Contemporary Montana in Context

 Do you subscribe to the Montana Free Press? If I taught government, current events, or Montana history in high school or even middle school, I'd have students to take turns finding and presenting articles from the site. It's hands-down the best news reporting in the state.

Catching up on my reading, I noticed several Montana Free Press articles that tie nicely with Montana history topics. I think they would lend themselves to interesting discussions, possibly using Project Zero's Circle of Viewpoints Thinking Routine:

• Mill closures ‘shock’ industry, but officials say demand for wood remains. Pair this with:    
  • Montana Mosaic video, "Chapter 7: Montana's Resource Driven Economy, 1940s-1960s"
    • Video
    • User Guide
• Montana to Congress: Berkeley Pit ‘a unique opportunity’ for rare earth elements. Pair this with:   
  • Resources from PitWatch, the online home of the Berkeley Pit Public Education Committee.
  • "The Berkeley Pit," Clark Fork Watershed Education Program
  • "Remaking the Wide-Open Town: Butte at the End of the Twentieth Century," by Brian Shovers, Montana The Magazine of Western History, Autumn 1998.
  • Montana Mosaic video, Chapter 10: The Anaconda Copper Mining Company
    • Video
    • User Guide
• BLM adopts rule described as a ‘generation-defining’ shift for America’s largest land manager 
  • Pair this with a discussion of this timeline, which outlines different laws affecting use of public lands.

Join us in Great Falls for the 51st Montana History Conference

 

Save the Date!

The 51th Annual Montana History Conference, "Central To History: Exploring Great Falls and Beyond," will be held September 26-28, 2024, at the Heritage Inn in Great Falls.

Keynote speakers will include Montana poet Laureate Chris LaTray, cowboy poet Randy Rieman, Indigenous foodways and cooking expert Mariah Gladstone, and Malmstrom Air Force Base historian Troy Halsell.

Renewal units will be available for both the Thursday educator workshop and all conference sessions and tours. (Check here after July 1 for more details.) We hope you’ll consider attending!

As in past years, we will be offering travel scholarships for both teachers and college students.

About the scholarships

Funded by the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, the scholarships will consist of full conference registration plus up to $400 in travel/expense reimbursement. All teachers and students in Montana’s colleges and universities are eligible to apply (residents of Great Falls and vicinity are eligible for the conference registration scholarship but not the travel reimbursement). We will also be offering scholarships to cover the $30 registration fee for teachers who only wish to attend the Thursday workshop.

Teacher recipients of the full scholarship must attend the entire conference, including Thursday’s Educators Workshop and the Saturday sessions. Student recipients must commit to attending all day Friday and Saturday, including a Saturday tour. Preference will be given to

• Great Falls area teachers
• Teachers and students from Montana tribal colleges
• Teachers from Montana's on-reservation schools
• Students from Montana community colleges and four-year universities
• Teachers from Montana rural, under-served communities.  

Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. June 9, 2024. Awards will be announced on Friday, June 28, 2024. Applying for a scholarship is quick and easy. Apply online.

P.S. We've got workshops coming up in June as well in Great Falls, Helena, and Missoula. Find more information and links to register.

Teaching with Cemeteries/Upcoming Professional Development

 I love cemeteries! And they make great classrooms. That's why I was excited to learn about the Butte Cemetery Symbolism Masterclass hosted by the Foundation for Montana History on Saturday, May 18. The Foundation is offering 5 OPI credits for this training, which will focus on the history of ethnic and fraternal groups in Montana’s mining towns as evidenced in local cemeteries. Attendees will learn about cemetery symbols, the history of fraternal societies in mining communities, and Chinese burial practices before touring Butte's Mount Moriah Cemetery, observing the Chinese tomb sweeping ceremony conducted by the Mai Wah Museum, and engaging in a hands-on training exercise identifying cemetery symbols.  Lunch is included and the cost is $65 for the full day of training (9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.). Register here.

Do you live too far from Butte to make it to this class?

• Longtime readers may remember me sharing information about Wibaux middle school teacher Laura Dukart's cemetery project, "In Memoriam. A Study of Our Local Cemetery." (Here's a presentation she created for teachers interested in creating a similar project in their own communities.)
• Mark Johnson has been researching Chinese cemeteries across Montana, working to translate headstones and locate the villages in China from whence those commemorated on the stones came. 

P.S. Don't forget! MTHS is sponsoring three workshops in June: "Reading to Learn and Learning to Read in the Social Studies Classroom," (Missoula, June 14, and Helena June 21) and "Crossing Disciplines with Montana: A History of Our Home" (Great Falls, June 26). Participating teachers will earn 6 OPI Renewal Units. Some travel scholarships are available. Learn more and find links to register. 

Art and Primary Sources

 Retired Billings elementary school librarian Ruth Ferris recently shared this website from the University of the Arts on teaching with primary sources.

The TPS-UArts downloadable Teacher Resource Guides cover a range of arts-based topics and historical contexts. The guides are designed to help K-12 teachers incorporate arts-based primary resources into dynamic, cross-curricular classroom experiences. Each guide includes hands-on classroom projects, discussion prompts, and examples of ways to use the guides with Common Core Standards and National Core Arts Standards.

I was particularly intrigued by 

• The Power of the Poster: Connecting WPA Posters from the Library of Congress to Local Collections, 
• Igniting Inquiry: Using Compelling Arts-based Primary Sources to Inspire Student Writing Across Disciplines,
• Amplifying Our Voices Through Music, and
• The City as a Primary Source: Connecting Historical Primary Sources and the City (even though the city they focus on is Philadelphia, I think the projects are interesting.)

