Eric 649 report.

 Hello. This is my first blog of all time. One would think that at this late date in our digital history I would have done at least one blog. I have created a website, but never a blog. This blog is a report on my efforts to teach a unit on the American Judiciary.

My report on my experience with teaching at the West Virginia High School should have been more complete and I hope this fleshes it all out. 

I should say that I found myself challenged by the students because they were looking forward to graduating and they had developed a real connection to their regular teacher, my cooperating teacher. Thus, I represented a break in the routine and a distraction. The students and the cooperating teacher are also from the same community. It was apparent that they had a connection within the parameters of their shared regional culture.

Nevertheless, I got to know the students by taking time to talk to most of them, asking what their plans were after graduation.. I found most of the students to be polite and deferential to elders, although not very interested in the topic I was presenting. 

My presentations followed my inspiration in the way that the law is taught in the United States; that is based on case law. I realized that I had failed to provide the necessary scaffolding and vocabulary preparation for the students to be able to the project I assigned them. As a result, they needed me to walk them through the process. 

My mistake was largely based on my looking at the material from my point of view and not from rural high school kids.

I still think that the idea was a good one, but needed work and more preparation on my side. The cooperating teacher gave me some good advice after the classes and I took them to heart. 

The next time I try this approach I will prepare some materials that develop, first, vocabulary, second, the judicial process, and third, how to read original legal documentation. This will create better scaffolding for the final project of reading and assessing a case and developing a role play to illustrate and analyze how a case is processed through the US Court system. 

I could also improve my communication of my passion to create a fair and just judicial system and, ultimately, a just society. 

In the end I did find the experience to be full of lessons learned and created good connections with a number of the students (but not all). 

This experience confirmed my resolve to focus on rural education because I see a need to ensure that our rural communities remain connected to our urbanizing world. I will let this discussion end with this and promise to develop further my focus on rural communities. 

Thanks for reading!