Social Studies
Integrating Sports History into Your Social Studies Classroom - Part II
Presenter: Damon Affinito
Tentatively Scheduled for November 26, 2024
Recommended for Educators of Grades 5-12
From the ancient Olympic games to the modern civil rights movement, from the World Series to the World Cup, from Native Americans to celebrity athletes, from urbanization to apartheid, and from geography to economics, sports history connects to every social studies discipline at every grade level. This workshop will explore the many connections between sport and social studies, and will provide participants with lessons and activities for use in their classes. Through the use of primary source materials (including photographs), videos, lecture, and discussion, the workshop will enhance understanding of the relationship between sport and social studies, and will inspire participants to incorporate the workshop material into their lessons. Participants will leave the workshop with ready-to-use activities, ideas for greater extension, and a more complete understanding of how athletics intersect with geography, politics, race, class, gender, and other social studies themes.
Part II will focus on the intersection of sport and politics, and will introduce connections between sport and World History topics.
Monuments, Memorials, and Military History: Bringing Sacred Spaces into the Social Studies Classroom
Presenter: Damon Affinito
Tentatively Scheduled for February 4, 2025
Recommended for Educators of Grades 5-12
The modern-day history class, with its constantly expanding curriculum, often overlooks important themes involving service, sacrifice, triumph, tragedy, and patriotism. This workshop will explore ways to bring these themes and the places associated with them into the classroom, primarily through the use of online resources, including virtual tours. Participants will “visit” Civil War battlefields, overseas American cemeteries, the National Mall memorials, Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma City, Shanksville, and other sacred spaces. Time will be allotted for teachers to research and develop lessons around these themes and places.
Slavery in New Jersey
Presenter: Kevin Walter
Tentatively Scheduled for December 18, 2024
Recommended for Educators of Grades 6-12
This professional learning experience for social studies teachers will focus on the surprising, often hidden, role slavery played in New Jersey from the 1600s to the mid-1800s, with a special emphasis placed on the history of slavery in Bergen County.
Teaching Current Events in the Classroom
Presenter: Joseph Polvere
Tentatively Scheduled for September 25, 2024
Recommended for Educators of Grades Pre-K-12
It can be challenging to teach current events in the classroom while avoiding controversy, but this workshop will show participants how to do just that. Various current events from the domestic and international spheres will be addressed, allowing for an exchange of ideas between the presenter and participants; attendees will take away strategies to use in their classroom.