Fathers of Confederation

This book says "grades 4-8" and the front cover looks like it is for children, but it is one of the most useful teaching resources that I ever bought for Socials 10. The book is 76 pages of resources on Canadian confederation. It consists of good overview notes on confederation with a simple worksheet, and then a picture and description of every "father of confederation".  I don't think it is at all useful or important for students in Socials 10 to memorize names or details about the Fathers of Confederation, but there are lots of other interesting activities you can do with this. I use this resource in class by cutting up the descriptions and then organizing a 'mock conference'. They each read a summary of their character, we do a "human bingo" with it and then each person writes a very short speech to communicate their character's opinion on confederation.
I did a quick search online, and found an updated version of the resource for a decent price here. It even has a link to the table of contents and first few pages of the book. Check it out.

Why I enjoy teaching Socials 10

Social Studies 10 is a great course to teach. I like the subject matter, the possible themes, the flexibility, and lack of Provincial exam. I also like that there are no popular events (such as world wars) and not an amazing wealth of quality resources already out there to sift through. It forces me to look harder and be more creative. I do not like the textbook I am provided, as there is very little to fall back on for those days when I am feeling less than organized.

I find it frustrating to look online for resources and spend time trying to recall sites that I remember looking at before. I have decided to become more organized and collect my resources together in one place, specifically focused on Socials 10. Last year, I created a simple website site for my students that has resources for them. Now, I want to try creating a site for sharing with other teachers. Until I do a lot more posting, it is clearly a work in-progress. However, I am hoping this might generate some sharing in return, and maybe even some conversation about teaching and Canadian history.

I like the idea of a blog format that I can update over time, as well as building some static pages to collect resources. I have looked at a few example blogs and liked the format of this one called Social Studies and History Teacher's Blog, but I haven't found any blogs specifically focused on early Canadian history.