End of Quarter Assignment: Professional Issues Course

The Following Chart shows some of my research on professional organizations in my field:

Webquest prompts
Org. name	Area of focus	Membership cost (cite the student teacher fee if possible)	Does the org. publish a journal or newsletter; if it does, is the content helpful, can you provide a sample title of an article or news item?	Does the org. have a conference; if so, when and what is the cost, what is one of the session titles from a past or current program?	Does the organization offer any professional development, if so, what kind?		Does the organization use Facebook or LinkedIn?
State-level organizations
Washington State Council for the Social Studies	Social Studies	Free (from what I can tell)	Yes; The content is both social gathering info and info regarding calls for papers, useful workshop dates and times, and other random minutiae. Sample Article/News Title: “Workshop: What You Need to Know about Japan Since 1945”	It has three yearly conferences. Cost is $70. Title of a session: “Assessing Critical Thinking Through Discussion.” Title of the Conference: “The Future of Civics at the WSCSS 2016 Fall Conference”	Yes – curriculum links, conferences, lesson plans, instruction suggestions.		Facebook: Yes. LinkedIn: No.
AFT Washington (Washington Federation of Teachers)	K-12	Can’t tell – seems kinda fishy to me.	It publishes news, but not necessarily a newsletter or journal, from what I can tell.	Not that I can see. It looks to be a teacher’s Union.	Yes – it offers conferences to members.		Facebook: Yes. LinkedIn: No.
National-level organization
National Council for the Social Studies	Social Studies	$43/Student $85/Regular 1-year	Yes. A journal called “Social Education.” The content seems useful. Sample Article Title: Setting the Stage for Civil Discourse”	Yes – NCSS Annual Conference, held annually. Session Title: “Sunken and Seized Ships: What Warrants War?”	Yes - NCSS Conference, Summer Workshops, state council meetings.
Questions about one organization
Which organization seems worth joining and why? What is one way you could get involved? The National Council for the Social Studies seems worth joining – its dues aren’t too expensive, and it seems to give the most value in terms of material I can use. I could get involved by joining.
Rate the organization using core features from Desimone (2011): 1-Strongly Disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Neither, 4-Agree, 5-Strongly Agree
The organization provides content focus – e.g. emphasis on subject matter and how students learn						5
The organization provides active learning – e.g. opportunities to get involved						5
The organization provides coherence – e.g. consistency across teacher knowledge, beliefs, school goals						5
The organization provides duration – e.g. activities span across the year for at least 20 hours of contact time						4
The organization provides collective participation – e.g. teachers group by subject to form learning communities						5

My professor asked us to respond to the following prompt:

Describe how you have been (or might become) involved in the larger educational community, both on-site in your building and also in the wider field of those in your discipline.  Include specific topical ideas you have gleaned (or would like to) from these professional communities.

 Response:

After some research, I learned that I could become involved in the larger educational community at both the national and state levels. I think the most useful thing to do would be to join the National Council on the Social Studies, because it offers connections to the State Council on the Social Studies. This would give me access to four conferences each year, as well as a professional journal, professional development, honors societies, and much more. I like this organization also because it is specific to my subject area.

Some of the specific topical ideas I have learned from my research, which I would like to start taking advantage of in my classroom, include the information on civil discourse and what warrants war. Many of my students struggle with class discussions, so this would benefit them. Many of my students are also curious as to what makes something a war, a revolution, or a social movement, and how to distinguish between them. Our current unit is “Revolutions,” so this is of particular interest and pertinence to me right now. Another is an article titled “Invoking History in Today’s Politics.” One of my focuses this year is bringing history and current-day events together, to show students that history is relevant. This article is locked and only members can access it, but I would bet it provides interesting ideas to help teachers connect history to present-day goings-on.