Like other citizens, U.S. Presidents attended elementary and secondary schools and then college. They went to classes; did their homework; joined clubs; participated in band, debate, and sports; worked on newspaper staffs; and ran for class office. The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum will host the National Archives traveling exhibit, "School House to White House: The Education of Presidents." Visitors journey back to the schooldays of the 20th-century presidents through photographs, archival materials, and museum objects revealing fascinating detail about the children who would one day grow up to be President of the United States. In conjunction with this exhibit, a teacher workshop will be held. Educators from four Presidential Libraries (Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, and Clinton) will share information and teaching activities for use in the classroom.
In cooperation with the College of Education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is sponsoring a one-day teacher workshop, free of charge, to classroom, pre-service teachers, and community college educators of language arts and social studies, though all disciplines are welcomed.
This workshop provides a varied program of lectures, demonstrations, analysis of documents, independent research, and group work that introduces teachers to the holdings and organization of the National Archives. Participants will learn how to do research in historical records, create classroom material from records, and present documents in ways that sharpen students' skills and enthusiasm for history, social studies, and the humanities. Each participant selects and prepares to research a specific topic, searches the topic in the records of the National Archives, and develops a teaching unit that can be presented in his or her own classroom.
The Outstanding Social Studies Teacher Award for the year 2009 will be presented to one Missouri teacher at the Missouri Council for the Social Studies Spring 2009 Conference in the Lake of the Ozarks. The award will be presented to either an elementary teacher (K6), a middle school teacher (58), or a secondary teacher (712).
Sponsoring Organization
Missouri Council for the Social Studies
Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible, a teacher must be a practicing teacher in the category for which s/he is nominated and must be teaching social studies at least half-time. In addition, the nominee must demonstrate successful performance in at least five of the following six categories: Developing or using instructional materials creatively and effectively; incorporating innovative or verifiably effective instructional strategies and techniques; utilizing new scholarship from history, the social studies, and other appropriate fields; fostering a spirit of inquiry and the development of skills related to acquiring, organizing, processing, and using information and to making decisions related to both domestic and international matters; fostering the development of democratic beliefs and values and the skills needed for citizen participation in classroom, school, and community settings; and showing evidence of professional involvement through participation in such activities as workshops, curriculum development, and association activities.
Application Deadline
Award Amount
Complimentary Missouri Council for the Social Studies and National Council for the Social Studies memberships for one year, a $150 cash honorarium, full payment of the MCSS Spring Conference Registration Fee, and a plaque honoring his or her achievement.
The conference's theme is "Reeling in the Years." The Missouri Council for the Social Studies is on a mission to create effective citizens in Missouri and to celebrate Missouri diversity. Attendees at the conference can join in this celebration and experience dynamic sessions geared toward early childhood, elementary, middle, secondary, and university educators from a variety of perspectives.
This year's conference will include more than 180 participants from 25 states and the District of Columbia. More than 50 sessions will be presented on a wide variety of historical subjects, including sports history, Native Americans, the Civil War, European nationalism, African-American history and women's history—as well as a session on teaching U.S. history.
This workshop will "explore the clash of cultures and differing definitions of liberty that played out on the Missouri-Kansas border in the decade before the firing on Fort Sumter and throughout the Civil War. Workshop presenters and participants will consider the forces and events that precipitated “Bleeding Kansas” and led to the abandonment of the understandings reached in the Missouri Compromise, the rejection of popular sovereignty in the Kansas Territory, and the establishment of the shadow “Free State” government. They will also examine the nature and intensity of the struggles between the Kansas Jayhawkers and Missouri Bushwhackers during the Civil War and the general mayhem these vicious disputes and guerrilla activities engendered. Perspectives of gender, race, class and ideology will be examined and analyzed." The workshop will include examination of teaching resources, visits to historic sites, discussions, lectures, readings, and lesson planning; specific topics will include "Contested Visions of Freedom," "Fault Lines of Freedom: Slavery and Freedom on the Border," "Commerce at the Crossroads: The Conflict of Transition," "Conflicting Visions of Freedom: The Failure of Popular Sovereignty," "From Contention to Warfare: The Uncivil Society," and "The Border Wars in History and Memory."
"Each participant who completes the workshop and assignments will receive 3 hours of continuing education credit from UMKC. Those wishing to receive 3 hours of graduate credit in History will need to complete a paper by the October 30 deadline. Continuing Education credit is free and graduate history credit for workshop participants is available at an affordable in-state tuition rate of under $1,000."
This workshop will "explore the clash of cultures and differing definitions of liberty that played out on the Missouri-Kansas border in the decade before the firing on Fort Sumter and throughout the Civil War. Workshop presenters and participants will consider the forces and events that precipitated “Bleeding Kansas” and led to the abandonment of the understandings reached in the Missouri Compromise, the rejection of popular sovereignty in the Kansas Territory, and the establishment of the shadow “Free State” government. They will also examine the nature and intensity of the struggles between the Kansas Jayhawkers and Missouri Bushwhackers during the Civil War and the general mayhem these vicious disputes and guerrilla activities engendered. Perspectives of gender, race, class and ideology will be examined and analyzed." The workshop will include examination of teaching resources, visits to historic sites, discussions, lectures, readings, and lesson planning; specific topics will include "Contested Visions of Freedom," "Fault Lines of Freedom: Slavery and Freedom on the Border," "Commerce at the Crossroads: The Conflict of Transition," "Conflicting Visions of Freedom: The Failure of Popular Sovereignty," "From Contention to Warfare: The Uncivil Society," and "The Border Wars in History and Memory."
"Each participant who completes the workshop and assignments will receive 3 hours of continuing education credit from UMKC. Those wishing to receive 3 hours of graduate credit in History will need to complete a paper by the October 30 deadline. Continuing Education credit is free and graduate history credit for workshop participants is available at an affordable in-state tuition rate of under $1,000."
This conference will focus on the theme "Social Studies Education in Missouri: An Exciting Past, A Promising Future." Sessions will be available for all levels ("early childhood, elementary, middle, secondary, and university"); the key note speaker will be author Dorinda Nicholson, "one of the last living eyewitnesses to the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor."