My son is in 8th grade. He is in an innovative Social Studies Class this year. I expect this to interest the DKos community because the class is heavily internet based.
The first week of school, parents went to an introductory presentation by the teacher on what made this class special.
One comment from the teacher that night blew me away:
The world is changing so fast that my job is to prepare your children to use tools that haven't been invented to solve problems that don't exist yet.
All of their work this year will be on a wiki: Collaboration Nation
In addition, each student will be creating blogs: teacher's blog
There is not a lot of content for the 2008-2009 school year, but you can take a look at the first posts, and the 2007-2008 classes' work is also there.
If you decide to check this out, please remember that these are 8th graders. Comments are encouraged, as the teacher and students do want to know that they are being noticed. Comments are moderated before they appear on the site, but authors can see them, so do not be hurtful.
What is the job of middle school "social studies classes?"
- Things being how they are, they have to prepare kids to pass tests on a standardized curriculum.
- They should teach kids how to study and learn new material about other cultures and historical eras, in addition to current events.
- They should prepare students to become citizens of the community.
- They should spark creative thinking and writing.
How does Collaboration Nation work:
- The curriculum is the basic 8th grade curriculum for my town. Only the teaching methods are unique.
- The textbooks gather dust in the corner and there will not be as many trips to the library to check-out books, although they will use printed materials in addition to the internet. Students are taught how to use (and avoid misusing) Net resources such as Wikipedia, search engines, blogs, etc. Copyright rules and Net-compliant source identification is taught and strictly enforced. Students are encouraged to blog ad-lib on current events in addition to some blogging assignments. Student assignments will be completed collaboratively via wiki, where in addition to the teacher, other students and the entire net world will be able to see and comment on their work.
- The students are prepared to be Netizens. They are taught tools and techniques for communication worldwide. They are taught Nettiquette. They will have collaborative projects with students in other schools, including one in Australia; their first major project is to prepare for an election debate via web-cam with a class from Kansas, with a class from Long Island acting as moderators.
- The students are taught and encouraged to do multi-media presentations. Last year, one team did a presentation on Lewis and Clark from the point of view of the animals whose habitats they tromped through on their expedition. The narrators were talking prairie dogs. Getting the facts right is key, but creativity is given room to grow. Students are encouraged to adapt their presentations as they get feedback from peers so they can create better finished products.
The teacher was somewhat defensive in his presentation to the parents. Apparently there had been concerns about whether the students would really learn the material, and some parents were concerned about net-safety and other internet related issues. I think he had all of the parents in my session at hello.
I hope I have also sparked your interest, and you will check out this innovative program and encourage it in schools in your community. I'm learning about it as my son goes through it and I'll add new diaries throughout the school year.