Author: icivics

My students love learning and they excel academically. And recently, I discovered that they also have a flair for the dramatic.

It was the beginning of the school year. As part of the Civic Star Challenge, I adapted a unit created by my mentor Jeannie Holloway. The goal was to help students see that the Constitution did not appear out of nowhere. It grew out of real arguments about power, rights, government, and human nature. I kicked things off with a short video introducing the Enlightenment thinkers: it’s a lecture/infographic featuring Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and others.

Then I asked the students to become those thinkers. In groups, they wrote skits that placed the philosophers in contemporary, sometimes wacky scenarios. Then they grabbed their scripts and got on their feet.

We were transported to a pizza parlor, where the thinkers tried to decide the best way to split a pizza – an allegory for the separation of powers. (Hobbes also argued that putting pineapple on pizza was evil.) Then we visited an extravagant hotel restaurant, where they debated effective leadership over pancakes. Another skit—considering life, liberty, and property—was set in a bank: Locke and Hobbes were security guards confronted by some would-be robbers, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu:

Montesquieu: (interrupting, now deeply focused on dividing the cash) Calm down, Hobbes. I’m simply restoring order—true order. (Starts separating the bills into neat piles.) Equal separation of power, just like how the government should work.

Hobbes: (near breakdown) This isn’t about power! You’re robbing the bank! We need strong laws, a king, someone in charge! Without that, everything falls into chaos—like this!

Rousseau: (shaking his head) Laws? Kings? Hobbes, you’ve been brainwashed by corrupt authority. Society is what corrupts people, not the other way around. We’re just taking back what society has stolen from us!

There were props (including tea cups and fake money), accents, and robust discussions after each performance.

America is a country founded on debate. Even the idea of establishing a federal government caused a vigorous disagreement, which continues to this day. I want students to understand that disagreement is not a problem to avoid. It is part of how our country was built. When students can step into different points of view, argue from them, and even laugh with them, they begin to see civic learning as something alive.

I’m the only teacher in Baltimore County Public Schools focused solely on Homeland Security. I sometimes describe the subject as “social studies with all the lessons coming from the last 30 years.” We mainly focus on the government response to threats – foreign, domestic, natural, and man-made. My classes are part of a pathway program that supports students as they explore a range of careers; from law enforcement to law school, even cyber security. 

My students are especially interested in understanding their own rights, including at school. They ask direct questions: Can our phones be tracked? When can a locker be searched? Where is the line?

We ground the answers to those questions in the Constitution itself. In my Law class, we spend a lot of time talking about the Bill of Rights. I was searching for a resource that could help tie together ideas from across the unit and the Civic Star Challenge led me to Accused? Know Your Rights. It was exactly what I was looking for. The lesson considers the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments using a variety of formats, including narrative, match, and personal reflection. It spoke to students with a range of abilities, and I was impressed by the very high percentage completion rate.

I look for ways to extend learning beyond the classroom. As it happens, our area is resource-rich in lawyers! So following the iCivics lesson, I invited one to visit our class. Students were able to ask about how the rights we’d been discussing applied in a court of law. They were shocked to learn that the Miranda Warning they’d heard so often on TV wasn’t a common issue. Why? The proliferation of body cameras. But perhaps the ubiquity in pop culture is also part of the Warning’s effectiveness: students almost instinctively know they have the right to remain silent and request a lawyer. Now they also understand where those rights come from.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It’s also the 25th anniversary of 9/11. For this course, those connections are immediate. To deepen that learning, I plan to take students to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City next fall. We are raising funds by selling small American flags, with a goal of 2,977, one for each victim. Students are also creating a display to honor those lives. It’s a way to connect what we study in class to real people and real events.

At Nicolaus Copernicus School, our curriculum is demanding. My mission is to ensure that the challenge is met with excitement. To achieve this, I transform traditional lectures into interactive experiences. By integrating game mechanics like point systems, collaborative team missions, and healthy competition, I aim to turn every unit into a quest for knowledge.

Recently, as part of the Civic Star Challenge, I set out to turn the concept of taxation without representation into a felt, lived experience. I wanted my students to move from passive observers of history to active participants, feeling the colonists’ frustration and shifting from learning about liberty to demanding it.

So I built a physical simulation designed to spark a visceral reaction. I turned our classroom into a microcosm of the British Empire. I began taxing the very supplies the students needed to function as scholars. A stamp was required for everything: notebook paper, access to a pencil sharpener, and even the “luxury” of using a chair. The taxation wasn’t just a discussion; it was an active, bureaucratic obstacle. Each time they reached for a supply, I acted as the Crown’s agent, demanding their “stamps” before they could proceed. At first, there were giggles, but as their currency (merit points they had earned through gamification) dwindled, the mood shifted to genuine indignation.

