Oral History Workshop August 22

I’m breaking my silence to let you know about a new professional development opportunity: “From the Ground Up: Montana Women and Agriculture Oral History Seminar.” Interested in pursuing an oral history project in your classroom but missed the first seminar in Helena in June? This encore performance is for you.

"From the Ground Up" is a six-hour seminar that will teach community educators and leaders how to engage teenagers in the art of collecting oral histories on the women who ranch and farm in their county.

Where: Fish Wildlife & Parks Building, 4600 Giant Springs Rd, Great Falls, MT
When: August 22, 2012, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
  Register by August 20, 2012

Registration Fee: $15

Rich Aarstad, Oral Historian at the Montana Historical Society, will teach participants how to engage students in the preparation of conducting an oral history focusing on the “Five Rs:”

• Research, so they have a basic understanding of the topic and individual they will be interviewing; 
• Rapport, to establish a working relationship with the individual being interviewed so that they trust the interviewer and are willing to share their story/stories; 
• Restraint, or the art of knowing that the interview is about the narrator; 
• Retreat, or understanding when the interview is a wrap; 
• Review, ensuring that all the steps and procedures are covered so that the interview will be properly conducted and the master copy legally owned by the proper repository.

Katie Beall, from the Montana State Library, will introduce participants to the Montana Memory Project--a statewide digitization project that will enable students and educators to work in collaboration with their local libraries to preserve and share valuable oral histories.

Register online at http://dnrc.mt.gov/cardd/ConservationDistricts/OralHistoryProject/Default.asp. For more information Linda Brander, MT Department of Natural Resources & Conservation (406) 444-0520, LLbrander@mt.gov.

Attendees will earn six OPI Renewal Units. The workshop is sponsored by your local conservation district, Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation, Montana Historical Society, Montana State Library, Montana Stock Growers Association.