TravelingChris Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Hi all, I have volunteered to teach government and economics for high schoolers at our local co-op. I have an economics degree and have plenty of experience and knowledge about government and current affairs. IO have worked on campaigns, read papers daily, and generally keep abreast much more than most people about government. I will have these students in class once a week for 50 minutes for 30 weeks. For my own daughter and any other parents that want it, I intend to have them do enough work to get a half credit in both government and economics. Obviously, that would entail work outside the class. Now many of the kids will be in speech or debate and can get hours towards their government or ecomonics by researching a debate topic or writing and performing a speech on some issue. I am very excited about finally teaching a course and want to make it very interesting and informative. I don't want dry readings since I know that both subjects can be fun. I haven't thought either subject before since my oldest didn't do economics with me (we ran out of time) and he did his government through a variety of non text means like reading through the Federalist papers, campaigning, Boy Scout merit badge, and current events readings and discussion. ANy helps for me? I know that I can expenct that some students won't do the work and in this situation, we are facilitators and leave the final grading and the credit giving to the parents. It won't be on my head. However, I would like to help parents who want to make it into a credit class to be able to do so. Basically it seems like since we meet for 15 hours a semester, I will have to give them 3 plus hours of homework a week. Is that how it works? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 Chris, I taught US Government last year in a co-op. I had all year to teach just government and I *still* found it hard to fit everything into a one-hour a week class. Because I only had that one hour each week, I told the kids (and parents) up front that they would have to use the days in between to read, study and prepare for class. I added some projects to the text and readings: Constitution Scavenger Hunt* followed a pending Supreme Court case created the Complete Idiot's Guide to Federalist 51 (i.e. in plain language)(you could do this for any of the Federalist papers you cover) students each prepared a short research paper on an aspect of political parties political cartoon assignment* in class post-election analysis pulic policy presentation (APUSGov covers foreign and domestic policy; these were essentially current event type presentations) We also played Jeopardy for our last class -- had each student compose 10 questions in a Jeopardy category. I also had a separation of powers game that we played for part of one class. It was hard to fit in many extras because we had so much material to cover. If you pm me your e-mail address, I'll send the extras starred above that are in a word document. HTH, Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bclerkin Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Lisa, The Constitution Scavenger Hunt sounds very interesting. What are the details. Thanks, Bernadette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in MD Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 Christina, A plug for my favorite economics book. You may know about it. It's The Worldly Philosophers by Heilbron (sp). It's can only be used as a supplement, but it traces the history of economic thought through short bios of the major economists from Smith on down. It's easy reading, so should have a higher completion rate. There are no economic nuts and bolts to wade through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonor Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Kathy, Thank you for the recommendation. I looked it up on Amazon and it looks great. I also found from the same author Teachings from the Worldly Philosophers. Are you familiar with this one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orthodox6 Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 You beat me to it, Kathy ! I read this in 1972/1973 school year for honors economics class and fell in love with the book ! Christina, A plug for my favorite economics book. You may know about it. It's The Worldly Philosophers by Heilbron (sp). It's can only be used as a supplement, but it traces the history of economic thought through short bios of the major economists from Smith on down. It's easy reading, so should have a higher completion rate. There are no economic nuts and bolts to wade through. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy in MD Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Kathy, Thank you for the recommendation. I looked it up on Amazon and it looks great. I also found from the same author Teachings from the Worldly Philosophers. Are you familiar with this one? No, I may have to check it out now.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyThreeSons Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 At our co-op, they teach Government one semester and then Economics the second semester. Combining them into one semester and then sorting out the time spent to receive the two half credits would drive me crazy .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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