The real aha moment happened when we transitioned from the Stamp Act to the Boston Tea Party. They realized that their hard-earned points and labor were being taken by a power (me, the teacher) who hadn’t consulted them on the rules—and that I could change those rules at any time. When we reached the First Continental Congress, the classroom literally erupted. It wasn’t just noise; it was organized dissent. Students who were usually quiet were suddenly at the front of the room, drafting petitions and arguing that the rules of our classroom needed to be a social contract, not a monarchy.

During our debrief, we explored the fine line between loyalty and liberty. The students began to articulate that loyalty is a choice made in exchange for fairness, and liberty is the right to have a say in one’s own destiny. Seeing their eyes bright with the understanding that ordinary people—farmers, shopkeepers, even 5th graders—could challenge the most powerful empire on Earth was the highlight of the year. 

They realized history isn’t something that just happens to people; it is something people create. 

The Constitution is the foundation for nearly everything I do in my class, even if my students don’t always realize it. That’s by design: I weave it into lessons, discussions, projects, and more. It’s like a civics sneak attack! The goal is to make sure students understand the Constitution itself, as well as how it shows up in their lives. And they don’t have to look far. 

Recently, as part of the Civic Star Challenge, my We The People class was learning about the 14th Amendment. At the same time, Indiana was making national news around changes in voting laws and procedures. So, we leaned into the moment. We looked at district maps and dug into our state’s history; we also identified periods when certain minority groups were disenfranchised or not allowed to vote. While my students hold a range of political beliefs, they generally align around the principle of one person, one vote. This leads to some great discussions about political power and how our elected officials hold onto it. As one student observed, “The Constitution didn’t change as much as who was protected by it.”

We also incorporated the First Amendment into our exploration of the issue. Students observed how fellow Hoosiers were exercising their rights by organizing grassroots efforts to influence policy and staging walkouts to protest it. Several were inspired to write to their legislators to express their opinions. They could see that democracy is not a spectator sport—and they became active players.

I also love teaching the Constitution through music. (I’m trained in musical theater, and I still direct and choreograph. So I try to marry my two loves—civics and the arts—whenever I can!) I have a unit coming up for my dual credit Government & Politics classes called “Soundtrack of Resistance: Protest Music and the First Amendment.” The playlist, alone, is worth a listen: it’s got hits from legends like Aretha Franklin, Sam Cook, and Bob Dylan, but also more recent tracks from Kendrick Lamar and HER. We’ll analyze lyrics and learn what animated the artists to write them. For example, we’ll consider Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son.” I’m pretty sure even the students who have heard the song may not realize it was written in response to the Vietnam War.

We’ll also ask more fundamental questions: 

• Is it an artist’s responsibility to exercise their First Amendment rights in this way? 
• When can speech be limited? 
• How does public opinion factor in? 

These are questions I hope they continue asking as engaged voters and citizens long after they leave my classroom.

I recently broke up with Culver’s.

Let me explain.

In my classroom, civic literacy isn’t about memorizing documents. It’s about learning how those ideas live, travel, and show up in students’ real lives.

As part of the Civic Star Challenge, we took a close look at the Declaration of Independence. As the students were annotating the document, I put on my ultimate break-up playlist. (It kicked off with Neal Sedaka’s “Breaking Up is Hard to Do,” of course!) Then I threw it to the students: using the Declaration as a format, how might they write their own break up letter to someone or, even better, something?

Each letter had to include some key elements, including: a preamble explaining the need for separation, a statement of basic rights, a list of grievances, quotes from the original, and a final declaration of independence.

I mused that I was giving Culver’s the boot: I’d attempted reconciliation by trying the fast food chain’s salads, but they were just no match for their butter burgers. For that reason, an ongoing relationship would be unsustainable. 

The students immediately ran with it. One student, a worrier, wrote a break-up letter to her stress. Another wrote to her annoying little sister, reasoning that it would be better for their relationship if she got her own room: “It doesn’t mean that I don’t love you. As the Declaration of Independence states ‘as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends’”.

I thought a student’s letter to Homework was particularly inspired. They wrote, “You force me to wrap my head around your nonsensical phrases without clear explanation with the threat of dishonor and failure, a remnant of years passed harder to let go of than a bandaid of duct tape.” (See the full letter below.)

And like other important documents, the students got feedback on their drafts. In my class, we’re often sharing work with each other, getting input and ideas. As I overheard the murmur of conversation, I could tell that they’d connected deeply with the concept and the material. Plus, as they shared with each other, they were teaching and learning from each other. And that’s always been the most powerful thing for me. 

At the end of the class, a student showed me a letter addressed to the manager at her after school job. She explained “At the end of this year, just before I go off to college, this is going to be my letter of resignation.”