Virtual Learning

I have finally read everyone's blogs so far...some pretty awesome ideas being circulated already. I've been cruising the Internet for inspiration for a unit plan and I came across this great interactive website " We are Canadian: People for the Prairies." I think it would work well in the Social Studies classroom. It has tons of videos and things to click! http://theclares.ca/prairies/
Students are given a role or character to assume and then they have to try and stay in character and make an informed, critical decision ; "Do I immigrate to the Canadian Prairie or not?" Students must keep in mind that this takes place in the 1900s and they choose certain "information centres" based on what they feel their character believes in (ex job opportunities, rights and freedoms). This website is very hands on, it's interactive and stimulating for any grade level.

Jeremy's Article Review

In “Teaching First Nations History as Canadian History”, Graham Reynolds (2000) proposes the need to move beyond a traditional, Euro-centric view of Canadian history. His premise is to consider what steps educators, including teachers, administrators and curricula engineers, might have to take in order to present First Nations history as a non-extraneous unit of Canadian history.

Reynolds’ assertion that it is problematic to teach First Nations history as something that began around the time Europeans “discovered” North America is credible. The view that our knowledge of First Nations need only begin when our peoples began interacting, on the other hand, is not. According to the article, this view persists, to a decreasing extent, in contemporary and modern texts. To address this point, Reynolds explores the notion that racial-ethnic relations are a recurring theme of history and that indigenous cultures were not fixed cultural units without diversity or development. Because we recognize that Canadian history pre-dates confederation, it should follow that Canadian history pre-dates Canadians altogether.

To teach Canadian history in a social studies context, the now admitted necessity of a multi-ethnic approach should be further augmented by that of a multi-discipline one. Reynolds' conception of a more balanced historical view includes anthropological, archaeological, sociological, geographical and ecological perspectives. Furthermore, he suggests that First Nations' historical accounts such as myths and oral histories are at least as credible as the European methods – a view shared by many Western historians. Teaching First Nations history from a colonial perspective seems preposterous, but ethnocentrism continues to dominate the history text books and classrooms of Canada's schools. By incorporating First Nations oral histories into the curriculum not as fables, but as credible accounts, the idea of First Nations history being separate from the European colonial history of Canada is granted less weight.

While Reynolds was duly kind Canada's First Nations in his discourse, the lack of any reference to the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest calls for scrutiny. This can be justified partly because between 1600 and 1800 AD, the Pacific Northwest had the densest concentration of indigenous peoples on the continent. Furthermore, a rudimentary knowledge of west coast cultures leaves Reynolds' assertion that Native North Americans left little physical evidence of their legacy grossly exposed to the historical record. While it is true that Canada's First Peoples use of wooden construction left little to compare with the Aztec pyramids, shell middens around coastal British Columbia have been dated between 8000 and 10000 years old.

Shell middens are one example of evidence that challenges the depiction of First Peoples as nomads, wandering haplessly about ancient North America. Other examples of key historical facts that are commonly downplayed, overlooked, or ignored in social studies education are the development and diversity of subarctic cultures and the presence of racial intermarriage in New France's fur trade. Of more immediate concern for the curriculum than addressing fallacies in First Nations history is the fact that First Nations history did not end when Europeans reached North America. Indeed, the post-contact period is one of the most sanitized areas of Canadian history. While authors of text books endeavour to keep the contents politically correct, the results are often offensive to Canada’s indigenous heritage. Shielding the youth from the bloody, premeditated crimes of Canada’s colonial past does not help them reach a better understanding of First Nations history.

Again, if social studies education is to address First Nations history as a non-extraneous unit of Canadian history, it must be done in a way that is honest to the First Nations experience. First Nations scholars are more than capable of writing their own history into Canadian history text books and the possibility of having a white and native person co-author a high school history text should not be flippantly dismissed. Realizing that most students are likely to resent a mandatory First Nations class, the existing subjects relating to First Nations history could easily be made to include a more balanced interpretation of Canadian history. Reynolds offers little in the way of curriculum and classroom plans for teaching First Nations history as Canadian history, however, he shares a multi-discipline approach that would undoubtedly benefit social studies education. Noam Chomsky is my hero.

