Bureaucracy Project Better Because of Covid

I am thankful my husband and I just got our covid shot as I am planning my bureaucracy project. We feel thankful since we have been both in person since September with numerous covid exposures.

When the sickness is over….

My son’s Ben (4) and Finn (2) have extensive “when the sickness is over” lists for what they want to do when life gets back to normal such as going to eat a the diner, ice skating, going to music class in-person, and visiting grandparents. My heart breaks for them thinking one whole year of their short life was robbed from them and the countless others who lost loved ones, friends, and coworkers to this horrible disease.

covid reality for kids

I can’t wait for the day when they can be social butterflies again and hug friends without worry. We love for weekends with grandparents and playdates with friends.

Hope for the Future

There is so much to look forward to and knowing how deeply we value those opportunities now gives me hope for the future. Kids are truly incredible and resilient. I sometimes wish I could be more like them. They are our greatest teachers!

Bureaucracy Project

Speaking of normal… I normally do this awesome bureaucracy project where students become agency heads or cabinet members. Normally, my students write a speech and create a PowerPoint project. Well, this year due to quarantine I had to rework my lesson.

The Best Bureaucracy Project

This year I had them write a speech to save their agency and department but I had them post it on Flipgrid! I actually think this project was BETTER because of covid than it would have been in a normal person ‍ ‍

Flipgrid was a wonderful tool for distance learning! Flipgrid is a website that allows teachers to to facilitate video discussions where teachers can pose questions, called “topics,” and their students can post video responses that appear in a tiled grid display. Responses can be 15 seconds to five minutes, and a maximum recording time can be set. Teachers can also allow students to record replies to classmates’ responses.

They posted their speeches for homework and then the next class day we watched speeches and voted on which agency’s budget to cut. In case you were curious they voted for the Department of Veteran Affairs.

With my save my agency project each student takes on the persona of a head of a federal agency or Cabinet secretary and has to write a speech to save their agency.

bureaucracy project

This is a powerful two days of speeches and in the end, they vote which agency should be cut! It’s a wonderful way to teach the federal bureaucracy. It is ready for distance learning and even has a rubric to make grading speeches a breeze!

bureaucracy project

If you are interested in checking out my save my agency project here it is!

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