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  • "The ancient tradition of storytelling meets the digital age.
    When students create a movie or interactive slideshow to tell their story, learning becomes personal.
    With digital storytelling, students can:

    * Improve their writing.
    * Show creativity.
    * Have a voice.

    Digital storytelling projects lend themselves well to portfolio assessment."

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Historical thinking is defined, according to Wikipedia,  by many education resources as a set of reasoning skills that students of history should learn as a result of studying history. Sometimes called historical reasoning skills, historical thinking skills are frequently described in contrast to history content such as names, dates, and places. Many of us are schooled in social studies, US History, and World History by taking notes, memorizing names, dates, and facts, and regurgitating it on some form a test. We may have been subjected to videos while the teacher graded a few papers, and the teacher called this teaching and learning. Most educators agree that together, history content–or facts about the past–and historical thinking skills enable students to interpret, analyze and use information about past events. In many cases historical thinking helps us understand and find meaning in present day events and future events.

21st century classrooms launches this type of thinking as early as Kindergarten. The use primary source items including artifacts, pictures, painting, images, and archive documents are prevalent in these classrooms across America. Students are encouraged and taught to think like historians to come to an understanding about the past. The United States Department of Education has established five benchmarks in grades K-4 and 5-12. This benchmarks are the following:

  1. Chronological Thinking
  2. Historical Comprehension
  3. Historical Analysis and Interpretation
  4. Historical Research Capabilities
  5. Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision-Making

These benchmarks serve as a guide of the type of instruction that should occur in social studies and history classroom across the United States. These benchmarks serve as a guide for educators  to teach students how to critically read primary sources and how to critique and construct historical narratives. The process of learning is based on the creation of knowledge by the learner.  It is more important that the teacher guide the students in seeing how history is documented and put into narrative format through text, video, or audio through the analysis of primary sources.  The emphasis is focused on the artifacts and first hand information that history was documented.

Students must be engaged in processes that they have to use the skills of an historian to analyze and synthesize information to produce knowledge. The process allows students to make informed conclusions about the past. Research using secondary sources including books (historical fiction and non-fiction), magazines, journals, and digital resources are used widely to help the learner to come to a historical understanding about the past. It is the same type of skills that are congruent to skills of the 21st century learner.

  • "I thought I would share them here. I started blogging in 2006 and it has been some of the best professional development for me that I have ever done. Blogging forces me to think, reflect and write about my experiences. Blogging helps me retain my learning and connects me to others who help and support me in my endeavors. If you don't yet have a blog, I recommend giving it a try. You don't have to blog every day or every week. Just establish a place Online to share your thoughts. If you give it a chance, I think you will find it a rewarding experience."
  • "Recognize Women's History Month (March), by exploring the many important contributions of women, with our printables, lesson plans, and more. Find biographies and worksheets about accomplished women in American history, including Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sacajawea, Harriet Tubman, Amelia Earhart, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Toni Morrison, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Anne Frank, Helen Keller, Maya Angelou, Sojourner Truth, Pocahontas, Wilma Rudolph, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Abigail Adams, Charlotte Brontë, and many more! "
  • "I spent the better part of it buried under hateful emails from a district technology director in Louisiana who had read my recent post arguing that Interactive Whiteboards were a waste of money. "
    (tags: blogs)

Emerging technologies, a globalized world, and fiscal restraints demand innovative approaches to education. This K12 online Conference session explores new research about 21st century teaching strategies and professional development and shares models, resources, and examples to help social studies teachers effectively integrate technology and address needed skills. Join Tom Daccord in this presentation.


Visit National Council for the Social Studies

In this 20-minute voice-narrated PowerPoint (Presentation Zen style) Dr. Scott McLeod reflects upon key concepts from Dr. Clayton Christensen’s work regarding disruptive innovation. The presentation draws primarily from two of Dr. Christensen’s books, The Innovator’s Dilemma and Disrupting Class, and focuses on the different ways of thinking that are now mandatory if school leaders are to successfully navigate their organizations in transition to the 21st century. Key points from other leadership models also make their way into the presentation.

This presentation was part of the K12 Online Conference.  Enjoy!