Favorite Elementary Lessons

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

Cedar Martin, who teaches 2-3 in Lavina, wrote: "I think it was my IEFA lesson about Stereotypes. The kids loved the engagement of the lesson. They loved learning about stereotypes and how to realize what we watch or say can be stereotyping others. This was a valuable lesson to the students at such a young age." [I'm not sure what resource she used but it might be one of this lesson posted on OPI's website: Stereotypes, Grade 3. OPI also has Identifying Stereotypes and Countering Them, Grade 4.]  

Clifford Thorsen, who taught 4th grade in Evergreen for many years, loves the 4th grade winter count lesson.

Jodi Delaney, who teaches grades 4-5 in Helena, wrote:

I love using the lesson on Rosebud Battle or Where the Girl Saved Her Brother. This one lesson addresses multiple standards in social studies and IEFA, ELA, and art.  It’s a powerhouse lesson on points of view and there are so many topics you could connect with, like learning more about ledger art, journalism, writing summaries, and more. The lesson includes multiple kinds of activities to address all sorts of learners and can be adapted for differing ability levels to include the whole class. She also notes that the logistics of the lesson can be intimidating at first glance and so she'd be happy to walk folks through it if they want. [Just email me and I'll put you in touch.] This lesson is part of Montana: A History of Our Home, the curriculum MTHS put together for grades 4-6. Find it in Unit 5 of the curriculum (Part 3, Lesson 3). 

Hali Richmond, of Sunburst, wrote:

I never miss the opportunity to teach Mapping Montana, A to Z. The students love spreading out across the classroom with their maps and starting their "field trip" across the state! Once the students have their routes mapped out, we learn about the 7 reservations and 12 tribal nations and discuss which reservations they travelled through on their journey! 

It's never too late! If you have a great lesson or resource you think other teachers should know about, let me know!

P.S. Don't forget to register for Teaching Current Events (Tuesday, Oct. 8, 4:30-5:30 p.m.) Learn more and find registration link.

Best of, Middle School Lessons

Every spring, I ask folks to share their favorite Montana history or IEFA lesson, the one they would absolutely do again. Here are the responses from middle school teachers with some notes from me in brackets. Read high school teachers' responses.

Jody Richards, who teaches 7th grade Montana history in Wolf Point, has her students compare and contrast Charles M. Russell and Evelyn Cameron images. [I love this idea. Montana History Portal has an Evelyn Cameron online exhibit. Find a PowerPoint of Russell images on our Teaching Charlie Russell page.] 

Another teacher from the Flathead wrote: "This winter we made snow snakes in our classroom. The students used rasps and sandpaper to shape their individual snow snake before painting/decorating it with personal symbols that represent their lives and culture. We then constructed a track out of snow and held a competition in each class to see whose could glide across the snow the farthest."

Sarah Rosenbaum, who teaches in Columbia Falls, wrote: "I taught about Ghost Towns in Montana. I had students choose the project they felt drawn to the most to create this. The students were able to choose between a digital platform, poster presentation, or a model of a building in their ghost town." 

Michelle Moccasin, who teaches Crow language and culture, 7-12 in Lodge Grass, does a lesson on the seven buffalos who become the seven stars or Big Dipper. 

Ron Buck, who teaches 6-12 in Shelby, wrote: "I am a broken record, but I will never skip the Art of Storytelling. I also will use the Montana Stories of the Land textbook in my classroom as the main teaching resource."

Charlie Brown, who teaches 7th grade Montana history in Fairfield, wrote: "I really like doing the atlatl project." 

Denise Rutledge, at Montana School for the Deaf and Blind, highly recommends  The American Buffalo, from PBS. [Explore accompanying educational resources from Montana PBS.]  

Another teacher recommends the footlocker To Learn A New Way, which includes information on Indian boarding schools. [Find out more about ordering hands-on history footlockers.]

It's not too late! If you have resources, lessons, or strategies other teachers should know about, send them to me!

Native Filmmaker Initiative Film Club

 The Native Filmmaker Initiative Film Club is a virtual youth education outreach program that screens a curated selection of Indigenous-made documentary films in classrooms across Montana. Following the screenings, filmmakers visit classrooms virtually for a live Q&A and discussion activities rooted in Montana's Indian Education for All Essential Understandings. Film Club discussions are led by the Big Sky Film Institute in collaboration with Montana Office of Public Instruction’s Indian Education Specialists as well as participating filmmakers to talk in-depth about the process of filmmaking.

The 2024 season of the NFI Film Club presents "Strengthening Relationships & Building Resilience," a triptych of films curated to engage Montana youth with unique and uplifting stories of Native and Indigenous individuals across the globe North America who are building strength through their communities and upholding traditional practices in the modern day. Three up-and-coming films highlight the strength of Native and Indigenous mover-and-shakers working to enrich their communities, celebrate the cultural practices they grew up in and grow in inspirational ways through.

