Welcome
The My Voice National Student Mock Election is a historic and ever-evolving project that brings school communities – students, teachers, and parents – closer to the 2012 Election. While millions of students take part each election, the real key is you and the project you organize in your school, classroom or in the community. The resources here, including communications assets, digital activities, interactive polls, lesson plans and other tools, are designed to help you create a broad-reaching My Election campaign project at your school
Getting started
Plan your project: By framing the My Voice National Student Mock Election as a learning project that culminates on your chosen Election Day, your students will be encouraged to focus their efforts over a finite period of time.
During your My Election project, you and your students can explore various learning opportunities, consider communicating with constituencies outside the classroom and, overall, achieve a greater understanding of our democracy and the political process that continues to shape our nation. Some ideas include:
- Involve leaders in your community. Invite elected officials, political candidates and/or community activists to your classroom and create your own town hall meetings.
- Participate in bi-weekly My Election polls.
- Incorporate your state ballot into your curriculum and field practice ballots in advance of voting. Locate the ballot for your state.
- Open the polls for your students before November 2. Voting can begin as early as October 25. This will help avoid any last minute issues that may arise.
- Create an authentic voting experience for your students. For example, you may create a polling center in your classroom, with one or multiple voting booths, polling center staff, signage, and more.
- Draw attention to you’re my Election project. Many students use the Election Day in their classrooms and/or schools as an opportunity to reach out to their communities – even the media.
Explore curriculum
Stimulate critical thinking, create thought-provoking experiences and foster learning in a way that enlivens your students.
- Explore new lesson plans aligned to elementary, middle and high school national standards and shaped by three “Big Idea” themes: Our Government, American Principles and The Electoral Process. You can choose to focus on any or all of the themes based on the needs of your classroom.
Encourage deeper learning
Motivate your students to be a part of their own learning experiences.
- Check out our Curriculum Resources, a rich mix of partner content, media sources and other educational resources to support your curriculum and provide your students with greater exposure to various interactive experiences, relevant history and recent news.
- We invite you to browse the Mock Election Hall of Fame, an archive of resources that spans our years of experience in the classroom and in the field. Peruse past curricula for further inspiration. Many methods of engagement are chronicled – from debates, issue forums, and press conferences to candidate forums and rallies.