Of the numerous legal resource persons available, the most frequently used are lawyers, judges, law students, police officers, probation officers, professional mediators, legislators, and executive branch personnel, such as staff from a consumer protection agency. Creative teachers might also want to bring in bankers to explain credit protection laws, human rights activists to discuss issues related to hunger or police brutality, and journalists to participate in lessons on freedom of the press. In addition to bringing the community into the law classroom, many Street Law teachers take students into the community. Students can see the law in action at the local courthouse, where they may observe trials, arraignments, and sentencing hearings. A field trip to a criminal investigation laboratory to observe police forensics or to a consumer protection agency to see a mediation would augment study of Chapters 12 and 26.
Every state has a statewide center that supports law-related education.
Most of the state centers have full-time staff who can provide you with assistance. Go to Street Law, Inc . to obtain contact information for these centers. In addition, consider contacting your local bar association as it may have a list of lawyers willing to visit high school law classrooms. The Teacher's Manual contains instructional objectives, additional legal text, answers to all problems found in the student text, additional activities and student projects, mock trials, and recommended multimedia resources. The Test Bank includes materials on authentic assessment along with useful rubrics for some of the interactive strategies in the text.