Inspiring/ Interesting Images

I've started searching for sources online that will inspire me, and hopefully my students, into researching some new green technologies. Yesterday I came across this blog site called Web Urbanist, and thought, why not share this blog with my other blog?

The images can be thought provoking, and if nothing else, beautiful. We can use this site to find stimulating images to either start conversations, or as a resource for students who are examining urban systems and development. Another idea would be to have students use some "abandoned cities" photos and apply that to Canada's resource based economy. Possibly even tie that into the mining communities that have fallen away in B.C. Just brainstorming here....

It's rare to find such a variety of quality images, so take advantage!

Leave No Child Inside

An article that I stumbled upon over the weekend. I believe the issues and ideas that Louv raises are pertinent to us not only as Social Studies teachers, but educators in general. It seems no matter how many times the issues of nature are raised, there continues to be further degradation and concrete development throughout the world. Therefore, the question is as professionals what is our role in ensuring that the outdoors are no longer left off the curriculum, and students are not left with "nature deficit disorder"?

I just want to share this with you all

If you were in my seminar in the summer you may have seen it, but it is, has been, and will always be part of what drives me to be the best teacher I can. It was given to me by a man that saved my life, or rather as he put it "I gave you a hand but you pulled yourself up." I think it is particalurly relevant to the topics we have been discussing in class and would ivite any and all commenting uopon it. I hope you like it and are able to pull soemthing usefuyl from it. It is a poem:

He always wanted to say things. But no one understood. He always wanted to explain things. But no one cared. So he drew. Sometimes he would draw and it wasn't anything. He wanted to carve it in stone, or write it in the sky. He would lie out on the grass, and look up in the sky, and it would only be him, and the sky, and the things inside that needed saying. And it was after that, that he drew the picture. It was a very beautiful picture. And when it was dark, and his eyes were closed, he could still see it. And it was all of him, and he loved it. When he started school, he brought it with him. Not to show anyone, just to have with him like a friend. It was funny about school. He sat in a square, gray desk. Like all of the other square gray desks. And he thought it should be red. And his room was a square, gray room. Like all of the other rooms. And it was tight, and close, and stiff. He hated to hold the pencil and the chalk, with his arms stiff and his feet flat on the floor, stiff, with the teacher watching and watching. And then he had to write the numbers. And they weren't anything. They were worse than the letters that could be something when you put them all together. And the numbers were tight and square, and he hated the whole thing. The teacher came and spoke to him. She told him to wear a tie like all of the other little boys. He said he didn't like them. She said it didn't matter. After that they drew. And he drew all yellow, and it was the way he felt about morning, and it was beautiful. The teacher came again and smiled down at him. What's this, she asked? Why don't you draw something like your friend's drawing? Isn't that beautiful? It was all questions. After that his mother bought him a tie. And he always drew airplanes and rocket ships like everyone else. And he threw the old picture away. And when he lay out alone looking at the sky, it was big, and blue, and all of everything. But he wasn't anymore. He was square inside, and gray, and his hands were stiff, and he was like everyone else. And that thing inside that needed saying, it didn't need saying anymore. It had stopped pushing. It was crushed. Stiff. Like everything else. This was an English assignment for a high school senior. Two weeks after writing it, the young man committed suicide.

Young voters

Recently, Austria became the first EU nation to allow 16 and 17 year old voters. This was questioned because the teens are still too young for military service, community service and driving. In today's polls in Austria's federal elections, the two far right parties, which are anti-immigrant and anti-EU and are sometimes described as quasi-fascist, won 29% of the vote. Together, the parties gained the second highest vote total, with the Social Democrats coming in at 30% of the vote. The high vote of the far right has been attributed to the influx of young voters, many of them discontented and searching for change. Among Austrians aged 30 or younger, the majority voted for the Freedom Party (one of the far-right parties).

