be consumed before the end of the year. They are only permitted one of each type. If this happen to a citizen, they are asked to sell their extra unit for no higher than the original price to another citizen who has not consumed this type of unit. However, if all have had their share for the year the government must take this unit to ensure everyone’s equality. If a citizen has a hex that produces one of the five units stated, they may be able to keep more than one of the units that their hex provides, however, they can only consume one at a time (e.g farmer can have 5 food units but not 3 education units.). If anyone abides this law their are two options for that certain person.
Option A—the unit will be taken away from that person and given to those who need it. In addition the person must pay a “unit magement fee” which will be decided by our Prime Minister.
Option B— Let the judge decide on their fate.”

MP Fournie also puts a lot of trust into the government,

“1) No goods or services (whether they be directly associated with the hex board ex. food, power, education units or self owned businesses ex. selling a drawing, doing a task for someone) may be sold to anyone for more than *(input amount agreed upon by government)*.

2) No one person other than the government may own more than two hexes *that are powered*. Therefore you may own as many non-powered hexes as you wish. Violation of this law will result in the confiscation of all the owners powered hexes as well as a fine that will be decided on by the judge.”

While Citizenb Ciccacci wants more control of land owned by citizens,

“One of the laws that I think should be considered in hexville is that we should be able to own and sell things for what we want. For example, Since I own education I should be allowed to sell it for as much as I want without the goverment getting involved. Another law is that we should be able to buy more than just one food.”

There were many thoughtful ideas in Hexville. It seems that the more a citizen tried to close loopholes, the longer the proposed bill. Which laws will work in Hexville and which will fall flat? Hopefully some Hexvillians will reply to this post or email the author to keep the Civic Mirror World updated on progress.

Posted in CM News | Tagged Bill, citizen, Civic Mirror, Hexville, law, proposal, social studies | Comments Off

Civic Mirror Citizens Debate Government’s Role

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Civic Mirror

Wutangistanians, a 12th grade US History class from Shorewood High School, Shoreline, WA, began theirjourney through the Civic Mirror witha discussion of the role of government. The posts began with a question posed by instructor Ms. Un Chong Kim :

Based on your Hidden Agenda (without giving too much away), explain what you think is the proper role of government in our country.

The class posted many replies with differing attitudes and ideas, some of which will be posted here in the Civic Mirror Trenches. Citizen HaydenL was the first to reply:

It seems fairly obvious to me that the government of Wu-tangistan needs little command over it’s citizens and it’s economy, being already a long flourishing country. The government has little authority to tell our us how our businesses should be run, and certainly have no business owning them. This would give the government too much power and control.

The next few responses were all similar and generally in agreement with each other that the government’s role is to promote equity, even if it required a more involved government. One example is Citizen JasonP’s post:

“The main role of government is to have an economically fair country. I do not think that it should be possible for one specific person to have way too many hexes (or power) and I think that the government should control many hexes in order to set fair prices and prevent any national disorder. This would also have environmental benefits as well. If citizens do not own the river/tree hexes, then the environment would ultimately never get completely destroyed. People that start out with higher economical setups will eventually take over and there will be higher and lower social classes which means that some of us will be more successful than others. Massing nationalization on public hexes and making Wutangistan fair for everybody should be the main role of government.”

Citizen JuneP, however, disagreed:

“I believe that the role of our government should be kept to a minimum.
We the people of Wutangistanhave the right to pursue whatever we want. Our government should protect us from the dangers of society but at the same time, not restrict us from living our lives. The government should have better things to do than to interfere with our personal beliefs. The role of government is very important in our society but in order for us to live a happy and fulfilling life, we should live in a society where our voices can be heard.”

The next few postings were in agreement: government should be kept at a “minimum.” Citizen PhilM seemed to fall somewhere in the middle:

“The government is a good thing for society and they should have some role in our economy. People will be able to live the life they want with freedom and individual rights. Having your opinion on topics, speaking freely and debating over things make a good country. Government has a limit though when they can interfere.”

Citizen KameronG had another goal in mind,

“As I read some of the replies above mine I noticed that everyone is stating what WE need from the government, or what the government should do for US. We need to be thinking about the big picture, we aren’t the only thing that the government needs to be watching over. As a country we decided we need to provide for the common good. That’s not only having a rich economy and healthy protected lives, we need to take care of our most precious hexes, the trees and rivers. We don’t want to destroy our environment like we’re doing in the United States, we should learn from our mistakes and move forward.”

