Washington State Council for the Social Studies 2009 Fall Convention!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the WSCSS Fall Conference at Edmonds Woodway High School (which, by the way, was a very beautiful and expensive-looking new high school).  The conference opened with your choice of multiple sessions with three sessions to choose from.  The first session I chose was the OSPI's session where they discussed the EALRs and the expectations from the OSPI on reporting mandatory CBA scores in 5th, 8th and 11th or 12th grades.  It was interesting, and the speaker was very on point, clear and organized-- but it was a wee bit on the dull side.  I guess that's what you can expect from a government organization:  Dryness.

After that session, I had some time to check out some of the vendors that visited the conference and I received so much swag!!  I am not one to turn down anything free that may benefit myself or my future classroom, so I ate it up!  It wasn't just brochures about programs, it was really cool stuff:  A gorgeous poster of the Alaskan Yukon Expo (which I happen to be very interested in) and several lesson plans with primary docs from the MOHAI table and a full color book of the artifacts within the Washington State History Museum (worth $15 dollars!); a copy of Presidential Trivia, by Richard Lederer (worth $9.99); lesson plans on how to help kids of any age become service learners and develop character; a copy of Columbia Magazine (a gorgeous and lush full-color quarterly from the Washington State Historical Society); from the Seattle Times table, I picked up the inauguration paper of President Obama (yay!); from PBS Teachers I picked up a poster of Obama and discounts on documentaries, DVDs and some other neat stuff;  a copy of Social Education Magazine; and other wonderful brochures, discounts and other swag to help me get some real ideas for integrating social studies into my classroom.  SO NEAT!! 

My second session was absolutely phenomenal!  Our session leader, Mary Anne Christy from Historian in Residence, modeled the Concept Formation lesson plan with the CBA "You Decide" in mind.  We discussed Common Good and Rights as our concepts, and it was really fun and interesting talking about the issues at hand and discovering how you can help kids form their ideas of concepts without actually SAYING the words "common good" or "right."  Very cool, and I am energized to begin planning a lesson using this method!  I love observing teachers who model and make me think, "Man, I wish I had them for a teacher when I was little!"


My last session was with TCI's Christy Sanders, who took us through one of the six ideas TCI has on how to get kids of multiple intelligences involved and engaged in social studies.   She also happened to use the first grade curriculum (my main placement grade!), and we all got a free copy of the student texts!  As she modeled a lesson on "Who Helps Us at School?," we learned some very neat techniques such as "magic paper" and stepping INTO an image to help kids learn and apply knowledge.  We listened to audio, looked at books and there was an assessment piece to show what we learned that used art AND words to show what we knew.  And then...there was a raffle to win the entire 1st grade curriculum set from TCI....AND I WON IT!!!!  WOO!  WOO!  This is what I won (a $225 dollar value!):






So yes, Saturday was a very eventful day at the WSCSS Conference...and that night I went to the Husky game and our comeback win was beyond words.

It was a good day :)