Benjamin Banneker's Letter to Thomas Jefferson John A. Moore Next Door to Old Smokey: Engaging in Scientific Measurements and Public Action Bertha Vazquez, Hilary Landorf, and L. Bahia Simons-Lane  

Terry L. Cherry The NCSS Strategic Plan is alive and active. To continue to explain this plan and follow up on my last article about Priority #1-Collaboration, let's look at Priority #2-Communication. (See the whole five-point plan at https://www.socialstudies.org/about/strategicplan.) The word “communication” has a variety of definitions depending who attempts to define it. NCSS should look at the challenge of communication broadly. It is imperative that our professional organization uses a mixture of communication tools to reach out to our members, the educational…

Studying local history stimulates student interest and can provide an entrée into studying larger national narratives.

Lookout Point: Achievement for Every Student Hayes Mizell Archaeology in the Seventh Grade:An Interdisciplinary Unit of Study Marilyn J. Eisenwine Sharing Space: Urban Wildlife and Human Society Jane Manaster The Caracara: Working with Birds and People Joan L. Morrison Life on the Wild Side Jane Manaster

Zoe Weil Receives 2023 NCSS Spirit of America Award   SILVER SPRING, Md. (Dec. 1, 2023) – Zoe Weil, the co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education (IHE), received the NCSS Spirit of America Award at the 103rd Annual Conference of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), in Nashville. Weil received a $1,000 honorarium and a commemorative gift in recognition of her exemplary contributions to the “spirit of American Democracy.” Weil was a featured speaker at the NCSS Annual Conference.   As IHE’s co-founder and president, Zoe…

Black history needs to be more than just a minor focus in one month of the academic year. Instead, it should be a driving force in the U.S. history curriculum. We believe that students should have opportunities to explore racial discrimination that African Americans have faced, as well as how they used their agency to overcome these obstacles. A systematic and holistic approach to U.S. history that embraces African Americans’ experiences offers students the opportunity to see that the pursuit of equity and justice has been an ongoing struggle.  In contemporary U.S. society, there are those…

Teaching is an ever-evolving craft. The word “evolve” suggests gradual growth or change, but the 2020-21 school year was anything but gradual. Our sudden nationwide transformation to remote and virtual learning continued and expanded in different directions over the past year; even in districts that fully reopened at the start of the year, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were still felt.  I extend my deepest, humblest appreciation to every teacher in the over 100,000 K-12 schools nationwide. You likely ended the school year more exhausted and overwhelmed than ever before. Yet you made a…

Kim O'Neil from Liverpool, New York has been elected vice-president of National Council for the Social Studies and is line to assume the NCSS presidency 2015-2016. Kim is currently serving her second term on the Board as the elementary representative. During her tenure she has served as co-chair of the International Visitors' Task Force, is a member of the editorial board for Social Studies and the Young Learner publication and of the review board for the NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. She is a co-author of the 2012 Goethe Institut curricular…

Teaching About the Nanking Massacre to Middle School Students Justin Villet The First War Hawks: The Invasion of Canada in 1812 Steven Sellers Lapham

How to Be an American This article contains two video resources. (also linked below) Judge Lucy Koh: “Be Fully Engaged in Democracy”Karen Korematsu: “You Can Make a Difference” Conflict, Service, and Civic InvolvementSarah K. Anderson