Category: On the Road

How an unexpected start in 2020 grew into a role of shaping curriculum championing historical thinking

The Back-to-School season has commenced and like many of you, I find myself feeling both reflective and curiously hopeful. In July, Thinking Nation celebrated our 5th birthday 🥳and this month I’m marking my own five-year anniversary with the company. Humor me for a little walk down memory lane…

An Unexpected Turn in 2020

In the summer of 2020, the world was overcome by the COVID-19 pandemic and I was in the third trimester of pregnancy with my second child. With high daycare costs and an uncertain future, I decided to take a leave of absence from my teaching position in Minneapolis. Overwhelmed with feelings of anxiety for the future and the loss of a career I had worked so hard to build,  I stumbled across a post from Thinking Nation’s Executive Director,  Zachary Coté. He was looking to hire educators to grade essays for Thinking Nation’s partner schools. Despite grading essays being my least favorite part of the job, I was desperate to maintain some connection to my former life. And so, in August, I signed on to become part of the team.

Fast forward a few years and I made the decision to shift full-time into the role of Director of Curriculum and added another kid to the mix! What began as a way to keep one foot in education soon became something much bigger than I had envisioned.

In this role, my primary responsibility has been overseeing the development of a full-curriculum for several charter schools in Washington, D.C. and a full-year Ethnic Studies course for several charter schools in Los Angeles. Periodically, I get to travel and provide Professional Development for the teachers who are implementing the curriculum.

Where Professional Development Feels Different

At the start of the month, I worked with 30+ teachers from KIPP DC at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center for two days. I walked away feeling inspired and grateful. As someone who sat in numerous PD sessions (often wishing I could just get back to the work that felt more urgent), I felt challenged to ensure the two days of learnings would be both engaging and worthwhile. 

I quickly realized that I hadn’t needed to worry at all. You know when you walk in a room and you just get a sense that something special is going to happen? That’s how it felt. Within the first hour,  the collaboration and intentionality of the educators confirmed my hunch. 

Rather than acting as a traditional presenter, I naturally fell into the role of facilitator. The eagerness of the educators paired with their thoughtful questions and candid discussions created an environment where learning from each other was both easy and energizing. In session after session, teachers wrestled with resources and pedagogy that, for many, meant rethinking daily classroom practices. Instead of approaching with hesitancy, they leaned in, pushing each other to think through implementing best practices designed to foster deep student learning.

Why This Work Matters

Seeing these educators embrace historical thinking in this way reminded me of why Thinking Nation exists, and why I am proud to be part of it. Social Studies teachers are advocating to be seen as equal to other core subject areas, not simply literacy supports or expendable when time and resources run thin. But visibility alone isn’t enough. We have to elevate our practice beyond just teaching about the past to teaching how to study the past. 

Five years in, I’m convinced this is where the real transformation happens. It’s in rooms like that one in D.C., where educators commit to sharpening their craft, challenging assumptions, and giving students the tools to think like historians. That’s the kind of work worth showing up for day after day, year after year. 

Last week, Spenser and I headed to St. Louis, MO for the annual National Council for History Education (NCHE) conference. I took some time on the plane home to reflect on my time there and thought it was worth sharing with all of you!

Another airplane (long 😬 ) post as I’m now headed back home from NCHE. Well, National Council for History Education, you curated quite the conference. I was continually humbled by the number of people who came up to me to share how they engage with Thinking Nation. To those of you who came up and shared, thank you. It meant so much!

Sometimes, we continue to press into a vision, seeing its worth but unsure of its impact. Hearing impact stories was like caffeine for the tired soul. Professors of History came and shared how they utilize our historical thinking skill icons as references in their classrooms. Professors of Education shared how they provide our Source Analysis protocols (available for free :)) to the future teachers in their methods class. Thinking Nation has become a framework for understanding how to teach the discipline of history. A vision for systemic change in social studies is taking shape!

