Enacted the 5 C’s during CivicTREK service-learning

Throughout the current school year, the CivicTREK K-12 cohort of teachers have implemented a service-learning approach to guide their students towards mastery of the Profile of a Virginia Graduate 21st century skills. In our most recent professional development session, teachers: shared some of their best-practice “Five C’s” success stories, critiquing and enhancing one another’s work […]

Creativity and CivicTREK: Strategies to Foster Creativity

Creative Thinking “The student uses information in original and novel ways, demonstrating new ideas and ways of doing things.” Project-based learning and service-learning “offers creative freedom, which gives the students a sense of agency, purpose, and bring even more relevance to learning – engaging them in making an impact in their community and exposing them […]

Using Tech to Promote Change

Our CivicTREK teachers know how to use community resources! Ms. Lott’s 7th grade class took a class on Digital Marketing at the Apple Store in Pentagon City this week. Students were able to make flyers advocating for causes important to them and learned how to make persuasive videos using iMovie. In addition to using store […]

Critical Thinking and CivicTREK – Letting Students Find the Answers

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving “The student engages in inquiry and problem solving, reasoning, and evaluating to reach conclusions.” “Problem solving and critical thinking refers to the ability to use knowledge, facts, and data to effectively solve problems. This doesn’t mean you need to have an immediate answer, it means you have to be able […]

Communication and CivicTREK – Hearing and Being Heard

Communication “The student communicates effectively orally to inform, influence, motivate, and collaborate with other students, the community, media, and public officials.” Through our CivicTREK projects, we are helping our students meet the Five C’s goals from Profile of a Virginia Graduate such as communication. How can we help students effectively communicate by: Sharing their thoughts, to communicate complex ideas […]

Collaboration and CivicTREK – Finding Opportunities for Equity in Groupwork

Collaboration: “Students work interdependently to achieve common goals while promoting effective teamwork, shared responsibility, flexibility, and mutual respect.” Through our CivicTREK projects, we are helping our students meet the Five C’s goals from Profile of a Virginia Graduate such as collaboration. How can we make sure that we are involving ALL students in the teamwork […]

Making a CivicTREK project real – aligning standards, assessments and creating a timeline

How can a community-focused project experience help students meet specific content-learning goals? Our CivicTREK cohort members responded to this question at our January 9th session, developing assessments and timelines during another workshop in the program’s series of professional development days. CivicTREK teachers: Reviewed the specific SOL or academic goals and “Five C’s” (Profile of a Virginia […]