New Jersey Council for the Social Studies Annual Fall Conference

Description

Topics covered at this conference will include "CICERO: History Beyond the Textbook," "We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution," "Helping Students to Think About Social Issues," "Meeting Hate with Humanity," "Making Sense of the Presidential Election," "Teaching Social Studies through Primary Sources," "Creating High-Quality Multiple Choice Test Questions for Social Studies Assessment," "Immigration Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow," "Using Teacher Tube," "How to Create a Guest Speaker Program," "New Jersey Amistad Commission Lesson Planning for Restructing your Classroom Curriculum," "Sustaining Professional Development through Free or Almost Free Travel for History Teachers," "Developing and Scoring Rubric-Based Constructed Response Social Studies Test Questions," "Fingerprinting the Constitution: Teaching United States History through the Preamble ," "Using Artifacts to Understand the Wars of the Past," "Reading Strategies to Enhance Social Studies Instruction," "Using Popular Music to Study the Great Depression," "History Alive! Defining and Debating America's Founding Ideals," and "Using Thinking Processes and Technology=Social Studies in the 21st Century."

Sponsoring Organization
New Jersey Council for the Social Studies
Location
East Windsor, NJ
Start Date
Registration Deadline

Annual Kansas Council for the Social Studies Conference

Description

The Kansas Historical Society will host the annual Kansas Council for the Social Studies conference at the Kansas Historical Society Complex and Kansas Museum of History in Topeka, KS. This year's theme, "Kansas Social Studies: Contexts, Perspectives, and Practices," has attracted a number of high-quality presenters and vendors. Internationally known photographer Jim Richardson will deliver the keynote address. Conference sessions will feature presentations on innovative instructional strategies, primary sources, teaching and learning history (U.S. Kansas and the world), government, geography, economics, as well as integrated curriculum.

Sponsoring Organization
Kansas Council for the Social Studies
Contact email
Location
Topeka, KS
Contact name
Moore, Erin
Contact Title
Program Assistant
Phone number
1 785-532-2546
Start Date
Registration Deadline

Humanities Texas Awards

Description

The Humanities Texas Awards recognize imaginative leadership in the humanities on a local, regional, or state level. In 2008, two awards will be presented: one for individual achievement, another for organizational achievement. Nominees might include a local library that has started an especially effective reading and lecture series; a group whose work has advanced heritage tourism efforts; or an individual who has developed a significant public program grounded in history, literature, philosophy, archaeology, folklore, or another humanities discipline. The winning individual and organization will each receive a cash award of $5,000.

Sponsoring Organization
Humanities Texas
Eligibility Requirements

Nominated individuals must reside in Texas, and organizations must be based in the state.

Application Deadline
Award Amount
$5,000 cash award
Location
TX

Best Practices: Teaching to Your Audience

Description

This training will demonstrate to participants how to step outside of their teaching comfort zone to include all of their students' unique learning styles. Participants will learn their own style of learning as well as teaching strategies that will include the learning styles of all their students without disrupting their classroom.

Contact name
Castro, Jennifer (email)
Sponsoring Organization
Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education
Phone number
602-340-7366
Target Audience
4-12
Start Date
Cost
$125
Contact Title
Professional Development Manager
Duration
Eight and a half hours

We the People 101: The Citizen and the Constitution

Description

This Center for Civic Education curriculum provides lessons and activities for grades 4–12. The primary goal of the program is to promote civic awareness and responsibility in students. By emphasizing student involvement and encouraging students to relate important concepts and principles to historical and contemporary situations, it strengthens students' critical thinking and public speaking skills.

Contact name
Castro, Jennifer (email)
Sponsoring Organization
Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education
Phone number
602-340-7366
Target Audience
4-12
Start Date
Cost
Free
Contact Title
Professional Development Manager
Duration
Eight and a half hours

Best Practices: Mix it Up! Learning through Icebreakers and Interactive Teaching

Description

This training will provide participants with new ideas to keep your students energized and anxious to learn more. Participants will learn how to spice up their classrooms while maintaining structure and a positive learning environment. Participants will engage in activities that will teach them how to turn a lecture into hands-on fun without losing any of the content.

Contact name
Castro, Jennifer (email)
Sponsoring Organization
Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education
Phone number
602-340-7366
Target Audience
5-12
Start Date
Cost
$125
Contact Title
Professional Development Manager
Duration
Eight and a half hours

People, Place, and Time Workshop

Description

This workshop also includes registration to attend the October 24th Arizona Council for the Social Studies Annual Fall Conference. Participants will also receive a curriculum kit to be shared within their district and an honorarium to assist with travel and food. Social studies or science curriculum coordinators and teachers in grades 6–12 interested in the cultural history of Arizona or the archaeological process, should consider attending this one-day People, Place, and Time training.

People, Place, and Time (PP&T) is an interdisciplinary curriculum for grades 6–12. The activities and lessons are inquiry-based, focusing on social studies, science, and language arts. The curriculum and accompanying materials are presented in a kit format and include the teacher's guide, two interactive "game boards," a video, and basic research sources. All of the activities have been aligned to the Arizona Department of Education Standards for the applicable subject areas. The curriculum contains two units of study—the Cultural Landscape and Cultural Resources Management (CRM) Archaeology. The time required to implement this unit will vary, depending on the classroom structure and depth of student research. The entire curriculum can be covered in one to two 9-week terms.

