7 weeks until the Pennsylvania Primary - Resources to engage your students

Pennsylvania's primary election is only seven weeks away, on April 23rd. In this edition of the #c70ed newsletter, teachers can find resources available to engage students in the primary in April, or to start thinking about how you'll work with students engage with the presidential election in November.

All resources are nonpartisan and free to use!

The Committee of Seventy sponsors the PA Youth Mock Election, which gives students hands-on practice casting votes for real candidates who appear on their ballot. The Mock Election is available to all Pennsylvania high school and middle school teachers statewide, for free. C70 provides digital instructions for how classrooms can participate, plus access to C70's nonpartisan Interactive Voter Guide for students to research their choices. The Mock Election supplements C70's Elections & Voting curriculum (also free!), developed in partnership with our partners at PA Youth Vote. We invite middle and high school teachers to sign up before April 2 (three weeks before the April 23rd primary election).

Educator Webinars for Civic Learning Week

Next week is Civic Learning Week! The Committee of Seventy and PA Civics are excited to be part of this national effort to prioritize civic education in order to sustain and strengthen our democracy.

To celebrate, C70 is hosting a series of webinars for teachers and administrators:

Monday, March 11th at 4:30pm, Can We Talk?: Learn how to introduce high school and college students to the skills and habits that promote productive dialogue across differences with Can We Talk? co-director Chris Satullo. Register here.

Wednesday, March 13th at 4:30pm, Democracy for Kids: Join us for a panel discussion about our Democracy for Kids program for grades K-8, featuring C70 Lead Educator Anne Spector. Register here.

Thursday, March 14th at 4:30pm, Experiential Civics: This webinar will focus on C70’s experiential civics resources for the middle and high school level. We will be joined by Philadelphia Councilmember Rue Landau; Tom Quinn, Education and Policy Director at PA Youth Vote; and Nathan Salamone, a member of the National Constitution Center’s Teacher Advisory Council. Register here.

Your students can interview candidates

C70 will help your class interview candidates running for office. We work with you to connect with candidates or public officials from all parties. Your students supply the questions about issues they care about. We then stream these 15-20 minute interviews live on Facebook and YouTube for the public to watch.