Networking, power lunches, panels, name badges, exchanging information on the newest developments in the field and listening to the biggest names describe their paths to success—that's the business of business, isn't it? Not necessarily!

The word "conference" may bring up images of smoothly exchanged business cards and sales professionals competing to make the best impression, but conferences aren't just a boardroom cliché. Every field has organizations that bring members (and interested outsiders) together to socialize, discuss the state of their work, and exchange ideas—from science to business to the arts to, of course, education!

Maybe you've never been to a conference for educators. Attending a conference can take some time, money, research, and planning, but the investment can pay off in new colleagues, new ideas, new knowledge, and new skills. Plus, you can snag some free giveaways in the exhibition room!

Conferences usually take place over a full day or several days, and are arranged around a general theme. One year might be "Diversity in the Classroom" and the next, "Great Debates: Engaging with Controversy." Registration allows you to take part in all of a conference's main activities.

Attend the keynote address (usually presented by a notable historian, author, educator, or other figure with experience and knowledge relevant to the theme). Engage in sessions presented by educators, organizations, and experts sharing content, tools, and strategies. Stroll through the exhibit halls, learning about websites, books, and other resources that might help you in your teaching. Meet educators who share your passion for growing as a professional in informal lunches and mixers. Come home inspired and ready to try out what you've learned!

Remember to register as early as you can. Most conferences offer discounts for early registration, as well as discounts if you're a member of the organization hosting the event. Plan ahead, and you may also be able to book a hotel room for a reduced rate—many conferences take place in hotel conference centers, and set aside a block of reduced-rate rooms just for attendees. These can fill up fast!

Planning ahead may also let you sign up for extra, ticketed events. Maybe the conference offers half-day workshops on the day before the conference officially opens. Maybe you can pay to attend special-interest breakfasts, lunches, or dinners. Maybe you can buy tickets for guided tours of local historic districts or group excursions to museums. Conferences often take place in large cities, and this could be your chance to take in some of the sites while you're in town.

Conferences take place across the country at the local, state, national (and international!) levels. Here are some to consider:

• National social studies and history education organizations host annual conferences, drawing hundreds of attendees. The National Council for the Social Studies's annual conference takes place in Washington, DC, in December of 2011, and the National Council of History Education's annual conference will explore "The Causes and Consequences of Civil Wars" in Charleston, SC, from Mar. 31–Apr. 2, 2011.
• Historical organizations organize conferences annually and on special topics. Check their programs ahead of time, but many of these include sessions and workshops designed for teachers as well as content that can be helpful in the classroom. The American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians both host conferences with teacher-focused sessions.
• Other organizations for K–12 educators organize conferences that can help you keep abreast of new tools and techniques that aren't content-specific. The International Society for Technology in Education's annual conference draws crowds of more than 10,000 and promotes thoughtful, innovative use of the many new technological tools constantly becoming available to schools and teachers.
• State social studies and history education organizations often organize at least an annual conference—some organizations may host two per year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Usually on a smaller scale and less expensive than national conferences, these may be easier to attend if you're tight on time or budget. Multi-state regions may also organize conferences.

And conferences wouldn't go very far without presenters. If you have a strategy or resource to share, look for calls for proposals on conference websites. These deadlines cut off months before the dates of the conferences, so plan ahead. Follow the guidelines and submit a proposal that is clear, succinct, attention-grabbing, and matches the stated theme of the conference.

For secondary education majors including those concentrating on history/social studies, each college semester begins with education courses which require some sort of field experience. These students are tasked to spend time observing in a classroom as an introduction to the world of a teacher and his or her students. The field experience offers students a chance to gain some understanding of the preparation and presentation of history/social studies teachers. Typically, the requirements are between 10 and 30 hours per course.

I recall my field experiences including little interaction with students. I spent my time observing . . . nothing specific, just observing. While some programs provide their students with more specifics and guidance—observation strategies for starters—many students today get much of the same as I did. I remember going into the classroom expecting to see students involved in a great lesson, then getting an opportunity to talk with the teacher about her methods and reflections on the class. I’m convinced, however, that sometimes the teacher didn’t even see me.

