#r12socstud
Connecting the Past to the Needs of the Present
Volume 1 Issue 9
Welcome to #r12socstud!
Today's social studies teacher has a difficult, powerful job. Society needs our students to understand the impact of past events in order to respond to present issues. Our students are changing and often fail to connect the events of the past to their present life. Our job as an educator is to help them make connections and think deeply.
I welcome feedback on the resources and will gladly look for information that you need to serve the students! Please reach out via email (jtorres@esc12.net) or on Twitter @owl_b_torresedu #r12socstud
TEA Updates
The TEA’s Resources for the Streamlined Social Studies TEKS web page has been created to assist educators and parents in the transition to the streamlined social studies TEKS. Resources include draft documents that contain the streamlined TEKS and “crosswalk” documents that show a side-by-side comparison between the 2010 TEKS currently in use and the 2018 streamlined TEKS. The streamlined TEKS will be implemented beginning in the 2019-2020 school year for middle school and high school and in the 2020-2021 school year for kindergarten-grade 5. The schedule below indicates when crosswalk documents are expected to be available on the Resources for the Streamlined Social Studies TEKS web page.
- April 18: Grade 8 and U.S. History Studies Since 1877
- May 1: Grade 6, Grade 7, World Geography Studies, World History Studies, U.S. Government, Economics with Emphasis on the Free Enterprise System and Its Benefits
- August 1: Kindergarten, Grades 1-5
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Articles of Interest
Websites to Share
Reimagining Migration
https://reimaginingmigration.org/
Our mission is to ensure that young people grow up understanding migration as a shared condition of our past, present, and future in order to develop the knowledge, empathy, and mindsets that sustain inclusive and welcoming communities.
Echoes and Reflections Timeline of the Holocaust
https://echoesandreflections.org/timeline-of-the-holocaust/
Echoes & Reflections is excited to announce the release of our new Timeline of the Holocaust resource to foster student learning. This interactive tool chronicles key dates from 1933-1945 and is supported by primary source materials and accompanied classroom activities designed to enhance instruction.
KidCitizen
In KidCitizen episodes, children interactively explore Congress and civic engagement through historical primary sources and connect what they find with their daily lives.
Teaching Strategy
Engaging Test Prep
Student Created Learning Playlists
Instead of assigning each member of a group a different chapter in the textbook, depending on your curriculum, you might assign each student within a small group a different sub-topic and then provide them with a few reputable online sources for them to use to build their own learning playlist for their classmates. They will have to think at high levels as they evaluate articles and online games to determine the best and most interesting resources to use for their playlists. They will have to determine questions and activities for classmates to complete in order to demonstrate learning. Students will certainly learn their assigned topic deeply!
Read more about this in the article below!
Digital Tool Highlight: Engaging Congress
Love Literacy!
Picture Book
Chelsea Clinton introduces tiny feminists, mini activists and little kids who are ready to take on the world to thirteen inspirational women who never took no for an answer, and who always, inevitably and without fail, persisted.
Chapter Book
The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
Life is harsh in Chennai's teeming streets, so when runaway sisters Viji and Rukku arrive, their prospects look grim. Very quickly, eleven-year-old Viji discovers how vulnerable they are in this uncaring, dangerous world.
A Longer Read
Challenging Units for Gifted Learners: Teaching the Way Gifted Students Think (Social Studies)
The units presented in this series are based on research into how these students actually think differently from their peers and how they use their learning styles and potential not merely to develop intellectual expertise, but to move beyond expertise to the production of new ideas.
Did You Miss?
Conferences to Attend
- Picture Books, Tough Topics (Elementary)
- Simulations in the History Classroom (Secondary)
- Primary Source Documents (Secondary)
Additionally, there will be numerous opportunities to learn new strategies and technologies to engage the learner in history!
Upcoming Sessions!
Jessica Torres
ESC Region 12
#r12socstud
Email: jtorres@esc12.net
Location: ESC Region 12, West Loop 340, Waco, TX, USA
Phone: (254) 299-1118
Twitter: @owl_b_torresedu