During the last decade, my involvement with CISP staff
development activities has been the best preparation for my role as an educator
of the diverse student populations in California.
It has taught me to use research-based pedagogy to engage
learners who are normally cut off from higher-level curriculum. My whole
philosophy of education has been forever influenced to include group strategies
that involve heterogeneous mixtures of students and correct for status
inequality issues. The use of specified roles and norms of group behavior have
allowed me to see groups of freshmen (which other teachers say cannot work in
groups) to communicate abstract historical concepts to their peers. I have
learned how to engage English Language Learners, Special Education students and
mainstream learners in difficult academic tasks where they learn to cooperate
and build on each other’s strengths.
Through the role-playing simulation I have been able to
expose American students to the world of international negotiations. My
students have struggled with unresolved world conflicts that plague mankind in
every generation. One year my students negotiated an aid package for Ukraine
(their country) in exchange for dismantling of Soviet-era nuclear weapons. Two
months later the country of Ukraine announced that they had secured just such a
deal with the United States. When I read the news story to my students, they
were proud of their accomplishment and even bragged that they had managed to
secure a larger aid package than the “real” diplomats!
It has helped me to integrate the state mandated curriculum
into my classes. CISP has been ahead of the curve on implementing state
standards. As teachers in my district have struggled with modifying their
curriculum to fit the CA/HSS standards, I have always been able to show them
examples of lessons that CISP has created, tested and implemented in
participating high schools across the state. I have always felt secure that all
of my students are receiving the mandated curriculum when I am incorporating
CISP activities.
There is no question in my mind that CISP has been the best
staff development program I have ever been involved in.
Craig Wilson
