The school district that I teach in is going to be celebrating 250 years of America in May. This is a time for families to get together in the town center park to acknowledge student work, participation, and civic engagement all in the name of celebrating our country. This is something that I am taking the lead on, and as I do so, I am utilizing Gemini to help with a classroom project that will contribute to this celebration.
When brainstorming this idea, the superintendent instructed each school to come up with something that relates to or is directly correlative to this celebration. My school chose to do the War of 1812. When this was decided, we then figured out how we would divide and conquer this task. As a Civics/Government teacher, I am able to insert this directly into instruction. I prompted Gemini to help me with the assignment and sample I am giving my class.
A crucial part of Civics and government is learning about the creation of it; understanding what it took to obtain the current government that we have and the freedoms that we enjoy daily. To truly appreciate what we have, it’s important to recognize how we got it. This is something I intently impress upon my students.
The picture shown at the beginning of this shows the first step of the assignment I am giving to my students. My desire is that students will go through this assignment and have a deeper sense of patriotism and desire for civic engagement. Through this grant, my knowledge has grown on utilizing AI to promote a sense of civic responsibility through activities and assignments that promote the use of technology and research to have a greater impact on their thought processes. These thought processes will hopefully develop a more civic-minded thinker within each student.
To conclude, this project is allowing me to put into practice some of the technological/AI (Gemini) skills I have learned about within this grant. The knowledge I have carried from it is helping me to create a more civically-engaged classroom and learning environment.
Cam Jackson
South Laurel Middle School
Laurel County Schools
8th Grade
