Teaching Reading with the Social Studies Standards and other NCSS awesomeness

The National Council for the Social Studies is a no-brainer. If you teach social studies, you should be a member.

It’s simple. You join. You get great professional development goodies, online lesson plans, cheaper access to books, materials and the national conference, and a super online support system. The end. Everyone’s happy.

One of the benefits that I enjoy the most is the semi-annual Bulletins that the NCSS publishes and sends to members. Bulletins are focused, topical books that provide awesome and practical suggestions for incorporating high-quality instruction into your social studies classroom.

Their latest?

Yay! C3 social studies standards come out today! Wait. What? Not today?

Social studies teachers all over the country had been looking forward to Saturday afternoon. Well . . . maybe just me but pretty sure there were others as well.

Saturday was the day that the Council of Chief State School Officers was scheduled to release their public draft of the new C3 national social studies standards. At the National Council for the Social Studies national conference. In front of the entire social studies nation. In front of lots of social studies teachers from all over the nation.

Did we get ‘em?

History Geek Week Day Four: iPads and the social studies classroom

Just so you know. Best NCSS conference in a long time. It’s been a great week – meeting new people, learning new things, talking about new ideas.

And the Sandra Day O’Connor & Gerda Weissman Klein panel / US naturalization ceremony on Saturday was simply amazing. That session made the trip.

So good luck, Tom Daccord of EdTechTeacher / Teaching History with Technology fame. You’ve got big shoes to fill early on a Sunday morning on the last day of the conference.

Though I’m not really that worried. Tom’s stuff is pretty amazing and this morning’s session is on iPads. So this is probably the best place to finish off what has already been a great four days.

Here’s the problem that Tom sees in education today:

History Geek Week Day Three: Teaching with American Art and Portraits

I walked in late and I love this session already. Three people from several Smithsonian art museums are highlighting some of the ways teachers can use artwork and portraits as teaching tools. And the stuff they’re sharing is pretty sweet. The content is focused on the Civil War era but you could do this kind of thing with just about any period.

You can find most of it online at their Civil War with Art exhibit. Be sure to also check out  their Teachers Guide page with stuff on a variety of topics including Reconstruction, Native Americans, and Manifest Destiny.

A couple of sample activities:

History Geek Week Day Three: Mobile Devices and student voice

After the Beyond the Bubble session, my day is officially over. I really don’t need anything else today because that session was so useful.

But there are still some good sessions being offered today, I suppose. So I’m sitting in on a session about using mobile devices in the classroom and am learning / sharing about what this looks like.

Some cool conversations. The other cool thing? Two Kansas people are part of the panel.