Monthly Archives: September 2013

Integrating Technology in Social Studies Curriculum

best practice, history, ipad, Megan Klassen, professional development, strategies, websites, , , , , , , ,

Here are some happenings within the social studies department at my school:

About a year ago, my social studies department decided we wanted to step outside of the box. We were tired of sharing our building-wide computer carts and iPad cart with the other departments (especially ELA – what ever happened to hand-writing an essay?). Our administrators were totally on board and willing to support us in any way that they could.

We contemplated many different options before settling on Discovery Education’s new curriculum – the Techbook. No we didn’t spend our summer’s creating our own iBooks – that will come later, at least for me. But we were preparing ourselves for some intense professional training a few weeks before school started from Discovery Education to introduce us to this new curriculum.

However, in true eduction fashion, that training didn’t happen before school started, and our new iPad minis (One cart for every social studies teacher! I feel blessed!) weren’t placed in their new otter boxes and weren’t configured with apps that would enhance our teaching experience, hooked in to the shiny new carts placed in our classrooms, ready for students to use on the first day. Continue reading Integrating Technology in Social Studies Curriculum →

10 things you can do this week that will make you a better social studies teacher

best practice, Glenn Wiebe, professional development,

Best PracticeOver the last few months, I’ve been working with a variety of different teacher groups in a variety of different places. But all of the conversations have somehow shifted back to the same basic compelling question:

What does an effective teacher look like?

It’s a great question to ask. We’ve always paid lip service to professional development and learning but it seems as if only recently has the question been taken seriously. The Common Core literacy standards for history and the newly revised Kansas history/government standards are demanding more from our kids – and from us.

So I started thinking about things we can do to get better as social studies teachers. Not stuff organized by our administrators. Informal sorts of things that can make us more effective. I came up with ten. There’s gotta be more.

What would you add? Subtract from the list? Continue reading 10 things you can do this week that will make you a better social studies teacher →

Why I Hate Museums

history, Mary Madden, museum, professional development

As a teacher, do you ever feel this way? Are you disappointed when you take a field trip with your students? That the effort is not worth the return? You aren’t alone. This was the title of a recent article published August 22 on the CNN Travel website. In this case, the author was describing museums as places were curators “collect and cage” artifacts and then expect the visitor to be as excited about the item but with only a minimum of information. Continue reading Why I Hate Museums →

Opportunities

Brad Burenheide, common core, geography, history, lesson plans, literacy, maps, primary sources, professional development

Colleagues in social studies,

Just want to offer a few things for you to peruse for opportunities for growth and development.  The opportunities include information about the Kansas Social Studies Conference, a class on East Asia, and a training session on Dual Encoding – using maps while teaching history.

Continue reading Opportunities →

13 Colonies Narrative Chain

geography, lesson plans, Megan Klassen, strategies, , , , ,

Brain research shows that neurons that fire together wire together. When teaching concepts we want students to remember, it’s important to give them different ways to store those concepts in their long term memory. By using a narrative chain, my students are saying, seeing, and doing the information I want them to remember.

But what does that look like?

Continue reading 13 Colonies Narrative Chain →