click picture to see CTV News video coverage

The Governor General of Canada, David Johnson, chose to visit the one and only school in Calgary area using the Civic Mirror as part of his Western Canadian tour supporting innovative education programs.

CTV News Calgary covered the story, reporting:

“Arbour Lake has been put on the map for developing programs that use cutting-edge technology and focus on community development that really could be replicated across the country.”

“(an) … important stop was a Civic Mirror classroom discussion where students tackled important topics like citizenship, leadership, and personal development.”

The Calgary Herald also covered the story, and in their interview with Governor General Johnson, he shared this about Ms. Bogensberger and Mr. Thompson’s use of the Civic Mirror in their Gr. 9 Social Studies classroom:

“It was marvelous, the Civic Mirror class is a group of students who have created their own utopia called ‘Beautiful Paradiso,’ and they have competing parties to form governments, and they can develop their own industry, and they are developing public policies to develop their community – or their country – as attractive as could be.”

To learn more about the Governor General’s visit to Arbour Lake School in Calgary, click here.

Everyone here on the Civic Mirror team would like to thank and congratulate Ms. Kyra Bogensburger, Mr. Brady Thompson, and their students for the super-incredible use of our program – they have taken it to incredible heights, and they deserve the Governor Generals attention and ALL the credit!

Of all the free trial requests we received in 2011, this one was the best:

From: Brendan
Organization: My house

Comments:  Hello, my name is Brendan. I live in Belleville Ontario, Canada. I am 14 and my friends and I are very interested in civic mirror. We love civics and I was wondering if there was any way I could enjoy this online activity with my friends and family without being apart of a school board or being a teacher. I would be much appreciative if you could send an email back as soon as you can. Thank you very much for your time.

Not only was this validating for everyone on the Civic Mirror team, but it validates that games in education get kids excited about learning!  Well, at least the Civic Mirror does for social studies units and courses!

Maybe we should build an entertainment version of Civic Mirror … (sigh) So many things to do.

Jami Samione, a teacher from Maplewood Middle School in Edmonds, WA who has been using the Civic MIrror with her students the last couple of years, received a teaching award for her efforts in promoting American history, traditions and institutions, to teach and reinforce citizenship education topics, and to promote democratic values and beliefs.

Newspaper coverage here!

Nominated by a parent who was thrilled to see her child coming home day after day pumped up about Ms. Samione’s social studies class, Jami remains humble and soft-spoken about the honor. To quote her:

“Ugh… I am honored but also don’t love the attention.”

Sorry Jami: We know there are lots of other super-awesome educators in Edmonds using Civic Mirror in their classrooms and taking it to great heights like you are, but this is worth showcasing!

And her students’ posts in the Civic Mirror discussion forums back up the accolades from her award.

Check out some her students’ replies to Ms. Samione’s question:

“Given what you have learned in Civic Mirror, what do you think is the most important civic responsibility of every American citizen?”

Nikki of Snorlax City wrote:

“I think that one of the most important responsibilities for citizens is that people need to speak up and say what they believe in and if their voice isn’t heard enough then they need to do something about that, like becoming part of government or something like that. I think people need to be more involved and share what they have to say!“

Cami of Unicornville wrote:

“After playing Civic Mirror, I think I can use the things I learned in the game and use them in the real world by not just sitting there watching everyone else do the work but actually trying to do something for our country and not just ourselves. I know to make our country better we have to stand up for what we believe in and that’s just what I’ll do.“

The Background Info:

During the first year of the country, both farms were producing food for the people, and business was good. As the demand increased, prices soared, and many citizens went to the government to complain about the issue. The government, wanting to please these dissatisfied citizens, put a cap on food prices, as well as the number of food units each individual could consume.

As you can imagine, the farmers weren’t too happy about this, and so the Farmer’s Market Co-op was born. As farmer and co-op founder Jordan stated:

Basically, there is a $400 fee to become a member of the Co-op, $200 to each farmer. Myself and Alex keep a list of our members, and those who are a part of the Farmer’s Market Co-op receive priority when it comes to buying food at the price set by the government. We reviewed the constitution extensively before implementing this organization, and we were pleased to find that we violated no laws as long as we sold the food itself at the price cap, and did not blatantly refuse to sell to anyone who was not a member. We were very pleased to report that all members of the Co-op received food this year.

Brilliant isn’t it? These students could have given up and simply sold the food at the set price, watching profits fall, and doing nothing about it. But they didn’t. They got creative, read over the constitution and found a way around it.