This brings up the question of how much electoral responsibility should be given to teens, who can often be rebellious and seek change without looking at the long term consequences. Austria has been democratic for 60 years, and I assume they have a progressive democratic education, so how much does that help teens when they are voting in real elections? This leads to the question that maybe maturity and political studies may be more important that democratic education when preparing teens to vote at 18. This comment is based on the fact that in Canada, the UK and the USA, 18 year olds were voting democratically long before democratic education. Should the age of voting be changed from 18 in Canada?... just some food for thought.


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/orl-kidvote2808sep28,0,1434033.story
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7641441.stm

Social Justice Education: What to do?

Please read the following print edition article by Gary Mason from the Globe and Mail newspaper. Do you agree or disagree with Mason's postion on social justice education and Socials 12? Why or why not? How are you going to approach the issue of same sex marriage, discrimination and oppression in your classroom?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080927.BCMASON27/TPStory/?query=Gary+Mason

Article Review - "Thematic Stories"

In his article, “Thinking across time,” Ian Dawson argues we should teach history in a way that examines events through “thematic stories”. Dawson suggests that there is little value in simply memorizing various people and events in chronological order. This approach is boring and discourages students from learning.

On the other hand, a thematic story offers a framework in which to contextualize information, helping students see the “big picture”. Dawson uses “Power and Democracy” as an example of a thematic story in which students can draw comparisons between struggles and revolutions from different societies. This method, also builds an avenue to explore connections between the past and present, which is one the primary objectives of history.

I agree with Dawson. History is not a collection of facts to be listed in chronological order but rather a socially constructed narrative. By using “thematic stories”, we are helping our students to recognize this fluidity, and allowing them to see the vast potential for new and original historical narratives. This will also help students recognize that bias exists in all of us and within all our texts and that thematic stories could be used in both a positive and negative way. An anti-Semitic teacher, for example, could inject opinion and frame facts in a manner which attempts to disguise or deny the Holocaust. Yet, the discipline of history also presents an opportunity to make a progressive contribution.

I hope that my students will gain the skills to bridge connections between historical events, explore areas that interest them, and develop their own thematic stories – interpreting the world as they see it.

Creativity - Engaging through the Arts

After watching Ken Robinson on TED talks, I was thinking about how applicable this topic of engaging students in the arts was to us as Socials teachers, and in terms of the up coming election. I read this fabulous piece by Margarent Atwood in the Global and Mail, entitled "To be creative is, in fact, Canadian," regarding Harper's plans to cut arts and culture funding. Yet she makes the point that we, as a culture, and as Canadians spend more time and money in the arts then anything else. The arts seems to be one thing that can link us all together, and yet as Ken Robinson mentioned, it tends to be at the bottom of our education system. I think we, as Social Studies teachers, have a unique opportunity to really bring the arts back into the forfront of our programs. Below is the link to Margaret Atwood's article. I will warn everyone that she is pretty scathing towards Mr. Harper and his party, but what is Social Studies without a little controversy! Enjoy!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080924.wcoarts25/BNStory/politics/home

Article Review

John Fielding’s article “Engaging Students in Learning History,” appeared in the Canadian Social Studies Journal in the winter of 2005. In it he relates both personal experiences and professional reactions as to what he deems to be good and bad history teacher characteristics. His main focus is on the development of a student’s “historical imagination,” which ultimately engages them with the subject and makes it interesting and relevant to them. He includes a number of excellent ideas and opinions within his article: including commonly used activities and approaches that he rates in terms of interest and effectiveness. His theories are backed up by studies of how students learn by doing more so than by hearing or seeing, as well as his own personal teaching experience before retiring in 2002. At the end of the article he even includes some helpful references that he feels to be very practical. Through the various activities and approaches he discusses, the ultimate goal of creating active and interested learners runs throughout Fielding’s article and should be read by any aspiring or “pre-service” teacher as it is full of helpful and interesting hints.

