I have been selected to attend Congress in the Classroom sponsored by the Dirksen Congressional Center and held on the campus of Bradley University in East Peoria, Illinois from July 26-29, 2010.
Congress in the Classroom is a national, award-winning education program now in its 19th year. Developed and sponsored by The Dirksen Congressional Center, the workshop is dedicated to the exchange of ideas and information on teaching about Congress. Forty middle- and high-school social studies teachers and curriculum supervisors from across the country are chosen to attend annually.
The Dirksen Congressional Center is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization in Pekin, Illinois, that seeks to improve civic engagement by promoting a better understanding of Congress and its leaders through archival, research, and educational programs.
Showing posts with label Teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teaching. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Westfield
I interviewed for the Social Studies Supervisor, K-12 position in Westfield on Monday. I think it went pretty well, but I am still awaiting a call to let me know if I will be moving on to the next step.
This is the perfect opportunity for this time in my life for a few reasons. 1) It is in a great district that is similar to Ridge and Montgomery, 2) It is located near Ali's job in Jersey City, 3) It starts on August 24 instead of July 1 like most administration jobs so it would not conflict with my People to People trip or my honeymoon.
The interview was pretty quick - only about 15 minutes - but I think I was on target for most of their questions. I wasn't stumped by anything they brought up and handled the pressure well considering the size of the interview panel. They had the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Director of Human Resources, a principal from elementary, middle, and high school levels, teachers from all three levels, another K-12 supervisor, and a special education teacher present. Each one asked a quick question in that short period of time.
I'm pretty sure they interviewed all of their first round candidates during the afternoon on Monday and they indicated a desire to finish the process by the end of June so I expect to hear something relatively quickly.
This is the perfect opportunity for this time in my life for a few reasons. 1) It is in a great district that is similar to Ridge and Montgomery, 2) It is located near Ali's job in Jersey City, 3) It starts on August 24 instead of July 1 like most administration jobs so it would not conflict with my People to People trip or my honeymoon.
The interview was pretty quick - only about 15 minutes - but I think I was on target for most of their questions. I wasn't stumped by anything they brought up and handled the pressure well considering the size of the interview panel. They had the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Director of Human Resources, a principal from elementary, middle, and high school levels, teachers from all three levels, another K-12 supervisor, and a special education teacher present. Each one asked a quick question in that short period of time.
I'm pretty sure they interviewed all of their first round candidates during the afternoon on Monday and they indicated a desire to finish the process by the end of June so I expect to hear something relatively quickly.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
How to Teach 9/11
I came across the following while transferring files from my old computer to my new one...
Matthew Mingle
September 16, 2002
POSC 311
Writing Prompt #1
How will you explain to your own children someday the causes of 9/11?
As a history education major and future history teacher, I will have the obligation of explaining the causes of 9/11 to hundreds of students. Hopefully that practice will prepare me to explain it to my own children.
I do not believe in offering a one-sided view of history – not in my classes or in my private life. Once my children are old enough to fully grasp some of the issues involved with 9/11, I will do my best to present them with information so that they can make their own judgments. Rather than simplifying the terrorist attacks by arguing that the terrorists were evil and just hated Americans, I plan to explain how those individuals arrived at such a point. In most cases, terrorists grew up with the teachings that the United States acts only for its own self-interest. They are taught a skewed version of Islam, extremist Islam, which argues for violence instead of peace. Perhaps the most important thing I can offer to my children is an understanding of what true Muslims believe in. I, myself, was lucky enough to have a close Muslim friend throughout middle and high school so I learned quite a bit about the faith and the strict tenets it followed. Thanks in a large part to that friendship, I understand that only a minority of Muslims believes in killing innocent people.
Harder to explain will be why we, as Americans, were not able to protect ourselves from the attack. I will explain that Americans felt extremely safe and secure because the chances of some individual or group attacking us on our home soil just seemed ridiculous at the time. Such a mindset was ill informed and placed Americans in an extremely vulnerable position. Chances are pretty good that my children will not be able to comprehend such a world because they will grow up with high-level security screening at airports, high levels of government intervention in private affairs, and security measures that do not even exist today.
My hope is my children’s generation will have learned the lessons of 9/11 and will live in a world where terrorism is not a daily threat, but is something to read about in a history book. Is that a realistic dream? Perhaps not, but if those of us who experienced 9/11 firsthand work hard to avoid another such catastrophe and teach our children to understand and accept people who are different from ourselves, nothing is impossible.
I still follow this stance and spent an extended amount of time in my World Studies classes on the root causes of 9/11 for the first time this year. We traced the historical roots of the attacks as far back as World War I.
Matthew Mingle
September 16, 2002
POSC 311
Writing Prompt #1
How will you explain to your own children someday the causes of 9/11?
As a history education major and future history teacher, I will have the obligation of explaining the causes of 9/11 to hundreds of students. Hopefully that practice will prepare me to explain it to my own children.
I do not believe in offering a one-sided view of history – not in my classes or in my private life. Once my children are old enough to fully grasp some of the issues involved with 9/11, I will do my best to present them with information so that they can make their own judgments. Rather than simplifying the terrorist attacks by arguing that the terrorists were evil and just hated Americans, I plan to explain how those individuals arrived at such a point. In most cases, terrorists grew up with the teachings that the United States acts only for its own self-interest. They are taught a skewed version of Islam, extremist Islam, which argues for violence instead of peace. Perhaps the most important thing I can offer to my children is an understanding of what true Muslims believe in. I, myself, was lucky enough to have a close Muslim friend throughout middle and high school so I learned quite a bit about the faith and the strict tenets it followed. Thanks in a large part to that friendship, I understand that only a minority of Muslims believes in killing innocent people.
Harder to explain will be why we, as Americans, were not able to protect ourselves from the attack. I will explain that Americans felt extremely safe and secure because the chances of some individual or group attacking us on our home soil just seemed ridiculous at the time. Such a mindset was ill informed and placed Americans in an extremely vulnerable position. Chances are pretty good that my children will not be able to comprehend such a world because they will grow up with high-level security screening at airports, high levels of government intervention in private affairs, and security measures that do not even exist today.
My hope is my children’s generation will have learned the lessons of 9/11 and will live in a world where terrorism is not a daily threat, but is something to read about in a history book. Is that a realistic dream? Perhaps not, but if those of us who experienced 9/11 firsthand work hard to avoid another such catastrophe and teach our children to understand and accept people who are different from ourselves, nothing is impossible.
I still follow this stance and spent an extended amount of time in my World Studies classes on the root causes of 9/11 for the first time this year. We traced the historical roots of the attacks as far back as World War I.
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