Teachers came up to Spenser and me and shared how they embed our historical thinking skills into their classes to provide consistency through the discipline. Scholars showed me how they cite our white paper in their own work. Museum educators even came and shared how they use our framework in their own spaces! Several people came up just show gratitude and provide encouragement for our mission. Honestly, I could go on. I left so encouraged and excited for how Thinking Nation can and does support schools and the broader social studies landscape and am thrilled for the continued work to be done.

Speaking of continued work, being able to sit down and talk collaboration with so many fellow colleagues just continued to fuel my fire to do this work.

Finally, to end the conference presenting alongside Ebony McKiver of Social Studies Accelerator about how we can build better bridges between museums and K-12 institutions and having people come up to us and thank us and tell us it was the best session they attended, or that they plans for how to do more explicit integrations in their own community, was so encouraging.

Again, I’m so humbled and encouraged. Thank you for a dynamic NCHE 2025. Can’t wait for 2026!

On Friday, October 4, Alliance College-Ready Public Schools hosted a one day conference at the USC Tower in downtown Los Angeles: Stronger Schools, Stronger Communities. In alignment with its 20th anniversary and rebrand, Alliance invited education stakeholders throughout L.A. to attend the one day event. The premise alone sends a needed message to Angelenos—if we want to strengthen public education, we must work together.

Often, it feels like providing high quality education for all Los Angeles students is a competition. Traditional districts compete with charter schools for enrollments and we are still making sense of the mass exodus from public education to homeschooling during the pandemic. But rather than dwell on these hardships, the event served as a planning session for the future.

Given my current role as executive director of Thinking Nation , a Los Angeles-based social studies education nonprofit, I was especially curious about how local education leaders were going to think through our schools and our communities. At the heart of Thinking Nation’s mission is to empower students. We believe that social studies is uniquely set up to do so. But of course, our focus is just one part of a student’s day. This one day event, covering the entire school day, provides necessary context for us to fulfill our own mission. The word ‘progress’ defined the day. It was a remarkably inspiring time together. Early in the morning, our emcee and Alliance’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Jass Stewart, M.Ed., M.B.A.

, reminded us that when Alliance began in 2004, only 49% of Los Angeles high schoolers were graduating. In looking at LAUSD’s metrics for the 2022-23 school year, it’s now 84%. If we include charter schools, it is likely even higher. Those who care about education in L.A. have clearly done great work. But of course, the work is not over.

In the first session, panelists discussed the state of education in Los Angeles. Continuing to highlight progress, Dr. Fernando Guerra, the Director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, pointed out that capital funding is secure and will likely continue to be strong. While this funding doesn’t directly correlate to student outcomes, that funding is critical for teachers and administrators to focus on our students. But what should we focus on? This question transitioned the conversation to measurement and accountability. Myrna Castrejón, the President & CEO of the California Charter Schools Association challenged us to reach a better consensus about what makes a great school. Measurement is critical if we want to support all students, especially students in historically underserved communities. Our consensus must be backed by data, Mayra A. Lara, Ed.D., Director of Southern California Partnerships & Engagement at Education Trust – West, argued. In many cases, she pointed out, we simply don’t have the data necessary to meet student needs. To continue to progress, we must curate and make meaning of helpful data.

This focus on data and accountability is one of the core reasons that Thinking Nation works with many Los Angeles schools, including Alliance. We harness generative AI to provide feedback to students on how they think about history, that is historical thinking skills, in order to provide teachers with thorough data reports on student thinking. Our goal here, to measure student thinking rather than student knowledge, is critical in supporting teachers to empower their students with the skills and dispositions necessary for civic and economic success.

In his post-lunch keynote address, L.A. city council president, Marqueece Harris-Dawson demonstrated how student empowerment leads to progress. He shared about how Jefferson High School, just two miles from where we convened on Friday, only had 1 working toilet for its 3600 students in 1997.