Fielding, John. “Engaging Students in Learning History,” Canadian Social Studies, Vol. 39 No. 2 (Winter 2005) : <http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/css/Css_39_2/ARFielding_engaging_students.htm> (14 September 2008).

Article Review

My article was Matthew Bradshaw’s article “Creating Controversy in the Classroom: Making Progress with Historical Significance.” It discusses effective ways to teach historical significance. He says that teachers should not be telling students what historical events and characters are significant, but rather allow them to discover historical significance for themselves so they can make their own judgments on history. To promote the absorption of knowledge, which he sees as essential for making historical judgements, he suggests the use of mnemonics and scaffolding. Bradshaw theorizes that the benefits of discovering historical significance for oneself are that you would be able see for yourself if the event/person was truly significant and the person is more likely to consider something truly significant if they make up their own mind about it.
This article is relevant because as teachers, we will frequently be assessing and describing the historical significance of events and people to convey their relevance and importance to our class. Bradshaw does not use any evidence to prove that his way is in fact better or has had a larger impact on a sample of students.
To implement Bradshaw’s strategy for finding historical significance, you would have to do a series of demonstrations before the students would be able to use Bradshaw’s mnemonics and find historical significance themselves. Once they are able to find significance, it would help their retention of the event for tests and long term memory because the event or person would have meaning and significance to themselves.

Stories in Schools

Having just come out of a class on integrating music into other subject areas, I thought to myself- why don't we make full use of as many different "subjects," texts and media in our Social Studies classes to strengthen our teaching and learning? Why not explore using different text to help students make stronger connections not only with curriculum content, but with community and the world?

That being said, I've been thinking a lot about storytelling. It's just something that isn't done very often in the secondary classroom, but I think that it has immense power. History is essentially a series of stories all strung together and overlapping- different perspectives sometimes cause "knots." There are some fantastic, thought provoking, funny and controversial works of fiction that could easily be used to introduce a unit or topic in the classroom. Reading an excerpt at the beginning of each class could be a way of encouraging students to think outside their normal perspective, and to try and understand another way of thinking and doing. It wouldn't even be necessary to finish the whole book: some chapters may be more appropriate than others to the topic at hand.

Of course, it is important to choose a text (book, journal, diary, etc) that is age appropriate and is an example of quality work in both the areas of literature and historical research. I have a few titles that come to mind from my own collection.

I'll plug the Canadian literature first. This book is fairly tough going emotionally, but it provides an excellent portrait of life during the early days of the Russian Revolution.
Birdsell, Sandra. (2001). The Russlander. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.

Next, for all those times when you get to teach about the Plague! This book is based loosely around the true event of a small town choosing voluntary quarantine after a few of its citizens are infected with the Plague.
Brooks, Geraldine. (2001). Year of Wonders. New York: The Penguin Group.

Both would require careful selection because some passages are not necessarily age appropriate...but they are both books worth reading. Comments with other books that could work are appreciated!

