The Bill of Rights Institute’s National Civics Teacher of the Year

Katie Boland has watched some of her quietest students find their voices in a moot court. At Trumbull High School, every senior in her AP U.S. Government classes takes part in the simulated court as a final project, arguing cases before alumni and fellow students serving as judges.

“I always think that government’s me...

Seth Harris grew up watching his father pause courtroom proceedings to explain them to visiting students. He planned to become a lawyer, then realized that what he most enjoyed was getting other people interested in the law. Today, he teaches seventh-grade civics and U.S. history at Shaker Middle School.

In Harris’ La...

Patricia Wyskowski likes hearing students continue a class discussion on their way out the door. She teaches AP Human Geography and AP/Honors U.S. History I at Bayonne High School, the same school she attended. When a conversation carries into the hallway, she knows students have found something they want to keep exploring.

Some students choose Rachel Morrison’s U.S. history class because they want to get to know a veteran. Through the GHS Veterans Project, which she founded and directs at Goochland High School, her 11th graders interview local veterans and build friendships that can last long after the course ends.

Students record milit...

Monica Brown’s fourth graders have questions about Benjamin Franklin’s “Join, or Die” cartoon. Why a snake? What do the initials mean? Why are the pieces separated? At Oakshire Elementary School, Brown uses those questions to help students investigate sources rather than simply accept an explanation.

Brown teaches Eng...

An extra class changed Alishia Gaston Stack’s career. While teaching English, she took on a government course during her planning period and liked it so much that she earned certification in the subject. She now teaches government and civics at Lowndes High School.

Her “daily docket” gives students a question or activ...

A graduate told Christopher Klugman that a comment on a test helped him choose public policy. Klugman had noticed the student’s interest and encouraged him to pursue it. He looks for those opportunities as he teaches ninth-grade AP U.S. Government at BASIS Scottsdale.

“You have to have that base of knowledge in order ...

Lawtnee Frazier’s eighth graders sometimes ask what she thinks about an issue. She turns the question back to them: “I have my own thoughts, but I want to hear what you think.” At Quail Hollow Middle School, her social studies classes explore U.S. and North Carolina history, with students expected to develop arguments of their own.

Jaimee Martin now teaches an AP U.S. Government and Politics class that her former eighth graders helped bring to their school. They wanted another AP option, approached her, and worked with administrators to make it happen. At West Bridgewater Middle-Senior High School, Martin gets to teach those students again, alongside her eighth-grade civics classes.<...

When Jordan Gray points to the Constitution on his classroom wall, he asks students who its opening words are talking about. “You are the people. We are the people,” he tells them. Gray teaches eighth-grade civics and economics at Benjamin Syms Middle School, where he wants students to recognize that their rights belong to them now.