I sat at an empty desk at the back of the room, took a few notes, and went on my way until my next scheduled visit. My students have often said they felt similarly anonymous and their observations ineffectual. Moreover, the time spent in these classrooms is quite short, and with some students shuffled around to several teachers in various content areas, the time can seem even shorter. Seeing effective teaching under these circumstances is challenging indeed.

But fear not . . . education majors near completion of their studies will nearly always begin a comprehensive internship experience typically for a semester or an entire school year. In this internship each future teacher will be involved in a transition process beginning with more (hopefully targeted) observation climaxing in a period of time (often four to six weeks) where the intern becomes the full-time teacher: preparing lessons and assessments, dealing with classroom management and parent and student communication, grading assignments, attending meetings (faculty, IEP, PLC, and so on) and taking on teacher duties including monitoring the cafeteria, bathrooms, or hallways. This internship is supposed to be the experience where the prospective teacher is able to synthesize theory and practice—where innovative lessons are realized and teachers are made.

The problem is that too often these experiences, like those of the more limited field experience, do not provide prospective teachers with the environment to observe or practice effective history/social studies teaching.

Not only does the nomenclature vary—these students are referred to as interns at one university and student-teachers at another, and field experience is called practicum for some—but far more importantly, the experiences themselves vary widely. Teacher and school placements are at the heart of the problem. Some get lucky and are placed with a teacher interested in methods to instill profound student learning, but others are placed with a teacher mired in mediocrity. My former major professor—also a wonderful history educator—and I recently commiserated about the frustration of spending considerable time instilling in prospective history/social studies educators the idea that middle, high school, and even elementary students can engage in “doing” history: they are able to effectively analyze sources (both primary and secondary) for evidence of causation and bias and deal with the cognitive discord which often results from these historical thinking endeavors.

Yet more often than not, these future teachers would report that their field experiences were filled with observations of basic fact memorization, lecture, textbook activities, and worksheets. And even more troublesome, many reported that efforts to discuss ways in which to get students to “do” history were met with scoffs and disparaging comments about how “in the real world” of teaching, there’s no time for such high-level thinking; students need to know the facts to pass the tests (both teacher-made and state-mandated).

The complexity of teaching history and social studies is such that an environment where prospective teachers can translate theory into practice is crucial to teacher development. It is with a clear message of effective methodology coupled with the cooperation of effective mentor teachers that we can hope to improve the practice of teaching history and improve the place of history/social studies in the schools. Opportunities for prospective teachers to observe effective teachers and interact with students are precious . . . we ought to get a handle on this process.

In subsequent postings, I will revisit this important topic and discuss some specific ways education faculty and colleges of education are addressing field experience. Some solutions involve the development of deeper ties between teacher preparation programs and the K–12 schools where these interns are placed. These school partnerships foster teacher training and education research to improve teaching and student achievement in history and other content areas. Other approaches involve changes to teacher preparation programs, including more coursework and longer internship requirements. And still other proposed solutions eschew face-to-face student/teacher interaction and embrace technical innovation, allowing prospective teachers the opportunity to engage in computer-simulated classroom experiences. This cutting-edge technology, already in place in some universities, allows students to teach classrooms full of virtual students and deal with the presentation of lessons, classroom management, and student assessment even before their internship.

In a world where kids are extremely familiar with a robotic "Turn left," and may have never actually seen a road atlas, geography has never been so important in the history classroom. Until mental maps, geography lessons did not often win the battle against history standards for precious time in my classroom. Now instead of being a sideshow, I consider maps a necessary step in teaching and checking for comprehension. Learning history content needs to be partnered with visualizing the environmental influences. After all, in order to understand how America was shaped, knowledge of the land is crucial.

Mental maps add another dimension to the history classroom. If you are not utilizing them to teach American history concepts, I recommend that you read below to discover how they help to build connections, incorporate different learning styles, and check for depth of understanding.

A mental map is a rough sketch of the world simplified enough that the outline can be remembered and repeated. The outline of the map can then be labeled with physical, political, or historic details.

(The map described draws USA and its immediate neighbors.)

The Set-Up:

The teacher simply needs an overhead projector and some wet erase markers to begin (colors help!). The students need a piece of lined or computer paper and a writing utensil.

First, I recommend figuring out a folding system that works for you. Folding the paper before beginning keeps the maps more proportionate. I like my students to divide the paper into six parts. Draw imaginary fold lines across the overhead to help orient the students.

