Well teachers, you’ve made it (well, almost). The dreary month of October is ending. Halloween is tomorrow. I hope it is a fun day with students and candy and laughter and a healthy dose of chaos. The sugared students will be able to sleep in on Saturday and hopefully, so will you!
I wanted to take some time to reflect a bit on our month at Thinking Nation. After all, studying history is essentially a meta-claim for the power of reflection. It was a busy month of working with teachers, collaborating with colleagues, building curriculum, and engaging at conferences. I’ll highlight three especially encouraging things below.
The National Civic Collaboratory – NYC
On October 16th, I met with civic leaders from across the country at the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts in New York City for Citizen University’s National Civic Collaboratory. Per usual, it was an incredibly uplifting time learning from others in the civics space and the amazing work being done out there. To be frank, being in civics, or education more broadly can be exhausting and sometimes feel a little like the needle isn’t moving. But hearing how friends are creating meaningful civic experiences in different capacities is so encouraging.
Whether it was hearing about how colleagues like Daniel Pryfogle at Sympara are repurposing religious assets for the common good, or Lisa Kay Solomon a the Stanford d.school is building a framework for Futures thinking, or Libby Otto-Patel at the Obama Foundation is preparing to engage Chicago educators at the soon-to-open Barack Obama Presidential Center, I was surrounded by civic innovators. The energy at the Lincoln Center matched the energy of the Big Apple and I left excited for what is possible.
The Iowa Council for Social Studies
Just a few days later, Thinking Nation was spread across the country working with social studies educators. On October 20th our Director of Curriculum, Annie Jenson, was at the annual Iowa Council for Social Studies conference. Her presentation, “Rewriting the Narrative: Amplifying Counter-Histories with Historical Fiction” provided teachers with practical ways to integrate historical fiction as a way to captivate student interest and provide an onramp to courageous classroom conversations.
An Ethnic Studies Teacher Day – LA
That same day, I had the privilege of working with a dozen of our partner school Ethnic Studies teachers at the Wende Museum in Los Angeles. Working with the teachers from Bright Star Schools, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, and Equitas Collegiate High School was so fulfilling.
We spent the whole afternoon together collaborating on effective strategies to build cognitive apprentices in our classrooms around the meaningful history covered in Thinking Nation’s Ethnic Studies course. While the museum was undergoing a transformation of exhibits, the folks at the Wende kindly brought us into the exhibit space and allowed us to navigate the collections in-transition. I love working with teachers and I love historical artifacts. Combining our professional learning series with the Wende’s beautiful space was the perfect combination!
Sometimes, things can feel hard. The school days can be long, or the collaboration feels weak, but it’s days like the ones described above that refill our tank at Thinking Nation. There is great work being done around the country. We are thrilled to be alongside so many passionate individuals as we seek to transform social studies education for the future of democracy.