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February 2008
Celebrate Black history Month!
Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official January 1, 1863. This website discusses the history of Juneteenth and the celebration’s significance to Society today.
Commemorate February 14 (the day Arizona was granted statehood) with a website that delivers Arizona’s heritage and cultural experiences with the click of a mouse. Arizona has hundreds of stories to tell. The Arizona Humanities Council wants you to experience them all. Explore ancient civilizations and contemporary cultures. Treat yourself to some of the best stargazing in the country. Re-live the Old West and walk in the footsteps of Spanish missionaries.
January 2008
Kids Voting Arizona Presidential Preference Election
Tuesday February 5th, 2008. All social studies teachers are invited to participate in the upcoming 2008 Kids Voting Arizona Presidential Preference Election on Feb. 5th and the General Election November 4th.
It’s easy to get your school signed up, and you’ll receive free curriculum and materials that will help your school teach its student citizens about this year’s exciting Presidential Election.
To make sure you get your materials in time for the Feb 5th election, we recommend having your students vote online for the Presidential Preference election, but Kids Voting Arizona will provide the opportunity to choose between paper ballots and online polling for the November 4th General Election.
Get started today!
May 2007
May 1 is Law Day
Law Day is a national day set aside to celebrate the rule of law. Law Day
underscores how law and the legal process have contributed to
the freedoms that all Americans share.
In 1957 America Bar Association (ABA) President Charles S.
Rhyne, a Washington, D.C., attorney, envisioned a special day for
celebrating our legal system. A year later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower establishes Law Day
as a day of national dedication to the principles of government
under law. In 1961, May 1 is designated by joint resolution of Congress as
the official date for celebrating Law Day.
Although May 1 is the official date, celebrations often take
place either before or after that date. Some bar associations celebrate Law Week. Law Day also provides an opportunity to recognize
the role of courts in this democracy and the importance of
jury service to maintaining the integrity of the courts.
The Law Day 2007 Theme is Liberty Under Law: Empowering Youth, Assuring Democracy.
The future of our nation is in the hands of our young people. We
all can and should play a role in assuring America’s future by addressing the needs of youth and focusing on the issues affecting
them today. All youth need to understand their rights and
responsibilities under the law to become effective participants in
our nation’s civic life. The Law Day 2007 theme prompts us to listen
to the voices of young people and consider how the law can
better serve their needs and interests. It also encourages us to
assure that our youth are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively make their voices heard within our
democracy.
April 2007
ArizonaHeritageTraveler.com - Check out this amazing new resource provided by the Arizona Humanities Council and the Arizona Office of
Tourism.
Arizona Proficiency Educator Assessments for Social Studies - study guides
and piloting test for social studies now available.
Jan - Feb 2007
Arizona Statehood Day - Feb 14, 2007
The Arizona Secretary of State maintains a comprehensive website for kids about Arizona Statehood and Arizona facts.
DO you know who is turning 100 in 2012?
Arizona will celebrate its 100th birthday as a state on Feb 14, 2012. Visit the official state website of the Arizona Centennial.
September - November 2007
Vote-Smart.org
The election approaches! Visit Vote-Smart.org to look up candidates in your district. By plugging in your zip code, Vote-Smart.org is able to connect you with the candidates on your ballot and provides extra information on some candidates including:
- candidate biographies
- an evaluation of past voting records by special interest groups across the political spectrum (conservatives, liberals, environmentalists, etc)
- many candidates submit answers to the Vote-Smart.org candidate survey on several important issues
June - August 2006 - Summer Break
May 2006
May 1 is the American Bar Association's Law Day. In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed May 1st Law Day to strengthen our nation’s great heritage of liberty, justice, and equality under the law. Each year since, the American Bar Association, with help from local courts, bar associations and legal charities, has promoted events across the nation to celebrate Law Day. The 2006 theme of Separate Branches, Balanced Powers celebrates our government’s doctrine of separation of powers supported by the concept of checks and balances. Check out the ABA Division for Public Education Law Day website for a wealth of classroom materials and links.
April 2006
Constitutional Rights Foundation presents a free online
curriculum: CURRENT ISSUES OF IMMIGRATION, 2006.
