May 6, 2025 • 36 mins
What does it truly look like to empower students as citizens? Justin Glodowski, a 14-year veteran teacher from Wisconsin, reveals practical strategies that transform students from passive learners into active civic participants.
Justin's approach begins with a foundational belief: if we want students to become engaged citizens, we must first teach them how to discuss difficult topics productively. Drawing from his experience teaching AP Government to freshmen, he shares how establishing clear discussion norms creates a classroom environment where students can tackle controversial issues more effectively than many adults on social media.
The magic happens when students take ownership of their learning. Through congressional simulations where students draft legislation on issues from corn mazes to taxation reform, they experience the complexity of governance firsthand. Justin's Socratic seminars—complete with peer evaluation scorecards—develop crucial skills for democratic participation while making abstract concepts tangible.
Perhaps most valuable is Justin's framework for discussing controversial topics through the lens of constitutionality rather than personal opinion. By encouraging students to think like constitutional scholars rather than simply sharing feelings, he elevates classroom discourse and builds critical thinking skills essential for citizenship.
Beyond specific activities, Justin emphasizes the importance of teacher collaboration and professional development. His podcast "Engage" exemplifies his commitment to sharing resources that make civics education interactive and meaningful. When asked what gives him hope, his answer is simple yet profound: students genuinely want to understand their world, and when given the opportunity, they demonstrate remarkable capacity for thoughtful civic dialogue.
Ready to transform your approach to civics education? Listen now to discover specific strategies you can implement immediately to create your own laboratory for democracy.
The Arizona Constitution Project
Check Out Our Free Lessons on Arizona History and Government!
Follow us on:
Twitter
Linked In
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
Website
Interested in a Master's Degree? Check out the School of Civic and Economic Leadership's Master's in Classical Liberal Education and Leadership
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
um, I we have not done a one-on-one podcast yet
with one of our teachers, so Iam very excited today to have my
friend justin.
We've actually known each other, for we were trying to figure
out how many years but, likejustin said, years prior, or to
covid, just everything is weirdnow.
Um, we went to the nationalconstitution center Summer
(00:23):
Institute together and I meanthere's lots of favorite
memories from Philly, but wewere talking about, you know
that you're a history teacher ora teacher of the constitution.
When you're going out to dinnerin Philadelphia, you're hanging
out at a restaurant, everybodyelse is watching sports and the
people that you're with arewatching political debates.
(00:43):
it it was fun, like that wholething was fun.
So, justin, I'm going to letyou introduce yourself for our
viewers before we get startedtoday talking about empowering
students.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Sure, and I'm Justin Glodowski.
I'm from Marshfield, wisconsin,so kind of central northern
Wisconsin.
I've been teaching forapproximately 14 years and I
teach AP US Gov, I teach APcomparative government, I teach
a class on genocide and humanrights and I teach some
(01:18):
psychology classes as well Kindof a variety of different
classes.
I do host my own social youknow social studies podcast
called Engage, where I kind oftalk about social studies
engagement opportunities and youknow I love getting a chance to
share you know differentstrategies and talk about civics
(01:38):
.
I've worked with ASU and youknow the state of Wisconsin to
work on different civicsprograms and I'm excited to
share whatever I can share withyou guys.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I am just excited to have you on.
I think one of my favoritethings about this cohort is
there are people from differentstates who teach different
things, and the magic that cametogether in this cohort was just
, I mean, putting those lessonsup, and I will, for our
listeners in our show notes, puta couple of my favorite ones
(02:11):
from Justin, because I taughtAPGov too.
So it was always really fun forme to look at some of the APGov
ones, because I'm like, oh man,I want to go back in the
classroom and I want to do that.
But today we're talking aboutempowering students.
We're really trying to explorehow educators can inspire and
equip students to become active,informed participants in our
(02:33):
democracy, and really we'regoing to share some practical
strategies, roll out examples.
I mean, justin is a practicingteacher, he is in the classroom,
and this is to me veryimportant and I've said it
before.
I taught for 17 years.
It was wonderful, but I did notteach in the middle of the
pandemic and I have not taughtafter, and so it is a very, very
(02:55):
different world.
We always want to make sure wehave experts on.
So I guess my first questionfor you, justin, is what does
empowering students in civicsmean to you.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I mean, when I think about civics in general, I think
about it as how can I help mystudents to have kind of the
skills and the knowledge thatthey can go off and become just
like citizens of the UnitedStates or citizens of the world?
I almost think of each of myclasses like a stepping stone.
If they're taking USGov,they're learning about like how
(03:28):
can I be a citizen of the UnitedStates?
If they're moving on to AP,comparative or the Human Rights
class, we're talking about likebig global issues and how things
are connected.
How can I, you know, pass on mystudents to the outside world
and know that they have theskills to participate Not saying
that they're going to or thatthere's any guarantee there, but
(03:48):
just making sure they kind ofknow how to be involved and have
the knowledge and the skills tobe active participants if they
want to.
And I certainly want to showthem that there is potential to
make an impact If there's some,if there's a concern, anytime in
their life.
They know that there's a way toto make a difference if they
(04:11):
want to, to be engaged if theywant to.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And I love that you talk about kind of that stepping
stones right, because we don'twant to automatically assume
that students know how to becitizens.
Right, you know we start themin assume that students know how
to be citizens right, you knowwe start them in kindergarten
and talk about citizens of, likeour classroom and these little
things, and then it gets biggerand bigger and bigger and, like
you said, by the time they'rekind of coming through high
school, it's citizens of theUnited States and of the world.
(04:39):
How do you help studentsconnect civic learning to real
life issues that they care about?
Because one of the things Inotice is, if students don't
think it's relevant to them,they don't tend to care, which
is fair.
So how do you help them connect?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
that and that can be one of the more challenging
things for me.
I do teach AP Gov to freshmen,so I'm seeing them right at the
beginning of their high schooltime, their high school
experience.
They're not like right beforevoting, they're not right before
, you know, exiting high school.
It's from the start, which insome ways is kind of nice.
There's not that pressure oflike you got to prepare them to
(05:15):
like vote this year or becomeengaged because they're on their
way out.
It's a chance to kind of engagethem in stuff with maybe a
little less pressure.
It's a chance to kind of engagethem in stuff with maybe a
(05:39):
little less pressure and I liketo just make the class, as you
know, connected to them aspossible and really as freshmen
they kind of feel like they'venever had a chance to like give
their own thoughts.
Lot of education where peoplehave shared all these different
concepts and these differentthings.
They've learned about thesedifferent historical events and
political events, but they neverhad a chance to just like
interact with others and discussthings.
And I think that's like one ofthe skills I really harp on a
lot early on in the year is howcan I give my students more
(06:00):
opportunities to discuss major,real political topics.
So making sure that I have, youknow, real political topics
that they're interested inengaging about.
And we go through all sorts oflike good discussion norms and
what a discussion looks like andwhat a bad discussion looks
(06:23):
like.
And we talk about how, likesocial media, you can often see
like people are behind a screen.
