New Year's Resolutions

 Do you make New Year's resolutions?  

Here's a fun look at the history of new year's resolutions (which go back in some form for 4,000 years!)

Thinking about New Year's resolutions made me wonder if anyone has any resolutions relating to teaching social studies? Maybe it's

• Exposing your students to more primary sources.
• Incorporating more Indian history and culture into your curriculum. 
• Taking your learning outside of the classroom (Wibaux middle school teacher Laura Dukart's cemetery project, "In Memoriam. A Study of Our Local Cemetery," is a great model; here's a presentation she created for teachers interested in creating a similar project in their own communities.)
• Implementing a new resource to teach civics and government.
• Using bell ringers.
• Integrating a new teaching strategy.
• Learning more about National History Day by signing up to judge at a contest in Kalispell, Helena, Miles City, or Bozeman. 
• Attending Social Studies Second Tuesdays (Next up is January 14, 4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. with author of Middle Kingdom under the Big Sky and Associate Clinical Professor at Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education Mark Johnson, who introduce lessons for teaching about the Chinese in Montana. Register. Attendees earn 1 Renewal Unit.)

I'm genuinely interested: if you do have any teaching resolutions, please share them with me--and if you want to share any ideas you have for fulfilling them, I'd love to hear them as well. 

Happy Holidays

 "How have things changed and how have they remained the same" is one of my favorite big historical questions to ask students to ponder--and it's a question that has special resonance around the holidays.

Take this picture of Mrs. Leo Jensen, Herluff Strandskov, Leo Jensen, Miss Jensen, Mrs. Alfred Jensen, and Mrs. Leo Jensen bringing in the new year at the home of the Jensen's in Dagmar, Montana, December 31, 1964. How does it, or doesn't it, resemble your own holiday celebrations? 

However you do (or don't) celebrate the holidays, I wish you and yours all health and happiness in 2025. 

Christmastime in Montana

 Over the years, I've shared accounts of Christmases past for your reading pleasure--and in case you want to share them with your students. For your reading pleasure: 

Christmas 1873 shares a report on Helena's Christmas happenings in the Helena Weekly Herald.

What was Christmas like in Montana Territory? shares excerpts from Dave Walter's Christmastime in Montana, including an account of William Thompson's first Montana Christmas in 1863 and newspaper accounts of Christmas in Bozeman in 1867 and in Helena in 1868. 

Christmas, 1910 shares Edna Patterson's reminiscence about Christmas on her parents' homestead outside of Glendive (also from Dave Walter's book).  

Santa Claus Didn't Come to the Gallatin Valley in 1864 offers excerpts from a letter that Homer Thomas wrote from his family's farm in the Gallatin Valley to his grandmother back in Belleville Illinois in 1864.

P.S. Looking for a great holiday activity? Consider asking your students to shop for presents in the historic newspapers. Choose an era and location (or let them choose) and turn them loose to explore the advertisements. I usually suggest they buy something for themselves and something for an important adult in their life. The Montana Historical Society Library has digitized almost three million pages from over 250 Montana newspapers published between 1864 and 2018. Chronicling America makes millions pages from newspapers published between 1756 and 1963 in nearly every state and US territory. 

Civics and Government Resources from Gilder Lehrman

 I've always thought of Gilder Lehrman as a source for great American history material, but they now have free resources on their Citizenship Test page. You can now

• Take the US Naturalization Exam—available in short, intermediate, and full formats—and receive real-time feedback on your results.
• Let students test their knowledge (and compete against classmates) in hands-on, interactive quizzes created in partnership with Kahoot!, the acclaimed global learning platform.
• Watch brief educational videos with historians and civic figures which explore the historical significance behind each test question.
• Use free teaching resources aligned with history and civics standards for grades 3–12, including lesson plans and multimedia content to encourage classroom discussions on civic engagement.

Explore their Citizenship Test hub.

 

Teaching with Primary Sources

 Colleague and co-director of National History Day in Montana Melissa Hibbard recently shared an interesting post from Facing History & Ourselves: Six Ways to Teach with Primary Sources.

I'd argue that primary sources are what bring history to life by allowing students to touch part of the past. Primary sources can also build empathy, and they are excellent for teaching students to think critically and to consider how creators' perspectives shape sources, something all citizens need to know.

It's worth clicking through to read the whole article, which offers links and information about

• Using a Document Analysis Form, a graphic organizer that walk students through questions to determine the text's bias and perspective. (Their form is similar to, but not exactly the same as, the National Archives'. I'd be interested in knowing if one works better for your students than the other and why, if anyone is willing to perform that experiment.)
• A strategy for analyzing and paraphrasing sources, which teaches students to take notes and "address the validity of evidence, the perspective of the source and their own interpretation."
• A strategy for analyzing images. (I'm a VTS devotee, but It's always good to have another tool in your toolbox!) 
• See, Think, Wonder, the simple but surprisingly useful tool to get students to "slow down their thinking and simply observe before drawing conclusions and asking questions."
• S-I-T: Surprising, Interesting, Troubling, a strategy that gets students to engage in material. 

• AncestryClassroom, a free tool for teachers that makes "billions of historical records...available to educators and students, along with resources for the classroom and professional learning."  

Mark Johnson to Lead Our January PD

We're taking December off from Social Studies Second Tuesdays, but I hope you'll join us on January 14 from 4:30-5:30 p.m. for Teaching Montana's Chinese History, with Mark Johnson, the author of Middle Kingdom under the Big Sky and Associate Clinical Professor at Notre Dame's Alliance for Catholic Education. Mark is a powerful presenter who is eager to share why it's important to include the history of Chinese immigration in your curriculum and introduce new lessons for teaching about the Chinese in Montana. Attendees will earn one renewal unit. Register.