Center For Geography 
Education in Oregon

Fall Edition - September 2026

Featuring brand-new and revised maps, this classroom-ready atlas covers Oregon's physical geography, cultural geography, history, people, and environment — from plate tectonics and watersheds to Native American Tribes, migration, land ownership, racial diversity, population trends, and natural resources. Created by PSU cartographers and Oregon educators for K-12 classrooms, it's FREE for teachers to download and use. Bring Oregon's geography to life in your classroom today!

Teaching Through Rather than About: Analyzing Black Histories and Geographies with Primary Sources, a free e-book published by C-GEO, was recently announced as one of the nominees for the 2026 Open Education Award for Excellence!

The book’s origins stem from a series of C-GEO workshops and includes 11 secondary chapters that model lessons on teaching Black histories and geographies. Each lesson chapter explores teaching through Black histories rather than about black histories by utilizing a Black Historical Consciousness framework. The chapters also all include completed lesson plans and the lesson narrative, which provides the essential and supporting questions, featured sources, and performance tasks. The chapters conclude with ways activities can be adapted or extended and will reiterate how they are teaching through rather than about Black histories for this topic and why this is important.

C-GEO’s summer 2026 advanced institute participants went to the Southern Balkans’ countries of Albania, North Macedonia, and Kosovo. We explored the geography and history of a fascinating region shaped by centuries of empires, migration, cultural exchange, and evolving national identities. From historic cities and Ottoman-era architecture to landscapes, foodways, and contemporary communities, participants gained a deeper understanding of the connections between place, history, and culture across the Southern Balkans. Stay tuned for the institute participant-created Southern Balkans trip story map, which will soon be on the C-GEO website and will incorporate the 5 Themes of Geography.

This past June, more than 20 Oregon K–12 educators gathered at Portland State University for our institute focused on the updated 3rd edition of C-GEO’s Student Atlas of Oregon. Participants explored the Atlas with its cartographer and C-GEO TCs while learning strategies for using the atlas and geographic inquiry across subjects and grade levels, and to develop new classroom activities and lesson plans. A field trip to the Oregon Historical Society provided an opportunity to put these geographic skills into practice by connecting maps and place-based learning with Oregon’s history and culture.

NCGE's newest program for AP teachers is the monthly Happy Hour. On Oct. 8 from 4-5 p.m. PST, the topic for the webinar is Unit 3 Culture and C-GEO will be helping NCGE facilitate the discussion.

The National Council for Geographic Education will have its 2026 annual conference from October 16-18 in Richmond, VA. The 3-day (long weekend) conference will provide you with the most engaging conference yet where you will be able to:

The National Council for the Social Studies will have its 106th annual conference from Dec. 4-6, 2026 in Chicago, IL. The NCSS Annual Conference is the largest gathering of K-12 social studies classroom teachers, college and university faculty members, curriculum designers and specialists, district and state social studies supervisors, international educators, and social studies discipline leaders. 

Registration is now open for the 19th annual Northwest Teaching for Social Justice Conference. It is on Saturday, Oct. 17 at Lindbergh High School in Renton, WA. 

Our giant floor map made an appearance at the student atlas institute this June, where participants looked at ways the new student atlas could be used with our giant floor map.

The steering committee will hold its next meeting, via Zoom, on Sept. 26.

C-GEO is on Facebook and Instagram (cgeo_oregon). If you have any photos of you and students doing distance learning geography education in the classroom and would be willing to let us post those on Instagram to promote geography education you can email the photos to caranok@wou.edu with a brief blurb of what should go in the Instagram post description.

Shawna Bradley is a K-5 Reading Intervention Specialist in Creswell, Oregon. Shawna became involved with the C-GEO as a Teacher Consultant in 2013 when she participated in a Summer Institute, traveling through Eurasia on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Since that time she has hosted Family Geography Nights and has given many presentations about her travels. She holds a Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction from Portland State University. She is passionate about students’ growth and learning, and believes students learn geography best through authentic hands-on experiences. When she’s not teaching she loves traveling, reading, gardening and handwork. 

Shanna Davis Is an 8th grade US History teacher at Spencer Butte Middle School. She is excited to share her love and knowledge of geography with other educators in Oregon. Having taught in multiple content areas, she has a deep understanding of how geography can be embedded in nearly every class. She has led professional development in geography at the district, state, and national levels. Shanna has participated in C-GEO workshops, trainings, and trips for over ten years and has enjoyed collaborating with educators from across Oregon. As a steering committee member, she looks forward to continuing that work while also supporting educators in our ever-changing classroom environments.

Web: www.pdx.edu/geography-education

Email: geogall@pdx.edu

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