Place-Based Learning and Upcoming PDs

Upcoming Online PD/Sharing Session

February 13, 4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.: Instructional Strategies You'll Love, led by Teacher Leader in Montana History Jennifer Graham

Join other inspired social studies teachers to discover new ways to increase student engagement and curiosity, including Collaborative Instructional Strategies (CIS). Implementing CIS in the classroom can support your classroom community, SEL skills and bring a level of engagement into classrooms that will keep students coming back for more! Bring your best strategies to share and leave with ready-to-apply techniques that you can immediately put into practice to enliven your social studies classroom. Register here.

If this session is even half as good as the last one, you are in for a treat. And speaking of...

Place-Based Learning/Local Studies

I really enjoyed our January 9 PD, which focused on place-based learning and local studies. Bonner middle school teacher Dylan Huisken gave a great talk that both focused on the whys (e.g., why would you want to do this) and the hows. I'm not going to summarize his entire presentation, but I do want to share one project he does with his students--having them produce local history "one-pagers," which he makes available online and advertises using QR codes. 

Let me break that down:

1. He works with students to come up with topics that might interest them (his students find flipping through old yearbooks and talking to old-timers in the community to be great ways to come up with topics.)
2. He helps them come up with key words that they can use to look for information on their topics in digitized historic newspapers. 
3. He has them look for additional information on the Montana Memory Project (you could use your local museum for this if you have fewer collections digitized than Bonner, where Dylan teaches.)
4. He has them craft one-pagers. He says you can make them fancy using an app like Canva, but he keeps things simple and just has the students create their one-pagers in a Google Doc. Here's an example of a one-pager one of his students created on ice-skating in Bonner. 
5. The students create QR codes and post them around town (at the bus stop, at coffee shops, near the sites they are describing in their one-pagers) to share their research with the community. There are any number of free QR generators. Here’s one.

By having his students research local topics of personal interest and share their findings with the community at large, Dylan is giving his students an opportunity to connect to their community and become engaged and excited about history. He's also meeting SO many standards, including

• SS.K12.1 Developing questions;
• SS.K12.2 Planning inquiries;
• SS.K12.4 using sources to gather evidence to develop and refine claims;
• SS.K12.5 Communicating conclusions; and
• SS.K12.6 taking informed action.

Dylan said he'd be happy to visit with anyone with questions about how to implement a place-based education project at their school. He can be reached at dhuisken@bonner.k12.mt.us. 

The Rural Experience in America

If you are intrigued by place-based learning and live in a rural community, consider applying for The Rural Experience in America: Community Civics through Historical Inquiry. This is a three part program.

• Part 1 is a FREE online asynchronous class focused on using primary sources and inquiry. Frankly, this would be good for everyone--and if you take it and send me your completion certificate, I'll get you OPI Renewal Units.
• Part 2 is a FREE online colloquia consisting of three synchronous Saturday professional development sessions around the theme Rural Lives in Context. This is a prerequisite to apply for the very exciting Part 3 (but you can participate in this even if you don't plan on applying for Part 3). 
• Part 3 is an onsite colloquium at which teachers will work on a plan for their students to create a public history project in their own community. Fifteen K-12 teachers from rural schools will be selected to attend a two-day learning experience at the University of Oklahoma. Teachers will receive $750 to defer travel costs and up to $750 to support their community project.  

Learn more on the National Council for History Education's Rural Experience in America website.