This conference's theme is "Social Studies on the Front Burner: Resources and Instructional Strategies for the 21st Century."

The theme for this conference is "Choosing Our Future: Defining the Role of the Social Studies. In this ever-changing world, the daunting task of preparing youth for the future lands in the hands of social studies teachers as the ones who open students' senses to the world around them. This is an absolutely critical time for the discipline of social studies. Numerous reports have shown that national and state testing has reduced the time spent on social studies in schools across America. There is vigorous debate over what should be taught in social studies classes. This annual conference will help to analyze and determine the role of social studies and the social studies curriculum in the 21st century.

The theme of this conference is "Empowering Students for the Future: Textbooks, Technology, and Innovations in Social Studies Education."

The theme of this conference is "So What? Reclaiming Our Place." Educators are being called to reclaim a place for the social studies. Social studies is the conscience of education and has been overlooked by current educational trends in a high-stakes testing environment. Teachers can reverse this trend. It is up to social studies educators to address the value of social studies in society, in the profession, in the curriculum, and in the lives of children. This conference will allow educators to share teaching ideas, curricular examples, and exemplary models of social studies education.

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."

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.