As of August 2010, CM Instructors will be able to access multiple CM Country Accounts with one login, meaning educators who run Civic Mirror with more than one class of students can switch between them without having to log in and out every time. I know - awesome!

Step 1: Select “Instructor Login” up above.

The first thing you will notice is the choice between “Student Login” and “Instructor Login.” Students will continue logging in with their CM username, country name, and password, but the procedure for instructors is different.

Step 2: Logging In

In order for us to allow instructors to jump between CM Country Accounts we needed to create a universal access point, so we chose to use the Action-Ed Account. Instructors will now log into civicmirror.com with the same logins they use for www.action-ed.com (i.e. email address and password … NO country names).

What’s great about this is educators can now retain a consistent identity throughout the Civic Mirror Community. Instead of being “Teacher of Country A” and then “Teacher of Country B,” educators will be themselves, making it easier to develop relationships with other CM Educators.

This is what the CM Login page for Instructors looks like.

Don’t worry, if you forgot your Action-Ed login information, you can always click the “Lost your password?” link at the bottom; it will take you to the webpage that allows you to reset it.

Step 3: Switching Countries

Once inside civicmirror.com instructors can toggle between countries using their “Settings” page. Instructors can also ‘retire’ countries they no longer use. This may help speed up the switching process.

Step4: Switching Countries Upon Logout

Another way you can switch countries is by simply clicking the “Logout” button. The logout pop-up box now has an option that will allow you to “Switch Countries,” taking you to your settings page.

This feature has been a long time coming. We hope it excites some of you as much as it excites us. If you have any questions about the new system or need help getting started, please contact us.

During the first week of July 2010, seven teacher-authors from across North America met in White Rock, BC to begin working on the Civic Mirror Learning Resource pack. The event was electric and the finished product is going to be like nothing else, taking CM into the pedagogical stratosphere as a primary social studies resource for teachers.

From Left to Right:

Amy Ross, M.Ed. (Action-Ed): Event host and facilitator.

Kelly Devenish, M.Ed. (The Woodlands School, Mississauga, ON): Author of the forthcoming “Rights and Responsibilities of Democratic Citizens” and “Financial Goal Setting and Entrepreneurship” learning modules.

Paul Chaffee, M.Ed. (Heritage Woods Secondary School, Port Moody, BC): Author of the forthcoming “Global Issues” learning module.

Cheryl Payne-Stevens, M.Ed. (The Woodlands School, Mississauga, ON): Author of the forthcoming “Power and the Political-Economic Spectrum” and “Canada’s Democratic History” learning modules.

Brenda Ball, M.Ed. (Crofton House, Vancouver, BC): Author of the “National Pursuits of Happiness” and “Justice and the Judicial Branches” learning modules.

Matt Anderson, M.Ed. (Community College of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, PA): Author of the forthcoming “Market Forces: Supply, Demand, and Price” and “Government and the Economy” learning modules.

Lizanne Foster, M.Ed. (Queen Elizabeth Secondary, Surrey, BC): Author of the forthcoming “Viewing Your World (in Multiple Perspectives)” and “Managing Conflict, Effective Communication, and Community Building” learning modules.

A huge round of applaus to Mr. Ryan Niman and his 9th Grade students at Mountlake Terrace High School. All year long they’ve been making headlines within the online Civic Mirror community, taking the program and their education to remarkable heights. It was just a matter of time before the buzz they’ve been generating in school caught the attention of The Enterprise Newspaper who sent a reporter out last week to cover the story!  Congratulations Mountlake Terrace!

Read The Enterprise Newspaper’s full story!

Civic Mirror Teachers, Students, Parents, and Curriculum Coordinators!

This summer Action-Ed will be working with a video production company to develop super cool Civic Mirror Intro Videos. We hope that these videos will better help teachers and students ‘get’ what the Civic Mirror is and how it works before their first time playing it. The finished products are going to be pretty awesome with scheduled video recordings of teachers and students from several schools across North America. We would like, however, to extend the opportunity to you.

WHAT YOU DO

It’s simple, answer the following 5 questions as best you can. We’re not looking for “best” answers, just open and honest feedback so we have lots of candid footage to help us spread the good word and help new users get started.

5 VIDEO QUESTIONS

1. How has the Civic Mirror helped you?

2. What have you learned since using the Civic Mirror?

3. Why should others use the Civic Mirror?

4. Is there anything else about your experience with the Civic Mirror that you think others should know?

5. What was your favorite Civic Mirror moment?

VIDEO RECORDING INSTRUCTIONS

When you record yourself answering the 5 Civic Mirror questions, please do the following:

• SHOOL SETTING > Ensure that the video recordings occur in either a classroom, library, or computer lab setting. We need this is for production consistency.

• INFO STATEMENT > When you press record, please wait a few seconds and then ask each person to say their name, school, city, course, and grade. Please do say this very clearly. This is important because the video production company is going to display this information and we need to make sure we get it right.

• CLEAR AUDIO > Make sure the sound in your recording is really, really clear. It would be awful if we couldn’t hear what you were saying and couldn’t use an otherwise great video. Having a bit of noise in the background is fine, but it’s crucial that the voices are well heard.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

When done, please submit your video to us in one of two ways.

1. YOUTUBE - upload your video to YouTube and send us the link (via the contact form)

2. MESSAGE - send us a message saying you have a video to submit; we’ll then reply with next steps.

If you are a student under the age of 18 years old, you’ll likely have to send us a parent-completed video permission form (especially if you do the first option), so you might want to get started by downloading it below.

Download Video Permission Form

At the 2009 BC Social Studies Teachers Association’s Annual Conference, president Raquel Chin awarded Regan Ross with the “Innovator of the Year” award for developing The Civic Mirror and working with teachers to integrate it into their classrooms.

This is the second award Regan has received for his pioneering work with The Civic Mirror, the first being the Prime Minister’s Certificate of Teaching Excellence in 2008.

Regan Ross and Lizanne Foster, teachers from the Surrey School District and CM Pioneers, will be teaching BC educators how to use The Civic Mirror by playing it in a double session at the 2009 BCSSTA Fall Conference! Teachers interested in enlivening their social studies course with an experience-based, 21st Century learning tool would do well to attend this session!

Participants will be given a fictitious family to care for by providing them with food, shelter, education, health care and more. They’ll also be given a hidden agenda; will elect a their own government who will set tax rates and make laws; will bid to own national assets in an auction; will buy, trade, and sell in an open market; and will have the opportunity to sue anyone - including their government - for breaking the law.

By playing The Civic Mirror, participants will learn:
* Its game rules and major events,
* How the online program works and how it sets up classroom events,
* How to use its Web2.0 tools to extend learning outside the classroom,
* How to capitalize on the teachable moments it provides (related to law, government, economics, and active citizenship)

The Civic Mirror fits the curricular needs of the following BC social studies courses:
* entire Gr.6 social studies course
* Social Studies 10
* Social Studies 11
* Civic Studies 11
* Economics 12
* Law 12

I’m proud to introduce to the world, the new CM Trenches researcher and writer, Sarah Connor.   Hello all Civic Mirror players and instructors!  I am a Social Studies/History teacher from Washington State and yes, I can fight robots from the future.  I am excited to begin sharing the exciting news coming out of our Civic Mirror countries!  Keep up the good work everyone and watch for posts; I know there will be a lot of exciting experiences and lessons to share!