Much like citizens in many countries around the world, Wutangistanians seemed divided over the role of government. While many citizens agreed that the government should take care of it’s citizens, though many disagreed what that should look like. If Wutangistan is anything like those countries, the government will change many times. The question is, how will these citizens decide to live their lives through those changes?

Posted in CM News | Tagged Agenda, Big Government, Citizens, Economy, intervention, law, Small government | Comments Off

Civic Mirror Country Merges Power in Government

Posted on September 16, 2010 by Civic Mirror

The purpose of any government is to lead the citizens of a country in the best way possible. Not every type of government works for every country, however. The citizens of Happy Valley, a twelth grade International Relations class at Shanghai International School lead by Instructor Mr. Sam Vierra, understand this issue completely. On Monday September 13, 2010 President John announced that Happy Vallians had voted to develop a government that would suit their needs, along with other bills, to govern their country:

Here are the bills that we, the legislators, have agreed on:

1. The House and Senate will hereby be merged into one governing body, separate of the president. In order for a bill to be passed, 3/5 of this body and the president must agree. To overrule the president, 4/5 of the body must agree.

2. The judge position will hereby be merged with the presidential position. Therefore, whoever is president at the time will also be judge of the supreme court.

3. There will be a price limit of 450 Happy Valley dollars set on each energy unit sold in the economy.

Anybody with objections, please voice them here.

It will be interesting to see how this power shift will effect the citizens, laws created and their hidden agendas.

Posted in CM News | Tagged bills, checks and balances, laws, Legislation, Politician, power | Comments Off

Civic Mirror Country’s Environmental Battle

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Civic Mirror

Citizens all over the world are moving closer to living “greener,” more enviornmentally responsible lives and the citizens of Civic Mirror Country Bayco, an 11th grade U.S. History class which covers 1877-present, fearlessly lead by instructor Kyle Pinckard at Opelika High School in Opelika, Alabama, are no different. National Court Judge Nicole.D began the discussion,

“we have got to save the river! it is our resource for our food and many other things! without it we will have hardly anymore food and people will die at random! plus it is taking away from ALL of our wb points and it is making the value if Bayco go down! Our River is what WE, BAYCO, are suppose to be all about REMEMBER it’s what we voted on when we created this nation. so help me stop people from changing it and ruining our country!”

Citizen Kala followed,

“Yes, I agree that we need to save our river because i think its important and without it we would die because its a resource for our food!”

While most Bayconians agreed with Judge Nicole.D’s original assessment, a few citizens were willing to voice their dissension:

“Though I do think that it’s not a wonderful idea to change the river, but if they choose to change the river to something that will also better Bayco then I think that’s fine. I think that it could be better to have more power plants. So that next season we wont run out,” commented Representative Morgan.

While Citizen Sarah mentioned, “We need to be able to have enough food.”

Judge Nicole.D was not to be dissuaded however and commented,” they can build power plants on a tree hex not the river we have more trees than river!”

Representative Morgan replied, “The people that own the trees may not want to change their hex, so then were stuck, because were going to eventaully run out of power. Either way there is going to be deaths. We either run out of food or power, but we do need POWER to make the FOOD. So I think that we need more power than food. By having more power we can make more farms to provide for food.”

The post ended in comments about natural resources and a general fear that Bayco would lose some of it’s natural beauty to power plants and farms. Every culture must eventually make some tough decisions about the needs of people and natural resources. There is no correct answer, only the correct one for the community in question. What will be the correct answer for this community? Only time will tell…

Posted in CM News | Tagged Civic Mirror, Enviornmentalism, environment, Farms, food, Rights | 1 Comment

Single-Sign-On for Instructors

Posted on September 3, 2010 by Civic Mirror

As of August 2010, CM Instructors will be able to access multiple CM Country Accounts with one login, meaning educators who run Civic Mirror with more than one class of students can switch between them without having to log in and out every time. I know – awesome!

Step 1: Select “Instructor Login” up above.

The first thing you will notice is the choice between “Student Login” and “Instructor Login.” Students will continue logging in with their CM username, country name, and password, but the procedure for instructors is different.

Instructor Login

Step 2: Logging In

In order for us to allow instructors to jump between CM Country Accounts we needed to create a universal access point, so we chose to use the Action-Ed Account. Instructors will now log into civicmirror.com with the same logins they use for www.action-ed.com (i.e. email address and password … NO country names).

