The Civic Mirror is a tool that helps innovative teachers bring the 21st century into their classrooms. Like any tool, users must be creative and inventive to get the best results. One such innovator is Carly Althauser of College Place Middle School in Edmonds, Washington. In this post we showcase Carly and her innovations.
Carly’s History With The Civic Mirror
Carly, now well into her second year using the Civic Mirror, has found the program beneficial to students of all types. From the enthusiastic learner to students struggling with a learning disability to those who are just going through the motions, Carly has found that “learning moves beyond textbooks and allows—actually, demands—that students learn through experiences.” This process of learning, experiencing, reflecting, and connecting is the corner stone of the Civic Mirror philosophy.
Carly’s Innovations
Carly has created several new documents that have helped her students better understand the complexities of government and economics while using the Civic Mirror.
First, she created the Political Party Caucus (Middle School) document. By breaking the complex caucus process down into clear instructions, Carly’s made it easier for her students to understand the process more clearly while they are experiencing it. Her Political Party Caucus document includes:
- an outline a caucus and its objectives,
- tips to help students choose a party platform from (i) their own thoughts and values, and (ii) their Civic Mirror hidden agenda,
- a nomination form so everyone in the party knows which members are running for each positions.
Carly also created the Handouts for Government Members (Middle School Version) document. This handout explains what the responsibilities for each political position are (e.g. senator, house rep, president, etc.). It also clearly outlines how student politicians go about creating a bill, allowing them to take their experiential learning to a higher level more quickly.
Additionally, Carly created the Intro To Hidden Agenda Skeletal Notes Sheet (Middle School Version) which is a brilliant cloze activity that challenges students to recollect what they learned about the political spectrum before receiving their Civic Mirror hidden agendas. By working through this activity, students prior knowledge is activated, increasing the likelihood that it will be remembered into the future, and making every students’ hidden agenda assignment more relevant and rich with context.
Excellence in Teaching
By creating these documents, Carly has done several things:
- shown a commitment to teaching and learning by creating documents that her students will understand,
- achieved ‘student buy-in,’ which has
- increased engagement, which has
- improved learning and participating in her classroom, which has
- helped her students learn about U.S. government, history, and society in a 21st century way.
With such a mind for innovation and a desire to get the best from her students, it will be exciting to see where Carly goes from here.
To access Carly’s documents, visit the For Educators space on civicmirror.com. If you don’t have a Civic Mirror account, Request a Free Trial now.
Keep your eyes out on our blog as we’ll continue to showcase teachers using innovative methods to engage their students.
