Category: Featured

Mar032015March 3, 2015March 3, 2015NoCommentby Matt Henchen

Political Literacy – What it is and why we should teach it.

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What is political literacy? Political literacy means having the basic skills, understandings, and attitudes required to take an active and well educated role in a democratic society.  Why should schools teach political literacy. In a world with so many problems in need of political solutions we need citizens who are capable of filtering through all of…

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Mar032015March 3, 2015March 3, 2015NoCommentby Matt Henchen

Rethinking Politics in the Classroom by Daniel Judt

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This was an excellent article written by the son of Tony Judt in The Nation.  The article is no longer available on The Nation’s website, but I was able to resurrect the article by finding a cached version of the page.  (Note: the link to the article on The Nation’s website now appears to be working)…

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Mar032015March 3, 2015March 3, 2015NoCommentby Matt Henchen

Great Framework for Creating Engaging Student Work

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  Qualities of Engaging Student Work A critical factor for improving learning lies in providing high-quality work for students- work that engages students, work that enables students to learn what they need in order to succeed in the world. The traits of engaging student work listed below evolved from Dr. Phillip Schlechty’s book, Working on…

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Mar032015March 3, 2015March 3, 2015NoCommentby Matt Henchen

Heeding Dworkin’s Call for Contemporary Politics in U.S. Classrooms

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The following is an excerpt from an article entitled “Three Questions for America“, written by the late Ronald Dworkin.  The excerpt helps explain the purpose of this blog, which is to promote the collaborative development of a new school civics course that helps all students develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and dispositions required to take…

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Jan282015January 28, 2015January 28, 2015NoCommentby Matt Henchen

Climate Change Argument Map

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Demonstration of Proficiency: Critical Literacy (CL2: Analysis)  Why are we learning this?   Being able to break down and identify the main arguments of a text is not something you need to learn just for school.  Finding bias, incorrect information, and main arguments is a life skill. Procedure for Text Mark-Up and Argument Mapping Identify…

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Oct292014October 29, 2014October 29, 2014NoCommentby Matt Henchen

Freedom Riders – Great Video on Civil Rights Era

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ABOUT THE FILM FREEDOM RIDERS is the powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the…

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Oct292014October 29, 2014October 29, 2014NoCommentby Matt Henchen

Do the Math – New Film on Climate Change

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Like most people, Bill (environmentalist and co-founder of 350.org), is not an activist by nature. There’s really not that many people whose greatest desire it to go out and fight the system. His theory of change was that he’ll write his book, people will read it and they’ll change. But that’s not how change happens….

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Oct272014October 27, 2014October 27, 2014NoCommentby Matt Henchen

Vermont Washington County District 7 House of Representatives Election

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Who are the two candidates you would vote for and why? Please write a brief post on your personal blog. Maxine Grad (I) http://maxinegrad.com/ http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/56030/maxine-grad#.VE5Cv5PF8jE http://www.valleyreporter.com/index.php/en/news/news/9976-maxine-grad-seeks-re-election Adam Greshin (D) http://ballotpedia.org/Adam_Greshin http://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/110557/adam-greshin#.VE5ClJPF8jE http://valleyreporter.com/index.php/en/news/news/9966-greshin-running-for-re-election No website found Ed Read (I) http://ballotpedia.org/Ed_Read http://www.valleyreporter.com/index.php/en/news/news/9860-read-announces-run-for-vermont-state-house No website found Heidi Spear (I) http://heidispear.org/ http://www.valleyreporter.com/index.php/en/news/news/9859-heidi-spear-running-for-state-representative Photo Credit: http://creativeoutbursts.smugmug.com/


Sep222014September 22, 2014September 22, 2014NoCommentby Matt Henchen

Make Fire, Spread Fire

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This is a video I made a few years ago to illustrate my beliefs about 21st century skills.  In my opinion, it’s not just about teaching the latest digital technologies – it’s also about teaching some of the most time honored skills.  It’s about teaching our students how to make a fire with their bare…

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Sep222014September 22, 2014September 11, 2017NoCommentby Matt Henchen

Girls Rock The Capitol Vermont

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Every year, Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains invites girls ages 15-18 to join our Girls Rock the Capitol Program as interns! Girls work side-by-side with female State Representatives in Vermont to get a behind-the-scenes look at state government, learn about advocacy, and how to enact change in the world. This year’s program…

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