Running October through December, each Film Club event will focus on diverse Indigenous subjects and topics. Consult the discussion guides to help adapt the Film Club activities into social studies, science, history or other areas of study. Films are available to view in advance of Film Club discussions and each classroom will receive access to discussion guides and instructions on how to join the live Q&A.

Go to the website to register your classroom to participate. Registration includes a screening link to the film with details to join a live filmmaker Q&A (below), and accompanied discussion guides. 

Pro-tip! You can also find previous years' films and discussion guides on the website which you can show in your classrooms any time!

Are you interested in more information about this program? Email the Director of Education at youth@bigskyfilmfest.org for more information, or to be added to their Youth Programs email list!

P.S. The above text is taken almost verbatim from the Film Club website. I’ll add two thoughts of my own. First, you can find previous years' films and discussion guides on the website which you can show in your classrooms at any time!. Second, every teacher I’ve talked to who has done this in past years has raved about it—so go sign up already!

Best High School Lessons

 Every spring, I ask folks to share their favorite Montana history or IEFA lesson, the one they would absolutely do again. Here are the responses from high school teachers with some notes from me in brackets.

Chelsea Johnson, who teachers 9-12 social studies in Missoula, had her students create a discussion guide for the documentary Native Ball.

Chris Clairmont, who teaches social studies, PE and health at Superior High School, wrote: "I had my students in both my Native American History and Montana History classes create atlatls and arrows. I made a target on a sheet of insulation and we spent a couple of class periods trying to feed our 'tribe' by harvesting a mammoth." [Perhaps he used Making an Atlatl.]

A Missoula teacher taught a lesson on Butte labor history and incorporated unionization and also the Chinese Exclusion Laws and used the court testimony from Chinese business leaders. [Find an excerpt of Hum Fay's testimony here.]

A Billings teacher did the Montana Constitutional Convention Yearbook Project with her class. [I love this lesson, created by Bigfork teacher Cynthia Wilondek and was excited to see it being used!]         

Belgrade teacher Deb McLaughlin (9-12 social studies) wrote:

"For my semester assessment/final the student do a brochure. All the brown signs along the highway and the National Historical sites are available on the web. My student pick one and write a brochure that would write the "rest of the story" to the signs. I ask them to think about what is not being said, or how the geography of the area contributed to the history that the sign is explaining. There are several more prompts but the idea is: What would a enhance a tourist historical knowledge? Think that the brochure is attached to the sign and the tourist will take it with them. They create it using a provided brochure template. I have had the most amazing results. Students have done the "Medicine Tree in Dillon",  "The Drowning of the Governor in Ft. Benton" The Toston Bridge in Toston and last but not least "Ekalaka in Ekalaka " I encourage them to pick off the beaten track places and year after year they have taken me on the most wonderful travels across Montana."

Denise Rutledge with the State School for the Deaf and Blind in Great Falls recommends Ken Burns' new series, The American Buffalo, from PBS. [Explore accompanying educational resources from Montana PBS.]  

A teacher in NW Montana wrote: "I always use the Mapping Montana, A to Z lesson as a great way to build classroom culture and familiarize students with locations across the state." [Note: Teachers use this lesson from grades 4 up, so if you do this in high school, make sure that students haven't already done it in lower grades.]

Mary Zuchowski, who teaches grades 6-12 in Frazer, wrote:

"Tribal Constitutions represented as a comic strip. Students are presented with various video/interviews about the Native tribes of Montana to begin discussion of what they may know or not. Then, they take time to research the various Montana tribal constitutions, and from the research they gather, they create a comic strip to educate their classmates. The comic strips were also hung on a bulletin board for classmates to observe. The lesson plan was used from the OPI website [Montana Tribal Governments] and then adapted to my classroom."    

Kim Konan, who teaches social studies and family and consumer science in Dillon, recommends teaching Girl from the Gulches: The Story of Mary Ronan. She also teaches her students how to make Butte pasties and about their history (which sounds interesting and delicious.) [Here's the Girl from the Gulches: The Story of Mary Ronan Study Guide and here's an excerpt of Book One, which provides a child's eye view of the mining frontier.]

Stay tuned for middle school and elementary school favorite lessons. And it's never too late! If you have a favorite resource, strategy, or lesson to share, send it to me and I'll share it. 

Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange Program

 Want to involve your students in studying their local history? Want to connect your students with students who live someplace dramatically different than they do?

Apply to join the Smithsonian's Democracy in Dialogue Virtual Exchange Program. Designed to support educators working with middle and high school youth, ages 13 - 18, participants will learn how to collaboratively design and lead place-based investigations with students to better understand the stories emanating from your hometown. In cooperation with another community, students can celebrate commonalities and differences.