Students were given the right tools, access, and time, and as a result, successfully pushed the city to reallocate $200 million in funds toward bettering school campuses. Harris-Dawson, who helped organize student activism during that time, showed us that when we tell students they are empowered, they will act on it. This takeaway, of progress toward student empowerment, was woven throughout the other sessions of the day. It was lifegiving to be among so many educators who saw that and relentlessly pursued better education in our city. Of course, as history teaches us, nothing is inevitable. Historical progress is never guaranteed and is always contingent on human choice. As evidenced by Friday’s conferences, hundreds of educators around the city are poised to make the choices that support our kids. Let’s join them.

This has been a busy season of travel for the Thinking Nation team, but the travel ended on a high note with the National Council for Social Studies in Nashville, TN. With almost 5,000 people in attendance, it is by far the largest gathering of social studies educators each year. The weekend was filled with vibrancy, collaboration, and especially new friendships. It really is such a treat to be a part of.

This year, I was fortunate to present a power session, entitled “Cultivating Historians, not History Enthusiasts: Maintaining Relevance in Education’s Future.” I’ve written in the past on this distinction, but it was especially exciting to dive deeper into the ramifications of making this distinction among fellow social studies educators. In the session, I addressed why our primary goal should be to cultivate historical thinkers in our classrooms in order to best empower our students as both citizens and future participants in the workforce. Moreover, historical thinking can be a unifier in our discipline. Often, we silo ourselves based on the content we teach (World History, U.S. Government, Ethnic Studies, etc.), which makes it hard for us to collaborate and vertically align across our discipline. As I wrote in Education Week back in May:

We can bring legitimacy back to what we do. Focusing on the discipline rather than the content allows us to rise above the culture wars, redeem ourselves as teachers of literacy so that we can properly collaborate with other content areas, and, most importantly, empower our students with the skills and dispositions to reinvigorate a visibly injured democracy.

“History Teachers Deserve Respect,” Education Week, May 15, 2023.

Cultivating historians in our classrooms is essential if we want to be seen as a legitimate discipline in such a future-focused education atmosphere.

But onto the rest of the conference. Spenser (Our COO), Annie (Our Director of Curriculum), and myself had such a fun (and busy) time in the exhibit hall talking to educators from around the country. We firmly believe that our resources, assessments, and professional development can help facilitate a paradigm shift in classrooms and schools, and we were so excited to share more about that with curious educators.

We also got to meet or reconnect with such inspiring educators throughout the country. It was great to finally meet two prominent Instagram history educators (Of course our very own Annie Jenson is @apushladyboss): Dan Lewer (of @History_4_Humans) and Cate Baumgarten (of @thegreatcatehistory). Cate even saved my own presentation by lending me her clicker! Thank you Cate!

I also finally met and enjoyed a conversation with Karalee Nakatsuka, or better known as @historyfrog (GLI’s CA Teacher of the Year!) She has consistently been doing such great work pushing boundaries in using edtech in her history classroom. You’re a rockstar, Karalee! It was great to connect with folks from the Bill of Rights Institute, OER Project, Sam Wineburg of SHEG (Now Digital Literacy Group), and Sarah Jencks who does incredible work in the museum space (civicmuseums.org). The list could go on! NCSS continues to be such a fruitful and rejuvenating conference and we feel so fortunate to be a part of such a dedicated education community.

Lastly, it was a treat to see some of Nashville’s rich history. We walked around historic broadway where the music could not be contained to the bars they originated from. The streets were flowing with talented music. We got to see Tennessee’s State Capital (where President James Polk is buried), and Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage. But perhaps most inspiring was the several Civil Rights Movement markers throughout the city. Walking to Woolworth’s where the first lunch counter sit-ins took place and stumbling upon a parking lot where the First Baptist Church once stood and used as an organizing location for the sit-ins were both inspiring. And no surprise, spending time at the National Museum of African American Music was so enriching and fun! I’ll definitely need to head back to Music City and explore more! Who will we see next year at the National Council for Social Studies conference in Boston??

