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In celebration of Oregon's 150th birthday, Oregon Council for the Social Studies and Oregon 150 present in cooperation with the Oregon International Council - The 4th Annual Spring Conference:
"Where's Oregon?Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow!"
A Conference for K-12 Teachers
April 26-27, 2008
The Riverhouse Resort, Bend, Oregon


Conference Registration Deadline is April 12, 2008
Conference Details: Click here to view online.

Pre-Registration Form: Click here to download form.
Requires application Adobe Acrobat Reader.
DownloadAdobe Acrobat Reader here
In Memoriam: Christine Allen
Memorial Service - St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, 11265 SW Cabot St. Beaverton, Oregon at 2:00 PM on April 22nd, 2008

OCSS members and social studies educators across the state are invited to a celebration of life service for Christine Allen, who passed away suddenly on April 8, 2008 at Providence Hospital in Everett, Washington. The service will be held at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, 11265 SW Cabot St. Beaverton, Oregon at 2:00 PM on April 22nd, 2008.

    

In lieu of flowers the family has asked for donations to the “Friends of Sabeel” (a Palestinian/Christian Peace Program) P.O. Box 220112, Milwaukie, OR 97269.

The National Council for the Social Studies is also accepting contributions to sponsor a $2500 NCSS Christa McAuliffe Award in Christine’s honor. Your contributions may be sent to NCSS (8555 Sixteenth St. Suite 500, Silver Spring, MD 20910) marked "for Christa McAuliffe award in honor of Christine Allen."

The Christa McAuliffe Reach for the Stars Award was established in 1986 to assist classroom teachers in developing and implementing innovative social studies teaching strategies, activities, and citizenship projects with their students. The award serves to help social studies educators achieve a dream that under ordinary circumstances would not be fulfilled. Christine was an ardent supporter of FASSE and the McAuliffe award for many years.

Shortly after Christine was born in Washington in 1946, her family moved to Oregon. Christine attended grade school in Canyon City, Oregon, graduated from High School in Hood River, Oregon and received her Bachelor’s Degree from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. She did graduate work at Ohio State University, Seaton Hall, Yale University and Portland State University.

Christine taught a variety of courses in the Social Sciences in the Salem-Keizer School District for 32 years. Her passion was global studies and during her career she developed a number of special school curricula. After retiring from the classroom in 1999, she started a consulting business and continued to write curricula for a variety of educational media including Web Based Curriculum Design for Global Issues and Economics, Web Lessons for PBS Program “Avoiding Armageddon”, for PBS Washington Week on the Economy and the United Nations, for PBS Newshour: “Using the Newshour Program: Analyzing the News Events”, and for WETA PBS Program “A Force More Powerful: A Century of Non Violent Conflict”.

Christine was also active in the Oregon High School International Relations League Model United Nations program for over 33 years. She served as the State Secretariat Advisor, wrote the Advisor's Manual, developed program curriculum, and organized the statewide programs. Under her guidance the program grew from a few Salem area high schools to over 41 Oregon and Southwest Washington with more than 1500 students.

She was a member of National Council for the Social Studies and a charter member of Willamette Valley and Oregon Councils for the Social Studies, served on the boards of directors for each, and as the WVCSS President in 1979. She served in the House of Delegates, as the Chair of the Steering Committee, and as an officer of the Social Studies Supervisors Board of Directors. At the time of her death, she was serving on the NCSS House of Delegates Steering Committee and was immediate past president of the Oregon Council for the Social Studies.

Christine traveled extensively, including a summer in Pakistan on a Fulbright Scholarship, a Field Study Travel Program to China for Yale University, a NEH Arabic Language and Culture Institute in Jordan, Syria, the West Bank and Israel and South Korea as part of a seminar program. The only places on her wish list she didn’t get to were South Africa and Russia.

Ms. Allen is survived by her father, Rev. Albert E. Allen, her brothers Warner Allen, Rev. Mark Allen, her sisters Rev. Mary Allen, Elizabeth Allen, and Rosemary Helou and numerous nieces and nephews.

 

OCSS Announces New Scholarships and Grants!

OCSS Classroom Grants

For OCSS members to develop classroom projects, OCSS is making grants of $250 to $500. Details and submission information:Click here.(Latest version of Acrobat Reader required)
OCSS in San Diego

Judy Lowery, President of OCSS

The Oregon Council for the Social Studies is very proud of its past president Gayle Thieman, who is currently President of the National Council for the Social Studies. Dr. Thieman is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at Portland State University and works with pre-service teachers, actively encouraging their activities in bringing a focus to social studies in the state of Oregon. At the recent national NCSS conference in San Diego Gayle took on that teacher roll and presided over the conference with dignity and insight for the future of social studies in America. Gayle gave her presidential address in English as well as Spanish, lending the international flavor that NCSS has become. We are very proud of our link with Gayle and her devotion to social studies education. OCSS is very privileged to have her as our constant advisor and past president. (more below...)

Along with the excitement of having one of our own as national president, OCSS was also well represented with several members as session presenters. From Cascade High School in Turner Oregon we had Matt McBeth, Bryan Fenderson, and Lisa Iverson presenting individual sessions. Gwenda Rice and Judy Lowery from Western Oregon University and Gail Vander Heide, recently retired from the Lebanon School District, also were session presenters.

OCSS also had a large voting block in the House of Delegates. The following were voting members: Chris Allen, past president of OCSS, Greg Timmons, Lisa Iverson, Judy Lowery, Gail Vander Heide and Shirley Lomax, also a past president of OCSS.

The Oregon council was also awarded the Gold Star Award for exemplary membership, which includes the membership of the board reaching the 100% mark for dual membership in both the local and national council.

As co-chair of the Houses of Delegates Resolutions Committee, Greg Timmons guided the discussion and debate of resolutions, written by state councils as recommendations to the NCSS board for action. We are also proud of the fact that Christine Allen was elected as a member of the steering committee for House of Delegates. This committee guide the deliberations of the House of Delegates at the annual conference. Congratulations Chris.



OCSS continues to grow in its membership. We are proud of where we have been and look forward to where we can go. We need all of you and hope that those of you who care about the future of social studies in our state will consider an active role.