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Social Studies Organizations

Nebraska State Council for the Social Studies (NSCSS)

-This organization provides educational resources for teachers, news in the social studies field, gives awards to nominated teachers, and provides news and access to seminars and conferences.

-The NSCSS has an annual conference which will be on October 13 at Buffet Middle School in Omaha. This years theme is Human Rights on the World Stage

-For students there is a $10 year-long membership fee. A lifetime fee is $50

-The NSCSS has a quarterly newsletter that they send out to members.

-The NSCSS website

National Social Science Association (NSSA)

-The NSSA is the largest social science organization in the country. They seek to help provide in-service training throught their seminars, conferences, and publications

- The NSSA host a number of conferences and seminars:

The National Technology and Social Science Conference will be held on April 1-3 at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference offers sessions dealing with applying technology to the classroom, papers and workshops, and exhibits. The cost is $155 for students and hotels cost $89 a night.

The NSSA is hosting a summer seminar at Lake Tahoe from July 29 - August 1. The theme is Educational Challenges in the 21st Century. The conference is free to attend and hotel rates are $229 a night

The National Fall Professional Development Meeting is October 14-16 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Registration costs $225 and hotels cost $119 a night.

-The membership fee for students is $25 and a lifetime membership fee is $350

-The NSSA publishes the National Social Sciences Technology Journal, and a National Proceedings Index from each of their conferences

-The NSSA website

#NSSA #NSCSS #social studies #social sciences #conference #TEAC259

#prezi #teach259 #history #world war 2

#TEAC259 #history #wiki #class

Schools and the Digital Divide

Today, technology is changing at a rate never before seen. The lives of the average American become more and more integrated with technology with each passing day. The internet has become a source of an immense wealth of information and knowledge, and an important outlet of social interaction. But what happens to those who are left behind? The gulf between the haves and the have-nots when it comes to technology is referred to as the "digital divide". The "digital divide" is rapidly closing as more Americans gain access to computers and the internet, but there are still a large number of Americans on the have-not side of the divide.

One area where technology is especially important is in school. It seems like just about any job requires computer literacy these days, so its very important that schools provide education in this growing field, but this can be difficult when schools are forced to cut their budgets and make cutbacks. The internet is, as stated earlier, and immense source of information and knowledge. Just about anything you might want to know is available online. Schools that do not provide adequate access to the internet for their students are letting their students fall behind those in schools with access to this immense wealth of knowledge. As the old saying goes: "knowledge is power".

Even among schools that do provide adequate access to technology and the internet their is a gulf between simply having the technology and knowing how to use it to its full potential. This is often referred to as the "new digital divide". The internet today is not just used for its search engines like Google, but social media is becoming more and more important in the online community. Social media is more than just something young people use to connect with their friends, it can also be used by teachers as a teaching tool. Tools such as blogs, Twitter, wikis, video sharing, and countless others can all be used by teachers to extend their classroom beyond the physical classroom and into cyberspace. It will become more and more important for teacher to be able to utilize tools like these as students become more and more connected to the digital realm.

#digital divide #education #school #technology #TEAC259

Different Styles, Not Different Intelligences

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences has become quite popular in recent years, and why not? It would seem to make perfect sense and it’s a convenient explanation as to why certain students do well in school while others do not. What most people don’t realize, however, is that there is little hard evidence to support this theory. In fact, studies have repeatedly shown that will people are able to learn about the same amount of information whether or not they’re learning according to their “style”. So in other words, even if different intelligences do exist, their impact on learning is minimal.

So with that said, should teachers even bother trying to teach in different styles? The answer to that is ‘yes’, but not because individual students learn with one style compared to another. Rather it’s because different concepts can be better taught using different styles. For example, it’s much easier to teach a geography lesson using a map as opposed to telling students where the locations are verbally or having them read a description of where the location is in a book. So teachers shouldn’t spend extra time trying to teach a lesson in several different styles to accommodate students of different intelligences, instead they should try and determine what style is best for teaching that particular concept.

#Multiple intelligences #teaching styles #TEAC259

A great site that features tons of historical maps of Europe

#History #Europe #TEAC29 #Maps

The Flipped Classroom

The flipped classroom is a method of teaching in which teachers post teacher-created videos and interactive lessons online for the students to access before class. Then during class time is then used to answer questions, work through problems, and do collaborative learning exercises.

One advantages of this method are that it frees up more time for the in class activities listed above. It also allows for more time for teachers to interact with individual students, so struggling students can get more help and more advanced students have more freedom to work independently.

Some potential problems with "flipping" is that some students may attempt to avoid doing the lesson, so teachers should make sure that students take notes or have quizzes to make sure the students have done the lesson. Another problem is that some students may not have time outside of class to do the lessons, especially if they have numerous classes that use the "flipped method". Putting lessons online well in advance would certainly go a long way to helping with this problem, but it still may be a problem for some students. Another issue is that, even in this day and age, not all students have internet access, or if they do they may not have a fast enough connection to view the lesson, or their internet access may simply b down for a time.

Most schools nowadays use websites such as Blackboard with which teachers can post their lessons online and their students can view them. I think that the way I might do a "flipped classroom" is to post folders (preferably at least a week in advance) that contain any resources that are used for the lesson such as powerpoints, videos, website links, ect.

Education Next Article

Washington Post Article

#Flipped Classroom #TEAC259 #Social Studies