Soapbox Fridays!

I just HAVE to share this idea- I love it! I sat in on a Comp Civ 12 class for the last two days of the school week, and I am inspired by this classroom (and the teacher- he’s fantastic!). It’s completely covered in posters, ranging from maps to newspaper clippings to student projects.  He has quotes chosen by the students- glued to coloured paper- hanging from the ceiling.  I don’t exactly know how to describe the seating arrangement, but if you’re sitting at the back, it looks like a big L with a little L in front of it on the left side and the opposite on the right- so that the teacher’s desk is in the centre.  On Fridays, the teacher’s desk becomes the soapbox and the students come up and present an issue to the class- then facilitate group discussion. Each student signs up for a date, then two present each Friday. They choose an issue, explain it, give some kind of thesis statement, and then pose questions to the class to facilitate debates. It’s AWESOME! The two topics I watched were vaccinations (the presenter argued against them) and gender equality (the speaker argued that females were starting to get higher rights than men) - both very heated topics! It was fantastic to watch the students get into these topics, as well as listen to the teacher pop in there with questions/comments as well. I had to get in there too- I just couldn’t help it! It was such a great way to get students not only aware of current/important issues, but also for them to practice public speaking- something that most of them will have to face outside of the high school walls (especially if they attend university!). I’m going to make sure I’m in this classroom on Thursday to watch one more…