Burgundy’s middle school humanities program integrates social studies and language arts. This integration lends itself well to an intellectual richness and rigor for our students. What I appreciate most about our humanities program is the thematic progression from 6th to 8th grade.  The theme of 6th grade humanities is Origins and Stories. Here, students explore the role of stories in our civilization, why we write stories, and what stories do for us. The theme of 7th grade is Ways of Seeing. Here, students examine the concept of America from the perspective of major groups in this country. In each unit, students ask to whom does America belong, who is included and who is excluded? The theme of 8th grade is Voices of Change. Students examine major movements of change in this country and ultimately arrive at the notion that they, too, can be agents of change.  

The theme of the most recent National Council for the Social Studies conference was Informed Action: Agency, Advocacy, Activism, which echoes the 8th grade humanities theme of Voices of Change. I have attended this conference for the last eight years. Each year, I learn many new things from teachers and scholars from all over the country who share amazing resources, technologies, and pedagogy. I bring this new knowledge back and figure out how it can be used to invigorate what we do in humanities.

I attended the conference just this past November. On the final day, I attended two workshops led by the Upstander Project, which strives “to help bystanders become upstanders through compelling documentary films and learning resources.” In 7th grade, one of the groups we study is Native Americans. Already, we’ve had students read historical resources, used pedagogical tools, and shown two films that I learned about at the most recent NCSS conference. In the films, we hear from indigenous people themselves. In line with that, we’ve had a parent come in and share personal experiences with the practice of government-mandated forced adoption of indigenous children. Students have been applying what we’ve learned from these various resources to the study of Sherman Alexie’s Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which has made the unit even richer.

I have been teaching for about 25 years now. My background before coming here 9 years ago was a language literature background. Attending the NCSS conference each year has helped me develop the social studies side of my teaching. Overall, my instruction has become much more dynamic. I work with an amazing humanities team. We share and learn from one another. Over the years, we have incorporated a number of things that I’ve learned from these conferences.  Overall, we have all benefited as teachers, but our students have been the biggest beneficiaries. It excites me as an educator to know that I am teaching my students to be critical thinkers and facilitating their contemplation of how they would like to influence the world around them.