Make It Work!

Yep--the post title is a Tim Gunn reference; much to my colleagues' amusement (and really to the amusement of anyone who has ever seen me), I was a big Project Runway fan. And like Project Runway contestants during an unconventional material challenge, Montana teachers are taking what they are given and making it work. (And yep--that's a pretty tortured metaphor. I'm blaming social distancing!) Anyway, here are a few ideas you might be able to make work with your students.

Elementary

Billings elementary librarian Ruth Ferris reports that the second graders at Washington Elementary use SeeSaw, an app that lets students create digital portfolios. When one of the kids asked her to read them a Magic Treehouse book, she chose Earthquake in the Early Morning, about the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. After videoing herself reading the first three chapters, she posted a photo of the earthquake from the Library of Congress and gave the kids this writing prompt: "Imagine yourself in the picture. Use your senses and describe what you see, hear, smell, touch, and taste." Ruth noted that she found the prompt on an Early Childhood Primary Source Analysis "Choice Board" she found on Primary Source Nexus (a free group for teachers to share teaching with primary sources ideas.) Here's what one of her second graders came up with:

 Middle School

At the last OPI Social Studies Sharing/Learning session, Bonner middle school teacher Dylan Huisken shared some of the ways he's thinking about prepping his distance learning classes. His school is using both packets and Google Classroom, and he's careful to make sure that students are getting the same assignments in both places so as not to disadvantage students without internet access. He talked about what he was doing with all his classes, but my ears perked up especially when he talked about Montana History. I was pleased to learn that in addition to assigning chapters from the Montana: Stories of the Land textbook (which he's photographing and sending home), he's also selecting primary sources from the Learning from Historical Document units that go with each chapter. (For Chapter 6: Montana's Gold and Silver Boom, which his class is working on now, he chose Emily Meredith's Letter to Father, from Bannack, 1863.) For kids working online, he's using AdobePro to save the PDF National Archives' Document Analysis Tool as a Word Doc, so his kids can type right into it. (Kids working packets get a hard copy.)

In addition, Dylan is adding ungraded enrichment activities to his online site (for example, links to explore ghost towns), as well as videos and PowerPoint narrations he's recording in Loom, a free screen and video recording software. These are not required, but for kids who are interested, they are available, and Dylan sees them as an investment in the future. This online treasure trove will be extremely helpful once in-person school resumes--especially for kids who miss school or who need extra review. Most excitingly, he's toying with instituting "Enrichment Fridays" next year during which his students will either work on a National History Day project OR spend the class period exploring the enrichment resources he's collecting on his website now. I love how Dylan is planning for the future, so that the extra work he's doing now will serve his students well next year. I'm also excited to learn that teachers are still using primary sources with their kids.

Speaking of Primary Sources...

I hope that those of you teaching Livestock and the Open Range (Chapter 8) will check out our new lesson, Do You Want to Be a Cowboy/Girl? Easily adapted to distance learning, the lesson asks students to conduct guided research of very accessible primary and secondary sources to decide if they would like to have been working cowboys or cowgirls on the open range.

Sharing/Learning Sessions

The next Social Studies Sharing/Learning Session is Tuesday, April 28 at 2:00 p.m. Find la schedule/inks to all of the upcoming sessions here (look for the link in the righthand column.)

More Resources and Strategies for Trying Times

I have a lot to be grateful for, not least of which are a pay check, health, a healthy, loving family, and easy access to trails outside my back door. And I am grateful. Really. But the truth is, some days I'm better at remembering that than others.

Some days, I've got the vim and verve to thrive in this time of social distancing, anxiety, and bad news. On those good days, I'm excited to learn new things and cheerfully work to further professional and personal goals (becoming more tech savvy, touching my toes, memorizing the location of the world's countries and capitals). Other days I count it as a win if I change out of my pjs.

On my good days, I'm charmed by the photos of people recreating works of art with objects in their homes. On bad days, those same photos just make me feel incredibly inadequate.

Is this how you feel? If so, and it is a bad day, put this email aside to read later. Or just delete it. No one will know! Curl up with a fun book, binge-watch a dumb tv show, put on some head-banging music, or hide out under the covers for awhile. Whatever makes you feel better. But if it is a good day, I've got some links for you.

Resources/Strategies

Given that visitors are no longer allowed at senior living centers and nursing homes, I was delighted to learn that some teachers are connecting residents and students as pen pals.

Unladylike is a series of short animated films, accompanied by learning resources, created to recognize the hundredth anniversary of women's suffrage. Most of the women featured are NOT specifically political or suffrage activists--though our very own Jeannette Rankin will be among them. Do you know any of the other names on their list?

The Smithsonian has been making educational resources available to teachers nationwide as schools close. Explore its weekly playlists of object-based resources inspired by stories in the museum’s collection and the Smithsonian’s entire library of distance learning resources, including the new Smithsonian Social Studies Online live webcast each Thursday.

