| Social Studies – Preparing Students for College, Career and Civic Life |  |
| Teaching & Learning
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- History teacher re-enacts Battle of Bunker Hill in the classroom
Longtime history teacher Dave McCollister doesn't just lecture students about the War for Independence and events such as the Battle of Bunker Hill. He puts on a Colonial-era uniform and brings those long-ago pivotal moments back to life with a performance laced with historical details, sound effects, storytelling and a little acting to get students interested in history. After a recent presentation at Boone Trail Elementary School in Wentzville, Mo., fifth-grader Jarret Wilson responded enthusiastically. "I like when teachers are energetic," he said. St. Louis Post-Dispatch/text and video
(10/16)
 
- Election season lessons for a variety of grade levels
High-school social studies teacher Paul Gigliotti in this blog post offers 12 interactive activities to help students learn about elections. The lessons, for students in various grade levels, focus on helping students master election vocabulary and understand polling and the electoral college. In one activity, students take votes representing the popular, state and electoral college votes before charting and comparing the results. Edutopia.org/Paul Gigliotti's blog
(10/17)
- Middle-school students learn to live in the real world
A middle-school teacher in South Carolina is teaching her seventh-grade students how to manage a household budget and post-college life in a lesson intended to teach students about business and finance in new ways. In the project, Kathi Christy's students select career paths, cities to live in and other biographical data, and tackle questions related to jobs and pay. The goal is to teach students "how to live in the black, and not in the red," Christy said. The Greenville News (S.C.) (subscription required)
(10/17)
| Policy Watch
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- Common core emphasis on nonfiction raises concerns
 The teaching of more nonfiction will be a major issue in the transition to Common Core State Standards, writes education columnist Jay Mathews. Mathews writes that he expects educators to fall on both sides of the fiction versus nonfiction debate, with some educators saying that English teachers should not be responsible for teaching informational texts. Under the common core, 70% of reading in 12th grade should be nonfiction. The Washington Post
(10/17)
 | NCSS Annual Conference - November 16-18 - Seattle
Join your colleagues in Seattle for more than 500 sessions, a lineup of renowned speakers and education experts, more than 150 exhibiting organizations displaying the latest in educational resources, and the opportunity to share the most current knowledge, ideas, research, and expertise in social studies education. Learn more here.
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| Technology in the Classroom
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| Social Studies & Civic Life
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- Novelist takes up the cause of historic preservation
Author Steve Berry may be best known for his historical thrillers, but he also has a passion for saving and enhancing historical artifacts and landmarks. His nonprofit organization, History Matters, has raised about $400,000 in the past three years. On Thursday, Berry was set to host a writing workshop and fundraising reception in Washington, D.C., to benefit programs at the Smithsonian Libraries. "It just seems like the perfect fit -- our libraries with his genre," Tina Muracco, director of development for the Smithsonian Libraries. The Washington Post
(10/17)
- Geography and the spread of knowledge
 The development of new ideas is influenced by time and place, according to author Samuel Arbesman, a fellow at Harvard University's Institute for Quantitative Social Science. "While we by no means understand everything about why certain places are poised to create new science and knowledge, there seem to be certain factors, such as population size, density and connectivity between individuals, and even the presence of universities," he notes in this interview. Arbesman also discusses how population size affects productivity and how ideas spread from place to place through social contacts. The Atlantic Cities
(10/16)
- How digital maps are shaping our perceptions of the world
Digital maps, which tend to be centered on users rather than places, are changing the way we view the world, writes Simon Garfield, author of "On The Map: Why the World Looks The Way It Does." "It is quite possible to walk, phones in our palms, from one end of a city to another without looking up," he writes. "... In our cars, GPS may guide us quite merrily from one country to another, and we may arrive at our destination without any idea of how we got there." BBC
(10/12)
| NCSS Updates
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College, Career, and Civic Life (C3): Framework for State Standards in Social Studies
A consortium of 22 states in cooperation with 15 professional organizations as well as teachers, scholars, researchers, policy makers, and state department of education leaders have worked collaboratively over the last three years to produce "College, Career, and Civic Life (C3): Framework for State Standards in Social Studies." This draft document will be released for public review at the NCSS Annual Conference on Saturday, Nov. 17 at 2:30 p.m. Learn more.
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NCSS Leadership Program on Legislative Advocacy
NCSS will present a pre-conference program at the NCSS Annual Conference on legislative advocacy, including a post-election briefing by NCSS legislative expert, Catriona Macdonald, President of Linchpin Strategies, LLC. The presentation is open to all registered attendees and will provide a unique hands-on opportunity to develop strategies that you can take home to continue your efforts in advocating for yourself, your council, and your profession, at the local, state and federal levels (separate registration is required). Get more information.
| SmartQuote
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 | Not all those who wander are lost."
--J.R.R. Tolkien,
British writer, poet, philologist and professor
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