Before starting to draw, it is important to emphasize that no two mental maps will look identical. Students can have trouble accepting that, and for the perfectionists this can be a particular challenge.

The Story:

The most important step to teaching mental maps is creating a story that will aid in memory. Tell the story using the overhead projector as a visual guide. After telling each part of the story, draw the corresponding piece of the map on the overhead, have the students repeat the steps, and periodically check their papers. Once they learn the outline, we use it throughout the year again and again so they have a very good understanding of our basic geography.

Many different stories could work and I have experimented with a few. This year, I told the story of "Norbert Americus, Zookeeper Extraordinaire." The story goes: Mr. Americus wanted to make the best zoo possible so he started collecting the biggest animals that he could. (If you prompt the students, you may find that they are very good at guessing the animals.) First he collected an elephant and a giraffe. Then he decided to get the very biggest animal even though he lives in the sea. Add a whale's tale to the top.

A little prairie dog wandered over from the deserts of America to see these big animals. He saw them and panicked. He took one look back and scurried all the way to the edge of the paper.

When the prairie dog arrived in Alaska, another nervous animal was there—a turtle. The turtle popped his head out when he saw the prairie dog.

The prairie dog and the turtle had each other now. They realized they had reached the West Coast so they decided it was time to chiiiiiiill out. Actually they chilled out so much that they were all the way down the Baja Peninsula before they knew it!

Just about then, the turtle and the prairie dog started talking. The animals in Mr. Americus's zoo seemed nice enough. In fact, none of those animals even eat turtles or prairie dogs. They turned back around and asked if they could be part of the zoo. The big animals liked the small animals and they of course said- "Y not?"

And that is the story of the Mr. Americus's Zoo!

In the first map that I teach, we draw the 2001 USA so we add an animal from way down low and way up high to the zoo—a snake and a bird—to outline the three major countries.

For American history, I do not include all of North America for simplicity's sake and I also exaggerate the size of America compared to Canada in order to fit features throughout the year. These two factors should be pointed out to the students, and you should show them a real map and discuss the purpose of a mental map versus a real map.

In world history, mental maps had been a great way to teach all of the different continents, so when I began U.S. history, I was concerned about the efficacy of repeating the USA map. I have discovered that not only can the single outline work, it is also beneficial to establish that one outline early on and recycle it so the focus can move to the details. Also, this helps to connect the historic pieces. For example, adding the Treaty of Paris land, then the Louisiana Purchase, and then the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the students can really visualize the growth of our nation.

As you view the maps, please note that they also help orient the students to their country. Many of my DC students have never made it to see the White House, let alone making it past Maryland or Virginia. So they can establish the basic size and geography of our country in relation to places that they have heard of or seen on television.

Some of the maps I have used include:

1. Mental maps are accessible. The students have fun as if they have learned a neat new trick, and yet pretty soon they can easily locate the land America gained in the Treaty of Paris or describe the length of the Trail of Tears.
2. Mental maps provide an avenue for students with different talents to shine on an actual test. Often times these talents show up in projects or classwork, but this aids that talent to come out in more rigid assessments as well.
3. Mental maps force some traditionally excellent students to stretch their brains and skills outside of their comfort zone.
4. Mental maps are simple to modify. I provide a few special education students the basic map outline and allow them to fill in the details important to the unit.
5. Mental maps allow the teacher to check the difference between test memorization and actually comprehending the material. If they are able to answer that the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States on a multiple-choice question but then make that land a mere sliver on the map, the teacher knows that they have reached a level of regurgitation rather than of actual learning.

A document camera makes a great addition to a history classroom with a video projector or TV. A document camera captures anything under its lens and projects it on the screen. While this technology has been around for a few years, I have noticed it has been a little slow to catch on for a variety of reasons.

Some teachers may be hesitant to embrace the document camera because they believe it to simply be a glorified overhead projector. The document camera beats the old overhead projector in many ways, the first being that the document camera does not require one to make transparencies. A teacher can project artifacts, photos, worksheets, and anything else that can fit under the camera lens. In addition, students are better able to see the image produced by a document camera as it is much brighter and clearer than the image produced by the overhead projector. Best of all, you no longer leave school covered in overhead marker!

The cost of the document camera may also make this teaching tool seem out of the reach of many teachers and districts in these lean budget years.