Article Review

The journal article that I chose to review was written by a retired Social Studies teacher, Michael Clare, and is entitled, "'Power Corrupts, PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely' Why Digital Technologies Did Not Change the Social Studies Classroom." I was drawn to this article because as I have mentioned in class, I am quite new to all of the digital technologies that we are having to use not only in this program, but which we will undoubtedly be faced with in the schools where we teach. I was interested to hear the opinion from a Social Studies teacher who has also been faced with this issue, and thought that he would have some insightful teaching philosophies to offer based on the engaging richness of traditional teaching methods. After reading the article, however, I was left feeling somewhat unsure of Clare's validity .
Clare's underlying argument is actually quite good: he states that Social Studies teachers should be eased into the world of digital technology, instead of being looked at as "techno geniuses," and that once the technology is in the classroom, that it should be used as an asset, or agent to assist the traditional curriculum, instead of dominating the lesson and acting as a deterrence away from it. I agree wholeheartedly with these main arguments; I have noticed within my own education experience, that a lot of the focus seems to have swayed away from the curriculum-what we are learning and doing, to the technology and the various digital means that we can explore. For example, instead of having discussion groups, we are having blogs, while both are interesting in their own respect, the question must be asked, which platform is more useful / beneficial to us, or to our future students?
Although I agreed with the main argument of Clare's article, I was actually quite unimpressed with most of its other components. His grammar and spelling were deplorable, which made for a frustrating read, and he seemed to characterize himself as somewhat of an embittered grandfather, who resents the new and modern trends of our developing world.
I think that Clare's main point is a good one: technology should not dominate the curriculum, but instead assist it, and that teachers need to be eased into this digital domain comfortably. If these things are accomplished, than technological resources could very well be a vital component of both the Social Studies learning and teaching experience.

Multimedia: You and your personal website

It is one thing to be able to teach your students successfully while in a classroom setting, it is another to be able to provide your teachings outside of the classroom. By this I mean, what happens on the weekend when your students are at home and they need to revisit your lessons and materials from the previous classes? Evidently you cannot be at their home teaching on the weekend but you can make your thoughts, presentations, and materials available 24-hours a day. The ability for you as a teacher to set-up a website or blog (such as the one I am contributing to now) is critical for many of your students and parents to be able to be successful contributors to your class.

I have been teaching in schools for four years already and have found that all of my teachers have a website that successfully conveys the program's direction and provides people with necessary materials for the success of the program. These websites provide necessary course information, contact information, and links to the school's website and policies. This provides parents with information as to what you are teaching their children (accountability to the home), provides students with the materials necessary to complete assignments (accountability to the child), and provides administration with an insight to your program and teachings (accountability to the power that be). A website can also be used as a way to provide students and families with a small amount of personal insight into your life as a person, not just as a teacher.

EXAMPLE WEBSITES:

http://www.sd72.bc.ca/southgate/patterson/
This is a website that was set-up by a social studies mentor teacher of mine. He uses it as insight into himself as well as a medium to provide all necessary materials to his students.

http://www.sd61.bc.ca/vichigh/band/
This is another website that describes a band program at Vic High and gives all the necessary info for parents and fans of the band.

This skill is by far one of the most important for reaching everyone necessary for your class. If you can't do it find a parent who can. The Vic high page I linked on here is created by a parent, not the teacher.

Creating Thinkers

http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/indexen.html
This is one of the cooler websites I have seen related to Social Studies. I discovered it in an article in the Canadian Social Studies magazine (long before Peter even knew it existed!) and thought it was perfect. It was almost as if the creators of this website were working hand in hand with Dr. Price. The whole idea is to create students who think and process information and historical events, as opposed to just memorize facts. The basis of the website is that it presents historical Canadian events that have no firm answers around them. This is where the title comes from, Great Canadian Mysteries. What the website does is present historical primary artifacts from these events. It does not tell the students what they mean, or what they should think about them. What it does instead is guide them through exploring these documents and making decisions of their own. At the same time the website has numerous links for teachers as to how to best use this information to help their students succeed. It also does an amazing job of leaving the guidelines firm enough that students can stay on task, but vague enough that what the task really is, can change with the individual. The article suggests using different ability levels to place them into different categories of learners. Based on what category they are in you can help guide them through the primary documents. For some it may be as simple as trying to come up with their own opinion on what really happened with these mysteries based on the documents. For others the documents may simply be a starting point to explore different aspects of culture or society related to them.
What in my mind makes this website so amazing is that it does a great job of using technology to help create thinkers in the Social Studies realm, not just robots who spit back your own facts to you. "CRITICAL NOT CYNICAL"(Trademark Rob Kinnear incorporated.)

