New Year's Resolutions

 Do you make New Year's resolutions?  

Here's a fun look at the history of new year's resolutions (which go back in some form for 4,000 years!)

Thinking about New Year's resolutions made me wonder if anyone has any resolutions relating to teaching social studies? Maybe it's

• Exposing your students to more primary sources.
• Incorporating more Indian history and culture into your curriculum. 
• Taking your learning outside of the classroom (Wibaux middle school teacher Laura Dukart's cemetery project, "In Memoriam. A Study of Our Local Cemetery," is a great model; here's a presentation she created for teachers interested in creating a similar project in their own communities.)
• Implementing a new resource to teach civics and government.
• Using bell ringers.
• Integrating a new teaching strategy.
• Learning more about National History Day by signing up to judge at a contest in Kalispell, Helena, Miles City, or Bozeman. 
• Attending Social Studies Second Tuesdays (Next up is January 14, 4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. with author of Middle Kingdom under the Big Sky and Associate Clinical Professor at Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education Mark Johnson, who introduce lessons for teaching about the Chinese in Montana. Register. Attendees earn 1 Renewal Unit.)

I'm genuinely interested: if you do have any teaching resolutions, please share them with me--and if you want to share any ideas you have for fulfilling them, I'd love to hear them as well.