Cross Curricular Integration.

Teachers can ensure enough time to teach social studies, geography and history by interdisciplinary integration. The revised social studies, history and geography curriculum allows room for subject integration within mathematics and language which is the major focus in the schools daily schedule. Ensuring time for these subjects integrating them with these subjects may help educators create and engage students with higher order questions and deeper thinking with curriculum integration. Educators can help with integration of social studies with other subjects through the use of inquiry based learning to help create deeper level thinking and ensuring there is enough time to integrate social studies, geography and history in the schools daily schedule. Educators can work with other subject teachers in creating inquiry based lessons, or to help integrate social studies, history or geography into the educator’s rotary schedule with the students. 

        Technology can be used to help create integrated lessons with the social studies curriculum, through the use of blended learning within the classroom. Integrating multiple subjects in lessons can be easily done with blended learning and the use of technology makes it a lot easier for the educator to integrate and for the students to learn. There are innovative ways to ensure that world studies can be included in all subjects, there are many opportunities and options for creativity for the educator to integrate world studies. The curriculum allows for educators to integrate social studies, history, and geography through more use of inquiry based learning if educators work together to integrate all the subjects rather than teach the subjects independently and keep them segregated. Including world studies in all subjects helps keep students informed in real world situations and be able to apply world studies and situations in all subjects helps keep students interested in how all subjects can be applied in real world situations and creates actuality. 

        The new social studies document provides opportunities for the educators to give students opportunities to critically think, and create deeper thoughtful questions. Providing students with inquiry based learning opportunities allows students to develop their own learning along with cross curricular integration happening at the same time. This link to edugains website provides an overview of the curriculum document, the review process and planning for cross curricular integration. There are videos, power-points and PDFs discussing concepts of disciplinary thinking and whats new in the curriculum documents. Just visit this link http://bit.ly/1xxcsUR

 Hustvedt, R. (2014). A tipping point for social studies? [Online Image].

       Retrieved January 16, 2014 from

       http://www.magnetsinamerica.org/category/theme-integration/