Involving students in Social Studies

For those of you who were interested in the website mentioned today in class I have provided a link.
It's interesting how the exercise we did today on creating an 'ideal social studies learner/citizen' relates so closely to the reading I have chosen for my critical analysis. But I guess an exercise like today's really should be applying to most assignments I do this year. As I design unit plans and other projects for my future students to complete, it is crucial to always be asking the question - how is this benefiting the student as a learner? When a student asks me the question: why are we learning this? I want to have a thoughtful and well supported answer. If I keep this question in mind, the chances of creating a worthwhile unit are infinitely higher.

The website given as a link (www.canadianmysteries.ca) is a perfect example of worthwhile course work. It presents historical events as mysteries - unsolved and open to interpretation. The website is essentially just hundreds of primary sources: photos, newspaper articles, government documents etc. From this information the student is asked to do various assignments from assessing the reliability of a source, to constructing an entire narrative of a historical event. Remembering myself as a student, this would have generated huge appeal in my mind - feeling like I had some say in history, rather than just digesting facts.

So I really do encourage people to look at this site, it even has a teacher's section where you can find tons of activity ideas for students of all levels. And as a final footnote, I would just like to mention that Rob Kinnear is an unprofessional, unquotable individual.

Conductors of light and magic...

So this will probably be cliched mush, and I accept this, but since the beginning of this class I can't help but feel more than slightly inspired. We've heard a few times in class since the semester began that we, as soon to be socials teachers, will be conductors of light and magic. We'll hopefully work to inspire our students and push them to great things. This is more than a little in opposition to how I'd been feeling previously - that curriculum was the end all and be all and that we'll be lucky if the students even enjoy one class in the year. Thank god too, as I'd have burnt out fairly quickly if I continued thinking that way. In any case, this post doesn't really promote discussion in any way, but hopefully this link will make you feel a bit better about the world and your place in it. Most of you may have already seen it, but for those of you who haven't, enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BxNJRxGbgE

Social Studies Moments

My most memorable Social Studies moment and my most memorable Social Studies instructor are from the same source: my grade 12 History class, which was taught by one of the very best teachers I was blessed to have during my formal education years, a master teacher named Mr. Rajotte.
One of the major assignments in my History 12 class was an in-depth research paper, which explored a major event, issue, or concept of the twentieth century. This was one of our final assignments, and was meant to act as a summary of the yearlong course, highlighting our comprehension, and allowing us to further explore a component of the curriculum that particularly sparked our interest.
After learning about the major events of the twentieth century for the past ten months, most of my fellow students had developed somewhat of a negative perception of this era; multiple wars, the holocaust, and the number of various other atrocities and issues that we had learned of, left many people feeling bleak about he situation of humanity, and my fellow classmates' research paper topics definitely reflected this dismal inference of reality.
By nature I am a pretty happy-go-lucky type of person. Difficult past experiences have been made easier because of this quality that I feel fortunate to possess, and because of this, I usually deal with, and interpret situations in a positive light-although I am a realist, my reality tends to bright. It seemed natural, therefore, that I would choose to focus on the positive aspects of the twentieth century, rather than concentrate on any of the negative happenings.
My teacher, Mr. Rajotte, played an integral role in the development of our papers, by requiring us to submit our essay topics and thesis statements weeks in advance; after receiving my initial ideas for the assignment, he later joked in class that my topic was quite ironic, illustrating the positive aspects of the twentieth century, and how not one of his students in over twenty years of teaching had ever chosen to to take this approach. I felt that Mr. Rajotte was giving me somewhat of a challenge by this public statement. He was the type of teacher who seemed so wise, like he had seen and experienced so much in life, that nothing surprised him. His expectations of his classes were high (or, at least they felt that way in high school), and I really wanted to "wow" him.
When I think back to academic successes from my secondary years, I always remember my History 12 paper. I spent hours researching, learning how to be a student, and at the end of it all, I had created a piece of work that I was so proud to have authored. The title of my paper was, "The Silver Lining: The Brighter Side of the Twentieth Century," which highlighted such positive contributions as the the major developments in social welfare, international aid, and medical innovations. I wrote it with a newly discovered passion and excitement for History, which my teacher had instilled within me over the year; his own feeling for the subject were contagious-you could not help but be completely engaged in his lectures and teachings, and he alone had been responsible for countless numbers of students being turned on to the subject of History.
Mr. Rajotte had a great "stage presence," like a storyteller, he would make each task and concept seem so interesting. Therefore, when he returned our papers at the end of the year, he not surprisingly had the entire class on the edges of their seats, stopping randomly to make little comments about certain papers that had really stood out. When he handed my paper back to me, he let out a little chuckle, joking to the class, "oh, and here's Ms. Chatwin's paper" reciting the title of my essay, "she just can't help but make everything so cheery," we all laughed out loud when he continued with a sideways wink in my direction, "doesn't it just make you wanna puke?!"
I got an A+ on the paper-but more importantly I felt that by writing it, I had gained an even deeper understanding my self, and my teacher's simple comment gave me a brief, but incredibly memorable opportunity to see myself in other people's eyes- I remember feeling a modest sense of pride for liking the person I saw.