Last week, our Chief Partnership Officer, Liz Connolly, and myself, flew out to Mansfield, Texas. We witnessed the great work being done at Mansfield ISD under the leadership of Superintendent, Dr. Kimberly Cantu. This visit was part of our partnership with AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and the work of their Redefining Ready! Cohort. The multi-day summit was filled with brilliant ideas, great collaboration, and of course, some great Texas BBQ thanks to Mansfield’s own students at Ben Barber Innovation Academy’s Savvy’s Bistro.

Much of our time together was spent visiting different Mansfield ISD schools and witnessing such rich education innovation. From the programs to the classroom layouts to the lesson plans themselves, it was such a special experience to witness such deep learning. I was so impressed with all of the teachers and students I interacted with.

In particular, though, this cohort got together as we rethink how we “redefine ready” for our schools. Much in the same way that Thinking Nation wants to shift the paradigm of social studies education and redefine how we measure success in the discipline, this group of superintendents is seeking to redefine how we measure success as districts, and hopefully, as a nation. The three categories where we worked together as a group to redefine readiness were college, career, and life. Of course, there is great overlap in each of these categories. But, to think of each of those domains separately was a great exercise in thinking through our own priorities for K-12 education.

In one of the breakout sessions, I joined the Life Readiness group. I wanted to hear the research and insights that came from Ellen Gallinsky, the executive director of Mind in the Making. Her 2010 book of the same title explores seven life skills that she’s identified as essential for children to grow into flourishing adults. Her next book, which comes out in the spring, continues this research and explores the teen years. 

Before her presentation, I had time to talk with her about some of the intersections between our work. Specifically, our historical thinking skills that I addressed last week and her work in life readiness. While I often see the connection between historical thinking and life readiness, Mrs. Gallinsky’s quick ability to see the connection was encouraging. As I say often, historical thinking is a life skill. If more of us applied historical thinking to more parts of our life, society would be grateful. It’s why our vision is that “all students will mature into thinking citizens, equipped with the essential skills to participate in a robust democracy.”

As we move forward with our partnership with the Redefining Ready! Cohort, I’m excited to think alongside such brilliant superintendents who are striving to shift the paradigm of education more largely. We will continue to advocate for a needed paradigm shift in social studies. Because we know that when students are empowered to think historically they are more college, career, and life ready. Thank you to AASA and Mansfield ISD for having us!

 Keep Indiana Learning and Building Thinking Classrooms

The last two days of June some of the Thinking Nation team was able to join hundreds of educators from around the country in Franklin, IN for the Building Thinking Classrooms Conference hosted by Keep Indiana Learning. This was a great conference to end a hectic two months of travel for the team.

Dr. Peter Liljedahl, Professor of Mathematics Education at Simon Fraser University, published Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics in 2020, quickly garnering recognition for his research. As the title suggests, Dr. Liljedahl presents new and innovative strategies and mindsets that teachers can incorporate into their classrooms to make them thinking classrooms. While his work specifies the math classroom, there is so much that social studies teachers can glean from his book. 

I was fortunate to be able to present at the conference, taking a deeper look into how some of the strategies could be realized in social studies classrooms. As our own organization’s name implies, we believe it is essential to build thinking classrooms. In fact, my session was simply titled: Building Thinking (Social Studies) Classrooms. 

I specifically wanted to explore the intersection of Liljedahl’s work and the role of assessment in social studies classrooms. As I’ve often written about, if we truly want to shift the paradigm of history education, we must rethink how we measure success in the classroom. In Building Thinking Classrooms, Liljedahl rightfully reminds us that “we evaluate what we value” (BTC Practice 12). I took the time to challenge the room to think about what types of messages we send when all we evaluate in social studies is content acquisition. As I’ve noted before, it is not our job to create walking encyclopedias, but thinking citizens.

Thinking Nation really focuses on this work through our formative assessments on disciplinary thinking and our summative assessments, which we call Curated Research Papers (more on that term perhaps next week!) If we as teachers take backwards planning seriously and backward plan from assessments on thinking rather than solely content knowledge, we demonstrate to our students that deep thought is what is valued most by us. This is essential if we truly want to shift the paradigm of social studies education.