They maybe aren't using thebest you know discussion
techniques or might not be usingthe techniques they would use
if they were having an in-persondiscussion.
So we definitely talk aboutlike what would be good
discussion habits and discussionyou know values to have.
(06:45):
And then I just like to makesure that I give them some
opportunities to share thoughtson different stuff without
pressure and give them a chanceto interact with their peers
around a lot of different topics.
So I do a lot of things with,like Socratic seminars and
different discussions.
We have some discussions wherestudents kind of go back and
(07:06):
forth across the room and debatesome of the bigger political
topics of the day and I kind ofadjust those political topics
based on what's going on in theworld, give them a chance to
interact on those things.
So, if we go further back,students once discussed DACA and
Dreamers and stuff like that,because it was something really
(07:29):
it was something talked about atthe time it was.
It was it was fresh in the newswhere today, if I was starting
that topic right at thebeginning of the year right now,
we'd be talking about, like,tariffs and their impact, impact
and part of that is just likelistening to them.
Like they have, they havequestions, they come to school
(07:49):
wondering how things are workingand, um, what this does, and
they pay attention to the newsin their you know, their own
atmosphere.
There's there's a ton of newson social media.
They just you got to be open tolistening to what stuff they
want to talk about and want todebate about um in different
ways.
So I like to give them a wantto talk about and want to debate
about in different ways.
So I like to give them a chanceto have some voice and I
definitely like to listen tothem as much as possible as far
(08:13):
as what stuff they want to beable to discuss with each other.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I appreciate that.
You understand that.
You know they're coming in andthey maybe don't know how to
have a discussion, because thatis a skill, and I love listening
to when different states do APGov, because when I did it was
seniors, right, so it was likewe're at the end, we're voting.
(08:38):
You know we're really trying toget them, but I love that you
have freshmen because they'recoming in and you're right, they
probably haven't had exposureto people listening to them and
giving them a voice and I dothink that for this generation,
social media is where they gettheir news because they're not
(09:00):
sitting and watching.
You know the 530 news.
No-transcript.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
And I think when we're talking like projects or
activities, like it's once againabout putting things more into
their control whenever you can,I like to do a lot of
simulations in my classroom anda lot of activities that put
things into their own hands in achance to discuss things and
debate things, those Socraticseminars they're putting the
(09:39):
discussion into their own hands.
I'm hands off.
They're discussing it withthemselves.
If they have questions, theycertainly can ask me.
I do an extensive Congresssimulation which puts a lot on
their shoulders.
It's mid-year and they get achance to write their own bill
about anything and it has to belike a real bill about something
(10:02):
really in politics.
So they got to think about whatthey're concerned about, which
it helps the beginning of theyear.
I talk about ideology, so theyget a chance to like, think
about different things Peoplemight have different
perspectives on uh, and thenlater on they can maybe reflect
back to that stuff.
Um, and you'll have anythingfrom.
I remember a student that wasmandating that every city had to
(10:25):
have a corn maze, which didn'tmake any sense and it didn't
pass.
There were a lot of concerns bysome of the classmates in the
Congress simulation, but youcould also get students
proposing things like high-speedrails or changes to taxation.
High-speed rails or changes totaxation you'd be amazed at how
(10:47):
many things students can thinkup as, like I would change this
in our federal or stategovernment.
And then it brings up greatdiscussions of, like, okay, is
this actually something Congresswould do or is it something a
state would do?
And I like to do simulationslike that.
That here's.
Students are proposing their ownbills.
They're trying to go throughthe whole congressional
simulation process.
They form their own committees,they choose their own leaders
(11:09):
in their own imaginary politicalparties.
They can all see each other'sbills and then they can, like,
discuss them in committee.
They can discuss the benefits,the drawbacks of different
changes, the benefits, thedrawbacks of different changes.
Oftentimes they'll like, nitpickit and the bill will die, which
is I know it's going to happen.
I know most of the bills aregoing to die.
(11:29):
I know it's going to be toughto get through that class and
another class because I havethem split between a House and a
Senate amongst my differentclasses.
Basically, I'm just givingstudents a chance to not only
learn about, like, how congressuh tries to get a bill into a
law, uh, but it gives them achance to add in their voice uh,
(11:53):
kind of taking on that thatcitizen hat of like.
Here's something I care about.
Here's a concern I have, here'show I would try to address it
and then potentially seeingother people's perspectives
about like.
Okay, there's a few drawbackswith putting a corn maze in
every single city.
A few.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
I love that because I'm sure too, like if they
looked at some congressionalbills they'd be like what?
Like there are things thathappen that corn ways in every.
That is funny to me beingsomebody who is from iowa,
because I'm like I can alreadysee all the issues, all the
issues with it.
(12:36):
Um no problems, though I don'tsee anything Perfect good
(12:57):
Socratic seminars, because Ithink there are a lot of
teachers out there who want totry a Socratic seminar but
they're nervous and they hearyou know people like you who are
like Socratic seminars.
I mean, I loved Socraticseminars as a teacher and I will
say the first couple of times Idid them they were not perfect
(13:20):
and for me it was a learningexperience and I eventually got
there.
But do you have any tips forteachers?
Because I can, I can almosthear them in my head like well,
what if they don't talk, or whatif they get off topic, or what
if somebody says somethingoffensive?
What kind of tips would youhave for those teachers?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
I mean first of all like I know it's a big jump to
just jump into Socratic seminarsor I call them scored
discussions, because I'm notgoing to get into too much
logistics, but I would certainlystart with start with a good
resource.
Give them something to to reador multiple things to read, like
I do an electoral collegediscussion and I give them way
(14:01):
more resources on the electoralcollege than I think they would
consume.
But you could start simple.
If you're brand new to doing adiscussion like that, I would go
and find something that'salready created.
There's some great stuff, forexample, on like street law.
Street law has some greatdiscussion starting readings
(14:21):
where students could readdifferent perspectives on like
photo ID laws or on whether ornot assault weapons should be
banned or on whether or not hatespeech should be restricted.
Give them something that theycan read, a few pages of
different sides.
I would definitely recommendrequiring them to put down some
(14:42):
notes.
I tell my students put downnotes.
I don't care how much it is.
You're showing that you didsome research, you came with
some evidence.
And then I give them like ascorecard of things that are
good discussion things and baddiscussion things.
Like there's a scorecard and itsays monopolizing that's bad.
(15:03):
And then I explain whatmonopolizing is.
There's one on there that'spersonal attack.
And I'm like what's a personalattack?
And then we discuss, like okay,that person's insulting someone
else's opinion, that's not okay.
And we look at all the goodthings on that scorecard and
half the class discusses first,and the outside of the class
(15:23):
they have that scorecard infront of them.
So the pressure's on to likeyou want to meet that scorecard.
You have someone that's on theoutside, kind of watching you
and monitoring you and kind ofkeeping track of, like, good
discussion habits.
So not only is the discusserthinking about like okay, I want
to make sure I add some goodpoints here, I want to share
some stuff from my notes, butthe person on the outside is
(15:46):
thinking about what makes a gooddiscussion, because they're
watching someone, they're seeingwhether or not they do that.