I really love this story. Creativity is an asset in all areas, and you can see this in the way that these students have been able to find a way around their predicament. In real life we often become stuck in our own little worlds with our set ways of doing things, and we never extend ourselves enough to discover our potential and life’s possibilities.

 So while the idea of paying membership money to supermarkets before they allow me to shop there horrifies me, I think this is such a great example of how Civic Mirror is not just teaching students about social studies course content, but how it’s teaching them to think outside to box, to dream big, to try new things, and to not just to exist in the world, but to really be a part of it.

A dude named John Locke said the following, and I paraphrase:
WE NEED GOVERNMENT IN ORDER TO PROTECT OURSELVES FROM

(drum roll please)

OURSELVES.

Do we need government to protect ourselves from ourselves? We know that everyone will have a different opinion, and that there is no right or wrong answer to this question. But the discussion is one that has kept philosophers thinking for many years, and has these 10^th Grade students thinking deeply about our government, our world and human nature.

Many students believe that the above statement is correct, as Garner states here:

I think all there is to say is, look at every nation without a strong government. Their counties crumble because war lords take over, and citizens are forced to live being afraid for their lives and living in poverty. Not saying life with a strong government is perfect, bad things still happen and people still have very poor living conditions, but as for the general public, life is good with the iron fist strength of government.

The ‘iron fist strength of government’. Interesting theory Garner, and I’m sure a lot of people agree with you. But I wonder, is there a point at which a government can become too strong for its people? Leah. F has some interesting things to say:

 The government itself is made up of humans not unlike everyone else. There are people in our government who are not there because they want to help people; they are there to get power and money and to make things go their way. This causes problems. Our government overcomes these problems by having many representatives in power. However, our government is still flawed and it will never be perfect…  If everyone was responsible, in control of their actions and had some general common sense I think that the role of the government would be a lot smaller. This however will never happen to everyone because NO ONE is perfect and no one ever will be.

No one is perfect, and we know this, yet so many people still expect perfection from our leaders. Why is this? Through the Civic Mirror, citizens of Bacon Falls are thinking on, and discussing, an idea central to the whole structure of our nation. How great is that!

Things (in the open market) went awfully horrible. Many people did not get residence and food units because only the three apartment complexes, one house and one farm were powered. Now, not only are we getting less wellbeing points, one person in our family is sure to die plus three other random deaths. Well done citizens. Of course the country is in jeopardy.

Information from Jaskiran paints an even bleaker picture:

The condition of our country is probably the worst. The gap between the rich and the poor is great – the poorest citizen is me with only $14 but the richest is Sadiya with approximately $15000. The gap is ridiculous. Many people are homeless, have no food and many do not have education.

Citizens are homeless, with no money, no education, no food and family members about to die!!! What is happening in United IB Empire? What can citizens do about their circumstances? Shefali has an idea:

The most important issue of the all, is the E/I unit crisis. Many necessary hexes are unpowered such as security. Many people spent a fortune on their hexes and since there is a shortage of E/I units the money spent will all go to waste! Due to the shortage, U IB E is in jeopardy! Something must be done about the unpowered hexes or our country’s condition will worsen!

How did this happen? Who is in control of E/I units? And why are all the necessary hexes unpowered? Richa shares her opinion:

Like in real life, financial planning and money management are very important in The Civic Mirror, and I found that everyone put themselves first before meeting the needs of others, which is expected and normal. However, some are suffering and many blame it on those who used the E/I units for development. I believe that the people with the E/I didn’t anticipate the effect that their actions would have on others, but this has definitely led to our country being in jeopardy. This relates to real life since one person’s decisions will affect many, especially when that person is in a position of power.

Are the people who own the E/I units to blame? Has urban development and bad judgement calls brought about the death of citizens? Could citizens have anticipated the effect their choices would have on the nation? These are tough questions, and sadly, I can’t answer them. In The Civic Mirror, as in real life, the decisions of one person can greatly affect many. How can we tell what effect our decisions will have?

The citizens of United IB Empire have a major crisis on their hand, but can they work through it? Will they be able to work out a way to power their country and provide food and housing for the people? Or will the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. As we wait to see how the nation deals with crisis, we want the citizens of United IB Empire to know that The Civic Mirror community hopes that you can turn everything around.

Citizens of Catywompus are in disagreement as to how well the government session went, and you will soon see why.

Students like Julia C. can see the good points:

“This government event worked well, because we all pretty much knew what we were doing when it came to bringing forth a bill. This was a great opportunity to work with our classmates, and learn to work together to bring the good out of the Civic Mirror game. I’m looking forward to seeing how well this game is going to be!”

