Summertime!

 Teaching Montana History is going on hiatus for summer break--unless something time sensitive comes along that is so good I can't bear not to share it.

If you are changing schools, please re-subscribe using your new address! We'd hate to lose touch.

We still have spots available in our summer workshops in Helena, Missoula, and Billings. Travel scholarships are available. 

Finally: I'm issuing one last call to complete our annual survey and to share your favorite lesson and/or teaching strategy. (Need more incentive? If you thoroughly share information about resources or strategies, I'll enter you into a drawing to receive a $100 gas card.)

Summer Reading

I asked some friends and colleagues for recommendations for summer reading, and here's what they said. Many of them are available through the Montana Historical Society Museum Store. We'll see how many of these I get through this summer: 

Nonfiction 

• Land of Beginnings: The Archaeology of Montana's First Peoples, Douglas H. MacDonald
• Black Robes Enter Coyote’s World: Chief Charlo and Father De Smet in the Rocky Mountains. Sally Thompson
• The Crazies: The Cattleman, the Wind Prospector, and a War Out West, Amy Gamerman
• By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land, Rebecca Nagle
• Fifty-Six Counties: A Montana Journey, Russell Rowland
• Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask, Anton Treuer

Fiction

• The Boxcar Librarian, Brianna Labuskes
•  Firekeeper's Daughter, Angeline Boulley
• The Marrow Thieves, Cherie Dimaline
• The Lost Journals of Sacajawea, Debra Magpie Earling

Pedagogy/Lesson Planning

• The Reading Strategies Book 2.0: Your Research-Based Guide to Developing Skilled Readers, Jennifer Serravallo
• Teaching Critically about Lewis and Clark: Challenging Dominant Narratives in K-12 Curriculum, Alison Schmitke and Leilani Sabzalian and Jeff Edmundson
• The Social Studies FIELD Guide: Strategies & Tools to Captivate Students, Cultivate Critical Thinking, and Create Engaged Citizens, Joe Schmidt and Glenn Wiebe

If you've got a great recommendation, send it along! And enjoy your summer!

Two More PD Opportunities

Golden Triangle Curriculum Cooperative Summer Courses

Montana Historical Society Teacher Leaders in History are providing two exciting courses in through Golden Triangle. 

2512: Beyond Dates: Enhancing Literacy with Historical Research Projects

• Instructor: Hali Richmond, Jessica Van Kerkhove, Vicky Nytes
• Dates: July 14-15, 2025
• Location: Shelby Public Schools Admin Building - 1010 Oilfield Avenue, Shelby, MT 59474
• Time: 8:30-5:00, both days, with a 1-hour lunch break
• Target Audience: 4-12
• Cost: $45 (GTCC members) & $110 (non-members) 
• Credits: 15 OPI Renewal Units (included) OR 1-semester college credit through MSU-N (for an additional $200) 
• Special Instructions: Bring a laptop/tablet. 
• MSU-Northern Syllabus

This multi-grade level, two-day professional development course is designed to equip educators with the skills and strategies necessary to enhance literacy through engaging historical research projects. Moving beyond the traditional memorization of dates and events, this course emphasizes the development of critical thinking, research skills, and literacy competencies, while encouraging increased engagement. Participants will learn and take away effective teaching strategies that can be directly utilized in the classroom.

2513: Teaching Montana History in Any Classroom

• Instructor: Ron Buck
• Dates: July 16-17, 2025
• Location: Great Falls College MSU - 2100 16th Ave South, Great Falls, MT (Room G45/G46)
• Time: 8:30-5:00, both days, with a 1-hour lunch break
• Target Audience: K-12
• Cost: $45 (GTCC members) & $110 (non-members) 
• Credits: 15 OPI Renewal Units (included) OR 1-semester college credit through MSU-N (for an additional $200) 
• Special Instructions: Participants need to bring a wireless device such as a laptop, or Chromebook, and a water bottle to stay hydrated. 
• MSU-Northern Syllabus

Struggling to weave lessons together and connect standards? This course is your solution. Learn to seamlessly integrate Montana history into ANY subject and master Indian Education for All (IEFA) lesson creation. Throughout this course, you will build your personal "lesson arsenal" of engaging, ready-to-use plans! Learn all that you can from an energetic Montana History Teacher Leader and start your new school year off with a bang!