While document cameras range in price from $200 to $2,000, this should not preclude one from having their own document camera. You can find a used document camera on eBay or a surplus property store for under $100. I bought mine at one such surplus property store, associated with the
University of Maryland, for $25. Another option is to make a document camera yourself using a webcam and available USB port. The only drawback to this setup is you have to be able to load software on your computer attached to the video projector in your classroom. A ready-made version of this runs about $69. It is also possible to obtain grant money for document cameras from places like DonorsChoose.

Once you have your document camera installation is straightforward. Some document cameras come with a freeze image button which is a great feature to capture a page in a book or map that might be difficult to hold in place. If the document camera does not have this feature, you can hook up the document camera directly to the video projector, which often has the ability to freeze an image. If your document camera is not one that hooks up to your computer via USB, you can also set up the document camera directly to your projector. This allows you to toggle between the image on your computer screen (assuming it too is attached to your video projector) and the image from your document camera. You can also connect most document cameras to a television using an S-video cable or component video cable. It should be noted, however, that the clarity is not as crisp when using the S-video cable or component video cable compared to using a VGA or DVI connection.

The document camera has vast instructional possibilities. I have used my document camera every day in my history classroom. One of the benefits of having a document camera in a history classroom is having the ability to analyze primary sources together as a class. I am able to zoom in on important components of a photograph or text and can invite students to the document camera to annotate pictures or text without bulky markers or transparencies. I am also able to share maps in books easily with students, in color. Students are able to share work they have created immediately with the class without having to scan an image or make a transparency of the document.

This means that jigsaw activities work very efficiently, with each group able to share what they have written on nothing larger than a worksheet. Collectively, classes have created essay outlines and timelines together. The document camera allows students to share storybooks they have created, projected large enough for the class to see. From a classroom management perspective, the document camera allows me to easily show students the worksheet we are working on or the question I want them to focus on. I am also able to place my stopwatch under the camera to show students how much longer they have to complete a task. Finally, my favorite use of the document camera is allowing me to spotlight and share exemplar student work. I am able to give specific praise to a well-written essay or project.

I hope you are able to get your hands on a document camera and share your tips and tricks with others. You can find product reviews for document cameras in this article from Scholastic.

With the National Archive's DocsTeach, educators can find primary sources and the tools to present and interpret them on the same website.

Officially launched September 20, DocsTeach brings more than 3,000 primary sources together with seven online activities, each designed to reinforce specific classroom skills. Register for free, and log in to browse or search the site's photographs, speeches, letters, drawings, memos, video clips, maps, and other sources, dating from 1754 to the present day. Bookmark those that interest you, and head over to the site's "Activities" section.

Here, you can incorporate your chosen sources into online activities adaptable to students at all grade levels. Save activities to access later—including in the classroom.

Activities include:

• Find a Sequence: Have students arrange primary sources in a particular order. DocsTeach suggests using this activity to prompt students to determine the chronological order of sources, or to order steps in a process (for instance, which documents represent which steps in the veto process? In the drafting of the U.S. Constitution?).
• Focusing on Details: Use five different tools to focus student attention on specific sections of a primary source. Do you want your students to focus on a certain facial expression before being distracted by the rest of a photograph? Use "Zoom/Crop,” "Spotlight," or "White Out/Black Out." How about removing a few key words from a document and having students determine, from the context, what they might be? Or pointing out the date and other contextualizing evidence in a handwritten letter?
• Making Connections: Arrange primary sources in a particular order, and have students write arguments for why one source leads to another. Choose sources that lead up to a major historical event—a telegram on the shelling of Fort Sumter might lead to Abraham Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, for instance. Or maybe your sources are thematically related—a 1918 poster using a woman in uniform to recruit male Marines leads to a 1942 WACC recruitment brochure leads to a 1990 poster calling women to join the U.S. Army
• Seeing the Big Picture: Match primary sources in related pairs. As students successfully make the matches, they reveal pieces of a larger picture. How do the matched pairs relate to, say, the image of the Declaration of Independence or the 19th Amendment?
• Interpreting Data: Call out particular data points on primary sources incorporating charts and graphs, and embed comments and questions in the source. Guide how students react to the data they see and lead them to ask who gathered it, how they gathered it, and why.
• Mapping History: Use a modern or historical map as a background, and have students place sources in the location they come from or relate to. Where do sources locate New Deal projects? Major battles of the Civil War? Protest marches throughout U.S. history?
• Weighing the Evidence: Present students with primary sources on a particular historical issue, and have them decide whether they support one interpretation or another. Try the causes of the Civil War. Which documents support an economic cause? Which support slavery as a dividing issue?