June was a busy travel month for Thinking Nation. On any given day, a Thinking Nation team member could have been in any of the three time zones across the continental U.S. While July has its own business, its lack of travel allows us to reflect a little on June. 

Our last blog featured Tiana Day’s experience at the Black Minds Matter Summit in Washington DC. The very next weekend, she and other Thinking Nation team members were in Austin, Texas for the National Charter Schools Conference. NCSC is the largest gathering of charter schools and their stakeholders each year, and it is always an exciting thing to be a part of.

This year, the National Alliance for Charter Schools reached out to Thinking Nation to help coordinate a Juneteenth celebration, given that the conference fell on the national holiday. Excitedly, we brainstormed several ways to commemorate and celebrate this profound holiday of freedom. In past years on Juneteenth, our blog addressed why this newest national holiday must be seen as America’s holiday and not merely a celebration for Black Americans. We also took a dive into Annette Gordon-Reed’s moving memoir-meets-monograph, On Juneteenth. Today’s reflective post covers how we were able to celebrate Juneteenth in Austin!

Tiana orchestrated a nationwide student art competition, which she named “Liberation in the Lens of Artivism.” Thinking Nation provided a historical analysis activity to go with the contest, and our friends at the National Liberty Museum provided students with an artwork analysis activity. The top student submissions were featured at the National Charter Schools Conference, and the National Alliance for Charter Schools generously sponsored the cash prizes for the top three students in the contest.

Our first and third place winners came from Mastery East Camden Middle School in Camden, NJ. East Camden is a part of the Mastery Schools network, with schools in Philadelphia, PA and Camden, NJ. Our 2nd place winner came from Stella High Charter Academy in Los Angeles, CA. SHCA is a part of Bright Star Schools. All of the student art work was inspiring. The National Alliance for Charter Schools really showcased the student work in the pop up exhibit.

We were also able to incorporate the expertise of some of our new friends into building out a pop up exhibit for the attendees of NCSC. Black Minds Matter provided a compelling history of education freedom for Black communities throughout American history, demonstrating a link between the freedom from slavery recognized in Juneteenth to the freedom to receive an education shown in the ingenuity of Black communities both past and present. The Black Minds Matter exhibit contained inspiring videos of movers and shakers showcasing the inspiring work of Black school founders since the 19th century.

Lastly, we were able to highlight the work of the forthcoming National Juneteenth Museum, which is set to open to the public in 2025 in Fort Worth, TX. NJM provided attendees with an origin story of the holiday, as well as its future plans to commemorate it as a museum. I am so excited to go to the museum when it opens!

It was truly an honor to work with such talented people to make the exhibit a reality for conference attendees. Just to reemphasize the collaborative nature of this project, I want to end with thanking all of the hands that went into what attendees engaged with. The Juneteenth exhibit would never have happened if it weren’t for the generosity of the National Alliance for Charter Schools and their trust in Thinking Nation for organizing the exhibit.

The art contest would have never got off the ground if it weren’t for Tiana, her own nonprofit, Youth Advocates for Change, and the dedicated artists that judged the contest. The students could not have engaged with the art effectively if it wasn’t for the scaffolds created by the National Liberty Museum. The holiday could not have been contextualized without the National Juneteenth Museum. Lastly, if it weren’t for Black Minds Matter, attendees would not have been able to see the direct connection of Juneteenth to education freedom, the premise that guides charter schools in their daily work. We were so grateful to be a part of this! Till Boston in 2024!

In this post, our Community Outreach Manager, Tiana Day, reflects on her time last week at the National Black Minds Matter Summit in Washington, DC.

Thinking Nation was a proud sponsor of the 2023 National Black Minds Matter Summit. The conference brought together compelling Black school founders, politicians, allies, and advocates from across the country to discuss how to better support Black students in education.

Elizabeth Connolly (Chief Partnership Officer) and I traveled to Washington D.C. to support our partners at Black Minds Matter and attend this conference.

