Postgame Analysis

As a means of reflecting on what I have gotten out of this class the past four months I thought it would be appropriate to share a tool I created this afternoon to use with my students. My AP Government class will be sitting for the AP exam in a little over two weeks. Before I enrolled in this class, the process of reviewing for said exam would entail my creating a series of "old school" handouts from which they could work. Now, thanks to Educ. 584, I feel extremely comfortable whipping up a quick and flashy review using a Web 2.0 tool like Popplet. The mini presentation above is on the formal powers (those listed in the Constitution) of the President. This is an area of confusion for many students as the document lists very few specific powers of the office and the AP exam will purposely attempt to trip up students by asking them to list a formal power. If students understand what exactly the formal powers are then it is quite easy to remember that anything else, like the Bully Pulpit, is an informal power.

The true benefit of this class for me as a teacher has been the opportunity to have my students demonstrate their knowledge in ways other than written assessments. The digital story my students made on the Great Depression, as well as those they created as part of my literacy project were extremely powerful and well done. Technology will be a bigger part of my instructional repertoire from this point on.

Literacy Project Done!!!

Students have completed their digital stories and my class as a whole has watched and critiqued them. Some of my students have posted their stories on YouTube and I am in the process of getting them all collected in one common area for everyone to see.  Just to whet your appetite I have put a couple of them above. One is on immigration and the other is on the 2012 election.  Let me know what you think!
I have also added a video on 9/11 made by one of my students. It is very powerful.

Quizlet: A Great Review Tool

If you're like me you have those students who just can't get some of the main ideas no matter how many times you might go over them in class. I found a Web 2.0 tool which might help those laggards. Quizlet allows the use to make up flashcards to help them study for an upcoming test or quiz. I spent a little time exploring the site today and made up a set of review cards focusing on the terms and ideas that my students frequently misunderstand. I could post these cards on a blog or quickly create a link to them before an assessment to help ensure each student's success. This is a quick and easy tool to use and I plan to avail myself of it in the future.

In the meantime, I challenge you to go through the set of twenty government vocabulary terms and see how many of them you know.  Good luck!

Prezi: A New Presentation Tool

Here's my first attempt at using a new Web 2.0 tool. I chose to try the presentation tool Prezi and my first go at it was pretty good if I do say so myself. I created a rather simple means of introducing the political philosophy of John Locke. I found Prezi to be rather easy to use, once I worked out the initial kinks, and it even allows you to imbed YouTube videos and other links into the presentations. I think that I will try this presentation out on my students when we get back from vacation to see if it helps them better understand this topic.

Digital Story-Final Cut

Well here it is. The story has been edited and the music ends when the images are over. This production was made using iMovie which is generally a really good vehicle for making these stories. The one obstacle for us at school is that we do not have any Apple computers here at the building so it was impossible to work on it during the day unless someone remembered to bring their laptop to school. I appreciate all of the honest feedback my classmates provided and your critiques made the final product much better.

This process has been so educationally beneficial, and has ignited student enthusiasm, that I think I am going to expand the assignment into my literacy project. I am very excited to see what my students create.