NCSS Annual Conference

On November 14-16, 2008, National Council for the Social Studies will come together for the 88th NCSS Annual Conference in Houston Texas Embrace the Future!

I teach middle school social studies, and my students who go onto post-secondary education, will be entering into their first professional jobs somewhere around the year 2017. What will they face as they enter the third decade of the new millennium? Change—continual and rapidly accelerating—is the nature of our times, and helping our students thrive in this environment is an important task that falls to all social studies educators.

Over 400 sessions, workshops, and clinics will deal with these ideas as well as new directions in the disciplines, 21st century themes and skills, working with diverse learners, effective instructional strategies for the social studies, promoting critical thinking and deep understanding, and creating knowledgeable and effective citizens. Special sessions will explore such topics as teaching ESL/ELL students, global awareness, civic education, and the intersections between science and social studies for 21st century learning.

Our speakers are thought provoking as well as entertaining. Two of the speakers we have secured at this point are author Firoozeh Dumas and conservative icon William Bennett.

Firoozeh Dumas is author of the best seller Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America and her newest book is Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American at Home and Abroad. You will find Firoozeh’s message and stories to be touching, humane, and very very funny.

William Bennett, Secretary of Education in the cabinet of Ronald Reagan, political commentator, and author of the two volumes of America: the Last Best Hope will speak to us on Social Studies and history: join the revolution! You will find Dr. Bennett message to be provocative, thoughtful, and intelligent. Much of Dr. Bennett’s presentation will be an open question and answer session he calls Ask Bill Anything!

Please join us in Houston Texas, the nation’s fourth largest city and a wonderful place to visit and explore, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, for the NCSS 88th annual conference, Embrace the Future.

Mike Yell
NCSS President-Elect
National Board Certified Teacher
Hudson Middle School, Hudson, WI

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