Session Descriptions
Session One: 9:00 – 10:00
Main Classroom
Kansas Museum Standards-Based Tours: Oregon or Bust!
Michelle Stottlemire, Education Coordinator, Kansas Historical Society
Learn about the new generation of museum tours! This workshop begins with a brief overview of the Kansas Museum of History standards-based tours for elementary students– educational experiences that utilize innovative lesson plans, unique hands-on activities, and post-visit assessment pieces. Then, get a “sneak peak” of the fourth grade Oregon or Bust! Standards-based tour: pack a wagon, hit the (nature) trail, and discover if your family makes it to Oregon!
Targeted Audience: Elementary
Conference Strands: Kansas and U.S. History, Economics, Integrated Curriculum
North Classroom
Making History Come Alive
Martha Hadsall and Mendy Hoopes: Third Grade teachers, Harper Elementary, Harper, Kansas
Each Kansas town has a rich heritage waiting to be shared with its next generation. In this presentation, learn about activities that spark interest in social studies and offer opportunities for students to participate in community events and make students regularly say “We love social studies!”
Targeted Audience: Elementary
Conference Strands: Kansas and U.S. History, Integrating Curriculum, Geography, Instructional Strategies and Perspectives
Research Library
READ KANSAS! Teaching Populism, the Progressive Era, and Reform
Marcia Fox, Curriculum Specialist, Kansas Historical Society
What do corrupt politicians, Kansas farmers, and Socialists all have in common? New middle school grade Read Kansas! lessons! The Kansas Historical Society’s Education and Outreach Division has produced three new lessons on the topics of Populism, the Progressive Era, and Reform to share with you at this session. You will receive a free copy of all three lessons. Read Kansas! is a curriculum of student reading cards and teacher lesson plans that address Kansas social studies standards as well as state reading and writing standards. The performance-based lessons engage students in critical thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Let us help you prepare your students for state assessments on these topics!
Targeted Audience: Middle and Junior High School
Conference Strands: Kansas and U.S. History, Integrating Curriculum, Instructional Strategies and Perspectives
CHR Gallery
In Pursuit of Civic Literacy – Using Primary Sources from the National Archives and Records Administration
Lori Cox-Paul, Education Specialist, National Archives-Central Plains Regions
What does the light bulb have to do with the United States Constitution? Or for that matter, the game of Monopoly? How about the letter you wrote to the President when you were in elementary school? The answer to all three questions is: PLENTY - – if you know your Constitution.
The National Archives is the nation’s record keeper, and as such, has over 10 billion documents in its holdings (including the Constitution). However, as Archivist of the U.S., Allen Weinstein recently wrote, “Without a basic level of civic literacy among the American people, all of the outstanding records we preserve and make easily available to everyone would matter little to a citizenry that has lost touch with its own history.” In this workshop, participants will participate in hands-on analysis of primary source documents that can be used in the classroom in pursuit of civic literacy through a connection to the past.
Targeted Audience: Middle and Junior High School, High School
Conference Strands: Primary Sources, History
Pottawatomie Room (in the Mission Building)
Answering the Call of Freedom: Voices Along the Underground Railroad – A Student Interactive Museum
Martha Howard, Eighth grade social studies teacher, Shawnee Mission, KS and 2007 recipient of the KCSS Excellence in Teaching Award
If you enjoy the highly energized atmosphere that evolves when the creative genius of young adolescents is unleashed on carefully designed researched based projects, then this session is for you. Join us as the presenters show how students created an Underground Railroad Museum for their school and community to enjoy. This interdisciplinary unit can be adapted to any topic that is in your curriculum. Templates, rubrics, and ancillary materials will be made available to participants.
Targeted Audience: Elementary, Middle and Junior High School, High School
Conference Strands: History, Integrated Curriculum, Literature, Primary Sources, Instructional Strategies, Culture
Session Two: 10:30 – 11:30
McCoy Room (In the Mission Building)
From the Kingdom to Kansas and the Classroom
Bianca Elliott: World History Teacher, Linwood, Kansas
Whitney Kelly
In this interactive presentation, participants will learn about various aspects of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Sample lesson plans, a brief video, and insight into this Middle Eastern country and its educational system are aligned with state standards and relevant to today’s classroom.
Targeted Audience: Middle and Junior High School, High School
Conference Strands: Geography, Culture
North Classroom
Rules of Engagement: How to Conduct Successful Classroom Discussions
Darla Mallein: Director of Secondary Social Studies Education, Emporia State University
This hands-on presentation will discuss how to teach students not only how to examine all “perspectives” of the many controversial issues that are present in the social studies curriculum, but also how to express opinions in a respectful and effective manner.