And I'm not going to harp on thefact that there are some kids
that don't discuss.
Like there's some kids that aregoing to be so nervous in the
moment and they're not going toshare, and there's gonna be kids
(16:07):
that just don't like to shareor don't want to share or maybe
they're afraid their views aregoing to be criticized for
whatever reason, and that'sgoing to happen.
I, I didn't like discussing andI tell them that too, like I
was in your shoes.
I don't like discussing, Ididn't like presenting, um, I
mean, be honest about that, andI always give them, if they
didn't discuss, and I give themthat chance to discuss.
I didn't just let them sit out.
They had a chance to be inthere, they had a chance to
(16:27):
chime in and then afterwardsthey get a chance to kind of
write up their opinions on thediscussion.
Those kids prepared probably aton because they were nervous
and they were afraid theywouldn't have something to say.
So they probably had a lot ofgood notes they could use to to
write something up.
(16:48):
So I think the key is, like havea good resource, keep it simple
.
If you are just getting started, kind of show them the
guidelines of what's a gooddiscussion, having that visual
in front of them of like here'sgood discussion habits, here's
bad discussion habits, here'sbad discussion habits, and then
(17:12):
just being you know, beingunderstanding.
Some kids are struggle, somekids struggle with sharing out
loud.
So just be understanding aboutthat and come up with an
alternative that works, even ifit's like a kid having to make
like a video recording, sharingtheir thoughts out loud with a
video screen, and works.
Even if it's like a kid havingto make like a video recording,
sharing their thoughts out loudwith a video screen, and just be
like it's not going to be infront of everyone, it gives them
a chance to say something outloud, which might be a good idea
too.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I think, too, that even if kids don't talk, they're
still learning right, they'restill learning from their peers.
There's, I think, one of the myfavorite Socratic seminars I
ever did was with my eighthgraders.
We did the letter fromBirmingham jail and it I mean it
took place over a couple ofdays because it's long, and what
(17:54):
I noticed was the second daymore kids were in it and were
talking because they had learnedfrom people and I used that
product seminar.
I did not score it, but I toldthem.
The purpose of this is for allof us to dig in and learn from
each other what this documentsays, and I think that that is a
(18:16):
good place to start too,because kids are worried about
grades, like how am I going tobe graded?
Did I do okay?
And it's like, yes, there is ascore, but the big thing is here
is we want you to have thesediscussions, we want this to
become kind of how you are inlife, right, when you're
watching the news or you seesomething and you're wanting to
(18:37):
have a dialogue with somebodythat maybe you disagree with,
that you understand just basiccommunication skills, because
oftentimes the stuff they'reseeing on social media is not
good, not good discussion at all.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Um and I would say, like my, my freshman can handle
whatever topic it is.
I feel like they, they canhandle it if you, if you give
them information to understandit, they'd be willing to discuss
something just because it givesthem that chance to interact
with each other and they tend tohandle it.
I always tell them they handleit pretty well compared to
(19:15):
adults, compared to adults thatthey see in social media.
They tend to be able to handledifficult discussions.
They've they've debated thedeath penalty in my classroom.
They've they've debateduniversal healthcare, they've
debated minimum wage every topicthey've kind of brought up and
we're able to handle it in avery mature way from my, from my
(19:38):
perspective, and I mean justmaking sure that you're there
and you're kind of, you knowenforcing that role of if a
student does kind of get out ofhand or insult someone's
comments or something like that,you know addressing that
quickly.
So everyone feels you knowcomfortable to share their
thoughts.
That's that's important too.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yes, and primary sources.
I think is is the best placealways to start and our civic
literacy curriculum has tons ofprimary sources.
It has tons of discussionquestions.
So even if you're like I onthose kind of higher stakes
topics because we're talkingabout constitutionality, we're
(20:28):
talking about like laws thathave been passed before, and it
gives them you know, maybe theydon't have an opinion on it yet,
but it definitely helps themkind of focus their discussion.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, and speaking of like constitutionality, I think
one of the more interestingdiscussions is when you see a
student having to argue about,okay, okay, they may not like
something, but they're talkingabout whether or not it's
constitutional.
So when they're discussing likehate speech or something like
that, they may not like that,this is happening.
It may be uncomfortablestatements, but they're
(21:02):
discussing well, but theconstitution says this and the
constitution says that, and youcan get into some law a lot of
greats realizations too when youlook at like modern court cases
.
If you pull up a modern courtcase, um, once again from street
law, they have some greatresources on on some modern
court cases.
You can have the studentsdiscussing and arguing something
, but not necessarily from theperspective of like this is
(21:25):
wrong or right, which they maywant to jump to, but focusing in
on well, is this constitutional, how does this fit with the
Fourth Amendment, for example?
And that gets them to discusssomething in a different way,
which is important too, becausea lot of our stuff isn't
necessarily always up to is thisright or wrong?
(21:47):
It might be like is this, isthis legal?
Does this violate, you know,separation of powers or rule of
law or an amendment.
You know where does.
Where do we draw the line?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I think that's key because if we're just talking
about constitutionality, youknow we're being lawyers, we're
looking at the line.
I think that's key because ifwe're just talking about
constitutionality, you knowwe're being lawyers, we're
looking at the law.
It really does take a lot Likewe're not here to say right or
wrong, and I like that because Ithink that it empowers students
to really dig into thatlegality, dig into the
constitution and have kind ofhigher level discussions because
(22:24):
we're not attacking each otheras people.
We are saying, well, this isnot constitutional, this is or
my interpretation is this so itcan be bigger and it can be
again where there are highstakes discussions.
But because we're not sharingour opinions and things like
(22:45):
that, they tend to go better.
So for teachers what support doyou think that teachers need to
confidently teach civics today?
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I mean certainly from like, from the civics community
.
There's a lot of resources outthere.
Certainly, time to find thoseresources and guidance to find
those resources.
There's a lot of stuff outthere and I know we've mentioned
street law a ton of times butthere's other civics partners
that have just so much stuffthat you could potentially use.
(23:17):
So the time to find goodresources and to then put those
into activities and presentthings in an engaging way is
certainly really important and,for that matter, I'm always a
strong supporter that, likeprofessional development
opportunities, whether it beattending social studies
(23:40):
conferences or attending veryspecific strategy conferences,
like going to some edu protocolsthing or going to something
from you know anotherorganization that's talking
about strategies those are allreally useful.
Finding ways to learn from eachother, which is something I
think that teachers, we can feellike we're all stuck in our
(24:01):
classroom and feel like we gotto plan for the next day and we
don't have time, but any way wecan find time to interact with
each other and share things.
I think is essential and that'swhy I love having podcasts like
this and podcasts like my own,to be able to share with others
where we may not be able to, youknow, see each other face to
face, but we can still sharesome resources to make the
(24:24):
profession better.
So I think time and likeaccessibility things are
certainly real important.
Certainly it's important tohave, you know, trust from like
administrators to take on somereally difficult topics Like I'm
talking about.
