• Tthe Social Studies Summer Institute dates have been set. They are July 29, 30, and 31 at the Bridgeport Conference Center in Bridgeport. Please refer to the Professional Development page on this site for registration and agenda details.
  • United States Senate Youth Scholarship Program begins with the test on September 14, 2009. Please see the social studies calendar on this site for more details and refer to the USSYP Webpage for details on how your 11th and 12th grade students can qualify and apply. We will mail the application and test packets to high school principals and counselors on August 17, 2009.
  • Friends of Blackwater (“FOB”) is pleased to have added the J. R. Clifford Project to its range of programs that includes heritage education and environmental preservation programs.  A key element of their work is to build awareness and support for the JR Clifford lesson plans in schools around the state. Lesson plans can be downloaded from www.jrclifford.org. J. R. Clifford (1848-1933), West Virginia’s first African American attorney, is among twelve Civil Rights Pioneers announced as honorees on a 2009 Commemorative Stamp sheet issued by the United States Postal Service in February 2009. 

 

  • We receive regular emails from c-span classroom and they are currently offering free lesson plans and activities regarding the inauguration and other events that will be of particular interest to your students at this time such as cabinet positions, transition, etc. http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/
  • The U.S. Census Bureau’s Census in Schools program will be sending me electronic information regarding lessons and activities to prepare for the 2010 Census. I will send everything to you as I receive it.
 
  • For the past two years I have sent you information regarding study abroad in Germany which is sponsored by the Goethe Institute in Washington, DC. Each of those years a West Virginia teacher has been selected by Goethe to attend their summer program. I encourage you to apply if you are interested. These all-expense-paid study tours are two weeks in length and take place during the summer. Please read watch for the 2010 updates regarding registration deadlines and tour dates.

 

The National Humanities Center is offering a summer Institute for high school Teachers of History, Literature and Art. The title is Becoming Modern: America, 1918-1929. They offer a sizable stipend and they also pay travel and lodging expenses. For more information please visit their website.
 

 http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/becomingmod/index.htm

 

  • The Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History has a new issue that is dedicated to the bicentennial of President Lincoln’s birthday in 2009. You will find many primary and secondary sources, lesson plans, and interactive links for classroom use.  http://www.historynow.org/12_2008/index.html

                                

  • The 2010 National Geographic Bee.

The National Geographic Bee is a school competition for students in any grades four through eight.  Excite your students about the world around them and reward those who excel in their knowledge of geography by giving them a chance to compete in a school geographic bee. Schools must register in October 2009 to receive contest materials in early November.  Go to http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geographicbee  to get complete information and other dates and deadlines. The West Virginia Geographic Bee will be held on April 9, 2010 at the Charleston Civic Center.

 

  • The East Asia Society offers a website filled with simple, free lesson plans, teacher forums, student links and a wealth of resources which you may choose to tap for any number of global and multicultural, current and historic topics. http://asiasociety.org/education/

  

  • Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History offers online resources http://www.gilderlehrman.org/ which include primary source documents, lesson plans that correlate with your content areas, discussion questions, quizzes, podcasts, a link for the historian in all of us, and many other helpful items too numerous to mention here and it is all free.

 

 

  • The National Council on Economic Education http://www.ncee.net/resources/ website offers free lesson plans in economics and personal finance for students in grades K-12. The lesson plans have been aligned by NCEE to reflect our new CSOs. the Council will be unveiling its new name and webpage soon. The new name is Council for Economic Education. I will post the new webpage when it is available.

 

  • If you would like to be included on the K-12 Social Studies Listserv, please email me at escotchi@access.k12.wv.us and I will be happy to add you.
list of resources