Social Studies, Writing, Priorities and Who Knows What Else

My penultimate post for the year is up on teachinghistory.org. At least I think it's my penultimate, I've sort of lost track at this point in the year.

This one is about fitting social studies in our day. My priorities in first grade are reading, writing, and math, as well as getting along, social skills, patience, playing, speaking skills, etc., etc., etc. So, social studies, and science for that matter, are pretty low on the list. Integrating them into other areas of our day is critical.

Writing for teachinghistory has been a fabulous experience this year. It's been a new thing for me to do and I've learned a lot through it. That said, one of my favorite parts is seeing what quote they pull out to highlight in large letters on the side of each post. This time it's "I want to correct misperceptions, expose them to surprising ideas, and generally encourage an interest in understanding how our world has changed over time."

They always manage to pull out a quote that, when I read it standing alone like that, makes me feel fabulous as a writer. I wonder how I can do that for my students...