What’s great about this is educators can now retain a consistent identity throughout the Civic Mirror Community. Instead of being “Teacher of Country A” and then “Teacher of Country B,” educators will be themselves, making it easier to develop relationships with other CM Educators.

This is what the CM Login page for Instructors looks like.

Logging In

Don’t worry, if you forgot your Action-Ed login information, you can always click the “Lost your password?” link at the bottom; it will take you to the webpage that allows you to reset it.

Logging In

Step 3: Switching Countries

Once inside civicmirror.com instructors can toggle between countries using their “Settings” page. Instructors can also ‘retire’ countries they no longer use. This may help speed up the switching process.

Switching Countries

Step4: Switching Countries Upon Logout

Another way you can switch countries is by simply clicking the “Logout” button. The logout pop-up box now has an option that will allow you to “Switch Countries,” taking you to your settings page.

Switching Countries Upon Logout

This feature has been a long time coming. We hope it excites some of you as much as it excites us. If you have any questions about the new system or need help getting started, please contact us.

Posted in CM News | Comments Off

7 Tips to Get Civic Mirror Underway Quickly

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Civic Mirror

Here are seven tips that will help you get the Civic Mirror off to a fun and fast-paced start.

COMMIT EARLY AND DIVE IN

The goal here is to pique your students’ interest right away. Also, if you plan on linking attitude and effort-based metrics to the game-start money and Hidden Agendas you will assign them with in the Citizen Profiles stage (e.g. punctuality, task completion, participation), then telling them on the first class usually gets students jazzed up right away … and often the ones you would least suspect.

Specifically, I would …

1. Introduce CM on the first day of classes, after you introduce the course content. Then, assign the first set of readings (that correspond to “Reading Check #1” at the back of the Instructor’s Manual) for homework the next day. Tell your students they “can take as many hand-written/printed notes as they like to use for tomorrow’s open book reading check … you just want to ‘check’ that they’ve read it.”

2. Book your computer lab for the Practice Run on your 3rd class. Basically, in the first class you’ll introduce the curriculum and the Civic Mirror. In the second class you’ll conduct the reading check, mark it as a class, and move on to other course-beginning items of business. Then, at the end of the Class 2, assign the second set of readings (corresponding to “Reading Check #2”) for Class 3. In Class 3 you will start with Reading Check #2 and then, instead of marking it as a class, move straight into the Practice Run sequence of events (which are outlined in the Instructor’s Manual). Leave the group-marking of “Reading Check #2” for Class 4.

Remember, because you’ve made the reading checks open book, anyone can succeed … making them “effort” tasks that you could link to the $$ assignments a few weeks down the road.

PLAN TO COMPLETE PRE-GAME EVENTS WITHIN 3 WEEKS

The pre-game events, where students build their nation, are lots of fun and could very easily be extended for quite some time. A few recommendations to keep the Civic Mirror enthusiasm alive and kicking:

3. Set a date for the Hex Auction early on and tell your students about this date. This will keep you focused and keep things moving.

4. Pre-select readings to run along side of the pre-game events and schedule reading checks. The whole point of doing this is to plan what chapters you want to link the Citizen Profile Hidden Agendas and money to so you can pick a “distribution date” in advance. Then, be sure to communicate the readings and the ‘distribution date’ to your students so they can gear up for it.

* Remember to tell your students that the open book reading checks (and any other attitude/effort metrics you decide to use) will be linked to these assignments.

Ultimately, this will force you to plan well, start the course at a good pace, and it will motivate your students to do well. I think you’ll be surprise by how much more your students will read when they know that their open book performance will be linked to their Citizen Profile assignments. I always love warning students (in an endearing manner of course) who don’t do their readings or continually arrive late, “You know, I don’t know how happy your Civic Mirror family is going to be when they see your game-starting bank account statement.” It’s amazing how motivating this is.

5. Have students “Create their National Identity” by the end of the 2nd week. This process takes two, 30-minute chunks of time that can be reserved at the end of two classes that week.

6. Consider skipping the “National Constitution” jigsaw activity if time is a real issue. This activity is GREAT in a civics or government class … but if time is an issue, then this would be event you could skip over then return to once the game is up and running.

7. Plan an “Elections Week” where you commit to completing i) the political party formation, ii) the campaign debates, and iii) the ballot-casting. One week is plenty of time to do this and, in order to reserve class time to cover content and connect how it relates to their developing CM Country, I often assign students to do their campaigning online in the discussion forums.

Hopefully these tips help you get the Civic Mirror off to a fun and quick start!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us!