Best of, High School Edition

Every spring, I ask folks to share their favorite Montana history of IEFA lesson, the one they would absolutely do again. Go here for the elementary and middle school teachers' responses.  Read on for the responses from high school teachers with some notes from me, in brackets.

I enjoyed the IEFA lesson "Where the Girl Saved Her Brother."  The review given by the students was mixed, but not because of the activity.  –Marietta Kuhl, Colstrip Mt.  American Indian Studies (9-12), Government (11), US History (12) [I'm guessing this is the lesson plan Marietta is referring to.]

I revisited my US Constitution/Hellgate Treaty/allotment lessons this year in English class and they were pretty good even without reading Wind from an Enemy Sky. I make sure I include those every year, with or without the anchor text. These can be found within this OPI Model Teaching Unit. Anna Baldwin, Arlee HS 10^th grade English

Several teachers championed the Montana and the Great War project  (including Beaverhead County high school teacher Kim Konen) and I am SO glad. These teachers took on a substantial commitment: to have their students conduct authentic research into how World War I affected people in their counties and then to share their findings. You can find the lesson plan here. You can read a summary of the project here.  You can see the kids' excellent work here.

I did a lesson referencing Indian Relocation and used contemporary artist George Longfish as the catalyst. His work is located in the permanent online collection at the Missoula Art Museum. Jennifer Ogden, Victor School, K-12 Art

Because of a 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, K-12

We begin with a short discussion of how street names commemorate important events/people. I then ask students to name streets around West High School in Billings (Custer, Howard, Miles, Broadwater, etc). Most express surprise about the number of military and financial men. The real lesson comes when I ask them to name important Native American figures/people (language is important here).  Most name Sacajawea; a few know Two Moons (a park) or Black Otter Trail and now Joe Medicine Crow (middle school).  They quite gleefully name Iroquois, Comanche, Kiowa, Apache and then tipi, tomahawk, and the ilk. As I, fortunately, deal with quite bright juniors; they realize at this point what they have done and how even in 2018 vestiges of white privilege still remain.  Many of them remember the rancor and animosity that the decision to name the middle school after Joe Medicine Crow name brought a few years ago.  I don't do any assessment; the stark realization fills that role for me.--Bruce Wendt, Billings West

Our Art teacher and English teacher collaborate to go to Glacier and learn about the historical signifigance to the CSKT tribes to the area and then create art work of the land, followed with writing about the art piece as it pertains to the CSKT tribes.--anonymous

And three more brief and anonymous but intriguing suggestions:

• I have designed interactive maps to teach MT geography. 
• Mountain man flint and steel fire starting... hands-on for kids.
• Footlocker on Homesteaders [The Mystery of the Old Homestead] from Western Heritage Center

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.