Educators of all kinds, formal and informal, are the target audience to be a facilitator and are responsible to recruit a minimum of 15 students to participate in the exchange program. Each facilitator receives an honorarium upon the successful completion of the virtual exchange. Continued Education Unit (CEU) professional credit is awarded at the exchange's end too. All costs associated with the training are fully covered.

Democracy in Dialogue is built around semester-long engagements with each exchange lasting between 6 - 8 weeks. It will run from January to May 2025 (20 exchanges led by 40 facilitators). Applications are due by October 4, 2024, 5PM, EST.

More great IEFA PDs

 

Native American Studies for Teachers

Dr. Anna East is offering what looks to be an amazing course to help teachers develop understanding of American Indian history, culture, policy, and contemporary issues to create more comprehensive, accurate Indian Education for All teaching units. The first two sections focus on tribal topics; the third section provides support for new or improved IEFA units or conducting research toward a future IEFA unit. 

Guest speakers include

• Denise Juneau (Blackfeet/Mandan-Hidatsa), former Superintendent of Public Instruction
• Chris La Tray (Little Shell), 2023-2025 Montana Poet Laureate
• Kevin Kicking Woman (Blackfeet), 2024 Montana Teacher of the Year
• Michelle Mitchell (Salish), CSKT Tribal Education Director
• Mike Jetty (Spirit Lake Dakota), OPI Indian Education Specialist
• Lark Real Bird (Crow), Language Educator
• Bill Swaney (Salish), Former CSKT Tribal Education Director...and others!

The remote, asynchronous course will be offered September 30-November 8, 2024 with three required one-hour meetings via zoom.

45 OPI renewal units or 3 UM graduate credits* available.

Course cost: $25-$275 (pay what you can afford)

UM credit cost: $155 recording fee.

View syllabus here.

Register here.

Questions? Contact anna@chicadeecs.org.

MTPLC Courses

The Montana Professional Learning Collaborative has a large number of IEFA self-paced online courses. They range from courses on American Indian Sovereignty (3 university credits/45 OPI renewal units--$390 plus a $155 recording fee if you want university credits) to American Indian Poetry (1 university credit/15 credit hours--$170 plus the additional $155 if you want UM credits.) Find more here.  

Great Falls, Here We Come

The Montana History Conference is in Great Falls this year, and even if you can't join us for the entire conference, consider registering for the Thursday educator workshop, September 26 from 9-5. Topics will include critically analyzing the Lewis and Clark journals, varying perspectives on the 1924 Indian citizenship act, using archaeology to foster understanding of past and present cultures, bringing history  to life, and using picture books and historical fiction to support historical thinking, deepen vocabulary, and enhance conceptual understandings.  The daylong workshop includes lunch and costs $35. Attendees will earn 6 OPI renewal units. Find a link to register and more information about the entire conference here. 

 

Great Free PDs

 

Indian Education for All

Our friends at OPI are offering two different online IEFA training series this year.

First Tuesdays (starting this September 3) is Energize! IEFA Monthly Gathering: Games, Lessons, and More!

Third Tuesdays (starting September 17) is IEFA Across the Content.

You can come to one or all and earn 1 OPI Renewal Unit per session. Both series will use the same Zoom link throughout the entire school year. 

Questions? Contact Indian Education Specialist Jennifer Stadum.

National Council for Social Studies

NCSS and InquireED has a great-looking webinar series planned for fall on Thursdays. Sessions start at 2:30 mountain but they are also recorded, so if you register, you can watch the recording if you can't make it to the live session. Topics include "Division to Dialogue: Teaching Social Studies in Polarizing Times" (September 5), "Making Time for Elementary Social Studies," (September 26), and "Building a Culture of Discussion in Social Studies Classrooms" (October 24). Since this is a national training, it doesn't offer renewal units, but if you email me with a paragraph summary of your take-aways, I will happily provide you a renewal unit for any of these trainings you attend.

National History Day in Montana

Interested in trying National History Day with your students? Join MTHS Historian and National History Day in Montana Co-Coordinator Melissa Hibbard on Monday, September 9, 4 p.m.-5 p.m. to dig into this year’s annual History Day theme “Rights and Responsibilities.” Throughout 2024-25, Melissa will be offering sessions twice a month to guide educators through the History Day process.

Social Studies Second Tuesdays with the Montana Historical Society

Saving the best for last ;). We are once again offering a six-part series guaranteed to give you great strategies that you can instantly apply in your classroom. Our series kicks off on October 8 with "Teaching Current Events," led by the 2019 Montana Teacher of the Year Dylan Huisken.

P.S. If you are new to Teaching Montana History, find useful links and information here.