Living on the Edge of Empire: Alliance, Conflict and Captivity is a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop for K-12 teachers and librarians hosted by the Deerfield Teachers' Center of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield, MA.

This one-week workshop, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, will consider Temperance, immigration, and the Progressive movement in American history and culture.

What's in the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for Social Studies? Watch this webinar to find out.

Ghosts of the Great Hall brings real characters from Washington's history to life. Student groups are led through the Great Hall to three different characters and experience the past through their defining moments.

The House and Senate Civic Education programs are hosting a Civic Education Day at the Capitol in Olympia on Monday, Feb. 15 to share programs and resources for civics teachers.  We’ll have a variety of organizations there tabling and talking with teachers, including Teach with TVW, the Washington Courts Administration (for iCivics and Judicial Institutes), the Secretary of State’s Office Voter Education division, YMCA Youth & Government, We The People, and more.

This conference is designed to empower students to take positive actions by providing knowledge about issues, examples of successful projects, and connections to organizations, schools, and students who want to make positive change.

The National History Bee and Bowl will be holding the 2016 Pacific Northwest History Bee and Bowl Regional Championships at Klahowya Secondary School in Silverdale, WA.This tournament will run on our A Set of questions on Saturday, February 27, 2016.

Emphasis on the C3 is leading to the production of some wonderful teacher resources. I am highlighting just one: Engage New York.

The resources and materials created through the grant are intended to ensure that the World War II exclusion, forced removal, and incarceration of individuals of Japanese ancestry will be remembered, and the causes and circumstances of this and similar events will be addressed and understood.

Participants in this National Endowment for the Humanities-sponsored program will spend four weeks in Chicago, a center of Progressive Era reform, engaging in vigorous discussions about this critical time period in American history and creating materials to use in their classrooms. Award-winning historian Robert Johnston (University of Illinois at Chicago) will guide the institute’s academic content, with the help of renowned experts in history, art, and architecture.

NewseumED.org gives teachers and students free access to curated, standards-aligned content from the museum’s vast collection of more than 35,000 historic newspapers, videos and other artifacts. Optimized for mobile devices and tablets, the revamped website includes lesson plans, interactive tools, and content to keep your students engaged while they learn about First Amendment freedoms and how history informs current debates. 

On December 2nd, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a wide-ranging bill to revise the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also known as "No Child Left Behind." The replacement education bill, which the Senate is planning to vote on before the end of the year, is called The Every Child Achieves Act.

Submit a proposal to present a session at the WSCSS Spring Conference in Chelan!

Since Mao’s death and Deng Xiaoping’s nationwide experiment with “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” Chinese society has gone through dramatic changes. How can we wrap our heads around these ongoing changes, and then convey the pace, scale and implications to our students? 

Through readings, movie clips and class discussion you will gain the knowledge necessary to support your students in reading behind the headlines, breaking down stereotypes and misconceptions, and distinguishing between fact and opinion.

Amnesty International USA is offering a special opportunity for social studies educators in Washington to participate in their annual human rights project called Write for Rights. 

This essay contest is a great opportunity for students (grade 8-11) interested in World War II or who have relatives who served in the war or on the home front. Deadline is November 20th.

Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle and Project Dragonfly at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio are thrilled to offer the Advanced Inquiry Program (AIP), an exciting Master’s degree designed for a broad range of professionals from education, conservation, business, and government settings. 

The Washington State Council for the Social Studies is a 2015 NCSS Silver Star Council!