I motion to end debate, er, move, er … what? -– Abri

I am going to have a class full of disappointed faces tomorrow morning. It’s not that I want to make the legislative process more difficult. It’s not that I am trying to prevent the 1st Session of the 111th Congress from passing any key legislation. The fact remains that I am the President of the United States of America (at least, for the next week) and I need to protect my citizens, even if my Senate believes that they should be able to restrict some rights. You see, my class full of 28 Senators just passed a bill to require mandatory driving tests for Americans over the age of 65. Technically, that is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. More on that later …

We are a third of the way through our Model Congress and it is even better than I anticipated that it would be. I have served as a student representative in the past, but none of those experiences reached the level of engagement that I have seen over the past week. Our Congress is more limited because of its size and time restrictions, but we’re still getting some quality work. All of our students have been assigned to a committee and more than half of our students are serving in a position of Congressional leadership (such as the Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader, the Minority Whip, etc).

Our students are quickly picking up on parliamentary procedure as well as the ins and outs of committee work. They are also discovering that passing a bill through Congress is a lot more work than they thought it would be. In the real world, only 4% of bills that go through Congress actually make it into law. One of my students (let’s call him Daniel*) stopped me in the hallway last week and asked, “So, is this really what it’s like? My bill is stuck in committee. Is there any way that I can get it out? How does Congress ever manage to get anything done?”

It is a fair question. How does Congress ever manage to get anything done? Daniel and his fellow students are discovering that the key is compromise, compromise, compromise. They are also living the legislative process instead of just reading about it. They are seeing first-hand how our government is structured to allow everyone to express their opinion, to allow only the best bills to go through, to restrict those who would try to harm a section of the American population, and to make sure that one governing body does not wield too much power.

Which brings me back to my role: I am the president. It is my job to check my own students and ensure that they are working for the best interests of the American public and not just for themselves. Of course, they can still override me, if 2/3 of them decide that I am wrong. In that case, the bill will go to another teacher in the school who acts as the Supreme Court. There is no way to override him!

Regardless of if this bill sees the metaphorical light of day, this simulation is providing my students with a window into the real world. They are living government, an experience that will hopefully stick with them for years and that might change how critical they are of their representatives in the future. I have discovered that the key to a good simulation is providing students with an authentic experience that they can make their own, and I can’t wait to see what else my students come up with.

By the way, the title of the post is supposed to be “I motion to move the previous question.” The students are still working on that one! But I think that they will have it down by Friday.

* Name changed to protect the student

Sometimes, it takes two -- Abri

One reason I want to be a teacher is so that I can make history, government, and other social sciences come alive for my students. Beyond just learning dates, important people, and events, I want to help students experience the past and present, and imagine the future.

I’ve been around teachers all of my life. You could say that it’s in my blood; in fact, my mom says that I used to come home from preschool, arrange my stuffed animals in neat rows, and teach them what I had learned each day. I rarely got bored in school growing up, but whenever I did, I would think about how I would have presented the material differently. Last summer I could hardly wait to apply my own life experience to classroom theory and be able to get to student teaching as soon as possible.

But if I have learned anything from life it is that things rarely turn out the way that you plan, and often that is a good thing. I realize now that my original grand plans for student teaching were missing one essential element: the influence and support of my cooperating teacher. I dreamed about all the wonderful things that I would do with my students, and of how my ideas could make the difference their lives. I knew that my cooperating teacher would be around to offer me advice and to critique my performance, but I was expecting that our roles would be kept separate. The downside to this premature vision was that I would have to navigate a great deal of my student teaching alone.

Thankfully, this is not the case. Not only have my cooperating teacher and I forged a successful working relationship, we have also been able to co-teach our classes. Co-teaching can often be a tenuous process because every teacher has a different style, yet it is becoming more popular in the era of IEPs and individualized instruction. A true co-teaching experience is a collaborative effort in which both parties fuse their skills and expertise to enhance classroom learning and make it better than it would have been if only one of them were teaching. Each teacher has a different concept of their ideal classroom and co-teaching challenges individualism for the good of students.

My cooperating teacher and I have been co-teaching for several weeks. Some days this looks like one of us leading a discussion while the other adds comments to illuminate parts of the discussion. Other days this looks like us switching back and forth with different activities throughout the class period. Most recently we have started simulations in our government classes – a Mock Election and a Model Congress. Now, co-teaching is both of us walking around our classroom or the computer lab to take note of student progress and help groups as they have need. I have even been able to lead one of the classes in the computer lab by myself!

To me, the most important benefit of co-teaching is the ability to offer individualized instruction to more students. Some of our students have had trouble with the bill writing process for Model Congress. Co-teaching has allowed me the freedom to guide one student in research about Roe v. Wade, help another improve her writing, and edit a bill on nuclear fusion written by a third, all the while knowing that my cooperating teacher is looking at the big picture. When he sits down with a student, I do the same thing.

These simulations are helping the government process come alive for my students. I do not think that co-teaching is necessary for a successful simulation, but it certainly helps. I hope that having the opportunity to work directly with my students will make them more successful when we elect a president and open the 111th Congress this week! Stay tuned!

More Amazing Teachers

Abri is teaching twelfth grade government. She is most looking forward to being in the classroom every day so that she can learn more about herself as a teacher and experience what it is like to teach something beyond a single lesson.




Kelly is teaching Algebra II and Math Analysis to grades 9 through 12. During student teaching she is looking forward to trying out ideas like Parabola Playtime, getting to know her students, and building confidence as a teacher.






Tom is teaching tenth grade World Geography and ninth grade World History. He is looking forward to finally getting a true taste of what the teaching profession actually looks like as well as being able to help all these students learn about history and being good citizens. He is also excited to share those experiences with all who will read this blog.

Sara is teaching sixth grade Early American History. She is mostly looking forward to working with her students all the time!

Kyle is teaching ninth grade English and twelfth grade AP Literature and Language. He is most looking forward to beginning his professional career, which in the case of teaching is improving the lives and futures of children.




Johnny Mac is teaching eleventh grade AP U.S. history, the social studies portion of eleventh grade Advanced American Studies, and Law and Society for students in grades 10-12. He is co-teaching the American Studies class with Bex. Johnny Mac is most looking forward to being a good thief and finding a lot of resources related to his content area to expand his repertoire during student teaching.

Bex is teaching AP English Humanities Enhanced and co-teaching Advanced American Studies with Johnny Mac. It has been a long journey to this point, and she is excited to finally be in the classroom. She is most looking forward to getting to know her students better and learning how to best teach them. Bex is eager to explore different areas of teaching and to hone her skills so she can become an awesome English teacher.

Clifton is teaching eleventh grade US History, IB twelth grade Geography, and IB eleventh grade History of America. He is most looking forward to teaching students with different skills and abilities while trying to meet their needs.