It’s great to hear that some people had a good time, but there is disturbing news coming out of Catywompus, as Joey. R says:

“Nothing worked very well. Jackson and his conspiracy passed what they wanted and stopped what they didn’t. There were other laws that were completely for the government, such as no one in the original gov. has to pay taxes.”

No one in the government has to pay taxes? How is that going to work? If the government are exempt from paying taxes, what is to stop them imposing huge taxes on the citizens? And how can the people trust the government to work in their best interests if they don’t have a stake in what happens? Carl. A has some even more alarming things to say:

“This government session did not perform well. First off, there is a government conspiracy, which made it very had to pass laws that should be passed. We citizens need power as well to prevent a corrupt government. Already the president is sending death threats, so the group of citizens should have the power to call the vote to impeach the president. We really need to get organized and turn Catywompus into a thriving modern day nation.”

The President is sending death threats?! To who, and for what reason we are not sure yet, but if you have any information regarding the matter, we promise that if you step forward to expose the President no harm will come to you.

Over the coming weeks, can the government and the people pull together to turn Catywompus into a thriving nation? Will the citizens listen to one another and work together for the good of the people? Or will the threat of a corrupt government and a secret conspiracy bring about the end?

Up until now, however, Civic Mirror has not done a good job of showcasing all these awesome stories for everyone within the CM Community to see. But today we are proud to announce the release of CM2.0′s “CM World News Feed,” which feeds the most recent discussion topics, updated wiki pages, and simulated country news into one easy-to-use page. The CM World News Feed will allow students and teachers to check out one another’s hotly-debated legislation, controversial Town Hall topics, political/social initiatives, and more.

To give you an idea of the great stories coming out of Civic Mirror classrooms just today, check out the image below:

While you need to be an educator or a student with a Civic Mirror account to see the CM World News Feed, we’ll do our best to keep everyone up-to-speed with the most interesting ones coming out of The CM Trenches with this blog.

And seriously, if you’re a social studies teacher (of history, government, economics, civics, law, etc.) and haven’t requested a Free Trial, what are you waiting for? You’re missing out!

8th Grade students from Ms. Jamie Samione’s social studies class at Maplewood Middle School in Lynwood, WA, who make up Snorlax Sity, have just completed a Civic Mirror simulated year, and have valuable advice to students just starting the game.

The reflections of this class really stood out to me, and impressed me a lot. The class has had some great insights about life and the real world from what’s happened within the game, which is really exciting to see. The students are willing to learn from their mistakes instead of hide from them, and I can see that this will make their next ‘year’ of CM even better, as well as being a skill they will take with them from the game.

Emily shares:

“In my opinion the most important civic responsibility for every American citizen is to manage your money. If you do that then that helps you create a shelter, provide food, healthcare, security, and education for your family.”

While Sydney Boland thinks that:

“the most important responsibility is to speak up if you think something is not going good. I think this is important because if you don’t speak up nothing is going to change. I learned this in Civic Mirror because there was something i didn’t like that was going on and i just thought that someone else was going to bring it up but no one did and nothing changed.”

This is so true Sydney! We often spend so much time complaining about all the things that we see going wrong, but rarely step up to work to change it. There are always going to be things that happen out of our control, but if you have an opportunity to create change, go for it! It might start in the classroom, but this is the very essence of active citizenship, and what a great place to start learning about it.

Clayton reasons that:

“I think the most important thing is to not focus too much on a single part of your life. You need to be aware of everything you need to get and the status of getting it. (Mostly units). Also, you need to really think about your hidden agenda.”

Josie also has some great advice:

“After playing Civic Mirror, I think that if you want to have a great and fun time playing this game, you need to be active with the game and contribute your ideas. When you play Civic Mirror, you have to make smart decisions, for instance, keeping your family alive by feeding them and giving them a place to live. Similar to real life, you need to keep your family alive and supply them with the right needs. In this game, you don’t always get what you want and you have to live with what you have.”

We certainly don’t always get what we want, but it can take some people a while to figure this out. Working with what you have, making smart decisions and providing for your family, sounds like a good plan.

Snorlax Sity residents have completed their first year, and now have an opportunity to stand up, make changes where they see a need, continue fighting for their family,  and rise up as a nation. Will they take this opportunity??

If you’re a BC educator and want to keep up to speed on what’s happening province-wide in the subject area, stay plugged into Dimensions.

Thanks Dimensions!