Well, I'm not even talkingabout it.
My students are talking aboutsome really difficult topics in
class and having anadministrator that's you know if
(24:48):
he hears any concerns about, oh, they're discussing such and
such political topic in class tocome to me and kind of hear
about, like, what was going on,what kind of discussion were the
students having Becausestudents do discuss any number
of different things in myclassroom, but oftentimes it's
it's them discussing it I'llgive them some information and
(25:08):
they can kind of make their ownviewpoints from there.
So having that trust andsupport is certainly really
important too.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I don't remember which Supreme Court justice said
it I want to say Breyer, butI'm probably wrong that
classrooms are laboratories fordemocracy, right?
So we want students we don'twant to stifle students if
they're not being disrespectfuland they have questions and they
want to know things.
We want them in our classroomsto be places where they can try
(25:39):
out ideas and have theseconversations.
And you're right,administrative support is huge.
I am the biggest proponent inprofessional development.
I mean, that's how you and Imet.
I feel like every time I go tosomething, it just makes my
world a little bigger.
And you know, especially when Iwas in the classroom, I had
(26:01):
people to reach out to that fromdifferent states.
You know, because we went tosomething together.
And you know, especially whenwe went to National Constitution
Center, it was fun to like inour group, be like, oh my gosh.
You know this just happened.
We need to teach this.
And you have teachers who arein the same boat.
I genuinely and I think I'vesaid this on every podcast,
(26:24):
almost I genuinely think thatcivics and social studies
teachers are some of the bestsharers and the best people to
collaborate with, becauseeveryone I have met if I'm like
I need a lesson on this.
I hear like take this, takethis, take this.
You know, whether it's onFacebook or Twitter or whatever
(26:44):
social media you use, there's somany people out there that want
to help you.
So if you're a brand newteacher, or even if you're in a
mid-career teacher or a veteranteacher and you're just feeling
burnt out and alone, there areso many amazing social studies
and civics teachers who are outthere who want to help you and
(27:06):
who have podcasts, like Justin,and I will absolutely be sharing
this in the show notes on allof our socials so that you have
somebody to listen to, becausesometimes it's as simple as
driving in your car and you justwant to listen to a quick
podcast on something, or youhave a prep hour.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
And I would say, like here I am, like 14 years into
my profession.
I never feel like I'm donelearning.
I want to improve.
Every single year I teach thisclass, I'm trying out new
activities.
Sometimes they're a flop.
That's perfectly fine.
It's part of trying to find adifferent way to engage my
students in learning and engagethem in an interactive way.
(27:51):
That's different.
I mean and engage them in aninteractive way.
That's different.
I mean kids are changing andthat means like teaching needs
to always be something thatimproves too.
I always went into thisprofession wanting kids to be
like lifelong learners, butreally it's a profession where
teachers get to model that andkeep growing and changing and
(28:13):
becoming better.
I never want to be that teacher.
That's kind of doing the samestuff every year.
I want to learn more fromothers and beg, borrow and steal
all those great things and thenput that into my classroom.
If there's a reason why I liketo share these things, it's
because I've learned a lot too.
I don't want to hoard it all tomyself.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I want everyone else to use some of these great
strategies out there among youngpeople because, especially
because you work with them everyday, and I mean your kids are
(28:55):
14, 15.
Is that the freshman?
I feel like I should know thisbecause I'm going to have a
freshman next year.
But what you know when you'reworking with students, what kind
of gives you hope?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
I mean, probably what gives me hope is something that
I've mentioned earlier.
Like kids come into classalready wanting to discuss
certain things.
They already want to bring upthings.
Kids former students come backas juniors or seniors and like
did you hear about this?
Is this something that can bedone?
Is this what's really happening?
Like they're asking questions.
Kids want to understand theworld, and that gives me hope
(29:31):
that they want to be engaged andinvolved.
Beyond this, Plus, if freshmen,can you know, discuss some
really hard topics and learn todiscuss things in a productive
way, that gives hope that, likeyou know, future generations
will be able to discuss thingsoutside of the classroom in more
(29:54):
productive ways.
I think the more we focus on,you know, building good
discussion tactics allowing forstudents to be able to have
their voice heard and not feellike it's stifled immediately by
, like the adult in the room,the more we do that, the more
students are gonna feelcomfortable being a part of that
civic world that we want themto be a part of if they want to.
(30:16):
So I hope they do, and the wayI hear questions back and kids
coming back and wanting to be inmore of these classes, that
gives me hope.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
I do have one more question for you.
Can you tell us a little bitabout your podcast and the
things that you talk about?
So if there is a teacherlistening to this, that's like I
kind of want to check it out.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I wonder what it's about and we just share
different strategies and tipsfor making your classroom more
engaging when teaching socialstudies in general.
I've done a whole series ofpodcast episodes about teaching
(31:00):
different parts of civicseducation, so like how to
address political parties whenyou're talking about political
parties in class and how todiscuss that in like an engaging
way.
Or, for example, I shared in apodcast episode about how I
teach interest groups.
I want my students to have avariety of different interest
groups in their brain.
They've never heard aboutinterest groups and they've
(31:23):
maybe seen one AARP commercialon TikTok somewhere, but I want
them to have a variety forexamples.
So we have them research theirown individual interest group
and then they do a speed datingactivity where they're sharing
with another student one-on-onefor a few minutes and then they
rotate and meet another studentand interact with them.
(31:48):
Information and hearingdifferent information.
It's really themed around theidea of this.
Oh, it's speed dating.
Mr Gliowski has the fireplaceon the TV screen and he's
playing jazz music in thebackground.
For some reason it has that.
You know it's engaging themthat they're weirded out by the
(32:08):
classroom experience, butthey're also getting a chance to
go one-on-one discussing atopic with somebody else hearing
about a different interestgroup.
So the podcast shares a lot ofstrategies and different ways to
engage your students in review,civics education, human rights
and genocide education.
We're all about sharing as muchas we can.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And I actually met Alicia through professional
professional development too.
I feel like I, the state ofwisconsin um has my heart,
because there are a lot ofincredible.
We have two wisconsin teachersin our cohort, but I feel like
every time I go to a pd um, Imeet these amazing teachers from
the midwest.
I love speed dating becauseit's like when you walk into a
(32:55):
classroom when they're doingspeed dating, it's so animated
and it's loud and you can justfeel the learning and you're
right, kids, it's somethingdifferent for them and they get
more exposure and it's just fun.
Like that is a day where it'sfun.
I'm going to find that podcastand put it in the show notes
because I think that peopleshould listen to that.
(33:17):
Is there anything we did notget to that you want to make
sure?
There's so much good in thispodcast?
I can't wait to share it withour listeners.
But is there anything else youwant to make sure that you say
for the good of civics?
Speaker 2 (33:37):
I guess all I would say is like like, civics
education doesn't have to bejust like learning governmental
structures and stuff like that.
Civics education is just about.
Well in Wisconsin there aremany people that say civics
education is social studieseducation.
It's kind of involved witheverything.
