Help students learn more about the Constitution!

A shameless request for you to jump in the fun and help 10th grade students in Durham learn more about the US Constitution in my Civics and Economics class. C&E is required for graduation in NC and there's also an End of Course test that the students need to pass to get credit for the class. I've created my first DonorsChoose project to get a class set of this graphic novel adaptation of the US Constitution.

It's a terrific new way to tell a 222 year old story: how can a document that old still be relevant to our lives and our government? Through amazing images and words Jonathan Hennessey and Aaron McConnell vividly describe not only that summer in 1787 but also important cases that have tested the Constitution in the years since. I'm hoping that this innovative method of storytelling will make learning more interesting and fun!

If you can, please click this link to give $ to my project so that my students can use these texts to be the best C&E students they can be! I thank you in advance and my students will thank you directly if you can help us. --Steve

Food For Thought

In April I co-taught a short course (called Mini-Term) at NCSSM with another teacher and 20 students. In addition to reading Michael Pollan, discussing organic certification, Slow Food and watching some interesting films (including King Corn), we visited several "local food" sites. All of the people that we asked to visit agreed and all were incredibly gracious and informative. Here's where we went:

Elysian Fields Farm, Cedar Grove

SEEDS Garden, Durham

Goat Lady Dairy, Climax

Fickle Creek Farm, Efland

Watts Grocery

Durham Farmers Market

See more photos here (from Facebook):
Album #1
Album #2

EDITED: most of the photography above and in the albums was done by recent NCSSM graduate Ha Thien Nguyen!

Finished!

Hurray for me. Last night I finished my last class for my last class for my master's in liberal studies at UNCG. It's been a very good program and I'd highly recommend it to anyone seeking to get more education, whether for a job or just for lifelong learning. While somewhat inconsistent, the classes overall were very interesting and challenging and the professors (all real UNCG professors) were top-rate. The topics included modern world history, Latin America, Islam and more, but my favorite ones were taught by Charlie Headington on simple living and Slow Food.

Most of my classes were online and again I'd recommend that as well. It allows for enormous flexibility and allowed me to complete my degree while working full-time. Now I'm off to buy some Spartan merchandise. I'll celebrate fully in August when the degree comes in the mail.