All Blog Posts (15)

In deciding what to write for the February blog, I was scanning through some past issues of the National Council for the Social Studies’ professional journal, Social Education. I came across an article title that caught my eye from January/February 2009 entitled “Teaching Social Studies as a Subversive Activity” (January/February, 2009, p. 40-42) and I thought, “Hmm…sounds interesting.”

 

The article, written by Charles L. Mitsakos (recently retired professor of…

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In last May’s TC blog, I wrote about what 21st Century Education needs to look like for all students—college bound and those working in the trades—to succeed and be competitive in a global world. Over the summer I read an article that speaks to the challenges in meeting this goal. The article is “21st Century Skills: The Challenges Ahead, written by Andrew…

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We hear a lot about how the working environment of the 21^st century will be very different from that of the 20^th century. Constantly we hear of the need to prepare students for a “brave new world.” Education experts extol the virtues of technology and how schools and teachers need to modernize in order to keep up with their students and prepare them for careers in an interconnected world. Pundits and politicians (it’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference…

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For those who may be working on an advanced degree, you might be aware of how colleges and universities are implementing active learning strategies into their instruction. But for those of us who finished our Masters degrees “back in the day” you might be amazed at how extensively many colleges and universities have embraced the methodology and in departments other than education. To be sure, the majority of classes in higher education still rely heavily on the one-way lecture method to…

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Over the past six months, I’ve been posting information on active learning strategies in a variety of contexts: adopting INTERACT simulations to current events with “Black Gold” to explore oil spills and “Gateway” and “Immigrant Journeys” to help students understand U.S. Immigration policies; exploring ways active learning strategies can help address the national dropout problem; incorporating active learning strategies into Advanced Placement classes; and looking at how active learning can…

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If any of you caught President Obama’s State of the Union speech last month, you might have noticed some common themes to my January TC blog “Teaching for America.” The president talked about how the world has changed, how international competitors has gotten stronger, how countries like China and India are adjusting to these changes, and how America also needs to adjust in order to “win the future.” He spoke of the need to educate our kids to meet the challenges of the 21^st…

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Welcome back to the rest of the school year! I hope your time off was well spent with family and friends… and hopefully, some time for yourself.

 

I wanted to share with you a recent article by New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, who has written much lately on the United States in the global economy. In this Op/Ed piece titled, “Teaching for America” he describes the “hole” America’s education system is…

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Season’s Greetings to you all! As you wind down your classes for the upcoming holidays, I’m sure you are looking forward to well-deserved time with family and friends. The holiday break is also a good time to recharge the batteries and be thinking ways to help your student excel in the second half of the school year. As you know, there are a multitude of great resources on active learning strategies on the Internet. In this month’s blog, I am featuring three websites I recently came across…

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For some time now, Advanced Placement teachers have experienced challenges incorporating active learning strategies in their classes due to the AP test’s broad coverage of content and focus on factual recall. But AP teachers are making inroads to incorporating active learning strategies into their classes and moving students beyond knowledge/comprehension learning to higher levels of thinking. In the 2008-2009 school year, researchers at the University of Washington and its LIFE… Continue

You might have noticed recently a lot of chatter in the media about the national dropout rate. Last spring, President Obama spoke on this subject calling it a crisis that the nation cannot afford to accept or ignore. "Not long ago you could drop out of high school and reasonably expect to find a blue-collar job that would pay the bills and help support your family. That's just not the case anymore." the president said at The America’s Promise Alliance Education event at the U.S. Chamber of… Continue

U.S. immigration has always presented a paradox. America is a nation of immigrants, but from the nation’s early beginnings those who came before have had concerns with those who came after. The degree of these concerns often rises and falls with the political seasons and the state of the economy. We’re experiencing such concerns today and students are interested.



Two Interact units that provide students with solid… Continue

The recent oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has raised many questions about the oil exploration industry—how petroleum is created in the ground, where it’s found, how it’s extracted and transported, how it’s used, and what to do when an accident occurs. One great Interact simulation that addresses all these concerns is BLACK GOLD, written by Jay Farnsworth of Waunakee Intermediate School in Waunakee, Wisconsin. In the first few days of the simulation students explore the… Continue

Welcome Back to School! I hope you had a restful and rewarding summer. We had over a dozen new members sign up for Teacher’s Center and look forward to hearing from you all with your insightful comments and fabulous ideas on using Interact in your classroom.

I will be making blog posts containing interesting items and articles on Active Learning Strategies and invite all of you to review, comment and add to as you like.…

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Does anyone have a suggestion for a simulation for me to use with my 6th grade World Cultures and Geography classes?

My name is Diane Findlay. I wrote Book Mountain Expeditions, Genre Journeys, and Dynamic Decades for Interact. I had the pleasure of visiting my grandson's 8th grade language arts class as they field tested Genre Journeys, which was delightful. But I don't have many opportunities to hear from teachers about their experiences with these products "on the front lines." I'd love to know how you've used them and to improve my writing based on your feedback.