Write introductions and conclusions to any activity, and publish them to share with other DocsTeach users, if you choose. Or check out the National Archives' sample activities.

At present, only 28 pre-made activities are available, but check back as more users register at the site and share their work.

Ever tried teaching with technology? No, we don't mean Twitter, Facebook, iPods, cutting-edge interactive whiteboards, or even video and DVD players.

We mean patents.

The U.S. Patents and Trademark Office and Google Patents stockpile millions of patents, dating from 1790 to the present. In a July 2010 Organization for American Historians article, Chemical Heritage Foundation fellow Cai Guise-Richardson suggests ways to mine these historical document collections for classroom use.

Maybe you're studying Eli Whitney's cotton gin. What did the original patent look like? Can students decipher what the device does and how it works from the diagrams alone, or is it unclear? What sort of language does Whitney use to describe his invention, and how does he think it will help society?

Ask your students to think about the technology they encounter every day. Do laptops, MP3 players, cars, phones, household appliances—even toys—ever stop changing? No—there's always a new model or a different brand to buy. Inventions in the past developed in the same way. Try a Google Patent search for "cotton gin" to discover just how many variations and improvements on Whitney's invention eager inventors have developed since 1794, when Whitney first patented his design.

Try an advanced search using a word and a date. In 1901, were there any patents containing the word "genetics?" Probably not. What about in 1954, the year after scientists Watson, Crick, and Franklin discovered the structure of DNA? How about in 1990?

Think of other terms that might show up frequently in patents in different time periods. Is "bomb shelter" more frequent after World War II? How were radioactive substances used before they were proved dangerous? Consider this 1925 patent suggesting that rendering food and water radioactive will help prevent disease and preserve freshness. Do students think we're using any inventions today that we'll wish we hadn't in the future? What sorts of words and phrases do they think would show up frequently in patents today?

Pick a phrase or an invention and start exploring! Refer to Guise-Richardson's article for more suggestions if you have difficulty searching or run dry of ideas.

The Picturing America website, created by the National Endowment for the Humanities, presents 27 iconic images in American history designed specifically to encourage educators to use images as primary source documents in the classroom. The images range in time from 17th-century depictions of the Catholic mission in San Antonio to the contemporary art of Washington, DC native Martin Puryear.

The printed materials are no longer available, but you can read more about the online resources here.

The History Channel and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission are offering a National Teach-In on the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln on Thursday, February 12, 2009, at 1:30EST. (The History Channel also publishes a minisite including videos and essays on Lincoln.)

The Teach-In features two Lincoln Scholars: Matthew Pinsker and Harold Holzer. They will share their expertise and answer student questions from throughout the country. Content recommended for middle through high school, with an emphasis on eighth grade.

Questions? Please email lincoln@aetn.com.

Please consult A New Look at Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln Bicentennial for previous articles on classroom resources for the bicentennial.

The Museum of the Moving Image presents The Living Room Candidate, an online film exhibit of campaign commercials from Dwight Eisenhower through the current election, highlighting issues from bomb shelters to race to economics, war, and poverty.

As David Schwartz, Chief Curator of the Museum of the Moving Image, explains in his introduction to Curator's Choice selections,

An effective campaign commercial works on several levels. It must make an effective argument, either for or against a candidate. It must work on an artistic level, using the tools and techniques of filmmaking to capture viewers' attention and stay in their memory. And it must work on an emotional level, creating a connection with the voter. While a strong advertising campaign does not guarantee election, it often does indicate which candidate has a clearer and more effective message. It is not surprising, therefore, that in most years, the best ads also happen to be in support of the winning candidates.

The site is directed toward high school students and educators and includes eight lesson plans on topics such as the language of political ads, television advertising, an analysis of the political ad as a mini-film, and a session on the process of producing a political commercial.

The Museum plans to continue to add lesson plans and interactive activities for classroom use or independent study.