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With the U.S. presidential election less than a month away, the presidential campaigns are in full swing. Each candidate is busy raising campaign funds and vying with each other to promote their messages and views. It’s a fortuitous time to show students how the campaign process works, and how voter attitudes often change over time. Inevitably, many early frontrunners fizzle out, while other political contenders slog along in the shadows until some aspect of their campaign happens to catch the popular imagination. While political campaigns are often viewed as either high drama or theatres of the absurd, they are still a vitally important element in the democratic process.

Recently, the G20 Summit was held in Cannes, France to discuss world financial markets and a system of monetary reforms for some troubled European economies. This year, the discussions focused heavily on Greece, whose citizens are rebelling against austerity measures recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to prevent the Greek economy – and quite possibly the world economy – from collapse. While the financial discussions may be a snorefest for many students, it’s vital for them at all grade levels to understand the concept of financial debt and its consequences.

“Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of.”

– Henry Wheeler Shaw

Students rarely feel blasé about modern and contemporary art. Generally speaking, they are either captivated by it or bemused by it – "Geez, I could do that!" is a common response. Whatever their attitude, student reaction to such art is honest and visceral. One byproduct of the "I could do that" attitude towards modern art is that students often find it more accessible and less intimidating than other types of art that stress realism. Less intimidating material tends to allow students to approach the subject with less trepidation and with more tolerance regarding mistakes that can occur when creating their own artwork.

In order for students to excel on standardized tests, most of their learning must focus on core subjects. Teachers are often most comfortable teaching in these areas, anyway, since they are the focus of most teachers’ formal training. Success in core subjects ultimately brings funding to schools.

Creating activities and units that effectively place students “in the shoes” of key characters in the past is what sets the best history teachers apart from the good history teachers.  Most people can describe events from the past to their students.  Many of them can even explain these events in a way that is meaningful and memorable.  Some teachers take it to the next level by introducing primary sources to their students, allowing them to see artifacts of the actual events so they can form a connection to the material they are learning.  The best teachers strive to create a bond between their students and the characters they are studying.

In a small Massachusetts village in 1692, two young girls began having a series of fits that quickly afflicted other girls and young women in the town. Finding no physical cause for the fits, local physicians quickly dubbed it the work of the devil. The girls were thought to be possessed through witchcraft, and they quickly accused three village women of having cast the evil spells. As the news rapidly spread through the New England region, other girls suffered similar afflictions in neighboring towns, and increasingly numbers of women (and some men) were thus accused of witchcraft. In the span of four months, more than 150 people stood accused of witchcraft in the region, and 24 died as a result.

The human love affair with ghosts and monsters has a long history, and reached a zenith in the mid-to-late 1800s. Writers such as Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker and many others crafted stories of the supernatural, delighting their audiences with frightening tales of mystery, curses, and sometimes madness. Commonly known as Gothic fiction, the genre is still popular today, thanks to contemporary authors such as Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, and Anne Rice.

“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.”
John Dewey

I have written about this quote before, and I love how it reminds me that teaching is a dynamic career.  Teaching is not something you “get good at” so you can coast through the years.  Excellent teachers are always learning and constantly adapting the tools and techniques they use with their students.  As the world changes and technology evolves, these teachers embrace these changes and bring new tools and techniques into the classroom.