@adamcsharp.bsky.social Are you aware of people in other countries say something along the lines of “grin and bear it”?

our “we are making lists of jews” t-shirt raising many questions already answered by the shirt

This is the kind of content I want more of

Come, mister Pokémon, pokey my banana … (is this anything?)

Well great, now my job is going to be moot

A3 I like to tell students that just like there are many different ways to participate in class, there are many ways to participate in democracy. Everyone’s participation is going to look different. I personally love being a deputy voter registrar and helping people register to vote! #sschat

A2 The skill of being able to have dialogue across difference is, I think, the most important civic skill we can teach. The trick is to try to understand why or how a person arrived at their opinion. We need to be curious about one another to understand the experiences behind the opinions. #sschat

Love this for us

Social Studies Teachers and Friends, We are bringing #sschat to Bluesky! We have a slow chat lined up for you for National Civics Learning Week. You can keep up with us at: @socialstudieschat.bsky.social. Want to help? If so please: Share with your friends! Tag awesome Social Studies teachers!

How they will enforce “patriotism” in social studies without a DoE, I am curious to find out.

SCOOP: Now that Linda McMahon is confirmed/sworn in as secretary, Trump will be imminently issuing an executive order eliminating the Department of Education. I’ve obtained a draft of an email that McMahon will be sending to staff re: the EO and the department’s “final mission”. Here is a portion:

Whoa! Good for John Deere! Now they need to stop laying people off and union busting.

Becoming US is a new educational resource for high school teachers and students to learn immigration and migration history in a more accurate and inclusive way. #sschat americanhistory.si.edu/becoming-us/

An important read #sschat theconversation.com/how-to-teach...

This is beyond awful, in the hometown of @nhannahjones.bsky.social no less. www.wvik.org/news-from-io...

Consent is important

Pardon the TERF-y reference but all these EOs are giving real Dolores Umbridge vibes.

Even a stopped clock etc etc

They messed up on this one. You know elephants hold a grudge.

The party of small government

The Trump administration has begun drafting an executive order that would kick off the process of eliminating the Department of Education, two sources say.

Approximately 20 members of Elon Musk’s staff have begun working within the Education Department. They have gained access to multiple sensitive internal systems, including a financial aid dataset containing the personal information of millions of students enrolled in the federal student aid program.

My 9yo is watching The Simpsons for the first time and there is an episode where Sideshow Bob is running for mayor. At his acceptance speech he just starts laughing evilly. The news reporter is like “wow, he sure seems happy!” Anyway that’s what life is like now.

Approx. 0.001 percent of my students actually go by their official names. Getting parental permission for every nickname sounds like a colossal waste of time.

First “peaceful transfer of power” and now “popular sovereignty.” Civics teachers are going to run out of constitutional principles soon.

Target noooo!!!!! www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/b...

This is unconscionable.

A2 I heard a story on NPR this morning about Carter’s love for and support of the film industry. This could tie into Roles of the President. www.npr.org/2025/01/08/n...

A1 Pres. Carter’s passing has coincided with our unit on the Executive Branch, so I have been tying it in to that. I teach a self-contained ML government class. Most of the students had never heard of Carter but they were aware a former President had died.

There’s not much that makes me proud of my Alma mater these days but I am proud to be an alum of the DP. I imagine there have been a lot of late nights and cold pizza the past few days.

FLAGGING: The Illinois State Flag Commission has selected 10 finalists for the state flag redesign contest. Voting will open to the public in January. Here are the designs that made the cut out of nearly 5,000 entries:

THIS IS WHAT IVE BEEN SAYING

We are all going to need to prepare for WHEN this happens in our schools. Schools are no longer going to be safe spaces. And even families with documents could be at risk.

We need this in Illinois @jbpritzker.bsky.social

Ratatouille 2: Too Rat, Too Touille. Is this anything?

Community eligibility has been tremendous for our kids’ schools. It is especially important for families where the parents don’t speak English and may not be able to fill out free/reduced lunch paperwork.

I appreciate Target’s effort here to be ginger-neutral

There’s so much as a civics teacher I’m not prepared to explain any more. Things like “peaceful transfer of power” and “rule of law” spring to mind.

OK, folks. By popular demand I went ahead and created another starter pack for K-12 History and Social Studies teachers because you can never follow too many teachers. Thanks for sharing. Let me know if you would like to be added. 🗃️ go.bsky.app/4yrJKvt

I don’t know if it’s gone out of style since I trained in 2005, but Understanding by Design is huge on curiosity, and I have always loved that part of it. Do schools of education still teach UbD?

From my mock election simulation with my multilingual learners. #edusky

Hey Bluesky! Here’s a photo from when I still had hope.