In 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom approved Assembly Bill No. 800, which designates the first week of May as “Workplace Readiness Week” in California high schools. AB800 requires that all California eleventh and twelfth-grade students be taught their rights in the workplace. This type of instruction is incredibly important.
Environmental history is the often inherently interdisciplinary study of how human beings have interacted with and shaped the natural world around us over time. It grew largely out of the conservation and environmental movements in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, and it continues to grow and adapt to respond to present-day climate concerns and science.
“Women were rarely mentioned in history books,” which, according to Beverly Fitch McCarthy, one of California’s delegates who was selected to attend the 1977 National Women’s Conference, made her come to the realization that she might be a feminist.
September means the start of a new school year for students, teachers, and school administrators throughout California. While the start of a new school year can be both hectic and exciting for all involved, it's also a good time to reflect on goals for the year ahead. For example, how are we making sure all students feel supported in the classroom this year? How can we advance equity and center accessibility in TK-12 education this school year?
Kate Bowen is an educational leader with the California History-Social Science Project, and brings over thirty years of experience as a teacher. This month we asked Kate to share her favorite tools, skills, and strategies to support inquiry-based learning throughout the year.
Latinx students make up nearly 55% of all K-12 students across California, and every year students are asking for more lessons that reflect their experiences. We see the need to show students the diversity of people who shaped our history. Likewise, we know how important it is for students to see themselves reflected in their educational experience.
It’s August. You know what that means. Give me all the post-its, paper clips, crisp tabs, and new stickers. Nothing brings me the same excitement as flipping through a freshly-opened planner. Okay, maybe the local office supply store is just my thing, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m not the only one that loves a good back-to-school sale. In the spirit of new beginnings, I want to bring your attention to new resources for this upcoming school year.
Throughout July we celebrate the diversity of our students in Disability Pride and Awareness Month. Students in our classrooms have always been diverse, and research has shown that most students who request accommodations or special education still learn in the general education classroom. Others who receive exclusive education still engage with general education classrooms and curricula to the greatest extent possible (California History-Social Science Framework, Chapter 20, p 537).
People with disabilities are an essential part of the history we teach and their stories should motivate inclusive change within our curriculums and classrooms.
As educators, it is our privilege and our responsibility to introduce students to history. This includes introducing them to their own history – to allow them to see themselves in the past. But it also includes introducing them to the history of the people they live side-by-side with in their communities today.
The pandemic years of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage month have been as sobering as celebratory. Last May, in the shadow of the tragic and murderous deaths of spa workers and patrons in Atlanta, and in light of the necessity for a #StopAsianHate campaign, I urged our teaching and teacher community to integrate AAPI histories within their curriculum.
How did women exercise political power before they had the right to vote? This is one question that teachers and students consider as they explore the myriad ways that women led political groups, mounted campaigns for justice, and worked to preserve tribal sovereignty, for example. Now teachers and students have more resources that help fill out the contours of women’s activism in the west. A digital history project, Women’s History in the Pacific West, offers 69 new b
For nearly one hundred years, Americans have celebrated Black History during February. In 1926, during the height of the Jim Crow era in the United States, historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History introduced Black History Week as a week-long celebration during the second week of February. This week coincided with both Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and Frederick Douglass’s birthday celebration.