(33:58):
If you're having a historyclass and you're talking about a
big historical concept, you canhave that discussion of like
how do we approach things likethis in the public world?
How were they approachingthings back then?
How could things be approacheddifferently?
If you're talking about anynumber of different subjects in
(34:19):
the social studies, they tie inwith civics all over the place.
Whenever you're talking aboutbeing able to make an argument
and support things, wheneveryou're talking about you know,
interactions of our world, a lotof that is civics.
So making sure that you're youknow creating an engaging
(34:41):
classroom that's certainly keyand making sure that you know
civics is kind of intertwinedwith a bunch of stuff mind with
a bunch of stuff.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
You are a rock star.
The state of Wisconsin is solucky to have you.
Asu was so lucky to have you asone of our cohort members.
Thank you so much.
There's so many gems in thisand I just really appreciate the
opportunity to work with youagain, to hang out with you
again.
So thank you, I reallyappreciate it.
um, I we have not done a one-on-one podcast yet
with one of our teachers, so Iam very excited today to have my
friend justin.
We've actually known each other, for we were trying to figure
out how many years but, likejustin said, years prior, or to
covid, just everything is weirdnow.
Um, we went to the nationalconstitution center Summer
(00:23):
Institute together and I meanthere's lots of favorite
memories from Philly, but wewere talking about, you know
that you're a history teacher ora teacher of the constitution.
When you're going out to dinnerin Philadelphia, you're hanging
out at a restaurant, everybodyelse is watching sports and the
people that you're with arewatching political debates.
(00:43):
it it was fun, like that wholething was fun.
So, justin, I'm going to letyou introduce yourself for our
viewers before we get startedtoday talking about empowering
students.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Sure, and I'm Justin Glodowski.
I'm from Marshfield, wisconsin,so kind of central northern
Wisconsin.
I've been teaching forapproximately 14 years and I
teach AP US Gov, I teach APcomparative government, I teach
a class on genocide and humanrights and I teach some
(01:18):
psychology classes as well Kindof a variety of different
classes.
I do host my own social youknow social studies podcast
called Engage, where I kind oftalk about social studies
engagement opportunities and youknow I love getting a chance to
share you know differentstrategies and talk about civics
(01:38):
.
I've worked with ASU and youknow the state of Wisconsin to
work on different civicsprograms and I'm excited to
share whatever I can share withyou guys.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
I am just excited to have you on.
I think one of my favoritethings about this cohort is
there are people from differentstates who teach different
things, and the magic that cametogether in this cohort was just
, I mean, putting those lessonsup, and I will, for our
listeners in our show notes, puta couple of my favorite ones
(02:11):
from Justin, because I taughtAPGov too.
So it was always really fun forme to look at some of the APGov
ones, because I'm like, oh man,I want to go back in the
classroom and I want to do that.
But today we're talking aboutempowering students.
We're really trying to explorehow educators can inspire and
equip students to become active,informed participants in our
(02:33):
democracy, and really we'regoing to share some practical
strategies, roll out examples.
I mean, justin is a practicingteacher, he is in the classroom,
and this is to me veryimportant and I've said it
before.
I taught for 17 years.
It was wonderful, but I did notteach in the middle of the
pandemic and I have not taughtafter, and so it is a very, very
(02:55):
different world.
We always want to make sure wehave experts on.
So I guess my first questionfor you, justin, is what does
empowering students in civicsmean to you.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I mean, when I think about civics in general, I think
about it as how can I help mystudents to have kind of the
skills and the knowledge thatthey can go off and become just
like citizens of the UnitedStates or citizens of the world?
I almost think of each of myclasses like a stepping stone.
If they're taking USGov,they're learning about like how
(03:28):
can I be a citizen of the UnitedStates?
If they're moving on to AP,comparative or the Human Rights
class, we're talking about likebig global issues and how things
are connected.
How can I, you know, pass on mystudents to the outside world
and know that they have theskills to participate Not saying
that they're going to or thatthere's any guarantee there, but
(03:48):
just making sure they kind ofknow how to be involved and have
the knowledge and the skills tobe active participants if they
want to.
And I certainly want to showthem that there is potential to
make an impact If there's some,if there's a concern, anytime in
their life.
They know that there's a way toto make a difference if they
(04:11):
want to, to be engaged if theywant to.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
And I love that you talk about kind of that stepping
stones right, because we don'twant to automatically assume
that students know how to becitizens.
Right, you know we start themin assume that students know how
to be citizens right, you knowwe start them in kindergarten
and talk about citizens of, likeour classroom and these little
things, and then it gets biggerand bigger and bigger and, like
you said, by the time they'rekind of coming through high
school, it's citizens of theUnited States and of the world.
(04:39):
How do you help studentsconnect civic learning to real
life issues that they care about?
Because one of the things Inotice is, if students don't
think it's relevant to them,they don't tend to care, which
is fair.
So how do you help them connect?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
that and that can be one of the more challenging
things for me.
I do teach AP Gov to freshmen,so I'm seeing them right at the
beginning of their high schooltime, their high school
experience.
They're not like right beforevoting, they're not right before
, you know, exiting high school.
It's from the start, which insome ways is kind of nice.
There's not that pressure oflike you got to prepare them to
(05:15):
like vote this year or becomeengaged because they're on their
way out.
It's a chance to kind of engagethem in stuff with maybe a
little less pressure.
It's a chance to kind of engagethem in stuff with maybe a
(05:39):
little less pressure and I liketo just make the class, as you
know, connected to them aspossible and really as freshmen
they kind of feel like they'venever had a chance to like give
their own thoughts.
Lot of education where peoplehave shared all these different
concepts and these differentthings.
They've learned about thesedifferent historical events and
political events, but they neverhad a chance to just like
interact with others and discussthings.
And I think that's like one ofthe skills I really harp on a
lot early on in the year is howcan I give my students more
(06:00):
opportunities to discuss major,real political topics.
So making sure that I have, youknow, real political topics
that they're interested inengaging about.
And we go through all sorts oflike good discussion norms and
what a discussion looks like andwhat a bad discussion looks
(06:23):
like.
And we talk about how, likesocial media, you can often see
like people are behind a screen.
They maybe aren't using thebest you know discussion
techniques or might not be usingthe techniques they would use
if they were having an in-persondiscussion.
So we definitely talk aboutlike what would be good
discussion habits and discussionyou know values to have.
(06:45):
And then I just like to makesure that I give them some
opportunities to share thoughtson different stuff without
pressure and give them a chanceto interact with their peers
around a lot of different topics.
So I do a lot of things with,like Socratic seminars and
different discussions.
We have some discussions wherestudents kind of go back and
(07:06):
forth across the room and debatesome of the bigger political
topics of the day and I kind ofadjust those political topics
based on what's going on in theworld, give them a chance to
interact on those things.
So, if we go further back,students once discussed DACA and
Dreamers and stuff like that,because it was something really
(07:29):
it was something talked about atthe time it was.
It was it was fresh in the newswhere today, if I was starting
that topic right at thebeginning of the year right now,
we'd be talking about, like,tariffs and their impact, impact
and part of that is just likelistening to them.