If you have questions or need support with registration, please contact: brianna@gtccmt.org

Important Notes

• Each 2-day course will run from 8:30am - 5:00pm daily with a 1-hour lunch break.

• ATTENDANCE: All participants must be present for the duration of both days, all day. Partial credit will not be given.

• Register with a summer-accessible email and cell phone number. This allows instructors to communicate before the course date.

• If courses do not have at least 10 participants by May 19th, the course will be canceled and participants will be refunded their registration fees.

• Purchase orders are accepted as payment when a purchase order number is included. 

Registration Policy

Upon registration, you will be redirected to pay securely online using PayPal, Venmo, a personal check, or your credit card. Note: Charges will be posted as Shelby Public Schools LEA for GTCC.

REGISTRATION IS CONFIRMED UPON RECEIPT OF PAYMENT ONLY! 

No refunds or partial credit will be given. 

 

Two IEFA Related Podcasts

If you are still in school, you surely don't have any time to listen to podcasts (or do much of anything at all but try to survive the crazy days before summer break). In fact, I'm surprised you are reading this email at all! 

But if you are looking for a couple of good podcasts for your next road trip or to listen to while cleaning the house, here are a couple I recently finished and highly recommend.

This Land

So glad I decided to write this post because it took me to the This Land website where I learned that there's a Season 2 and a Season 3 coming in August.

My colleague Melissa Hibbard highly recommends Season 2, which dives into efforts to dismantle the Indian Child Welfare Act and thinks that it could be incorporated into high school government.

I listened to the eight episodes of Season 1 (created in 2019 and 2020), and thought they were excellent. The season focused on how a murder in Oklahoma raised questions about whether the continuing existence of Muskogee Reservation. It talks about Native Land rights, allotment, and other topics relevant to Montana.  

How to Tell a Dumb American Story

This was a recent episode of This American Life focused on a hit and run on the Flathead Reservation and the MMIW crisis. There's a bleeped version if you want to share this with students. 

Happy listening!

 

P.S. Changing schools? Make sure to subscribe with an active email address to keep getting Teaching Montana History next year. 

P.P.S. Don't forget to complete our year-end survey to be eligible for prizes, including a $100 gas card.

P.P.P.S. We still have room (and travel scholarships) available for our summer PDs in Helena, Missoula, and Billings. 

 

 

More Summer PD--In Person and Online

We are still accepting applications for MTHS's in-person summer workshops in Helena, Missoula, and Billings, all of which offer renewal units and travel scholarships. (Learn more and find links to apply here). However, we aren't the only game in town! Here are some other great opportunities for teachers this summer. 

Indian Education for All Workshop

July 8 - 9, 2025

Join Stone Child College Department of Education and OPI for In Relation: Teaching and Learning Together. This two-day event, 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.) will focus on exploring culturally relevant IEFA resources. Keynotes include Oglala Lakota Olympian Billy Mills and Chippewa-Cree and Diné youth leader and environmental advocate Watson Whitford. The event will be held on the Stone Child College Campus - Rocky Boy, Montana. Questions? Contact Clintanna Colliflower at ccolliflower@stonechild.edu or 406-395-4875, ext. 1260. Register. 

NIEA Online Professional Learning Series: Community-Based Education through a Native Lens.

This on-line IEFA professional development opportunity is FREE for the first 250 Montana teachers that sign up. Sponsored by the National Indian Education Association. Course overview and registration.

