Karalee Wong Nakatsuka, MA. Ed., has taught middle school US History students since 1990. She is passionate about using technology to engage students, focusing on building community in her classroom, and helping students to see themselves in the story of America as they develop into empathetic and informed critical thinkers and citizens who make a difference in the world. Last summer, Karalee was recognized in a Teacher Tribute by the Ford's Theatre Society at their Annual GALA; as an honoree she was invited to the White House where she and her fellow tribute teachers had the honor of meeting President and Dr. Biden. She was named the 2023 California Council for the Social Studies Middle School Social Studies Teacher of the Year.ย In 2019 she was recognized as the Gilder Lehrman History Teacher of the Year for California and was a top 10 finalist for the national award. She serves on the Educating for American Democracy Teacher Leadership Taskforce, the iCivics Educator Network, and the Gilder Lehrman Teacher Advisory Council. Karalee was honored to be featured in The New York Times' August 2022 multimedia and newspaper piece "What's Actually Being Taught About U.S. History" and in Time Magazineโs September 2021 issue โFrom Teachers to Custodians, Meet the Educators Who Saved a Pandemic School Year.โ When sheโs not teaching, she can be found enjoying history vacations with her family, collaborating with fellow history teachers locally and across the country, attending and presenting at conferences, and hanging out with her fellow social studies teachers somewhere on social media. She is the coauthor of "Bring History and Civics to Life, Lessonsย & Strategies to Cultivate Informed, Empathetic Citizens" published by ISTE.
Day 1 #ISTELive 25
Always grateful for help navigating the conference with the friendly folks at the info desk!
Thanks to all the friendly folks who helped me navigate around the Convention Center!
ISTE means running into dear sweet friends!
Always a happy day to hang out with my dear friend and co-author Laurel Aguilar-Kircchoff
History Friends Unite!
I'm a Moby Fan!
AAPI Affinity Space
Representation Matters
Love the ISTE bookstore
Thanks for welcoming us ISTE authors!
Hanging out with our book mom!
So proud of our Book Brother's sparkling new book!
Meeting and talking Civics with Richard Culatta
We love our ISTE books team!!
Ready for Frogtastic Dreams
In 2018, with hesitation, I attended "The History of American Immigration Through a California Lens" Gilder Lehrman Institute at Occidental College.ย And here, I finally found my representation in a brilliant, friendly Korean American professor and it changed my life.ย Six years later, I've had the honor and privilege to head up Pacific Crossings with hero, mentor, and dear friend Jane Hong and it was amazing. We had the most incredible,ย passionate, engaged, inquisitive, fun group of educators around. It was a joy and an honor to build a community and learn together. Teaching isn't always easy, but these teachers give me hope. Refreshed, inspired, equipped,ย we are all ready to go back to our classrooms to build community and provide representation for all of our students.
Representation Matters, Community Matters, History Matters!
ย See even more Pacific Crossings photos on the 2024 Archive Page
In 2018, I was an attendee at Gilder Lehrman's California Seminar: The History of Immigration Through a California Lens.ย It was an amazing week, made a significant impact on my life professionally and personally. 6 years later, I get to return back to my alma mater again, but this time I have the honor and pleasure of being the master teacher for 36 exceptional educators, with the amazingย Jane Hong! So excited!
#BringHistoryToLife #TryOneNewThingChallenge
Disclaimer: This post was written when X was Still Twitter and the platform was a friendly place for edtech, social studies educators, and our ย The connections and collaborations we've made on Twitter have been significant and have led to meaningful connections IRL. Twitter/X is not longer as user-friendly/friendly and we social studies educators are still trying to figure out where we will land.