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Recently, I hosted a regional History Day competition and award ceremony. The competition and the celebration that followed were part of my incorporation of the History Day program into my curriculum. All of my 8th grade U.S. History students had to complete a project which began in August and ended in March. We started with student identity reflection and skills assessment, and then finished with a project that was meant to show students’ social studies …

Reflection of 8 month long Project Based Learning Read More »

Which is more important, students being able to recall a series of names and dates, or students being able to make personal connections with history and historical arguments?

Collaboration With Other Teachers How can social studies educators collaborate more with others outside their discipline? Collaboration has been a growing topic in secondary education and should be performed at all levels of education. Read More

During her State of the State address, Governor Noem stated that high school students should have to pass the United States citizenship test in order to graduate high school. Questions comprising the test cover straightforward facts of American history; the citizenship test only assesses the ability to recall information. Many other states, including our neighbor North Dakota, also give this test as a state wide requirement. The test has been contested in all of the …

Should American students have to take the U.S. Citizenship Test in order to graduate from high school? Read More »

Student Walk Outs and Protests over Gun Control On Wednesday, March 14 at 10:00am central time, twenty to forty students from my middle school’s six hundred student body participated in a walk out. My school’s administration allowed the walk out to happen and a teacher supervised the students. The walk did not cause disruptions to the school or any adjacent businesses or government buildings. I asked a student how seriously he thought the group was …

Student Walk Outs and Protests over Gun Control Read More »