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When President Bush enacted the, "No Child Left Behind Act", he created a large hindrance of learning for the subject area of history and other humanities. This act primarily focusses on the subject areas of math and literacy. With the recent election of President Obama, similar patterns have continued to exist concerning the area of history. President Obama's policy concerning education focusses on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Author, Chelsea Gibson, states, despite the continued emphasis of math and literacy and the support these subjects receive from the government, history and social studies will always teach our children important life lessons. This in turn will create responsible and informed critical leaners. Gibson states 4 reasons as to why the application of history in schools creates critical and informed lifelong learners: 1. History teaches analytical skills. History requires students to make connections and allows them to ask question. Gibson states, critical thinking is the foundation for history therefore, making critical learning an essential learning tool. 2. History is also integrated into other curriculum areas such as the Arts, psychology, philosophy, and modern languages. 3. History teaches and improves writing skills. 4. Finally, history makes students more aware of their heritage.

The Montreal Gazette Newspaper published an article on November 11, entitled, "The Need for Remembrance Day Endures." This article recognizes the importance of veterans and their memories they bring from experiencing historical events in history. Ultimately, individuals who fought in World War I, World War 2, and the Korean War, lay the foundation of Remembrance Day ceremonies across the country. The fascinating stories of veterans' lives serve as the purest form of experience as it provides invaluable insight to historical events. While there is an array of documentation of veterans' experiences, it is more meaningful and engaging to have them orally share their stores. Although many will no longer be able to share their experiences with us, it becomes essential for parents and educators to continue honouring the individuals who sacrificed their lives for our country. A poppy can serve as a simple testament of respect as well as the desire for peace. As we continue to fight the war on terrorism, the desire for power and resources raise the possibilities for greater global violence and turmoil. By paying tribute to our war veterans, it becomes essential to teach students the importance of reflection by promoting peace and community within the classroom environment.

Do you keep hearing about how important creativity in the classroom is but have no idea how to teach such a skill? There seems to be an understanding that creativity is something that one is born with and not something that is taught. This article offers reasons why it is important to teach creativity in your classroom and offers examples on how you can accomplish this seemingly incredible task. Creativity is not a bestowed gift; if can be experienced and learned by students in a classroom setting. The article emphasizes that there is a desperate need for creative thinkers in the world; we are in the midst of a creativity crisis. A sustainable future depends on having creative thinkers think up innovative solutions to complex problems. Creativity is a set of skills that must be taught to the future generations. The article provides examples of teaching creativity in the classroom. For example, As part of their social studies report, high school students developed a strong sense of empathy when they worked with the art teacher to create masks representing the emotions embodied by people from significant historical events: Polish Jews during the Second World War; a mother and her children leaving Ireland during the Irish Potato Famine in 1847; and parents receiving news that their son or daughter has been killed in action in Afghanistan. Students' creativity cannot be constantly held back by the tight constraints of producing a specific product to exhibit their understanding in a specific way. Creativity should be further explored in our education system if it is a skill that future generations will need to deal with our future complex concerns; not pulled away from simply because it is a concept that many people have not quite figured out how to explain and teach in a school setting.

If you link to this site you will find many letters written during the War. The link provides you with many lesson plans on the war and use the letters to help show the students the real side of being a soldier. I think students will find this very interesting and it provides us as first year teachers a great resource to first hand accounts of the great war.

A new textbook produced by Nelson Education and Martin Aboriginal Educational Initiative has emerged within high-school entrepreneurship classes. Based on the Ontario Senior Business Studies Curriculum, Tara Perkins discusses in the Globe and Mail the emergence of this new workbook specifically intended for aboriginal students. The images of aboriginals on the cover stress the importance to native students that business is a subject applicable to them. This initiative highlights the beginning of a new era in education as business courses for indigenous people written by indigenous people lay the foundation for a greater involvement within the business/administrative sector. According to Statistics Canada, in 2008-2009, the average employment rate fell faster for off-reserve Aboriginal people than for non-Aboriginal people. Additionally, the gap between these two groups significantly widened as employment rates increased from 3.5% to 4.8%. These statistics highlight the importance of how practical skills need to be easily accessible to native communities in order to provide them with equal opportunity to financially succeed within Canadian economy. In correlation to the ideas of equality within education, D'ary Levesque also discusses in the Globe and Mail, the importance of aboriginal education and its potential impact on the country's economy. Although Aboriginal Canadians are one of the youngest and fastest growing populations, lower educational trends continue to preside. Levesque expands on this idea based on reports from the Ottawa-based Centre for the Study of Living Standards which estimates more than $170 billion could be added to the economy by 2026 if natives achieved the same education levels as other Canadians. Ultimately, Levesque examines the importance of corporations to lend a supporting role alongside the Federal government to assist First Nation communities in advancing their education. Refer to: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opin