Do you have a great lesson plan/resource you think is worth sharing? Send it my way! 

P.S. For art as a primary-source lessons closer to home, check out the Montana Historical Society's Integrating Art and History Lesson Plans. 

 

Student Art Exhibit

Juneteenth is a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States. The holiday was first celebrated in Texas, where on June 19, 1865, in the aftermath of the Civil War, enslaved people learned they had been set free under the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation. Montana became the forty-sixth state to recognize the holiday when it named the third Saturday in June as Juneteenth National Freedom Day. 

In honor of the holiday, the Montana Historical Society and Holter Museum of Art invite students in all grade levels from across Montana to participate in a statewide call for art to exhibit at the Holter Museum in Helena. Submissions are due by May 15.

The theme of the exhibition is “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

The art will be displayed at the Holter from June 17 to 23 and there will be an opening reception for viewing the community exhibit on Friday, June 21 from 5 to 7 p.m. The Holter will also be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 21 with free admission for all, and community members will be able to create art on site to add to the exhibit. Other Juneteenth programming will be happening in downtown Helena from June 19 to 21.

Students should use the quote “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free” by American civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer as the inspiration for their art. Submissions must be drawn or painted on 9 x 12 in. drawing paper, and the artists name, grade, teacher, and school should be written on the back.

Submissions should indicate the teacher’s name on the front of the envelope and be mailed to:

Holter Museum of Art

Re: Juneteenth Call for Art

12 E Lawrence St

Helena, MT 59601

Submissions will not be mailed back after the exhibit, but if students would like to keep their art it can be picked up in person from the Holter between June 23 and July 1.

 

IEFA Links

Although we'll only be able to see a partial eclipse in Montana, it's still pretty cool! And just in time for the eclipse, the Montana Office of Public Instruction's Indian Education Division pulled together this page of lessons and other resources relating to astronomy.  

On a more sober note, between April 9 and May 24, the Western Heritage Center (WHC) will be hosting a traveling exhibit from the Heard Museum, "Away from Home: Stories from Indian Boarding Schools."  

• Learn more about the exhibit and find related curriculum.
• Learn about the contest WHC is hosting for 4-12 grade students in Yellowstone and Big Horn Counties. The contest’s theme, “Assimilation through Education,” invites students to discuss the history and impacts of American Indian Boarding Schools.
• Arrange to view the exhibit (admission is free for both self-guided and group tours.)

 

June daylong workshops in Helena, Missoula, and Great Falls

We're excited to offer three six-hour professional development sessions this summer, one each in Great Falls, Helena, and Missoula.

Reading to Learn and Learning to Read in the Social Studies Classroom

June 14, 2024, Fort Missoula (10 Fort Missoula Rd), Missoula. Cosponsored by The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula. Register here.

June 21, 2024, Montana Wild (2668 Broadwater Ave), Helena. Register here.

Designed for all K-12 teachers, this 6-hour workshop (9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.) will provide dozens of practical strategies to support readers of all ages and ability levels in engaging with social studies content. Tammy will demonstrate strategies through the lens of Montana, Tribal and US history. She will include unique methods to support students' use of textbooks and complex primary sources and build essential background knowledge through disciplinary literacy. Discover how reading to learn and learning to read are reciprocal and co-occurring processes. 

Appropriate for teachers grades 2-12. Participants will earn 6 OPI Renewal Credits. Participation is free and lunch is provided. A limited number of travel scholarships are available.

About the Presenter: Dr. Tammy Elser directs Literacy, Equity, and Excellence, a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction option at Salish Kootenai College for in-service educators and teaches preservice educators literacy methods. The author of The Framework: A Practical Guide for Montana Teachers and Administrators Implementing Indian Education for All, and a dozen integrated Indian Education and college- and career-ready aligned curricula, Tammy focuses on practical strategies supporting current and future teachers to achieve both equity and excellence for all students. 

Crossing Disciplines with Montana: A History of Our Home

June 26, 2024, Aspen Room at Great Falls School District Office (1100 4^th St S), Great Falls, 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Register here. 

Interested in engaging your elementary students in active learning while helping them understand the world around them? Looking for ways to integrate ELA, IEFA, math, art, and social studies so you can cover multiple standards with a single lesson? The new fourth through sixth grade curriculum, Montana: A History of Our Home, was created with you in mind!

Montana: A History of Our Home has closely aligned its lesson plans to the ELA standards. See how you can teach writing, close reading, fluency, and other ELA skills while teaching Montana history and IEFA. The curriculum also includes math practice and art lessons as well! 

Attend this 6-hour training to explore skill-based, hands-on lesson plans designed to teach geography while teaching Montana history.

Appropriate for teachers grades 4-6. Participants will earn 6 OPI Renewal Credits.

About the Presenters: Hali Richmond teaches a combined third and fourth grade class in Sunburst Montana. Jodi Majerus Delaney teaches a combined Montessori fourth and fifth grade class in Helena. Both Jodi and Hali are MTHS Teacher Leader  in History Fellows and both have been named Centennial Bell Montana History of the Year, Jodi in 2017 and Hali in 2023.

Montana History Portal's Meme Contest

The Montana History Portal's annual meme contest will kick off May 1, and entries will be accepted until May 15. Entering is easy. Just pick (or have your students pick) a photo from the Montana History Portal, convert it to a funny meme, and send it in. That's all it takes. The contest is especially popular with kids ages 10-18 and is a great way to get them searching through history materials in a fun manner. Once all entries are submitted and the contest is closed, MHP will have an online voting period to select winners.

They have a full list of the rules here, and you can check out last year's entries and winners here. We hope to see your amusing meme in May!