Help Rewrite Michigan’s Social Studies Standards!

We would be interested in hearing your thoughts!

Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson offers some great content for keeping current on the Immigration conversation.  Is this something you might use in your classroom?

What are your thoughts?

An understanding of our recent history is critical to our understanding of what is going on in Washington today.

How the Democrats Lost Their Way on Immigration

At the 6th annual Deeper Learning conference in San Diego recently, we learned how intense and broad-based this “movement” has become.  Jeff Bush, the creator of our Electronic Learning Modules (ELMs) on the subject of “Exploring Immigration & The American Dream” attended the conference for the first time along with George Colburn, the Director of the Immigration project for Contemporary Learning Systems.

During our visit, we took time to interview four leaders of the movement.  Now, we have the highlights of these interviews on a video reel that we want to share with others who believe that there is room for improvement in how students learn.  Feel free to download the reel and share with those you know who are interested in the subject.

Jeff, a Social Studies Facilitator at Kent Innovation High in Grand Rapids, noted the following after his three days at the conference:

There are educators that want to change the world.  There are educators that want to revolutionize what the classroom looks like – for the sake of their students, for the sake of their communities and for the sake of their own sense of personal and professional satisfaction in the classroom.”

Our goal is to offer “Deeper Learning” on the subject of Immigration through our package of seven video  programs and seven companion ELMs. No issue is more important to the future of America than the issue of immigration – and we will never be able to adopt fair laws and just  policies on this issue without a full understanding of the subject area.

We have classroom teachers examine the topic thoroughly through the subject areas of economics, history, sociology and civics.  We plan to have the complete package completed by the time of the annual conference of the National Council of Social Studies in Chicago in late November.  If you are attending, look for our presentation on the conference schedule and visit us at our exhibit area.

Be in touch with us at any time if you want more information.  All seven videos are available now, plus an early draft of the economics ELM.  To learn more about the “Deeper Learning Movement” view our video from the 6th Annual Deeper Learning Conference.

This is a statement from Jeff Bush, Social Studies teacher at Innovation High School, Kent County ISD, and creator of our ELM series on immigration:

Students found the “Exploring Immigration” video series professional, organized, intriguing, with great information on immigration and history. One student said she felt as if she were watching the History Channel. Many students thought the information presented helped them better understand immigration and the world.

For me, one of the greatest benefits in using “Exploring Immigration” is the quality of the experts interviewed in the video series. “Exploring Immigration” captured some of the best minds in government, non-profit, advocacy, and academia. Exposing students to that level of expertise offers great opportunities to analyze ideas, weigh those ideas against the evidence presented, and apply that analysis to a real-world issue. I believe that exposing students to this level of expertise will ultimately help them succeed in their post-secondary lives.

Another major benefit of “Exploring Immigration” was the chance to connect current events with my course content in an objective and unbiased manner. When I used “Exploring Immigration” there were many political controversies developing on the national scene, and some of the controversies were specifically related to the issue of immigration. However, our class stayed above the fray of political controversy because “Exploring Immigration” does not advocate a position. The experts interviewed represent all sides of the issue, and the video series does a great job balancing the ideological spectrum of the immigration debate.