Democracy Schools Network

Monthly Update

May 2024

Civics: How shall we live together?

Democracy Schools Network Annual Convening

Join us for our annual gathering from 8 am until 2 pm on Monday, September 23, 2024, at the Northern Illinois University Conference Center in Naperville. Enjoy a day of immersion in civic learning: networking with DSN members, hearing from experts in the field, reflecting on your own school's civic mission, and participating in engaging workshops on a variety of current topics in civics education.

Please register here.

Carolyn Pereira Civic Leadership Award

Interested in acknowledging someone's extraordinary efforts with enhancing civic learning in his or her school? Nominations are now open! This award recognizes a DSN educator who has exhibited an exemplary commitment to strengthening schoolwide civic engagement and learning. The ideal nominee exhibits initiative, creativity, persistence, and integrity in modeling and promoting the Illinois Democracy Schools model.  

We welcome your nomination here. Please submit by August 1, 2024. The recipient will be honored at the Democracy Schools Network Annual Convening on September 23, 2024

Jamie Nash-Mayberry (Cobden Jr/SR High School, 2023),

Illinois History Teacher of the Year for the Senior Division

2024 Patricia Behring National Award Nominees

(Press release)

We are pleased to introduce the 2024 Illinois nominee for the Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year Award: Jamie Nash-Mayberry of Cobden High School in Cobden, Illinois. National History Day® (NHD) is proud to announce the teachers honored as the 2024 Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year nominees. Each NHD affiliate may nominate one middle school teacher and one high school teacher per year for this prestigious award. In addition to celebrating outstanding history scholarship and innovative classroom instruction, the award comes with a $10,000 cash prize.

The 102 teachers selected as the 2024 Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year nominees represent 50 of NHD’s 58 affiliates. NHD affiliates include all 50 states and the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, and international schools in Europe and Asia. Each nominee is a teacher who demonstrates a commitment to engaging students in historical learning through the innovative use of primary sources, implementation of active learning strategies to foster historical thinking skills, and participation in the National History Day Contest. All nominees receive $500.



“The Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year Award nominees always represent the best in history education,” said National History Day Executive Director Dr. Cathy Gorn. “As NHD celebrates our 50th anniversary year, I couldn’t be more proud of these teachers. Every day, they demonstrate their commitment to excellence in teaching, the rigorous study of history and primary sources, and the creativity and drive to engage students all across the country and world in National History Day.”

Participatory Budgeting Update

In the DSN January Monthly Update, we reported on a current joint project of the Illinois Democracy Schools and the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University. Through a grant from NNERPP (National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships) students in three of our schools (Alton High School (2016), Spoon River Valley High School (2022), and West Chicago Community High School (2006) have spent this year exploring Participatory Budgeting. NNERPP promotes “research-practice partnerships—mutually beneficial, formalized collaborations between researchers and practitioners ... producing more relevant research, improving the use of research evidence in decision-making, and engaging both researchers and practitioners to tackle problems of practice.” Learn more about the project by watching this presentation at the NNERPP Annual Conference in February (view here, using the password nnerppbb) or reading this interview with one of the participants, Regina Birch from Alton High School.

Media Literacy Professional Development

• Generative AI for Educators: This two hour, self-paced course (built by AI experts at Google in collaboration with MIT RAISE) will guide you in exploring how to use generative AI tools to assist your teaching practice by saving time on everyday tasks, personalizing instruction to meet student needs, and enhancing lessons and activities in creative ways. Begin here.

Earn Your Microcredentials 

Become a Guardian of Democracy Educator

The Illinois Civics Hub has partnered with the Lou Frey Institute at the University of Central Florida to provide educators the opportunity to earn microcredentials in the proven practices of civic education embedded in the middle and high school civics course requirements in Illinois. Courses include:

• Current and Controversial Issue Discussions—Learn from academic experts Dr. Diana Hess & Dr. Paula McAvoy as you explore the purpose, role, and function of discussion strategies as pedagogical tools to equip young people to be engaged citizens. This course will enhance the practice of educators with strategies and resources to create a classroom climate in which there are equitable opportunities for ALL students to engage in dialogue about essential questions across the curriculum.

• Simulations of Democratic Processes—Learn from academic experts Dr. Walter Parker & Dr. Jane Lo as you explore how democratic processes and procedures occur as part of the regular functioning of government, in each of the three branches of government, and at each level of government. This course will guide you through the purpose, planning, and implementation of three simulations: town hall meetings, legislative hearings, and moot courts.

• Informed Action through Service Learning—Learn from academic experts Dr. Joseph Kahne and Jessica Marshall as you explore the purpose, role, and function of informed action through service learning as a pedagogical tool to equip young people with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be active members of their community. In this course, you will interact with strategies and tools you can use in your classroom to support student-centered informed action through service learning.

• NEW: Constitutional Democracy as Content and Practice—Learn from academic experts Dr. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, Dr. Shawn P. Healy, and Dr. Bonnie Laughlin Schultz as you explore how the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap can help teach constitutional democracy as both content and practice across disciplines K-12.

Registration information is available on the Guardians of Democracy homepage. Those who successfully complete the 5-week online course will earn a Bronze Certified Guardian of Democracy Educator badge via Badgr and the University of Central Florida Center for Distributive Learning.

Participants can earn 15 PD hours through the DuPage Regional Office of Education for an additional fee.

There are three strands of courses for each proven practice of civics education. Graduate credit is available through the University of St. Francis for completing all three courses. For more information, please visit the Guardians of Democracy homepage.

Check out our website for PD opportunities, resources and inspiration.

illinoiscivics.org