“Black Minds Matter is a national movement to celebrate Black minds, support excellence, and promote the development of high-quality school options for Black students.” -BMM Site

During this three-day conference, we listened to inspiring panelists share their success journeys, ups and downs, and the advice they have gained from working in the education space.

One of the first presentations was conducted by students attending Legends Charter School, based just outside the nation’s capital in Lanham, MD. Legends School, founded by Shomari and Atasha James, focuses on integrating financial literacy courses into their curriculum. The 7th-grade students who attended the conference presented a stock market analysis. It was incredible to see such young people speak confidently about investing and closing the wealth gaps in historically marginalized communities. I personally learned a thing or two from these students! I also learned that school founders can take innovative approaches to education to tackle systemic issues during students’ K-12 years.

One of the most compelling speakers we heard from was Patricia Brantley, the CEO of Friendship Public Charter Schools. Friendship Schools (PK3-12) is a leading group of 15 physical charter schools in the Washington D.C. area that started with two locations in 1998. Brantley believes that the representation of teachers in the classroom has contributed to the success of her students. Her schools focus on ensuring teachers reflect the diverse populations of the students they serve. Friendship Schools also value accessibility, offering an online platform for students in grades K-8 living in the Washington D.C. area. Brantley celebrated their 25th-year anniversary and achievements, boasting a 95% graduation rate with 100% of students who have attended Friendship Schools being accepted into 4-year colleges and universities.

As I reflect on my own educational journey and why I love working with Thinking Nation, I think about the lack of representation I faced as a Black student during my K-12 experience. Today, my passion lies in creating a safe space for students to feel supported by a community where they feel they belong. When students feel a sense of belonging, they feel celebrated, and their confidence often translates into academic achievements. We heard from a politician based in Indiana who shared that at one point, there were only 10 Black male teachers in the entire state serving 1.2 million students. I pondered whether the students who had access to learning from those Black male teachers knew how rare it was to gain that perspective. It truly changed my perspective on the importance of having representation in the classroom as leaders for students to look up to.

We also heard from politicians who shared with the participants how to get in contact with their state legislators and build genuine relationships. One politician shared that for them, it only takes one impactful story to inspire action, and hearing from a quality parent, student, or community member has a greater impact than receiving thousands of template-filled emails. Another politician shared that they prefer scheduling coffee meetings during breaks or between sessions with community members and enjoying attending community events. Each shared a different perspective on how they like to be communicated with. However, they all agreed on three things: the importance of getting to know representatives at the local, state, and national levels, being informed before approaching a representative, and being respectful and non-confrontational when advocating for what one believes is right.

A unique aspect of this conference was a presentation from Lauren Zelt and Kristin Hoff from Zelt Communications Group, who taught school founders how to use media for visibility. In today’s society, where we are constantly consuming media, leveraging it can be an effective way for school founders to spread the word about their schools. We learned about hosting press conferences and reaching out to broadcast, radio, and news stations to gain coverage. They emphasized the importance of building media relations to expand brand awareness.

Through a partnership with the American National Federation of Schools, founders attending this conference would gain access to free consulting and media training from Zelt Communications. This is often an overlooked aspect when starting a school or any endeavor, really. The media can help amplify our messages, and with proper training and confidence, it can be an essential tool for founders and educators to scale their impact, reach more students and parents, and inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

I felt like I left this conference with a wealth of knowledge from others’ lived experiences and perspectives. It was truly inspiring to hear from these leaders who spoke with immense passion about their students. 

My biggest takeaway from the National Black Minds Matter Summit was that Black-founded schools are not monolithic. The majority of these founders aim to use innovative techniques relevant to students to equip them with skills that go beyond academics and prepare them for life. Many schools offer unconventional classes such as computer science engineering or financial literacy to help students align better with their educational and life goals. Attending this conference was an incredible experience for both Elizabeth and me. Simply listening and learning how Thinking Nation can continue to support schools and reach students across the country has been a valuable experience.