Every year cspan awards fellowships to several middle and High School Teachers who have demonstrated innovative methods of a corporate cspan programs in their teaching. They join cspans education Relations Team in washington, d. C. For four weeks in july to develop new teaching materials. They also help lead cspan some educators conference. Al green has taught in pacoima. Tells about your school and her students. Im really fortunate to get to teach the population that is almost entirely firstgeneration americans. Most my students are bilingual scum into the english language skill. I get to take a group of students who really want to learn, immigrant children love learning. They see education as way out. Their parents are super invested in them and so i get to be the guide to teach them about those connections to American History and World History and to the government and help them see their place within this country that sometimes doesnt receive him as a a part of it. You tell us your moving to New High School in san fernando valley. Typically what have you taught in the past . When i started i was the only history teacher so i ran the whole gamut of World History, yes history and government and d this coming i will be focusing entirely on government. When you say focus on government what does i class, what do the topics cover . Im fortunate to get to teach a full year of government so we get to go over the branches of government, the functions of government of all the Different Levels with etiquette of the time to talk about media and bias and their place in. We take time to learn about journalism and media studies. To me those are all a huge part of government. We get to write things about how to vote and to get to research and so we get to see not just how the government functions but how we participate in the function of that government. You talked talk about one oe challenges kind of that exists, your teaching mainly firstgeneration american kids. What are some of the other challenges in getting concept of the constitution, government and washington across to High School Students . In general histories hard to convince people that is not just the thing that happened before but its a thing that is actually happening now. History feels like something in the distant past and we dont get a second. But help to make those connections for my students take these are issues were still reckon with. So who cares john adams try to limit free speech . Its important to our conversation today about what is hate speech and what should be allowed in part of the discussion online. It takes making those connections for them that they may not make themselves. What current political issues or figures are the most sort of talked about among your students . Donald trump is the person number one pick they always, and say did you hear . Did you see . Can you believe . Then we get to talk about the historical significance and those relationships and we get to put things into context. So when the 2016 the 2016 debae could go back and watch the 1960 president ial debate. Look how cordial they were to each other. Nixon and kennedy were so nice to each other. We can trace where those things shift. Reagan jokes about not holding his opponents you think an experience against him. He laughs and laughs and laughs along with them and we can trace where those divides start to happen, when things become more partisan. Its not just about saying heres something thats crazy that happened, but how did we get here and now how can we fie out and navigate a way back. Whether President Trump or issues and political history, how hard is it for you as a teacher to keep your views in check and listen to what they have to say . The most important thing that i see my role as is teaching not to think independently. That starts with research. How can you conduct research to verify things you find online . We like to think as adults young people are geniuses with technology, these digital natives, you know exactly what theyre doing. They know the shortcuts and the lingo but they dont have any reasoning skills about what this young line. The teachers, the adults, parents dont think we can teach our kids to balance these skills. But we have to. They dont know innately how to verify if something is true or not they see online. They see conspiracy theories on youtube and they take it as gospel truth. At the core of teaching them how to identify whats true and whats not, we can apply those to politics as well. Its the same thing when a politician says something. Is it true . Lets prove it. Lets go back to the tape. Cspan has really important place in that. Its not just a sound bite. Lets watch the hearing. My students and i come they became obsessed with the Brett Kavanaugh hearing. I didnt anticipate that i switched around our whole lesson plans and they got to do these mock congressional hearings. They pretended to be people in the Senate Judiciary committee, and we watched cspan. We watched the full coverage. We watched our senators engaging in those backandforth, and they could see what it was like and learn about the politics behind everybodys choices and what they were saying. If you could bring the students to washington and take into one place to teach a lesson, what do you think that would be in the Nations Capital, whether its on capitol hill or elsewhere . I would like to take them off of capitol hill. We spent a lot of time at the mall but the real history is in his other places, a lot of student groups dont get even into southeast d. C. Forgetting to go select the Frederick Douglass house, its somewhere people might not think of but it has this rich multicultural history that our students need to learn, especially my students. They see history as something that old white people did and to show them that theyve a place in the history as well, thats what i i would like to take thm to see Frederick Douglass house and teach them but when he did. You are one of our three teacher fellows this summer. Why did you apply in the first place . I felt like i had a unique but becoming less unique perspective teaching english learners, teaching students or immigrants the face of americas changing and ive been on the front lines with