Election Count Down!

Due to a VERY busy October I have neglected this blog. My master's classes, grading assignments, getting sick, getting hooked on "Breaking Bad", conferences, and weekends away from home have really taken me away from trying to get this blog going! With the election coming up I have taken a break from teaching geography to focus on teaching about the election. With this change I was instantly confronted with questions such as, "why should I need to know this, I'm only 13!", "why do we need to learn about the election if we can't vote", "when will I need to know this?". However, I feel I was fortunate that more students were excited about learning the way the election process work, but hearing students ask questions like that can be discouraging. Luckily, there are SO many great resources online to help teach the election in a fun and interesting way to grab their attention spans.

If you are still need election material ICivics has some GREAT resources. Teachers get a FREE login and access to all of their materials. I have currently adapted a couple of their lesson plans for use in my classroom. They also have a wide variety of educational games that I am sure the kids will love!

Another great election site is National Mock Election . On this site you can find great materials to do your own mock election in your classroom. One item I am really excited about are the printable state ballots. Your students can REALLY feel like they are voting by getting to use ballots that not only have the presidential candidates, but also your state candidates running for re-election.

Finally, I have created a couple of election materials in my TpT store . I created an election vocab kit and a get to know the candidates kit. Check them out!

If you know of any good election resources feel free to leave a comment! Good luck!

Sarah

A Change is Coming!

Over the weekend I attended a GREAT social studies conference in Topeka, KS. Not only did I get to attend workshops that gave me new ideas for my classroom, but we also got to look at the proposed new state social studies standards for Kansas. I am SO happy that we are going to be moving away from multiple choice tests and "teaching to the test" to having more freedom in our curriculum. There are so many hands-on activities for social studies to really get students interested in learning, but when we are stuck teaching to a test it is hard to have time to implement them. The future looks much brighter! However, I know it will be a HUGE change to our students who are used to filling in bubbles. They are going to have to think much more critically and actually apply information they are learning and figure out ways to write it correctly. I know my 7th graders really struggle with writing so I know this will be a huge challenge for them. I plan on trying to find more activities to get their minds ready for this new way of testing and I am excited about the challenges ahead!