Like they have, they havequestions, they come to school
(07:49):
wondering how things are workingand, um, what this does, and
they pay attention to the newsin their you know, their own
atmosphere.
There's there's a ton of newson social media.
They just you got to be open tolistening to what stuff they
want to talk about and want todebate about um in different
ways.
So I like to give them a wantto talk about and want to debate
about in different ways.
So I like to give them a chanceto have some voice and I
definitely like to listen tothem as much as possible as far
(08:13):
as what stuff they want to beable to discuss with each other.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I appreciate that.
You understand that.
You know they're coming in andthey maybe don't know how to
have a discussion, because thatis a skill, and I love listening
to when different states do APGov, because when I did it was
seniors, right, so it was likewe're at the end, we're voting.
(08:38):
You know we're really trying toget them, but I love that you
have freshmen because they'recoming in and you're right, they
probably haven't had exposureto people listening to them and
giving them a voice and I dothink that for this generation,
social media is where they gettheir news because they're not
(09:00):
sitting and watching.
You know the 530 news.
No-transcript.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
And I think when we're talking like projects or
activities, like it's once againabout putting things more into
their control whenever you can,I like to do a lot of
simulations in my classroom anda lot of activities that put
things into their own hands in achance to discuss things and
debate things, those Socraticseminars they're putting the
(09:39):
discussion into their own hands.
I'm hands off.
They're discussing it withthemselves.
If they have questions, theycertainly can ask me.
I do an extensive Congresssimulation which puts a lot on
their shoulders.
It's mid-year and they get achance to write their own bill
about anything and it has to belike a real bill about something
(10:02):
really in politics.
So they got to think about whatthey're concerned about, which
it helps the beginning of theyear.
I talk about ideology, so theyget a chance to like, think
about different things Peoplemight have different
perspectives on uh, and thenlater on they can maybe reflect
back to that stuff.
Um, and you'll have anythingfrom.
I remember a student that wasmandating that every city had to
(10:25):
have a corn maze, which didn'tmake any sense and it didn't
pass.
There were a lot of concerns bysome of the classmates in the
Congress simulation, but youcould also get students
proposing things like high-speedrails or changes to taxation.
High-speed rails or changes totaxation you'd be amazed at how
(10:47):
many things students can thinkup as, like I would change this
in our federal or stategovernment.
And then it brings up greatdiscussions of, like, okay, is
this actually something Congresswould do or is it something a
state would do?
And I like to do simulationslike that.
That here's.
Students are proposing their ownbills.
They're trying to go throughthe whole congressional
simulation process.
They form their own committees,they choose their own leaders
(11:09):
in their own imaginary politicalparties.
They can all see each other'sbills and then they can, like,
discuss them in committee.
They can discuss the benefits,the drawbacks of different
changes, the benefits, thedrawbacks of different changes.
Oftentimes they'll like, nitpickit and the bill will die, which
is I know it's going to happen.
I know most of the bills aregoing to die.
(11:29):
I know it's going to be toughto get through that class and
another class because I havethem split between a House and a
Senate amongst my differentclasses.
Basically, I'm just givingstudents a chance to not only
learn about, like, how congressuh tries to get a bill into a
law, uh, but it gives them achance to add in their voice uh,
(11:53):
kind of taking on that thatcitizen hat of like.
Here's something I care about.
Here's a concern I have, here'show I would try to address it
and then potentially seeingother people's perspectives
about like.
Okay, there's a few drawbackswith putting a corn maze in
every single city.
A few.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
I love that because I'm sure too, like if they
looked at some congressionalbills they'd be like what?
Like there are things thathappen that corn ways in every.
That is funny to me beingsomebody who is from iowa,
because I'm like I can alreadysee all the issues, all the
issues with it.
(12:36):
Um no problems, though I don'tsee anything Perfect good
(12:57):
Socratic seminars, because Ithink there are a lot of
teachers out there who want totry a Socratic seminar but
they're nervous and they hearyou know people like you who are
like Socratic seminars.
I mean, I loved Socraticseminars as a teacher and I will
say the first couple of times Idid them they were not perfect
(13:20):
and for me it was a learningexperience and I eventually got
there.
But do you have any tips forteachers?
Because I can, I can almosthear them in my head like well,
what if they don't talk, or whatif they get off topic, or what
if somebody says somethingoffensive?
What kind of tips would youhave for those teachers?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
I mean first of all like I know it's a big jump to
just jump into Socratic seminarsor I call them scored
discussions, because I'm notgoing to get into too much
logistics, but I would certainlystart with start with a good
resource.
Give them something to to reador multiple things to read, like
I do an electoral collegediscussion and I give them way
(14:01):
more resources on the electoralcollege than I think they would
consume.
But you could start simple.
If you're brand new to doing adiscussion like that, I would go
and find something that'salready created.
There's some great stuff, forexample, on like street law.
Street law has some greatdiscussion starting readings
(14:21):
where students could readdifferent perspectives on like
photo ID laws or on whether ornot assault weapons should be
banned or on whether or not hatespeech should be restricted.
Give them something that theycan read, a few pages of
different sides.
I would definitely recommendrequiring them to put down some
(14:42):
notes.
I tell my students put downnotes.
I don't care how much it is.
You're showing that you didsome research, you came with
some evidence.
And then I give them like ascorecard of things that are
good discussion things and baddiscussion things.
Like there's a scorecard and itsays monopolizing that's bad.
(15:03):
And then I explain whatmonopolizing is.
There's one on there that'spersonal attack.
And I'm like what's a personalattack?
And then we discuss, like okay,that person's insulting someone
else's opinion, that's not okay.
And we look at all the goodthings on that scorecard and
half the class discusses first,and the outside of the class
(15:23):
they have that scorecard infront of them.
So the pressure's on to likeyou want to meet that scorecard.
You have someone that's on theoutside, kind of watching you
and monitoring you and kind ofkeeping track of, like, good
discussion habits.
So not only is the discusserthinking about like okay, I want
to make sure I add some goodpoints here, I want to share
some stuff from my notes, butthe person on the outside is
(15:46):
thinking about what makes a gooddiscussion, because they're
watching someone, they're seeingwhether or not they do that.
And I'm not going to harp on thefact that there are some kids
that don't discuss.
Like there's some kids that aregoing to be so nervous in the
moment and they're not going toshare, and there's gonna be kids
(16:07):
that just don't like to shareor don't want to share or maybe
they're afraid their views aregoing to be criticized for
whatever reason, and that'sgoing to happen.
I, I didn't like discussing andI tell them that too, like I
was in your shoes.
I don't like discussing, Ididn't like presenting, um, I
mean, be honest about that, andI always give them, if they
didn't discuss, and I give themthat chance to discuss.
I didn't just let them sit out.
They had a chance to be inthere, they had a chance to
(16:27):
chime in and then afterwardsthey get a chance to kind of
write up their opinions on thediscussion.
Those kids prepared probably aton because they were nervous
and they were afraid theywouldn't have something to say.