Targeted Audience: Middle and Junior High School, High School
Conference Strand: Instructional Strategies and Perspectives
CHR Gallery
Using Witness Testimonies to Teach the Holocaust
Jessica Rockhold: School Outreach Coordinator, Midwest Center for Holocaust Education
This session introduces educators to pedagogically sound methods of incorporating primary source testimony into Holocaust history. Emphasis will be placed on the testimony of Kansas survivors in the Witness to the Holocaust Archive at the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education. Participants will become familiar with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Guidelines for Teaching the Holocaust and gain hands-on practice with primary source analysis. Teachers will leave this session with increased personal knowledge of Holocaust history, usable classroom activities, age-appropriate resources, and a familiarity with the recorded testimonies of Kansas Holocaust survivors.
Targeted Audience: Middle and Junior High, High School
Conference Strands: Primary sources, Kansas, U.S. and World History
Research Library
Kansas Memory: The Virtual Repository for the Kansas State Historical Society – A guide to its resources
Michael Church: Digital Initiatives Coordinator, Kansas Historical Society
This program will share the many resources that are available to teachers through Kansas Memory, a digital portal to primary sources at the Kansas Historical Society.
Targeted Audience: Middle and Junior High School, High School
Conference Strands: Primary Sources, Kansas and U.S. History
Pottawatomie Room (in the Mission Building)
The Kansas Indians – Stories in Stone
Tim Fry, Professor of Education, Washburn University
This presentation will cover the story of stone houses constructed for the Kansas Indians during the 1860s in an intriguing scheme by Eastern Lawyers and contractors. Pictures of remnants of these structures will be shown. Also included is the story behind the “unknown Indian Monument” – - a large stone obelisk located near Council Grove. Pictures of the 1920s dedication ceremony and several Native Americans will be shown. If Native American studies are in your curriculum, this would be a good session for you!
Targeted Audience: Elementary, Middle and Junior High School, High School
Conference Strands: Kansas and U.S. History, Primary Sources, Culture
Session Three – 1:10 -2:20
North Classroom
Inspired by the National Archives: Using Primary Sources in the Secondary Classroom
David Case: Seventh and Eighth grade social studies teacher, Indian Woods Middle, Shawnee Mission, Kansas
Participants in this workshop will have the opportunity to work with primary sources and will receive two discs with primary sources and suggested teaching activities. Topics on the discs include the World War I Enemy Registry (underlined and the Civil War Era in the Midwest (underlined). All of the documents come from the National Archives Central Plains region and the lessons have been well received by students and teachers in Kansas. Activities are tied to the Kansas state and national curricular standards.
Targeted Audience: Middle and Junior High School, High School
Conference Strands: Primary Sources, Kansas and U.S. History
CHR Gallery
Having Fun is a Good Thing: Online Simulations and Video Games
Glenn Wiebe: Social Studies Specialist ESSDACK
The brain learns best when it has to solve problems. So give it problems! Using online simulations and video games will engage your students and improve their learning. Join us as we play with some of the readily available simulations designed for Social Studies teachers in a variety of grade levels. We will also explore practical instructional strategies, lesson plans, and resources.
Targeted Audience: Elementary, Middle and Junior High School, High School
Conference Strand: Instructional Strategies
McCoy Room(in the Mission Building)
Teaching World Cultures through Art and Literature: Teaching Chinese Culture through Reading
Tatyana Wilds: International Outreach Coordinator, the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, University of Kansas
The Fastest Pig in the West (underlined) is a standards-based middle elementary reader specifically aimed at teaching students in grades 3-5 about the Chinese immigrant experience in Kansas through the story of Jimmy Lin, a little boy whose family owns the only Chinese restaurant in tiny Buffalo Grove, Kansas. The book intersperses the fictional story of Jimmy with some aspects of traditional Chinese culture and there is a language component. This presentation will focus on Chinese culture and ways to use the book to effectively introduce this fascinating culture to your students. Each teacher who attends will receive a FREE copy of the book.
Targeted Audience: Elementary
Conference Strands: Kansas and U.S. History, Integrated Curriculum, Literature, Culture
Research Library
Visuals and Vocabulary: Teaching Social Studies with the Brain in Mind
Deb Brown, K-12 Social Studies Specialist, Shawnee Mission School District
Teaching so students remember is the goal of every social studies teacher. In this session, explore interactive vocabulary strategies to enable students to be able to better understand social studies concepts. Additionally, activities to help students better analyze political cartoons and photographs will also be presented all with the brain in mind!
