We all teach our kids to obey laws and be good citizens whether it be at our home or in our classroom. Yet, it is important that we also add when it is appropriate to practice civil disobedience. Most good teachers that I know are quick to teach about MLK, Thoreau, and Gandhi and how their actions spurred the course of civic discourse to address rights (and wrongs) of their fellow citizens and their governments. Now, we find ourselves amidst a government shut down that seems to be the result of party politics. I present to you a perfect example of what civil disobedience is. Of which, you can find the article here. Continue reading A Good Case of “Civil Disobedience” & KSDE Update
Category Archives: history
Five Standards, Three Birds, and One Great Lesson
Travis Hardenburger is a seventh grade Kansas history and geography teacher at Wamego Middle School. He is working on a great presentation for the Kansas Council for History Education’s annual meeting on November 10 and 11 at Derby High School. You are already registered, right?
I don’t want to steal his thunder (he ok’d that I share this) but he developed a creative way to kill a lot of birds with one stone. Don’t turn me in to PETA. Continue reading Five Standards, Three Birds, and One Great Lesson
Integrating Technology in Social Studies Curriculum
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
Why I Hate Museums
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
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.
