Educating Engaged Citizens | | At Parker, we graduate students who love to learn and know how to keep learning. The teachers who instill this passion for pursuing curiosity and talents are themselves life-long learners. Parker is a community of active learners, and our faculty are passionate about honing their skills through multiple professional development opportunities throughout the year. This continued learning enables our teachers to offer educational experiences that are individualized, responsive, and keep children at the center of all learning. | This December, Parker was honored to support our middle school Social Studies teacher Emma Wolfe, who submitted a proposal and was chosen to present at the National Social Studies Conference in Washington D.C. Organized by the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS), this is the largest professional gathering for social studies educators in the country. Participants gather for four days of professional development, exhibit fairs, networking, advocacy, and workshops, with sessions on history, civics, geography, and more. | |
Emma shares, “I attended this convention for the first time last year, and I reconnected with a college professor who recommended that I should try to present the following year. Thanks to her advice, I submitted a proposal in February, 2025 based on the conference theme, “Because Democracy Depends on It." My proposal was selected, and I presented it at this year's conference in December. It went really well. A lot of people told me they marked my presentation as one to attend, so that was a nice confidence boost as well.”
Emma’s passion for social studies started young and, in a prophetically Parker way, with a teacher who understood the importance of honoring student voices. “I had a fantastic 7th grade social studies teacher who really changed the way I thought about school, learning, and academics. I always loved social studies; it’s where my brain connects the most. But this teacher really struck a chord. It was the way he taught and spoke to us – It was the first time I felt like a teacher was talking to me and not at me, which felt really important. That experience was so profound to me that I just knew it was something that I wanted to do. From little 7th grade Emma on, I knew this is 100% what I would do, no questions asked.”
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As for what she loves about social studies specifically, Emma explains, “It's a story. It's a giant story that you get to tell, and there are so many different ways that you can tell it depending on which perspective you take and how you are trying to frame the story. There are so many interesting nuances and connections, and you are trying to put together mysteries and ideas, but you don’t always have all the pieces because it is something that happened hundreds, sometimes thousands and/or millions of years ago.”
Emma went on to share more specifics of her recent presentation in D.C. She recalls, “I presented a project that I did with the Parker 6th & 7th grade last year which focused on the question of, ‘How do we teach large historical concepts to students and make it something that is attainable to them?’ More specifically, for this presentation I focused on the question of ‘How do we make the connections between democracy and revolutions attainable through a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure project?’ At the heart of this idea is the intention to put students in the position of questioning how those themes could play out in their own lives. For this particular project, they could write about their own life, or they could write about a fictional or historic character who is their age – any lens that would enable them to see history through their own eyes. My students are so creative that they just took this idea and ran with it. I have no limitations on what that story could be, as long as it's developmentally appropriate and school appropriate for what they are writing about.”
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Back here at Parker, Emma’s current social studies classes are deeply engaged in examining similarly complex questions through different historical contexts. The 6th & 7th grades are studying cultures through the lens of different ancient civilizations. They are asking, “What creates a civilization? What is a culture? How do people and places change, grow, and decline over time? And what factors contribute to that arc? These studies will lead into the 6th & 7th grade Mini-Thesis project, with each student selecting a specific ancient culture to research and write about as their culminating project for the year. Similarly, the 8th grade is focused more directly on American history, looking at how the impact of slavery and racism in the United States led us to the Civil War. Starting with the Civil War, the 8th grade then will move backwards in time towards the revolution, examining connections and themes from outcome to source.
As for our 5th grade, they are doing a tandem curriculum that combines civics and government with an actual civil service project. This year, the students are participating in a year-long effort to learn about and promote food security in our communities. They have partnered with the New York branch of Feeding America and will be volunteering two hours of their time at a food pantry in February. At her conference in D.C., Emma also connected with several companies that want to support this project, and she is in the process of coordinating efforts that would help her 5th grade class to expand their outreach beyond our immediate community to help others.
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Emma concludes by sharing, “It felt incredibly interesting and important to be in the heart of democracy (Washington D.C.) this year and considering the question, ‘What does democracy look like today?’ Social studies teachers are looking for new ideas. We are asking, ‘How do we break the norms of how social studies has been taught in the past and make it more engaging for students now?’ Personally, in my work, I always go back to the phrase, ‘History repeats itself,’ but then I always add, ‘What will be the outcome this time?’ Informed citizens have a better chance of changing the world than uninformed citizens. If my students can go into a future problem knowing different outcomes and knowing which avenues to adjust or fix, I think they are better off, and the world is better off for that.”
*Much of the professional development at Parker is made possible thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Cathey Kennedy and the General William Mayer Foundation. We are profoundly grateful for their continued support of our amazing faculty.
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