A Note on Links: When reading back posts, please be aware that links have a short half-life. You can find working links to all of the MHS resources on our Educator Resources Page.

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Best of, Elementary Edition

Every spring, I ask folks to share their favorite Montana history of IEFA lesson, the one they would absolutely do again. Here are the responses from elementary teachers with some notes from me, in brackets.
  • Blackfeet Research Project:  Students research a cultural aspect about the Blackfeet Tribe.  They need 2 resources, 6 main facts and citing sources, a photograph and then they write a summary about what they learned.  They display their information on a poster board.-- Sara White, Shelby, grade 3
  • Reserving the footlocker from the Montana Historical Society entitled Montana Indian Story Lit Kit is a highlight in my classroom every year.  The students are intrigued by the stories and the anticipation of having to wait for winter to come to get the trunk is exciting for the students.  Most of the stories are at the third grade readability level and the others make for a great class read aloud. [You can see the footlocker user guide here. You can reserve it here.]
  • We got the Montana place names trunk and it was SO GOOD! It engaged my fourth graders for three class periods, learning all about Montana and the history of all the little towns using the A-Z road trip lesson.—Christine Ayers, Linderman Elementary, Grade 4 [Find the lesson plan here. Reserve the footlocker here.]
  • Rewriting the state song or other song.  Making new lyrics to go with an event in MT history. This is an adaptation to the state song lesson I previewed for you. –Jackie McCann, Florence Elementary, Grade 4 [We created this lesson plan as part of our revision of our State Symbols footlocker, which will be ready to circulate very soon. Stay tuned for more on this! Meanwhile, here's a link to information on how to write songs with your students for the non-musical that we borrowed heavily from in creating the lesson plan.] 
  • The Art of Storytelling, Barb Sackman, Terry Schools, Grade 1 [Several people talked about doing activities from The Art of Storytelling: Plains Indian Perspectives. That curriculum is available online, but we also donated packets with beautiful art prints to every public school library in Montana. And, I'm pleased to announce that we are reprinting the packet. Stay tuned for information on how to get a copy for your classroom!] 
  • Montana's Charlie Russell [This is another packet of beautiful prints and interesting K-12 ELA, Social Studies, and Art lesson plans that we created and distributed to every public school library in the state and to many individual teachers. If your library doesn't have a copy, you can still access the material online.
  • My MT history project in conjunction with the Montana's State Symbols footlocker and the Crow Astronomy Trunk, which I ordered through Chief Plenty Coups State Park. The engagement factor greatly increase with both trunks. Students loved getting to hold items we can’t find in our area and see real and realistic models of our state symbols. The Crow Astronomy trunk items also allowed me to have the perfect setting to talk about astronomy!—April Wills, Bainville School, Grade 2 [I've talked to April and she has her students complete an amazing local history project with their high school buddies. She's happy to share more information on how she does that.]
  • We did state history this year. While we didn’t get actual footlockers, we did some of the activities from them that are available online and my 4th grader LOVED the state symbols activities. She also really loved the “design your own winter count” activity.—Homeschool parent, Grade 4 [All of our hands-on history footlockers have User Guides that are chock full with lesson plans and other resources, many of which can be done without ordering the footlockers. You can download the user guides here.]
  • Because of an IEFA class I took, I discovered ALL the IEFA resources already in our library! I will be using some of those next year. Shelly Willmore, Roy Public Schools [OPI has donated SO MUCH GREAT MATERIAL to schools! Follow Shelly's lead and check out your library's collection. Also check out the Indian Education division's web site for online lesson plans and resources.]
  • I used the state newspaper link so kids could read about past events in Montana and the country. I also will continue to use the A-Z towns as it is so fun for kids to discover their state. [I LOVE historic newspapers! Here are some hints on how to use them in your classroom.]
Stay tuned for middle school and high school teachers' recommendations.

P.S. Don't forget: The deadline to apply for the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation Scholarship to attend the Montana History Conference is September 9, 2018. Learn more about the September 27-29 Billings Conference and the scholarship information here.

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

2018-2019: Here We Come!

Welcome back! Or if you are new to Teaching Montana History, welcome. I hope everyone had a good summer. The first posts of the school year are always business, so let's get started.

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Montana History Conference Scholarships

Don’t forget: We have travel scholarships available to teachers wishing to attend the 45th Annual Montana History Conference (held this year in Billings) September 27-29. Scholarship applications are due by 11:59 p.m. September 9, 2017. Awards will be announced the following week.

You can find the conference program and the scholarship application information here. If you can't attend the entire conference, consider just joining us for the Thursday educator workshop ($25, lunch included, 6 OPI Renewal Units.)

For Students with Learning Disabilities

Did you know? Montana: Stories of the Land is available as an audiobook for students with learning disabilities through Learning Ally.

Montana: Stories of the Land Companion Website and the MHS Educator Resources Page  

I hope most of you are already using the Montana history and Indian Education for All resources posted on our sites. If so, would you help us out? Please email mkohl@mt.gov if you find any broken links or other problems in the PDFs or on the site. We can usually fix things quickly—but only if we know about them. We moved our the textbook companion website to a new address over the summer (http://mhs.mt.gov/education/StoriesOfTheLand), which will be better in the long run. BUT it may cause problems in the short run. We worked hard to make sure all the links still work, but I'm sure we missed some. So, I’m begging you. See something? Say something.

If you haven't checked out the lesson plans on these sites, I hope you will do that now. And don't forget about our online professional development opportunities--for which you can earn OPI Renewal units.

Two years ago we surveyed teachers using the book Montana: Stories of the Land. Here’s a post about what we found, including helpful hints for teachers using the resource for the first time. And stay tuned for upcoming posts, which will feature your colleagues' favorite lessons and resources for teaching Montana history or Indian Education for All.

Conference on Crow Treaties

If you can get to southeastern Montana on September 14 and/or September 15, the upcoming symposium "Treaties that Live: Sesquicentennial of Crow (Apsaalooke) Indian Treaties of 1868 at Fort Laramie, Wyoming and Fort Hawley, Montana" at Crow Agency looks fascinating. OPI Renewal units will be available. If you can't attend, check out the documents, photographs, and map the organizers have gathered for their website.