My classroom is not a group of K-12 students but a nation of K-12 social studies educators in the United States whom I encourage to teach about Canada. For example, I was recently asked to write a regular column in History Matters! for the National Council for History Education based on the e-resource notices that I send to a listserv of over a thousand educators in the US (see www.k12studycanada.org and look under "news" and then "resource notices"). I also coordinate an annual workshop called the "STUDY CANADA Summer Institute for K-12 Educators" which will be held in Ottawa and Montreal next July (with "Nations within a Nation" as the theme).

Should I win a class set of this issue of Kayak, I would share the resource with participants of the institute or with participants of the "Canada Clinic" that I am organizing for the National Council for the Social Studies conference in Denver on November 11, 2010. The set would be a great way to not only encourage connections to Canada regarding citizenship in Canada but also subscriptions to the magazine.

I hope you will consider the value of supporting the outreach work that our National Resource Center on Canada performs to build knowledge about Canada south of the border.

I am a trained Tribes teacher where our aim is to teach the rights and responsibilities of citizenship through a multitude of exercises and activities. In my classroom, a grade 1/2 class, we explore different scenarios of citizenship in our everyday lives that we would come across. We incorporate drama, reflection pieces and art to illustrate such instances. Though differentiated instruction, it has provided each learner in the classroom to have a greater understanding and appreciation of the true meaning of citizenship.

I teach a grade 4/5 class so we spend the entire year looking at Canada and the themes in our classroom we use to do that are hope and that we (our classroom) is one of many ecosystems in the world and we must help each other in order to be successful. Both of these themes transfer beautifully through Social Studies and help the students learn to become responsible citizens which is ultimately the goal of teaching.

In my classroom we spend a lot of time talking about Rights and Responsibilities then we look at putting actions into words through various activities. Most activities are student driven (with guidance of course) and students then vote on the actions then choose to do. A lot of good discussion and dialogue is generated and students soon realize that they have a voice in which was decisions are made.

MZ

In my classroom we are using tribes community circle to talk about our rights and responsibilities as citizens of Canada and our classroom. We are also embracing the me to we philosophy of helping others and have begun to collect food items for a two month long food drive for project share. As a school we have made it our vision for this year to teach good citizenship through giving and caring. We talk it and do it in my classroom.

I work at a Museum and part of our new upcoming Canada Exhibition deals partly with Canadian citizenship. We will have a school program that deals with everything Canadaian, including becoming one. We currently have programs dealing with the early settlers and how they came to Canada when it was first being developed. This new Canada Gallery will show students the contrast between coming to Canada then verses now.

We think that these Canadaian Citizenship magazines would be a perfect addition to our upcoming school program.

Thank you.
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