Snagfilms is one of my favorite sites for watching documentaries online. Tonight I found a documentary titled The Ruling Classroom about a middle school teacher who sets up his classroom like a country. I did something similar to this once a few years ago but it never got to this extent. It is amazing how this teacher gets kids to simulate complex world problems in their own role play. It is also amazing how quickly their role play becomes real play as the actions of the "country's" newspaper cause emotional and professional harm to a teacher in another classroom. I guess at that point the "country" entered into foreign relations. I highly recommend this if you in any way work with middle school students, teach civics, government, or sociology, or are interested in project-based learning, role-play, or game design. What this teacher does is amazing.
Friday, September 10, 2010
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Very neat, Richard Byrnes does something similar in his class, he was tweeting about it the other day and I mentioned that I would love to see it in action. Now I feel like I got a glimpse of how this work. Thanks, great film.
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