Gibson- Polaris Career Center

Hello, my name is Kevin Gibson and I am a criminal justice instructor with Polaris Career Center.  I have been in law enforcement for 14 years with the Cleveland Metroparks Police Department with the last 6 years as a patrol sergeant and training coordinator.  I am still an active police officer so that I can stay current with my skills, abilities and have access to the most current police training and resources.  

My Top 5 Online Resources:

Ohio Revised Code (state law)- http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/ 

Case Law (US Supreme Court)- https://www.oyez.org/ 

FEMA (Emergency Management)- https://training.fema.gov/ 

Video and Content- https://www.youtube.com/ 

Drug Abuse (Drug Information)- https://www.drugabuse.gov/ 

My 5 Best Practices For Teaching Criminal Justice

1. Be professional, accountable, respond and don't react, show compassion, behave ethically, embrace others experiences and viewpoints.   Emulate the behavior you expect from your students.  

2. Share your real world experiences to re-enforce the subjects your teaching.

3. Make learning fun!  Use varying teaching methods, keep students engaged, get them moving and working together.  Use praise often.  

4. Include critical thinking training to help students make better decisions in not just criminal justice but all aspects of life.  

5.  Embrace technology!  Students have grown up with technology and use it to your advantage!  Google has so may options, visit interactive web sites, create online games or tests, store content online instead of paper so students can access it anywhere.  

Working With Stakeholders:

  In our criminal justice program we ensure our advisory board members are all active in our program.  We also ensure we have a wide variety of members with different backgrounds, skills and resources to offer the students.  We meet quarterly and communicate frequently with email on what is going on with the program currently and what we would like to include or improve upon.  Our school also operates a Private Security Academy under the guise of the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy and we have many various instructors from all forms of law enforcement to give the students access to the best people the field has to offer.