The fictional story (that Father Theo inserts into his blog)of an exchange between a student and a teacher shares Father Theo's real feelings about what is being taught in the Social Studies Classrooms in Canada. The teacher in the mythical classroom states "the winners write history the way they want to hear it, and most times they don't tell the whole truth." Are History Teachers in Canada Liars? The second part of the blog Father Theo references historian James W. Loewen book called Lies My Teacher Told Me which evaluates Almerican text books for accuracy, balance, and how inclusive the are of minorities and their role in North American History. He argues that history text books "avoid, de-emphasized or misled in respect to sensitive topics, topics like racism, the class system, slavery and the resettlement of America". Although I do not agree with all of the article, it really made me take notice of my bias to my culture and how maybe I need to reflect on the feelings of other cultures when I create my history lessons.

Students are falling behind in Geography as the focus has been put on math and language in schools. However, it is very important for our youth to learn about the global economy and the many different cultures and relationships around the world. This particular article discusses statistics from the US, but the same generalizations can be made for Canada and its school focus.

This is a research seminar paper written by a student from York university. She argues that the current Ontario curriculum for Primary and Junior Social Studies needs to be changed for several reasons. She argues that the current curriculum is exclusive to minority groups that include immigrants, people from the gay, lesbian and bisexual community, people of colour and kids from non-nuclear families. She stresses that the curriculum is written from a Eurocentric perspective and does harm to the history of Aboriginals and coloured peoples. In a nutshell, the author believes the current curriculum does not generate a positive means of socialization for students. Even if you do not agree with her arguments, take note of the issues she raises and we can see if the new curriculum touches on these issues when it is released this year. As a teacher, this paper is a good reminder to create an inclusive class room environment and academic program, even if the curriculum fails to outline this as a guideline for teachers.

Take a look at this research journal article, (Falling voter turnout: Is it linked to diminished civics education?) it tries to shows a statistical correlation between the decline in Canadian voter turnout and a decrease in time spent on learning/teaching social studies. The authors of the report argued that this decline young voter participation reflects a "diminishing student awareness of some of the basic knowledge that informs a functional Canadian and global citizen." The article was released by the (CCL) produces a wide variety of material to aid researchers and policy-makers working in the realm of Canadian education. Good article for advocating for an increased focus on social studies in our school and a renewed focus on educating young Canadians about our cherished democratic system.

Hi again, found this short exert from Teaching and Testing to Continuous Learning and Improvement by John Jay Bonstingl which looks at the quality paradigm shift in education. The book was originally intended for teachers and curriculum development committees but offers useful information for anyone in the education community. The main body of the article is broken into two main parts. In the first part of the article the author compares the old paradigm of teaching and testing to the new paradigm of continuous learning and improvement and in the second part the author shows a comparison of these two techniques when applied to social studies. This could be useful as a point of reference when developing lesson plans which are intended to engage and stimulate students.

In this article Jennifer Tupper argues for a new approach to teaching history; a rediscovery or re(hi)storation which not only examines the male dominated view of history, but also the influences others to critically approach historical documentation for bias and partiality. I found her text formatting and insertion of italicized documentation to be particularly relevant and persuasive. It demonstrated how we as History teachers can allow spaces for 'breaking news' that might otherwise be overlooked, so that we are not perpetuating this narrow perspective.

In this article the author discusses the importance of separating myth from history for social studies teachers. It argues that there has been resurgence in our schools to heighten the historical consciousness of our students. According the article many teachers have been able to provide the time and focus for students to become increasingly proficient at, and increasingly committed to, the difficult work of looking at the past critically. Since history is part of our core curriculum, schools actually have had the time to develop thoughtful and subtle complexity in students' historical thinking. One of the most important parts of the article talks about what the goal of teaching history in our schools should be and the importance of history in knowledge-making.