My favorite social studies blogger Glenn Wiebe's recent post "Doing more than Just Treading Water: Three Success Stories" details strategies/assignments from Kansas rock star teachers. Two are online but one could be easily adapted to packets.

This New York Times article, "Film Treasures, Streaming Courtesy of the Library of Congress," features just that. These free short films might be just what you need to round out an assignment.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is offering parents free subscriptions so younger students can access lesson plans and resources. They have also made their AP U.S. history study guide available for free as well. (American history teachers may want to assign some of this material for regular U.S. history as well as AP review.)

Indian Education Featured Resources

The amazing Mike Jetty at OPI's Indian Education Division suggested these resources for distance learning:

Blackfeet and Crow Star Stories - This lesson is appropriate for grades 5-8.

Essential Understanding One Lesson - This online ready lesson helps students learn more about Essential Understanding One: Tribal Diversity. This lesson is appropriate for grades 5-12.

Learning about the Seals of Montana Tribal Nations - This online ready lesson helps students learn about the meaning of the seals for each of the Montana tribal nations. It is appropriate for grades 4-12.

Learning about Tribal Sovereignty - This online lesson will provide students with important information regarding tribal sovereignty. This is for grades 9-12.

Resilience in Indian Country: Yesterday and Today - This online lesson tells the story of a Crow woman named Pretty Shield and an American Indian youth of today. It is appropriate for grades 6-12.

Resources for Learning about Contemporary American Indian Issues - Bison Restoration - This online ready lesson helps students learn about restoration of the bison to several Montana reservations and the importance of the bison to American Indians. It is appropriate for grades 6-12.

Professional Development

The MFPE (formerly MEA-MFT) Educator Conference has not been in Great Falls for over 20 years!  Assuming good health, that's going to change this year: the 2020 MFPE Educator Conference will be at CMR High School, October 15 -16. It would be great to have a really strong social studies track. Do you have a great lesson/strategy to share? Please submit an application to present. The deadline to submit applications is April 30, 2020.

Looking for opportunities to learn (and share) before next October?

The Western Montana Professional Learning Collaborative has many online courses for OPI renewal units/university credits.

Teaching with Primary Sources Denver is offering webinars, from 4:00-5:00 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at https://zoom.us/j/340464136. Here are two that piqued my interest:

Wednesday, April 15 (Today! Yikes!): The Power of Primary Sources and Pear Deck

• 4:00 - 4:30: Overview
• 4:30 - 5:00: Pear Deck, Interactive Slides, and Primary Sources

Thursday, April 16: Primary Sources and Google Classroom

• 4:00-4:20 Setting up your Google Classroom
• 4:20-4:40 Using Google Meet
• 4:40-5:00 Goobric! (I have know idea what this last is, which makes it especially intriguing.)

Hi-Tech and Low-Tech Distance Learning Solutions

Despite all of the stress everyone is under trying to figure out a way to keep their students learning, Montana teachers have been tremendously generous in sharing their expertise and good ideas. I feel incredibly lucky to know you all! Here are some things I've learned.

Assigning PDFS in Google Classroom

One of the first things we did when we realized that "distance learning" was going to become the new (hopefully temporary) normal was to convert our Montana: Stories of the Land worksheets into editable PDFs.

Recently, a teacher asked me how to assign the worksheets in Google Classroom. I reached out to Eureka Public Schools Technology and Learning Coach Rob Reynolds, who made this VERY helpful video explaining the process. (Thanks both to Rob and to Montana History Teacher Leader Jennifer Hall, who introduced me to Rob!)

Rob also told me that while the procedure he outlined in the video is the easiest way to share editable PDFs, there's another option for regular PDFs.


"This does require a bit more explanation and setup. When document is opened by a student, they can then select the "Open with" dropdown and add the apps listed below. This will let them add content on top of the PDF and save to be attached to assignment."

He says that Kami and DocHub are two third-party extensions that allow students to work on PDFs. I was particularly excited to hear this because there were some PDFs we couldn't figure out how to make editable (for example, those that required students to make a graph or label a map). Rob says these extensions will work in both those instances.

When Your Students Don't Have Internet

I've been talking to another Montana history Teacher Leader, Laura Dukart, about distance learning without internet. Many of the students who attend Wibaux Schools don't have access to the internet, and because of the area's topography, some don't even have access to cell service, so Laura's been sending home packets. Packets don't have to mean worksheets though. Laura came up with this great interview project for her eighth graders, which she said I could share. The project's essential question is "what was it like in the past to live through a life-changing event."

• Project Assignment/Description
• Life History Outline 
• Interview Summary Worksheet

After my boss Kirby Lambert shared this post on creating museum exhibits at home, I ran it by Laura to see if this could be another possible projects for distance learning without worksheets. She was excited to try it with her junior high students, which was enough of a stamp of approval for me to share it out more widely.

Laura joined the 6-12 social studies Learning/Sharing session hosted by OPI last week and on the spot came up with this idea for an essay assignment, a twist on the historical dinner party question: who (from a particular period in history) would you want to be quarantined with, and why? (I myself want to be quarantined with Charlie Russell--but only if he leaves Nancy at home.)