History Re-Write

Let’s face it – many students believe that social studies is dead and history is written in stone. Our subject seems static musty and old (at least in the eyes in our students and, yes, much of the population) . I'd like to challenge this thought by posting a news article I've run across:

Rosenbergs' sons admit father was spy

In the early 1950s, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for the crime of espionage – it was said that they had passed on information about America's atomic bomb to Soviet enemies. This may not strike many of you as being strange, but my heart jumped when I saw it run across the news ticker. In high school, I had learned that the guilt and eventual execution of the Rosenbergs was unfounded. I remember my own history teacher (and textbook!) telling my class that these deaths where just a product of the blind fervour which was popular during the time.

It excited me that there was new evidence in this case – this example shows how our subject is ever-changing and shifting. And we, as teachers and deliverers of knowledge, must try our best to keep up to date.

I was wondering what your thoughts are on the different ways social studies teachers may become researchers and observers of history. Are there any activities you can think of which might inspire our students to take on the same roles? Also, can you think of any other cases which involved the changing and rewriting of history after new evidence was uncovered?

Freedom in the Classroom

One of the themes we’ve been exploring is the role of freedom in our classroom; from the way we organise the physical classroom environment or choose to utilize outdoor spaces, to various ways we can take a guiding or facilitating approach to instruction.

However, it’s also important for us to recognize and prepare for the challenge of introducing freedom. The article, “Principles of an Ethic of Critical Thinking” summarizes this challenge: “Students, like most humans, often remain in chosen bondage. . . It is a less authentic way to live; but it is easier”.

In this regard, it seems that we must confront our own fears and doubts before we can expect our students to feel comfortable exercising their freedom.

If we can, I think it’s great to infuse a little existentialism into our classrooms. In general I think this kind of philosophy helps foster critical thinking while bringing individual agency over classroom management issues.

But until I start teaching, I have no idea of the extent to which I can effectively utilize “freedom” in the classroom.

Pedagogy of humility?