the students. I wanted to bring my perspective of teaching a type of kid who has been left behind, at that also developing my own practice as well. I have really gotten to do this and if you like after this month im going to be a much better teacher for my students. You are here with your other teacher fellows and also the other teachers come in for a teacher conference, developing curricula for middle and High School Students. What are some of the interesting ideas or practices that youve heard from your colleagues . Zachariah and marine have been really taken on the task of the state history which is something about a middle School Teachers need it its easy to find the National Stuff online but finding some specific about north dakota, thats harder. They have been digging through cspans Library Finding the city tours and getting those little fun stories that you wouldnt expect, that the Mormon Church in salt lake city, they built that and were able to build up because they ended polygamy. There were not able to get federal funding to help them until it ended polygamy. These little stories that you think, its really small to a place but also has a big political ramifications. Sickening to see how we can find ourselves within a more local context and make those large connections. Do you think you now have that understanding of policy process of the government that you can relate to the kids look easier now . I think it has been a real delight to have going on in the background the gavel to gavel coverage. All day ive got to have that on the screen right next to me. You get to see those little moments that get missed. You get to see those Little Things that our Congress People do to connect back home that they dont really get covered. But theyre always out there showing a picture of someone whos important and local. We think of them as National Figures know, maybe because her media is so nationalized. But making those connections to all those Little Things that our Congress People do that connect us to them, are locals to the national, i think thats something ive been able to see and experience were often. Image of the Frederick Douglass house. What other fun things did you do when you were in washington . They do jazz and send great in the park at the National Sculpture garden. That is been a real treat. Ive gotten a couple of five dollars tickets to the national games. Its been taking the time to be in place for so long. We been here for a month. Its not a twoday whirlwind around d. C. For taking the time to start spreading out into different places, start spreading out beyond just that core boundary that most of us think of when we picture d. C. Its been a real delight to get to really live in a place and feel like i know where im going. Im not just hanging around. As you head back to california to your school a New High School this falcon is a followup process to what you have learned here . Ill be moving to a much bigger high school this coming year and i will actually have a full History Department to get work with, not just me and a few other colleagues. Im excited to get to share this process, how to make resources, how did i think that cspan libra. Its 250,000 hours 50,000 hours of it. I would love to be able to bring that practice to my fellow teachers, and its not just history teachers. Theres content for the english teachers and environmental studies teachers. Theres a lot we can all pull from that research. 2019 see thin teacher fellows eleanor green from california. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. 2019 teacher fellows Maureen Mcguirl teaches at the Jamestown School in jamestown, rhode island, tell us about your school and students. Our school is on the island for one, sore students get together pretty much cake to eight and theyre excited when a military students which make up 25 of our population k through eight. New people to meet and bring diversity to our classroom. Basically the island will start out as a farm for sheep and then state that we really until we got another bridge in and thats when our population kind of exploded from about 2500 people to about 5000 yearround. You teach middle school five through eight, correct. Was just 78. What are some of the courses you teach . In seventh grade i teach topics in question civilization, how to gather information, take notes, examined it and then presented according to the audience our vineyards are using. Thats a common theme with the a teacher fellowship in the summer conferences is the gathering of information for study. Tell us about what you learned here. For one is high seas that offer so many materials. Often at our level and some in eighthgrade were using document base questions. One of the challenges is to allow students to maybe not access primary documents, and a real portion of the cspan has been a great way to get my students to have that access because its visual and authentic to the time. We can also utilize a lot of the clips we can make, and so students can gather information in an authentic way but still be able to access it and understand. What current political or policy issues or issues in history are your kids most interested in . Aside from things you are confident in your class. So plastic is a big issue. They saw a documentary on chasing coral and were horrified whats happening in the oceans that didnt see. Issue my students worked on banning plastic and the ledger. Lecture. They met with all the different stakeholders and for success in getting that change with the exception of nice with our policy on like weapons. If you could bring your kids from jamestown and washington and teach them a class in the location you have been to, wrote with that be and what with the class b about . The Supreme Court is the most i guess less known as to what it does and how it functions because when they get to meet, the laws passed by congress, given to the the president and headed over to the Supreme Court to see if it is constitutional. The of the picture is that the trial they see on law and order. So to dispel the type of jurisdiction it is as well as the process in which the justices go through a case, what theyre really deciding is not guilt or innocence for the most part, the