Teaching with Primary Sources Workshop

If you are a Montana 6-12 grade teacher, I hope you will consider applying for “Teaching with Primary Sources: War, Resistance and the Montana Experience.” Participants will receive a travel stipend and scholarship to attend the Montana History Conference, No Ordinary Time: War, Resistance, and the Montana Experience,  in Missoula, September 22-24, 2011, including the Thursday Educator’s Workshop (full description below) and the Friday and Saturday sessions and fieldtrips. (OPI Renewal Credits available).

Educator’s Workshop, Thursday, 8:30-4:30 (lunch provided). Many teachers successfully use primary sources to engage and excite students about history, teach media literacy, and introduce the art of historical research.  The Montana Historical Society is making it easy for Montana educators to harness the power of primary sources in their classrooms. In keeping with the conference theme, the workshop will focus on war and resistance, from the Indian Wars through the Gulf War. Participants will learn where to find and how to analyze primary sources relating Montanans’ experience during wartime, including material on the Library of Congress’s American Memory and Veterans Oral History Project websites, the Montana Historical Society’s website, and the Montana Memory Project website. Hands-on activities will offer participants opportunities to hone their primary source analysis skills. Participants will also learn about educational technologies (like Glogster and Animoto) and programs (like Teaching with Primary Sources and National History Day) that make it easier to integrate primary sources into the classroom. Presenters will include Martha Kohl, historical specialist at the Montana Historical Society, Dr. Tom Rust, co-director of Montana National History Day, and Peggy O’Neill-Jones, director of Teaching with Primary Sources-Colorado.

Participants will also receive a travel scholarship to attend the Montana History Day Competition in Helena, April 2012. (OPI Renewal Credits available). For schools that need it, money will be available to pay for substitutes. In exchange, participants will be asked to share what they have learned with teachers or students at their schools.

Applications are due May 15, 2011. More information and forms here: http://mhs.mt.gov/education/TPS.asp. Or feel free to contact me with questions: mkohl@mt.gov.