So they probably had a lot ofgood notes they could use to to
write something up.
(16:48):
So I think the key is, like havea good resource, keep it simple
.
If you are just getting started, kind of show them the
guidelines of what's a gooddiscussion, having that visual
in front of them of like here'sgood discussion habits, here's
bad discussion habits, here'sbad discussion habits, and then
(17:12):
just being you know, beingunderstanding.
Some kids are struggle, somekids struggle with sharing out
loud.
So just be understanding aboutthat and come up with an
alternative that works, even ifit's like a kid having to make
like a video recording, sharingtheir thoughts out loud with a
video screen, and works.
Even if it's like a kid havingto make like a video recording,
sharing their thoughts out loudwith a video screen, and just be
like it's not going to be infront of everyone, it gives them
a chance to say something outloud, which might be a good idea
too.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
I think, too, that even if kids don't talk, they're
still learning right, they'restill learning from their peers.
There's, I think, one of the myfavorite Socratic seminars I
ever did was with my eighthgraders.
We did the letter fromBirmingham jail and it I mean it
took place over a couple ofdays because it's long, and what
(17:54):
I noticed was the second daymore kids were in it and were
talking because they had learnedfrom people and I used that
product seminar.
I did not score it, but I toldthem.
The purpose of this is for allof us to dig in and learn from
each other what this documentsays, and I think that that is a
(18:16):
good place to start too,because kids are worried about
grades, like how am I going tobe graded?
Did I do okay?
And it's like, yes, there is ascore, but the big thing is here
is we want you to have thesediscussions, we want this to
become kind of how you are inlife, right, when you're
watching the news or you seesomething and you're wanting to
(18:37):
have a dialogue with somebodythat maybe you disagree with,
that you understand just basiccommunication skills, because
oftentimes the stuff they'reseeing on social media is not
good, not good discussion at all.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Um and I would say, like my, my freshman can handle
whatever topic it is.
I feel like they, they canhandle it if you, if you give
them information to understandit, they'd be willing to discuss
something just because it givesthem that chance to interact
with each other and they tend tohandle it.
I always tell them they handleit pretty well compared to
(19:15):
adults, compared to adults thatthey see in social media.
They tend to be able to handledifficult discussions.
They've they've debated thedeath penalty in my classroom.
They've they've debateduniversal healthcare, they've
debated minimum wage every topicthey've kind of brought up and
we're able to handle it in avery mature way from my, from my
(19:38):
perspective, and I mean justmaking sure that you're there
and you're kind of, you knowenforcing that role of if a
student does kind of get out ofhand or insult someone's
comments or something like that,you know addressing that
quickly.
So everyone feels you knowcomfortable to share their
thoughts.
That's that's important too.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yes, and primary sources.
I think is is the best placealways to start and our civic
literacy curriculum has tons ofprimary sources.
It has tons of discussionquestions.
So even if you're like I onthose kind of higher stakes
topics because we're talkingabout constitutionality, we're
(20:28):
talking about like laws thathave been passed before, and it
gives them you know, maybe theydon't have an opinion on it yet,
but it definitely helps themkind of focus their discussion.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, and speaking of like constitutionality, I think
one of the more interestingdiscussions is when you see a
student having to argue about,okay, okay, they may not like
something, but they're talkingabout whether or not it's
constitutional.
So when they're discussing likehate speech or something like
that, they may not like that,this is happening.
It may be uncomfortablestatements, but they're
(21:02):
discussing well, but theconstitution says this and the
constitution says that, and youcan get into some law a lot of
greats realizations too when youlook at like modern court cases
.
If you pull up a modern courtcase, um, once again from street
law, they have some greatresources on on some modern
court cases.
You can have the studentsdiscussing and arguing something
, but not necessarily from theperspective of like this is
(21:25):
wrong or right, which they maywant to jump to, but focusing in
on well, is this constitutional, how does this fit with the
Fourth Amendment, for example?
And that gets them to discusssomething in a different way,
which is important too, becausea lot of our stuff isn't
necessarily always up to is thisright or wrong?
(21:47):
It might be like is this, isthis legal?
Does this violate, you know,separation of powers or rule of
law or an amendment.
You know where does.
Where do we draw the line?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I think that's key because if we're just talking
about constitutionality, youknow we're being lawyers, we're
looking at the line.
I think that's key because ifwe're just talking about
constitutionality, you knowwe're being lawyers, we're
looking at the law.
It really does take a lot Likewe're not here to say right or
wrong, and I like that because Ithink that it empowers students
to really dig into thatlegality, dig into the
constitution and have kind ofhigher level discussions because
(22:24):
we're not attacking each otheras people.
We are saying, well, this isnot constitutional, this is or
my interpretation is this so itcan be bigger and it can be
again where there are highstakes discussions.
But because we're not sharingour opinions and things like
(22:45):
that, they tend to go better.
So for teachers what support doyou think that teachers need to
confidently teach civics today?
Speaker 2 (22:57):
I mean certainly from like, from the civics community
.
There's a lot of resources outthere.
Certainly, time to find thoseresources and guidance to find
those resources.
There's a lot of stuff outthere and I know we've mentioned
street law a ton of times butthere's other civics partners
that have just so much stuffthat you could potentially use.
(23:17):
So the time to find goodresources and to then put those
into activities and presentthings in an engaging way is
certainly really important and,for that matter, I'm always a
strong supporter that, likeprofessional development
opportunities, whether it beattending social studies
(23:40):
conferences or attending veryspecific strategy conferences,
like going to some edu protocolsthing or going to something
from you know anotherorganization that's talking
about strategies those are allreally useful.
Finding ways to learn from eachother, which is something I
think that teachers, we can feellike we're all stuck in our
(24:01):
classroom and feel like we gotto plan for the next day and we
don't have time, but any way wecan find time to interact with
each other and share things.
I think is essential and that'swhy I love having podcasts like
this and podcasts like my own,to be able to share with others
where we may not be able to, youknow, see each other face to
face, but we can still sharesome resources to make the
(24:24):
profession better.
So I think time and likeaccessibility things are
certainly real important.
Certainly it's important tohave, you know, trust from like
administrators to take on somereally difficult topics Like I'm
talking about.
Well, I'm not even talkingabout it.
My students are talking aboutsome really difficult topics in
class and having anadministrator that's you know if
(24:48):
he hears any concerns about, oh, they're discussing such and
such political topic in class tocome to me and kind of hear
about, like, what was going on,what kind of discussion were the
students having Becausestudents do discuss any number
of different things in myclassroom, but oftentimes it's
it's them discussing it I'llgive them some information and
(25:08):
they can kind of make their ownviewpoints from there.
So having that trust andsupport is certainly really
important too.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I don't remember which Supreme Court justice said
it I want to say Breyer, butI'm probably wrong that
classrooms are laboratories fordemocracy, right?
So we want students we don'twant to stifle students if
they're not being disrespectfuland they have questions and they
want to know things.
We want them in our classroomsto be places where they can try
(25:39):
out ideas and have theseconversations.
And you're right,administrative support is huge.