Targeted Audience: Elementary, Middle and Junior High, High School
Conference Strand: Instructional Strategies and Perspective
Pottawatomie Room (in the Mission Building)
Tombstones and Culture through Time, Faith and Space
Paul E. Phillips: Professor of Geography, Fort Hays State University
Tom Vontz: Professor of Education, Kansas State University
Literally set in stone, cemeteries serve as repositories for a community’s changing cultural norms. Focusing on secular and religious art found on tombstones in Eastern and Western Kansas, this presentation will show how cultural preferences change over time and space for community using the studies of ethnic cemeteries in Kansas. At the conclusion of the presentation, participants will receive a packet of materials, including questions and field guides for use in their own field trip to a local cemetery.
Targeted Audience: Middle and Junior High School, High School
Conference Strand: Kansas and U.S. History, Primary Sources, Culture
Session Four 2:30 – 3:30
Main Classroom
Teaching Digital History: Student Created Documentaries
Chris Kemp: AP/Honors U.S. History Teacher, Heights High School, Wichita, Kansas
The focus of this session is to provide teachers with an innovative strategy to allow students to become active participants in the classroom and to utilize primary source documents by creating student-directed documentaries. The session will introduce teachers to Microsoft Photo Story, a free program available on the internet, and will provide teachers with a step-by-step process to guide their students through the process of using photographic images and student-written text to create original documentaries. Participants will have a brief hands-on segment and create a mini-documentary to help illustrate the easy application into the classroom. We will conclude with a viewing of student documentaries created by high school students in Wichita.
Targeted Audience: High School, Middle and Junior High School
Conference Strands: Primary Sources, Kansas and U.S. History
North Classroom
Teaching Social Studies Biographically: How One Woman’s Life Illuminates a Bygone Era and Reaches into the Global World of Today
Diane Eickhoff: Author, Mike Ortman
Early Kansas history is more than a study of men and guns. Women played major roles, and one woman, Clarina Nichols, succeeded in getting rights for women written into the state constitution that were far in advance of most states. Nichols’ adventurous life is the perfect vehicle through which to teach the entire era, biographically. This session will focus on how to integrate Revolutionary Heart (underlined) (the first biography of Nichols and a Kansas Notable Book for 2007) with your textbook or into a program that combines social studies with literature and language. The 108-page Teacher’s Guide meets many KERC standards and includes primary sources, maps, literature, small group and writing prompts, technology connections, and questions that motivate students to consider how the past connects with present-day trends and challenges.
Targeted Audience: Middle and Junior High School, High School
Conference Strands: Primary Sources, Literature, Kansas and U.S. History, Integrated Curriculum
McCoy Room (in the Mission Building)
Teaching World Cultures through Art and Literature: Art, Politics, and Revolution – The Russian Avant-Garde Art and Literature
Tatyana Wilds: International Outreach Coordinator, the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, University of Kansas
This is a standards-based presentation on how to teach 20th century Eastern Europe through Art and Literature. The Russian literary Avant-Garde tends to combine forms, included in poetry, manifestoes, theater, festival, and pictorial art. Avant-Garde experiments in word, color, line, and form would change life itself. They were set to liberate humanity from the stifling conventions of thought and behavior and open the way for a new ideally egalitarian society. Each teacher who attends will receive a CD with supporting materials.
Targeted audience: High School, Middle and Junior High School
Conference Strands: Primary Sources, Literature, History
CHR Gallery
Empowering the “Millennials” to address local, national, and global issues
Kelly Warren: Graduate Teaching Assistant/Doctoral Student, Kansas State University
Nicholas Kristoraff, a contributing editor to the New York Times, coined Generation Y the “Age of Ambition.” No other generation has displayed more compassion toward addressing world problems. The role of a social studies teacher is to foster responsible citizens in an ever-changing interdependent world that is plagued with war, poverty, and humanitarian crises of profound magnitudes. The more teachers understand the characteristics of the “Millennials” (Generation Y) and how to communicate with these future leaders, the more they can empower them to use their ambitious compassion to make a difference on local, national, and global scales. Through a PowerPoint presentation and discussion, we will define and identify Generation Y, offer suggestions on how to clearly communicate with these students, and provide examples and activities on how to use any social studies curriculum to empower students to act responsibly and justly for the greater good of all.
Targeted audience: Middle and Junior High School, High School
Conference Strands: Instructional Strategies and Perspectives
Pottawatomie Room (in the Mission Building)
Project Archaeology in Kansas: Integrated Reading Unit for Grades 3-8
Virginia A. Wulfkuhle: Kansas State Historical Society
This session will provide participants with information about the Project Archaeology network and the standards-based curriculum units developed by KSHS. Each unit consists of a full-color student magazine, a student journal, and a teacher guide. The units present an archaeological example and then bring the topic into the present day. The units are Shelter, Subsistence, and Migration. All units incorporate strong stewardship and civic responsibility messages.
Targeted audience: Grades 3-8, Middle and Junior High School
Conference Strands: Primary Sources, Kansas and U.S. History, Integrated Curriculum