WSCSS Conference 2019

Washington State Council for the Social Studies – Chelan Spring Conference & Retreat

2019 Conference Program

The draft program for the 2019 Spring Conference and Retreat is now available!  Please check out the program to see the conference format and breadth of offerings.

Sessions strands include:

  • Civics education
  • Elementary focused
  • Best practices and teaching pedagogy
  • World history and global issues
  • The Pacific Northwest

Features include workshops led by:

  • The UW Jackson School of International Studies
  • Western Washington University
  • University of Washington School of Education
  • Eastern Washington University
  • Washington Geographic Alliance
  • Big History Project

Keynote speakers and workshop sessions addressed:

Culturally responsive curricula – Classroom strategies for diverse student populations

Lessons from the past – How we can find common ground across ideological divisions

Global perspectives – Connections and solutions to the challenges we face

2019 Keynote Speakers

Friday Night Keynote: Mark Allen Smith

The Challenges of Seeking Truth in the Current Environment for Media and Politics

Before joining the faculty at the University of Washington in 1997, Mark A. Smith completed his undergraduate degree in economics at M.I.T. and earned his Ph.D. in political science at the University of Minnesota.  He is Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Professor of Communication and Comparative Religion at the UW. Smith’s research and teaching focuses on American domestic politics, including elections, public opinion, interest groups, and religion.  He is the author of two award-winning books, American Business and Political Power: Public Opinion, Elections, and Democracy; and Secular Faith:  How Culture Has Trumped Religion in American Politics.  He is a regular commentator on national and state politics for print, radio, and television outlets.

Saturday Lunch Performance: Living Voices: Hear My Voice

Living Voices creates dynamic interactive multi-media performances to bring life to history. Using historical perspectives based on real people and events, the Living Voices technique combines live performance with video, audio, visual aids and discussion. Historical film footage and photographs, blended with audio and presented in synchronization with a solo actor, gives the audience a chance to experience how the world looked, sounded and felt during a significant time in history.

Jessie is the daughter of a Political columnist from Tennessee, growing up in Washington, DC during the early 1900s with dreams of being as important to her father as her younger brother is. When her Great-Aunt Charlotte, a longtime suffragist, comes to Washington, she introduces Jessie to the movement. Jessie begins to learn about the history of the women who started the movement, such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the new generation who have continued the fight, like Alice Paul and Lucy Burns–and those who oppose it, including her own parents. Despite their objections, Jessie soon becomes deeply involved in the suffrage movement, comparing their fight for democracy to the one her brother Will stands for when he goes overseas as a soldier in World War I. As tragedy strikes both at home and abroad and the battle for the vote continues to escalate, everyone in Jessie’s family must face their own decisions about what they believe is right and the actions they are willing to take on this pivotal issue.

Saturday Dinner Keynote: Hilary Klein

Hilary Klein is the Director of Multi-State Initiatives at Make the Road, a family of organizations that builds the power of immigrant and working class communities to achieve justice and dignity. Hilary has been engaged in community organizing and social justice work for over 20 years, on issues such as immigrant rights, workers’ rights, affordable housing, and violence against women. Hilary also spent several years in Chiapas, Mexico, working with women’s cooperatives in Zapatista villages, and is the author of the book “Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories.” She lives in Washington, DC with her three-year old twins.

Sunday Breakfast Keynote: Doug Selwyn

Who We Are, Who We Are Not, and Who We Could Be

Doug Selwyn was a teacher in the Seattle Public Schools from 1984-2000 before beginning work in teacher education programs at the university level, first at Antioch University Seattle, and then for the past ten years as a professor of education at the State University of New York in Plattsburgh NY.  He was a member of the Washington State Council for the Social Studies for many years, and is a past president.  He has written several books on social studies education including Living History in the Classroom, Social Studies at the center (With Tarry Lindquist), History in the Present Tense (with Jan Maher) and Following the Threads: Bringing Inquiry Research into the Classroom.  He has just completed a book on the connection between health and education, and the disconnect between what we say and what we do, titled All Children Are All Our Children: Changing the Conversation on Education and Health.  It will be published by Peter Lang, and is due out by the end of the year or very early in 2019.  He is very excited to be coming back to the Chelan conference.

Location and Date

The conference convened from 1 PM on March 1st to late morning on March 3rd, 2019 at Campbell’s Resort.

Campbell’s Resort
104 West Woodin Avenue
Chelan, WA 98816