I am the biggest proponent inprofessional development.
I mean, that's how you and Imet.
I feel like every time I go tosomething, it just makes my
world a little bigger.
And you know, especially when Iwas in the classroom, I had
(26:01):
people to reach out to that fromdifferent states.
You know, because we went tosomething together.
And you know, especially whenwe went to National Constitution
Center, it was fun to like inour group, be like, oh my gosh.
You know this just happened.
We need to teach this.
And you have teachers who arein the same boat.
I genuinely and I think I'vesaid this on every podcast,
(26:24):
almost I genuinely think thatcivics and social studies
teachers are some of the bestsharers and the best people to
collaborate with, becauseeveryone I have met if I'm like
I need a lesson on this.
I hear like take this, takethis, take this.
You know, whether it's onFacebook or Twitter or whatever
(26:44):
social media you use, there's somany people out there that want
to help you.
So if you're a brand newteacher, or even if you're in a
mid-career teacher or a veteranteacher and you're just feeling
burnt out and alone, there areso many amazing social studies
and civics teachers who are outthere who want to help you and
(27:06):
who have podcasts, like Justin,and I will absolutely be sharing
this in the show notes on allof our socials so that you have
somebody to listen to, becausesometimes it's as simple as
driving in your car and you justwant to listen to a quick
podcast on something, or youhave a prep hour.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
And I would say, like here I am, like 14 years into
my profession.
I never feel like I'm donelearning.
I want to improve.
Every single year I teach thisclass, I'm trying out new
activities.
Sometimes they're a flop.
That's perfectly fine.
It's part of trying to find adifferent way to engage my
students in learning and engagethem in an interactive way.
(27:51):
That's different.
I mean and engage them in aninteractive way.
That's different.
I mean kids are changing andthat means like teaching needs
to always be something thatimproves too.
I always went into thisprofession wanting kids to be
like lifelong learners, butreally it's a profession where
teachers get to model that andkeep growing and changing and
(28:13):
becoming better.
I never want to be that teacher.
That's kind of doing the samestuff every year.
I want to learn more fromothers and beg, borrow and steal
all those great things and thenput that into my classroom.
If there's a reason why I liketo share these things, it's
because I've learned a lot too.
I don't want to hoard it all tomyself.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
I want everyone else to use some of these great
strategies out there among youngpeople because, especially
because you work with them everyday, and I mean your kids are
(28:55):
14, 15.
Is that the freshman?
I feel like I should know thisbecause I'm going to have a
freshman next year.
But what you know when you'reworking with students, what kind
of gives you hope?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
I mean, probably what gives me hope is something that
I've mentioned earlier.
Like kids come into classalready wanting to discuss
certain things.
They already want to bring upthings.
Kids former students come backas juniors or seniors and like
did you hear about this?
Is this something that can bedone?
Is this what's really happening?
Like they're asking questions.
Kids want to understand theworld, and that gives me hope
(29:31):
that they want to be engaged andinvolved.
Beyond this, Plus, if freshmen,can you know, discuss some
really hard topics and learn todiscuss things in a productive
way, that gives hope that, likeyou know, future generations
will be able to discuss thingsoutside of the classroom in more
(29:54):
productive ways.
I think the more we focus on,you know, building good
discussion tactics allowing forstudents to be able to have
their voice heard and not feellike it's stifled immediately by
, like the adult in the room,the more we do that, the more
students are gonna feelcomfortable being a part of that
civic world that we want themto be a part of if they want to.
(30:16):
So I hope they do, and the wayI hear questions back and kids
coming back and wanting to be inmore of these classes, that
gives me hope.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
I do have one more question for you.
Can you tell us a little bitabout your podcast and the
things that you talk about?
So if there is a teacherlistening to this, that's like I
kind of want to check it out.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I wonder what it's about and we just share
different strategies and tipsfor making your classroom more
engaging when teaching socialstudies in general.
I've done a whole series ofpodcast episodes about teaching
(31:00):
different parts of civicseducation, so like how to
address political parties whenyou're talking about political
parties in class and how todiscuss that in like an engaging
way.
Or, for example, I shared in apodcast episode about how I
teach interest groups.
I want my students to have avariety of different interest
groups in their brain.
They've never heard aboutinterest groups and they've
(31:23):
maybe seen one AARP commercialon TikTok somewhere, but I want
them to have a variety forexamples.
So we have them research theirown individual interest group
and then they do a speed datingactivity where they're sharing
with another student one-on-onefor a few minutes and then they
rotate and meet another studentand interact with them.
(31:48):
Information and hearingdifferent information.
It's really themed around theidea of this.
Oh, it's speed dating.
Mr Gliowski has the fireplaceon the TV screen and he's
playing jazz music in thebackground.
For some reason it has that.
You know it's engaging themthat they're weirded out by the
(32:08):
classroom experience, butthey're also getting a chance to
go one-on-one discussing atopic with somebody else hearing
about a different interestgroup.
So the podcast shares a lot ofstrategies and different ways to
engage your students in review,civics education, human rights
and genocide education.
We're all about sharing as muchas we can.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And I actually met Alicia through professional
professional development too.
I feel like I, the state ofwisconsin um has my heart,
because there are a lot ofincredible.
We have two wisconsin teachersin our cohort, but I feel like
every time I go to a pd um, Imeet these amazing teachers from
the midwest.
I love speed dating becauseit's like when you walk into a
(32:55):
classroom when they're doingspeed dating, it's so animated
and it's loud and you can justfeel the learning and you're
right, kids, it's somethingdifferent for them and they get
more exposure and it's just fun.
Like that is a day where it'sfun.
I'm going to find that podcastand put it in the show notes
because I think that peopleshould listen to that.
(33:17):
Is there anything we did notget to that you want to make
sure?
There's so much good in thispodcast?
I can't wait to share it withour listeners.
But is there anything else youwant to make sure that you say
for the good of civics?
Speaker 2 (33:37):
I guess all I would say is like like, civics
education doesn't have to bejust like learning governmental
structures and stuff like that.
Civics education is just about.
Well in Wisconsin there aremany people that say civics
education is social studieseducation.
It's kind of involved witheverything.
(33:58):
If you're having a historyclass and you're talking about a
big historical concept, you canhave that discussion of like
how do we approach things likethis in the public world?
How were they approachingthings back then?
How could things be approacheddifferently?
If you're talking about anynumber of different subjects in
(34:19):
the social studies, they tie inwith civics all over the place.
Whenever you're talking aboutbeing able to make an argument
and support things, wheneveryou're talking about you know,
interactions of our world, a lotof that is civics.
So making sure that you're youknow creating an engaging
(34:41):
classroom that's certainly keyand making sure that you know
civics is kind of intertwinedwith a bunch of stuff mind with
a bunch of stuff.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
You are a rock star.
The state of Wisconsin is solucky to have you.
Asu was so lucky to have you asone of our cohort members.
Thank you so much.
There's so many gems in thisand I just really appreciate the
opportunity to work with youagain, to hang out with you
again.
So thank you, I reallyappreciate it.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.