appellate jurisdiction, but rather just look at the constitution and due process. You are in washington as Big Decisions coming down from the Supreme Court as its happening. Absolute. I often use tinker versus belt because that captivates my students as, they love to debate the rights and so the idea of reading of expression is a big one. The other big issue for them is vaping. The vaping issue. Because they were really disturb how it wasnt being dealt with another industry was allowed to regulate itself so that then took a lot of letters about that. This week i was watching quite a few of the Committee Hearings on that and am looking for to bring back to its about to have been to the next steps if there were to write to their congressman or senator or even local school board, how would they do with the problem. You teach seventh and eighth grade. Eighthgraders mostly civics and taking topics in history to look at how different historical events that shaped the constitution. I also do history day day with. You mention they are sort of nascent understanding of the Supreme Court. What other misconceptions about washington or about the process of the federal can do you think you can further clarify after your experience here . One of the things interesting was a committee process, how they bring together different people of different backgrounds and different opinions, and how the process goes through in terms of the testimony. I think im going to look for to utilizing that in the classroom. You had been here as, in the summer conference before, cspan. This year as a teacher fellows what prompted you to apply for the scholarship . I realize after my first time being hit with cspan i just scratch the surface. I think i was the biggest thing, and even being here among i know i could do so much more and so its a pleasure to be offered the opportunity to do research, to be supported by the educational staff. They were wonderful and kissing you can find this one . Let me help you with that. Was wonderful. Dimension some of the plastics and vaping. What other political issues did they come to you and say, we dont understand this, or whats going on with why did he say this or why are they doing this . Sometimes its all people talk to each other. What are you cspan they are sought that i sometimes people speak to each other. We live on an island of being civil is really important because we are with each other a long time and sometimes have a lot of questions about that. Its kind of an interesting thing to navigate and ask them questions back as to what they think might profit. You mention also a lot of the kids are children of military parents with the war college being there. Do you have discussions in class about the role of the military, in terms of our presence in afghanistan and iraq and elsewhere . I think im sensitive sometimes my parents are deployed cimetidine sun that de conversation as to what they feel would be i guess appropriate and comfortable for the students because i never know what students are bring, especially post 9 11. I dont know what families are touched by that. I cannot let them guide the discussion and then facilitate if a mutual support. But for the most part they usually bring it a lot of pride that the parents serve the country, and we also try and make sure they as children of the military who didnt choose to join the military but do have their lifestyles and packet that they feel honored as well. We take time to say thank you for your service, because they do give up a lot of the opportunity to stay in one place. Correct me if im wrong, i think you mentioned before the senate you can you link to this we teaching, right . I replaced my predecessor, mr. Anderson, and its been a pleasure to go back to my community because i do know them and its great, i also live on my island which is unusual because not a lot of houses are affordable for teachers. Ive been proud to be able to have that community connection. We are glad to have you in washington as you been around, your schedule has been busy with the conference but what fun things are interesting places have you gone in the city while you been in the Nations Capital . I have loved walking ever and running adware, particularly in the neighborhood behind the library of congress, has been just a marvelous history in itself. I had never been there so other than to the made within park, so ive been enjoying just the diversity and the neighborhood of all the to neighbors of ganja and purposely gone out to go check those out, was bent upon you straight go try or maybe to go out to the potomac park and the running along there. Did you get into the library of congress itself . I did. I went to the exhibit on womens vote and i been there once before and got my library card. So you can go back and use it now that youve gotten your library card. Absolutely. And any citizen can get their library card to use there. Just go down in the basement, absolutely. Maureen mcguirl, thank you so much for being one of our teacher fellows and being with us here this summer. Thank you. Appreciate it. Sacral is one of our 2019 cspan teacher fellows turkeys a teacher in middle school in sumter, south carolina. Tell us a little bit about your students. My students come from a very world, very impoverished backgrounds. We are very on the edge of Sumter County in south carolina. Its kind of shape like oklahoma. Our school comes from the panhandle so we are completely away from the nearest city. We have about 400 kids grades k8 so very small school. The kids are determined to grow and determined to learn him and just great personalities and a desire to try to make their committees a better place. Your focus as a teacher is take history. Doubt still in state history. What prompted you to apply to be a teacher fellows . What did you think you would learn . I came to cspans educator conference about four heres a go. It was my first real big professional development experience. It was right after my first year teaching and it was kind of hard for my students to realize what happens in washington because so many of them have not really ever let Sumter County. There was a field trip we took last school year what was the first and most of the kids had ev