In response to the current high interest in immigration issues, CRF has created lessons and made them available free of charge to teachers across the nation. The lessons are carefully balanced to present all sides of controversial issues.
These six lessons are designed to put the current controversies about illegal immigration into historical and political context. They consist of readings, guided discussion questions, and interactive learning activities. In addition, the materials include resources for conducting structured discussions with students.
March 2006
...is Women’s History Month!
National
Women’s History Project - Many
educational resource materials and information about women’s
history can be located on this nonprofit site.
InfoPlease
Women's History Month Page - Another
great website contains inspiring speeches by 26 notable American
women.
Wisconsin
Women's Studies Librarian's Women's History Resources - This
site contains a vast list of links to a plethora of sites dealing
with women’s
issues and women’s history in and outside of Wisconsin.
National
Park Service’s
Women’s Rights National
Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York.
February 2006
February
is Black History Month, so let's celebrate!
The SBC family
of companies has a long commitment to improving education. The Knowledge
Network Explorer (KNE) is the official
web site of the SBC family of education programs and has been on the Internet
since 1995. Their mission is to help schools and libraries acquire
and effectively use Internet and Videoconferencing technology. There are
lessons and activities on this site that teachers can easily incorporate
into your classroom.
On this web site, you will find a collection of six
web sites that were created as models to suggest ways to integrate the
World Wide Web and videoconferencing into classroom learning. African-American
History was chosen as a topic because of its importance, popularity, and
the wealth of Internet resources available on the topic. Rather than merely
send learners to a web site, this site has arranged separate formats designed
to support different kinds of learning.
Make sure you check out the home page to see what other
ideas and topics are available for exploration. January2006
The Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco is a major
community-based, non-profit organization established in 1965 to foster the
understanding and appreciation of Chinese and Chinese American art, history,
and culture in the
United
States
. It has a great website with lots of information
for the upcoming Chinese New Year.
December 2005
BeyondTheFire.net
Beyond the Fire introduces real-life stories of 15 teenagers, now living in the U.S., who have survived war in seven war zones. The interactive site is designed to provide teens with an experience that is unique and educational. Teens tell their stories through audio and animated movies. Their transcripts are also available. In addition to hearing remarkable stories of survival and resilience, users will also be given timelines describing a brief history of each conflict and key facts about each country. Users will also receive a "passport" and travelog that asks thought-provoking questions that can be used in classroom and/or with other users of the site. Lesson plans for secondary classrooms and multiple resources are also available.
Patriotism.org
This website is from the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. This webpage celebrates our National Holidays by giving a background of the holiday and presenting lesson plans for teachers about each. According to the website it “will feature information to enhance our knowledge of the people and the events surrounding our patriotic holidays. These dates are so significant in our history that our elected officials have proclaimed that the entire nation stop, think and observe their occurrence. A generic lesson plan will be provided for each holiday with suggestions for classroom activities for the Secondary level. Enjoy the celebration!!!” I think it is a fitting website for November with Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving coming up.
Publicagenda.org
Public Agenda bills itself as a non-partisan research and civic engagement organization helping Americans explore and understand critical issues.
For the Social Studies teacher, Public Agenda is simply a gold
mine especially before elections, be they national, statewide,
or local.
This organization has collected every scrap of information you could imagine on the major issues facing us in the 21 st century, from Abortion to Terrorism, with stops along the way at the budget, the environment, health care, immigration, race, and much more. For each issue, there is
- Fact File (facts and trends, graphed and disaggregated, on every aspect of the issue)
- Discussion Guides (three perspectives on that issue with pros and cons on each)
- Sources and Resources (links all over the web, especially to recent newspaper or journal articles on the issue)
- Bills and Proposals (exhaustive!)
- Polling Information on how Americans feel about the issue (complete with caveats and interesting angles).
The website could provide intensive presentations by the members of a government class, or term paper research, or jigsaw activities – the sky is the limit on lesson planning from these materials.
Educators owe themselves a surf through Public Agenda's
website. Once you've seen it, you'll never be without it
again as a teacher, or as a citizen of the United States.
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