Educator Resources
As a College of Education, one of our primary purposes it to help educators succeed. Below, we provide civic engagement related research and resources.
Service Learning
While each public school student in Maryland is required to complete 75 hours of service-learning before high school graduation, Local Education Agencies (LEAs) help students meet that requirement in a variety of ways.
This report examines how many service-learning hours LEAs infuse into their curriculum, into which classes and at what grade-levels, and how LEAs recognize exemplary service-learning.
Teaching about Voting and Elections
Preparing students for civic life, including voting, is an important role of schools and educators. However, teaching about voting and elections can feel difficult, especially when trying to find high-quality, non-partisan materials. The Maryland Democracy Initiative, with support from Marsha and Henry Laufer, in collaboration with the Maryland Civic Education Coalition has curated resources for teaching about voting and elections for K-12 students.
Teaching about 9/11
Teaching about 9/11 is both important and complicated. Teachers must take great care to develop lessons that are age-appropriate, aligned with their curriculum and standards, and engaging. Teaching about 9/11 can also be difficult because teachers and members of their school community may know people who were killed or injured on 9/11 or in subsequent wars or they may have experienced the anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant intolerance that followed.
With support from Youth Service America, the University of Maryland College of Education has curated resources to support educators who want to teach about 9/11 and how its aftermath continues to impact people in our country and around the world. The teaching materials include a range of primary sources, activities, and lesson plans for different ways to teach about 9/11 to different age groups. They also align with how the teaching of 9/11 has evolved in the last 20 years.
In keeping with the national call to service on 9/11, resources for educators who want to incorporate service and service-learning into their teaching are also available.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Martin Luther King Day is the only federal holiday specifically tied to calling on people to volunteer to
improve their community.
The resources in our guide are designed to help educators create lessons about Dr. King, his legacy, and his
call to service that can be incorporated into the curriculum throughout the year. There is also a section designed to help teachers support their students participating in service.