Social studies Central / history tech blog
Social Studies Central is a resource sharing website by Glenn Wiebe, a 15 year classroom teacher and current consultant to ESSDACK. The site features his History Tech blog.
What I liked most about his site was the Tip of the Week. This week he features 2016 Election Resources. First, he linked an article which considers the current state of civics education. Teachers in Elementary school shy away from talk of the election for fear that any mention will be considered endorsement or criticism, but the article points out we need to educate our students on how to have respectful thoughtful political discourse. |
To explain some of the nuts and bolts of the election he provides a list of resources on polling, news coverage, campaign ads, fact checking and lesson plans and strategies. I’d love to take my kids through all of it. At the elementary level 270towin.com is fun because you can manipulate the states’ results to see what would happen if either candidate won a certain state. Also, it’s a good introduction to the political lexicon of “Red” and “Blue” states.
As far as lesson planning goes, I liked the website iCivics, and it will be a resource I will bookmark for future use. There were lessons about the candidates, voting, mock elections and the Electoral College.
As far as lesson planning goes, I liked the website iCivics, and it will be a resource I will bookmark for future use. There were lessons about the candidates, voting, mock elections and the Electoral College.
On Mr. Wiebe’s site, another great feature was a drop down menu which searched by topics. I immediately checked out the baseball items. Not only does Glenn provide a link to instructional units from the Baseball Hall of Fame, but he also compares changes in education to “Moneyball” a player evaluation system based on statistics which can be used to discover previously undervalued players with undervalued skills to build a winning team to compete with “big money” teams. In many ways, isn’t that what we are trying to do in education? Build a winning team with limited resources. It requires a new approach.
I’ll definitely be returning to this site and will recommend it to other Social Studies teachers. Thanks, Mr. Wiebe.
I’ll definitely be returning to this site and will recommend it to other Social Studies teachers. Thanks, Mr. Wiebe.