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.