I tried to argue in last class that one of the main obstacles to schools becoming educational institutions, is their reliance on the false dichotomy of teachers and students. Should students only learn in school, and should teachers only teach in schools? Is it reasonable to organize schools with such prescribed roles and responsibilities? Would schools be more educational if students where given increased responsibility for their own learning and that of their peers? Why not teach students how to teach? Why has the strong evidence supporting peer counseling and tutoring been largely ignored in organizational and programmatic reform in schools since the origin of compulsory public schooling? Why has the rich research evidence that strongly suggests students most often learn more effectively and efficiently(less resistance to learning) from the instruction of and discussion with peers than they do from their classroom teacher, which has been acknowledged by so many main stream researchers and educators, so widely ignored in so many of our schools? In my own practice, I acknowledge that whatever success I have had as an educator is founded upon my recognition that it takes a "classroom" community to learn. By classroom community, I mean a collective of diverse people sharing some common goals, and accepting shared responsibility for learning and supporting one another through discussion, cooperative work and study inside and outside of class. My approach to teaching, is to recognize the agency, expertise, and abilities of my co-teachers (students). This is not to say that I am not a leader or authority in the classroom, it is just that I accept that I am not the only leader or authority in the classroom? I acknowledge my tendency/weakness for being bombastic and pedantic, and for enjoying the sound of my own voice while I lecture (I do contend that lectures can be critical and meaningful learning opportunities for students and teachers), my respect for my students and their experiences is a powerful check on my class becoming a cult of personality, as so many classrooms in schools and the academy become.I participated in a recent three year national SSHRC study which investigated teacher and administrators conceptions of student "at riskness,"and programs and approaches to working with youth identified as "at risk," which confirmed and strengthened my belief in the possibility of blurring the roles in schools.The following is an short excerpt from a report (Price & Portelli et.al,2005)I co-wrote for a large urban school board after an intensive series of observations, student, teacher, and administrator interviews, and surveys.In the quantity of favourable educator and student interview responses the Peer Tutoring Program was clearly recognized as the program that was considered extremely important for “at risk” students. Further, in quality the educators' and students' responses exploring the importance and effectiveness of the peer tutoring program were the most enthusiastic and detailed in regards to what the school is doing that works. The program was recognized for filling “gaps” in ESL, LD, and counseling support for a wide range of students. The program is described by both educators and students as being of a high quality, with a meaningful training curriculum, intensive faculty monitoring/tracking and evaluation system in place. Both student participants and “recipients” speak highly of the program and describe benefits they receive from the program in salutary terms. Participants, who are often students who have experienced academic difficulty, and were identified by participating educators as “at risk” of academic failure” describe in rich detail how the program has given them insight into the learning process, added motivation, and self esteem. They talk of feeling proud of their tutees, and the relationships that they have built. Teacher evaluations of the program which are completed for all participants during each report card period are overwhelmingly supportive and positive.During the three years we worked in this school our research team had to intervene in the middle of the project at the level of the school and the board to preserve this meaningful and successful program. At the conclusion of the project the program was eliminated, and the teacher responsible for creating and monitoring the program transfered out. Students as Teachers:why not?

A Pedagogy of Questions: What is the purpose of a social studies education?

Here are some telling questions for social analysis: what would you add?

Keep in mind these overarching questions regarding social studies education when considering the social analysis questions below? What is the purpose of social studies education? What should be the content of a social studies education? What approaches and methods are appropriate for a meaningful social studies education for preparation in a democracy?

General Awareness• What is happening?• Who is it happening to? Who is affected? Who is benefiting?• Why is it happening political, economic, social, cultural, intellectual, historical evidence?

Political• How is power distributed?• How are decisions made? Who participates in decisions at the moment of decision making?• Who implements decisions?• Who evaluates, rewards and punishes ?• Who is rewarded? Who is punished?

Economic• How are resources allocated? Who allocates?• What types of labour are most valued?Who does this work?• What kind of labour are the least valued and compensated? Who does this work?• Who accumulates profits?

Social• What are the relationships among persons/groups here?• How, when, where and under what circumstances do people relate to one another?• How are decision made and by whom?• How is conflict encouraged, avoided or resolved?

Cultural• What are the popular values publically exhibited?• What other sub-cultures and value systems coexist?• Who controls the representation of culture?

Environmental• What is condition of the natural environment, air, water, land, plants, and animals?• What is the nature of the relationship between society and natural environment?

Intellectual• What ways of knowing, exploring, thinking and talking about the world (epistemologies and ontologies) and ideas/positions are privileged?

Historical• How did this situation develop over time?• Nature of interaction of political, economic, social, cultural, and intellectual