Unit 1 is the Cultural Landscape. In this unit, students explore the environmental niches of the Sonoran Desert, from the cactus-covered lowlands to the conifer-crested mountains, without ever leaving the classroom. They discover resources and experiment with the development of products from those resources. They envision life as the Hohokam peoples lived it 1,000 years ago—traveling, trading, and manufacturing the tools and foods necessary for survivalᾹin this harsh but bountiful environment. The Cultural Landscape unit may be taught as a standalone unit.

The second unit, CRM Archaeology, introduces students to the discovery of a past culture through scientific investigation. Students play the role of the entrepreneurs and archaeologists who create an archaeological consulting business, bid on a contract to do an archaeological study, and investigate a site. They use statistics to analyze the findings, synthesize the results, draw conclusions, and present their findings about the past. Students must complete the activities in the Cultural Landscape unit prior to beginning the CRM unit.

PP&T kits are distributed through regional training workshops and summer institutes. It is hoped that the remaining kits will be distributed during the ACSS workshops. One to two representatives from each district are encouraged to participate in this training. Training is open to all sixth through 12th grade teachers, but only one participant per district will become the "Keeper of the Kit." Keepers will make the kit available to educators within their district and make sure that the kit contents are intact.

The one-day workshop will include background information on the history of the project, an introduction to archaeology and to the cultural history of Arizona, hands-on experimentation with activities, and the development of a plan for use and distribution of the materials in each school district.

Contact name
Ellick, Carol J.
Sponsoring Organization
Arizona Council for the Social Studies; Arizona Department of Education
Phone number
1 505-892-5587
Start Date
Contact Title
Director, Outreach and Education, SRI Foundation
Duration
One day

People, Place, and Time Workshop

Description

This workshop also includes registration to attend the October 24th Arizona Council for the Social Studies Annual Fall Conference. Participants will also receive a curriculum kit to be shared within their district and an honorarium to assist with travel and food. Social studies or science curriculum coordinators and teachers in grades 6–12 interested in the cultural history of Arizona or the archaeological process, should consider attending this one-day People, Place, and Time training.

People, Place, and Time (PP&T) is an interdisciplinary curriculum for grades 6–12. The activities and lessons are inquiry-based, focusing on social studies, science, and language arts. The curriculum and accompanying materials are presented in a kit format and include the teacher's guide, two interactive "game boards," a video, and basic research sources. All of the activities have been aligned to the Arizona Department of Education Standards for the applicable subject areas. The curriculum contains two units of study—the Cultural Landscape and Cultural Resources Management (CRM) Archaeology. The time required to implement this unit will vary, depending on the classroom structure and depth of student research. The entire curriculum can be covered in one to two 9-week terms.

Unit 1 is the Cultural Landscape. In this unit, students explore the environmental niches of the Sonoran Desert, from the cactus-covered lowlands to the conifer-crested mountains, without ever leaving the classroom. They discover resources and experiment with the development of products from those resources. They envision life as the Hohokam peoples lived it 1,000 years ago—traveling, trading, and manufacturing the tools and foods necessary for survivalᾹin this harsh but bountiful environment. The Cultural Landscape unit may be taught as a standalone unit.

The second unit, CRM Archaeology, introduces students to the discovery of a past culture through scientific investigation. Students play the role of the entrepreneurs and archaeologists who create an archaeological consulting business, bid on a contract to do an archaeological study, and investigate a site. They use statistics to analyze the findings, synthesize the results, draw conclusions, and present their findings about the past. Students must complete the activities in the Cultural Landscape unit prior to beginning the CRM unit.

PP&T kits are distributed through regional training workshops and summer institutes. It is hoped that the remaining kits will be distributed during the ACSS workshops. One to two representatives from each district are encouraged to participate in this training. Training is open to all sixth through 12th grade teachers, but only one participant per district will become the "Keeper of the Kit." Keepers will make the kit available to educators within their district and make sure that the kit contents are intact.

The one-day workshop will include background information on the history of the project, an introduction to archaeology and to the cultural history of Arizona, hands-on experimentation with activities, and the development of a plan for use and distribution of the materials in each school district.

Contact name
Ellick, Carol J.
Sponsoring Organization
Arizona Council for the Social Studies; Arizona Department of Education
Phone number
1 505-892-5587
Target Audience
6-12
Start Date
Contact Title
Director, Outreach and Education, SRI Foundation
Duration
One day

Best Practices: Powerpoint at Its Best

Description

This training will provide participants with fun, interactive ways to use PowerPoint and other visual aids as educational tools. Participants will engage in activities that will encourage student participation and keep students attentive. The activities demonstrated in this training will cater to all styles of learning.

Contact name
Castro, Jennifer (email)
Sponsoring Organization
Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education
Phone number
602-340-7366
Target Audience
5-12
Start Date
Cost
$125
Contact Title
Professional Development Manager
Duration
Eight and a half hours

Arizona Tales Teacher Workshop: Using Literature to Teach Arizona History and Geography, K-8

Description

This workshop will go over 15 lesson plans covering the desert environment, Native American culture, Mexican culture, ranch life, World War II, and more. Supplementary literature books are included in the registration fee.

Contact name
Spargo-Guerrero, Emily
Contact email
Sponsoring Organization
Arizona Historical Society
Phone number
1 520-617-1153
Target Audience
K-8
Start Date
Cost
$60 ($50 for Arizona Historical Society members)
Course Credit
Provides Continuing Education Credits.
Duration
Four hours