Union Elementary Teacher Wins Civics Award

Kristie Bush was presented the National Association of Secretaries of State Medallion Award from Secretary of State Deb Markowitz last week at the State House. Following are the Secretary's remarks from the ceremony:

Kristie Bush began teaching in the Montpelier School district over two decades ago. She started her career as a social studies teacher at Main Street Middle School, but has spent most of her time as a 5th grade teacher for Union Elementary. Every student Mrs. Bush ever had would tell you that she stresses the importance of civic engagement, and honoring those who have served our country.

Kristie was chosen as a recipient of this year’s award because of her leadership and longstanding commitment to promoting civics education in her classroom, her school and her state. She was a founder member of “Kids Voting,” which has evolved into Vermont Votes for Kids. She was instrumental in developing and promoting our mock election program.

She has incorporated initiatives such as the student mock election into her classroom every year to teach her students the importance of being active citizens in this great country. Mrs. Bush’s class also writes birthday cards to kids turning 18 to remind them to register to vote after their birthday. Kristie Bush works hard to instill democratic values in her elementary students, encouraging them to partake in their civic duties and helping them to encourage high school students to do the same!

Kristie also takes the time to honor veterans each year with her class in a unique and engaging way. They recognize the relatives of students who have served our country with a VIP (Very important Person) project, and her class also attends the annual VFW Veteran’s Day Luncheon.

The National Association of Secretaries of State Medallion Award was established by the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) in 2001 to honor individuals, groups, or organizations with a record of promoting the goals of NASS in one or more of the following areas: improving elections, with special emphasis on voter education and increasing voter participation; civic education, including the teaching, promotion, and study of this subject; and service to state government--specifically, as it relates to improving democracy in the state.

photo: Kristie Bush and Secretary of State Deb Markowitz

Industrial Revolution in Northern New England: A New Traveling Kit

The American Precision Museum in Windsor Vermont has launched a traveling education kit about the Industrial Revolution in northern New England. Designed for grades 7-12, the kit is keyed to NH and VT standards and includes artifacts, photos, primary source documents, activities, books, CD’s a video, and lesson plans. The four modules each contain a teachers guide and focus on an essential question. The modules are I – Background: 1750 – 1850; II - Invention and Technology; III - Life and Labor, and IV - Legacy & Impact (for advanced students & high school).

The kit will help challenge your students to study the world around them, to discover how innovation and hard work transformed a farm and forest-based economy into a world of factories, machines, and mass-produced consumer goods. Much of this transformation originated in New England, in towns and villages where you can still see the evidence of early factories and mills, and where you can study local community records to find out what life was like during early years of industrialization.

The kit is available for a three-week rental period and costs $40.00, which includes shipment to your school. Your school is responsible for return shipping costs. The rental fee is $30.00 if you pick the kit up in person from the museum.

The kit is a great way to prepare for a visit to the museum, where they offer three activities your students can do in small groups: The Windsor in the 1860s Quest, a walk around the museum’s historic neighborhood; guided exploration of the exhibit Muskets to Motorcars; Yankee Ingenuity and the Road to Mass Production; and demonstrations at their working machine shop, seasonally staffed by high school interns.

The museum exhibits are open to the public May 23 through October 31, 2009. If there is sufficient interest, the museum may open during May for school groups. Please contact them for more information (see link at beginning of article).

National Museum of American History Online Exhibits

Last week, NPR featured a story about the reopening of the National Museum of American History after an $85 million renovation. My first thought was how I'd love to hope a flight to D.C. and experience it first hand, but then the reality of the current economic crisis (and personal and professional budget limits) prompted me to do the next best thing: check out their online exhibits.

Of the 53 exhibits, the following seem like they might be the most relevant to your local curriculum. These also appear to all have linked educational materials and resources. See the entire list of exhibits here or at the individual links below:

A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution

Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life

America on the Move (transportation)

The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden

America's New Birth of Freedom: Documents from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops, 1820–Present

Edison Invents: All About Thomas Edison and His Inventions

The Gettysburg Address

Jamestown, Québec, Santa Fe: Three North American Beginnings

Photographing History: Fred J. Maroon and the Nixon Years, 1970–1974

Produce for Victory: Posters on the Home Front, 1941–1945

Separate is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education

The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag That Inspired the National Anthem

The Price of Freedom: Americans at War

Within These Walls . . . (historic home in Mass.)

Social Studies and Web 2.0 - The Perfect Match!

Curious about how to use Web 2.0 tools in a meaningful way in your social studies classes? Want to possibly win an iPod Nano or iPod Touch? Then please think about attending the spring social studies network meetings. We've partnered with VITA-Learn, VTCite and your local ESA to further explore social studies in the 21st century.

You’ll leave these workshops—conducted by fellow teachers—able to start using Web 2.0 tools with your students.

Montpelier, March 27th:
Create Your Own Country Using Google Earth (Lucie deLaBruere): Redesign a traditional social studies activity—creating your own country.
Pharaoh’s Wiki (Jody Emerson): Use Web 2.0 tools such as del.icio.us, wikis, blogs, and videos to analyze a Pharaoh’s governing decisions.
Revolution and Propaganda (Don Taylor & Lauren Chabot): Learn how to examine revolution and propaganda through the integration of 21st century skills and technology such as Moodle, Google Docs, Podcasting, Wikis, and Inspiration.
Getting to Know You...Through a Collaborative Social Studies Project (Lori Morse & Sarah Ibson): a World War I unit that allows the students from different schools to collaborate via a wiki after reading Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo.
To register go to: http://www.lapdavt.org/

Castleton, April 2nd:
Wikis Wow! (Lauren Kelley-Parren): Come see the wiki used by ALL 140 10th grade US History students at Mt. Abe.
Collaborating on Social Studies Projects Using Google Presentation (Maureen Dobart and/or Bjorn Behrendt): Using Google Presentation, multiple students can be working collaborativelyo n the same document at the same time using their own computers.
Looking at Ourselves—Google Earth and Google Maps (Dave Davidson): Explore many of the features of Google Earth and Google Maps.
To register go to: http://www.castleton.edu/centerforschools/courses.htm

• How do you use Web 2.0 tools in a meaningful way in your classroom?