ESC Region 17 Social Studies

History Rocks! Volume 3, Issue #6

Just Announced!! Medal of Honor Interview via Webinar

The Medal of Honor Character Development Program has announced a live webinar for Wednesday, April 29, at 11:00 a.m., with MOH Recipient Florent Groberg. Click on the link to register to attend.

Click here for Update #4 for Week of April 27, 2020

Update #4 Check out these two upcoming live webinars- Medal of Honor Character Education series and then spend an hour with Ken Burns!!! What a Wednesday!!!! Also, NFL and MLB's Huddle for Home and Summer Slugger are just some fun learning!

Click here for Update #3 for Week of April 20, 2020

UPDATE #3 As we enter into another remote week, just a few more updates, online training opportunities, and resources. Again, the main SMORE page will stay the same, and the updates will be posted in a new newsletter each week! Stay safe!!!

UPDATE #2 FOR WEEK OF APRIL 13, 2020

UPDATE #2 Each week, there will be new updates with links, resources, ideas, zooms, and more!!! This main SMORE will remain the same, but check the link for the newest tools and such for your remote classroom.

UPDATE #1 APRIL 6, 2020

"...never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

-Winston Churchill, October 1941

https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/never-give-in-never-never-never.html

zoom_out_map

A Changing World

As historians, we know that trying times have appeared throughout our existence. What we typically study is how humans react to those times. As teachers, we know that we must provide learning opportunities for our students. How we typically teach, will now look different. We are a community of strong individuals that will work together as a team to continue our roles as historians and teachers!

Remote Learning for the Students and Teachers of Region 17

Contact for Specific Support

I will be working from home during the school closure, but I will only be an email or phone call away. I will be posting lots of different resources by grade-level to assist your transition to remote learning and instruction. However, you can also fill out this google form for specific instructional needs that I can help with!!

https://forms.gle/Em4psxPbLdVKJifz6

forms.gle

Weekly Zooms for Grade Level Supports

This week's topic is Thinking Like a Historian. The session will provide support resources and tools for teachers to work on high leverage Skills SE's!

TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2020

Middle School Zoom- 10:00

High School Zoom- 1:00

Elementary Zoom- 3:00

Email me for the link (don't need any Zoombombers!) sblankenship@esc17.net

zoom_out_map

Sabrina S. Blankenship

I left Captain America in charge of my office at the ESC, so feel free to call as my office number is being forwarded to my cell, and/or leave a voice mail (these messages will come to my email) or email any time!!!

Email: sblankenship@esc17.net
Website: esc17.net
Location: 1111 West Loop 289, Lubbock, TX, USA
Phone: 806-281-5884

Start small! And Practical not Perfection!!

Students will need support for the upcoming weeks, but this kind of remote learning does not have to look just like your school day. One way to create a successful transition is to start small. Use a simple 1-1-1 format per week.

-1 learning aid-a reading, a map, a video, a lecture or slide set (one that your students are familiar with)

-1 discussion board or one overarching question (use the ones from TEKS Resource System)

-1 activity, short quiz, short writing prompt, or reader response

You could build your assignments around our historical thinking skills. All grade-levels have a version of these skills. A few of these skills could be used by all ages of students- so if a family has a 3rd grader, an 8th grader, and a junior- one image, three different sets of answers, three different levels of written responses.

Listed below is one way to organize this skill practice for a week. You could use the same format each week just change the 1-1-1 content. (new image, new famous person, new map, new reading passages, new game) Again, just a suggestion, and I will also keep adding resources as needed.

THINKING LIKE A HISTORIAN

zoom_out_map

Mapping Mondays

All students can sharpen their geography skills while learning from home. Using any map, you can ask students to interpret the map with a 3-2-1 question format.

3 details

2 ways to use the information on the map

1 question you have about the map's features.

Check our Texas Alliance for Geographic Education for TEKS based resources

https://www.geo.txstate.edu/tage/teaching-resources.html

zoom_out_map

Take the Time to Read Tuesdays

Using Newsela, Library of Congress, or Scholastic, choose a combination of primary source and secondary source short reading selections for your students to answer questions centered around the main idea, summarization, cause and effect, and or compare and contrast.

https://newsela.com/

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/

https://www.readworks.org/find-content#!s0:372/q:/g:/t:/s:372/k:/cid:/f:0/pt:/features:/staff_picks:/sel:/

zoom_out_map

Wonder Wednesdays

See Think Wonder is a great historical thinking strategy. You just need an image!!! You could use the same image for households that have children of all ages.

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/see-think-wonder

zoom_out_map

Thursdays are for Texas

Using the Texas Law-Related Education website, there are games and videos for all grade levels.

Have students watch a video or play a game and write about the experience with a short writing prompt of your choosing!

LRE also just announced some new videos on the three branches of government!!!

https://texaslre.org/

zoom_out_map

Famous Person Fridays

Using the list of famous people in your grade-level TEKS, have students create some type of visual with the information they may have found with some research. (focusing on the impact the person had on our lives)

Students can use technology or not-nothing wrong with paper and crayons! Students can the following resource from TexQuest (now free to all Texas teachers), that way they are not going to Wikipedia!

http://texquest.net/welcome

https://explore.proquest.com/sirsdiscoverer/home?accountid=180165

Copy of the TEKS for you to check the people in your grade level. Remember we had some changes to the secondary people due to the streamlining process.

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter113/index.html

zoom_out_map

Remember all those movies we used to show...

FIRST YOU NEED TO RE-WATCH some of the great historical movies! Have your students create watch parties from home! Give them a space to collaborate, discuss characters, etc. And then, depending on the grade level you teach, have students compare and contrast the movie to the known historical facts to see what Hollywood changed or got right!

*REMEMBER YOUR SCHOOL'S MOVIE POLICY AS FAR AS RATINGS AND APPROPRIATENESS! COMMUNICATE WITH PARENTS ABOUT THE MOVIE AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO WATCH AS WELL!!!!!!!

Sample Weekly Plan Template

LINK TO GOOGLE FOLDERS WITH ALL KINDS OF GRADE LEVEL RESOURCES

Every day I will be adding to these folders. If you are a TEKS Resource District, email or call me and I have other resources that I can share with you!

sblankenship@esc17.net

0 Shared Region 17 Remote Learning Tools and Resources - Google Drive

drive.google.com

Smithsonian Learning Activities Choice Board (March 23, 2020)

bit.ly

Upcoming Webinars, Students Competitions, Teacher Grant Programs

DocsTeach Mini Webinars

Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m. Each 20-minute session will highlight a different aspect of DocsTeach to show you how you can help your students make sense of the stories, events, and ideas of the past by working with primary sources.

South Plains Electric Cooperative Teacher Mini-Grants

Apply today for the Teacher Mini-Grants of $500. The deadline is May 15 for grants for the next school year!!! The grant money can be used for educational field trips and student-based projects that tie into social studies or reading!

Tips for Learning from Home

Below is a link to several more SMORES/Google sites from our Region 17 team to help with your remote learning logistics!!

Digital Learning

sites.google.com

Previous Newsletters

Just in case you missed them!!!!!

Volume 2, Issue #1 Summer 2019

ESC Region 17 Social Studies

History Rocks! Volume 3, Issue #6