Monthly Archives: September 2011

20 Minute Interest Groups

Posted on September 28, 2011 by

Interest Groups and the Bureaucracy are in a constant battle for my least favorite material to teach in my intro US course.  They are just not as sexy as elections and the media or even the judiciary, and every time … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Amanda Rosen, and Simulations, Exercises | Leave a comment

From the mouths of babies (story books)…

Posted on September 27, 2011 by

Having finally been forced out of our Greek property so it can be sold off to help sort out the whole debt crisis thing, I’m back in the UK, enjoying the fine weather here. As part of the long trip … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Comparative Politics, Exercises, Getting Them to Read, International Relations, Political Theory, Reading, Simon Usherwood, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Interesting online exercise on poverty and budgeting

Posted on September 26, 2011 by

I have used online simulations with my students for a variety of different pedagogical goals – something I am planning on blogging about later – but today I came across an online simulation that seems very appropriate for the current … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Songs about International Relations

Posted on September 25, 2011 by

  I have noticed in the past that every so often people will put up a list of songs that match certain International Relations theories.   One list that I like is by Michael J. Tierney which you can find here:  … Continue reading →

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Using Modular Architecture to Build Choice Into Courses

Posted on September 25, 2011 by

In all of my courses I’ve been migrating away from the standard textbooks put out by academic publishing houses. They are expensive, have a brief shelf-life, and are usually collections of easily-forgettable facts rather than memorable narratives.  Chuck the textbooks … Continue reading →

Posted in Chad Raymond, Comparative Politics, Getting Them to Read, Group Collaboration, Survey Courses | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

I Civics: Aging up a K-12 curriculum

Posted on September 21, 2011 by

I recently discovered a neat little site called I Civics, a “web-based education project designed to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in our democracy.”  Founded by former SCOTUS Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the site features … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Amanda Rosen, Games, Online Classes | Leave a comment

Satire in the classroom

Posted on September 16, 2011 by

While I have not used their products, I have been very impressed with what the online textbook publisher soomopublishing is doing in terms of sharing information about pedagogical tactics.  Clearly some of this is oriented towards marketing their own products … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

20 Minute Legislature

Posted on September 14, 2011 by

I’m a big fan of the twenty minute simulation.  One of the big hurdles to using sims in the classroom is the perception that they take a lot of preparation on the part of the professor and a lot of … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, Amanda Rosen, Exercises, Large Classes, Role-playing, Small Classes | 3 Comments

More on a Blog-based Simulation

Posted on September 12, 2011 by

This semester marks the second time I’m running my Europe1914 simulation in an introductory international relations course. I first taught this course to honors students in Fall 2008. In Fall 2009, I ran the simulation, but in a non-honors section. … Continue reading →

Posted in Activities, and Simulations, Chad Raymond, Group Collaboration, International Relations, Role-playing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Best of Both Worlds Model at APSA

Posted on September 7, 2011 by

We make our students work in groups to learn from each other right? Michael Brintnall has done amazing things for the APSA conference in a way that few appear to realize. There are, in fact, working groups at APSA, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, APSA, Group Collaboration, Nina Kollars | Leave a comment