Teacher's Curriculum Institute

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Last night NBC news shined a light on an issue that all of us in the social studies world are concerned with–our students ability to understand and retain key historical information. The news report focused on results from the social studies NAEP which show low achievement [...]

There is nothing more gratifying to a social studies teacher than seeing their students engage in a lively and passionate discussion about a current or historical event—even better if their arguments are well reasoned, factually accurate, and delivered in a civil way.
Scored discussions are a technique that can be used to create more of these [...]

All of us at TCI have been watching closely as the state of California has been taking steps to support the use of digital textbooks in the classroom. When the California Learning Resources Network (CLRN) decided to expand their Digital Textbook Initiative to commercial texts with interactive components, we decided to jump in. We submitted [...]

With Election Day just a week away there are teachable moments all around us in the media. To help students get beyond the sound bites, TCI is making three lessons available from our Government Alive! Doing Democracy Toolkit. I recommend sharing all three assignments with students and letting them pick one that they are most interested [...]

Because Halloween is around the corner and it’s the best time to look for classroom props, I am reposting a blog entry that was originally released last school year that provides a wealth of ideas for creating prop boxes. Enjoy!
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I recently reviewed some of the early submissions for TCI’s soon-to-be-released TeacherGenius feature. A submission from one of [...]

As teachers we often find that our students are drowning in the details of history and are unable to retain basic information. Without understanding some of the big ideas and concepts of  history, students have no way to connect information and organize events and other important details.
TCI has created a great lesson that combats this [...]

Last week I signed up for a free Google voice mail box, and I already cannot imagine life without it. The best feature is that Google offers voice mail transcription. This means that whenever I receive a voice mail, I am sent an email with a transcription of the message that I can read. The transcription isn’t [...]

Looking for something to read as you sit by the pool, lake or beach in these last few weeks of summer? I did a quick survey of my TCI colleagues to find some recommended reading for social studies buffs. Pick up any of the books listed below and you will be both entertained and smarter for [...]

I rarely read the San Francisco Chronicle. However, I happened to be in the Bay Area this weekend and picked up the paper while eating breakfast at a cafe (yes, the print paper!) Much to my husbands displeasure, I couldn’t put this article down once I started reading it. The article, Tech’s Big Three creating bold [...]