For those times that a worksheet is helpful, I went through all of our hands-on history footlocker User Guides and excerpted the worksheets, which include word searches, crossword puzzles, and other activities. Here's a list of what's available. The actual worksheets are in this folder.

A Few Other Resources/Ideas

As of last Monday, there over a million (1,000,003 to be exact) pages of Montana newspapers freely available online between Chronicling America (314,714 pages) and Montana Newspapers (685,289 pages)! Papers come from 78 (!) different Montana towns. Need ideas of how to engage students in newspaper research? Start here. Then go here.


Finally, I am really enjoying the sharing that goes on in the Learning/Sharing Sessions OPI is hosting each week. 6-12 social studies will be back next Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. You can get a link to the meeting and learn what other sessions are available here (just look at the top of the page in the righthand column). You'll find other topics there too. At least last week, there were several elementary sessions as well, just none focused on social studies.

New Link for Learning/Sharing Sessions and Good News Stories

As a precaution against Zoombombing, OPI is changing the links teachers should use to join in with their Learning and Sharing Sessions.

Here are the links for this week's sessions, including the 6-12 social studies session (Tuesday, April 7, 2:00 p.m.) led by Power teacher Merrick Parnell, Bonner teacher Dylan Huisken, and me.

Good News

Last week, teachers at the virtual gathering mentioned that they were looking for good news stories to share with students. That reminded me of the old Mister Rogers quote: "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping."

Here are three stories of Montanans helping:

"Montana Masks Pop Up All Over the World," Helena Independent Record, March 31, 2020

"Hutterite Colony Makes Hundreds of Masks," KXLH Helena, April 3, 2020

"Helena Food Share Receiving Hogs from Elk Creek Colony," KTVH, April 3, 2020 

(Sorry to be so Helena-centric! These are stories I've been seeing, but I bet there are others from your area too.)

Middle and High School Distance Learning Social Studies Resources (Mostly NOT Montana History)

Last week was OPI's second week of hosting "Remote Learning and Sharing Sessions". Bonner middle school teacher and 2019 TOY Dylan Huisken, Power 6-12 social studies teacher Merrick Parnell and I hosted the session on 6-12 Social Studies and will be coming together to host another virtual gathering on Tuesday, April 7, at 2:00 p.m. Find the link to join in at http://opi.mt.gov/Educators/Teaching-Learning/Online-Learning-Resources.

I hope you can join us. In the meantime, Dylan has been posting resources on his web site for his students to use--but who's to say your students can't use them too? Check out both the Distance Learning dropdown and the What We Are Studying Dropdown for links to websites, PowerPoints, videos, articles and more on topics from "prehistory" to ancient Rome to the American Revolution to the Civil War.

Merrick was gracious enough to also put together a list of sites and assignments he's been using to engage his students.

You can find more on OPI's Remote and Online Learning Resources page--including meeting notes for previous sessions (on social studies but also other topics) and a list of all the meetings scheduled for next week (including special meetings for Hutterite colony teachers, low-tech ideas, and using Google Classroom).

Other Ideas Worth Mentioning

Former Colorado TOY, techie, Teaching with Primary Sources guru, and middle school teacher Michele Pierson shared some of the resources she's been turning to. The one-page tutorials on Pear Deck and Screencastify and the free US history resources listed on the Colorado Department of Education webpage seemed particularly useful to me.



You've probably heard by now that Montana PBS is offering educational K-8 programming during school hours on its station. What you may not know is how many remarkable documentaries are available to stream on their website, including several that look good for government classes, including For This and Future Generations (about the 1972 Con Con) and Jailed for Their Words: When Free Speech Died in Wartime America (which I've seen) and Wild by Law and Nature, Back from the Brink: Montana's Wildlife Legacy, and Guns in the Big Sky (which I haven't).

Interested in becoming part of history?

MHS Archives has posted two surveys (one for adults and one for students) about living through this historical time. For COVID-19 diary assignments, check out these from the UC-Berkeley History-Social Science Project. They include high school, elementary school, and SPED versions among others.

Civic Online Reasoning 

I've touted this before but I think it's more important now than ever. Two very smart people recently shared with me the "good news" story of dolphins swimming in the Venice Canal. Sadly, it was yet another example of "fake news." It's true that water in the canal is cleaner now, without the tourists, but the dolphins video they saw was actually taken in southern Italy, not in Venice.

The Civic Online Reasoning curriculum will help your students (and you) learn how to avoid fake news while becoming more internet savvy (knowing that even the most savvy can get caught up sometimes). Even if you can't use the entire curriculum with your students, you might want to have them look at pieces, including videos from the ten episode "Crash Course" Video playlist on "Navigating Digital Information," created by the smart and entertaining John Greene.  (Accessing the curriculum requires registering for a free account. The John Greene videos can be accessed by anyone.)