Camp Many Stories: Immersive Place-Based Education in Glacier National Park 

Two camps: One for Educators and one for students ages 8-12

August 15 - 19, 2025, Big Creek Outdoor Education Center, on the border of Glacier National Park

Educator Institute: Join the Glacier Institute for an extraordinary teaching and learning experience at Camp Many Stories, an immersive five days and four nights of storytelling, place-based education, and creative exploration. Led by internationally acclaimed storytelling educator Jonny Walker and guided by local Native American elders, participants will deepen their understanding of using primary sources — including oral traditions, land-based histories, & student-created work — to bring learning to life. Educators will receive continuing education credit through the Primary Source Teaching Initiative, sponsored by the Library of Congress and will leave with ready-to-use strategies for integrating place, story, and primary sources into your own classrooms. Some scholarships are available. 

Children's Camp: Campers ages 8–12 who would thrive in this setting, especially students from rural or underserved communities, are also sought. While students cannot receive travel costs, full scholarships are available to cover camp expenses for selected students. Through writing, art, music, and movement, every child will find a way to express their creativity and connect with the natural world. Students will contribute to a shared book of stories, poems, and artwork that celebrates the many ways we tell — and live — our stories.

• Learn more.
• Students Click Here to Apply
• Educators Click Here to Apply

 

Reading Like a Historian Paid Summer PD Opportunity

 Long time readers have heard me talk up Reading Like a Historian lesson plans for quite some time now. These lessons provide students opportunities to explore historical questions by examining documents and developing arguments supported by evidence. Teachers who use it report that the lessons are easy to implement and that when they do, deep learning happens. 

If you are a high school teacher who have not used this material, but are curious about it, do I have an opportunity for you.

The Digital Inquiry Group (DIG), formerly the Stanford History Education Group (SHEG), is working with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to conduct an independent study of new Reading Like a Historian materials that incorporate research-backed digital literacy strategies from the Civic Online Reasoning curriculum. (I love Civic Online Reasoning too!)

This opportunity is being offered to high school U.S. history teachers who have not previously participated in a DIG or SHEG professional development and have not systematically implemented Reading Like a Historian or Civic Online Reasoning in their U.S. history classes.

Participating teachers will receive $1,000 and 20 hours of professional development, provided at no cost, and will implement the new curricular materials in their classrooms.  

To learn more about the opportunity, please review this flyer. You can also watch a pre-recorded informational session that provides an overview of the program and study (slides).

To apply to participate, please complete AIR’s Teacher Consent Form. 

Once you submit the consent form, AIR will be in touch with you with next steps for participation. 

Limited spots are available, and admissions are rolling, so apply as soon as possible, and no later than May 23, 2025.

P.S. Looking for something less time-consuming? Check out MTHS's free summer PDs.

P.P.S. If you are changing schools next year, and want to continue receiving Teaching Montana History, make sure to provide your new (or home) email! 

 

Four Great Summer PD Opportunities

 I promoted all four of these opportunities, but we still have room--and travel scholarships are still available.

Integrated Literacy Strategies for Building Background Knowledge, with Dr. Tammy Elser

June 30, Helena and July 18 Missoula:

• Best for teachers grades K-5
• 6 Renewal Units
• Lunch included
• Bring: One of your favorite picture books to share with others and to analyze
• Learn more.
• Register for Helena.
• Register for Missoula.

Historical Thinking through Student-Driven Research, with Jamie Holifield

August 5-6, Montana State University-Billings

• Best for teachers grades 4-12
• 16 Renewal Units
• Meals and hotel included
• Learn more.
• Apply.

52nd Annual Montana History Conference, "A Place in Time

September 25-27, Best Western Great Northern Hotel in Helena

• Best for teachers interested in gaining deeper understanding of Montana history (focus is on content, not application)
• Up to 22 renewal units.
• Learn more.
• Apply for a scholarship.

P.S. Don't forget to complete our end-of-year survey to be entered for a prize!

Share your favorite lesson and (maybe) win a $100 gas card

 May 8 is the last day of school in Rapelje. Congratulations, Rapelje students and teachers! You made it through another year.

As the school year ends, I hope you'll take a moment to share with us your favorite lesson plan, strategy or resources. Teacher recommended strategies, lesson plans, and other resources (whether created by MTHS or by someone else) are reliably readers' favorite posts to Teaching Montana History. I've noticed that fewer people are providing write ups, so I'm sweetening the pot. I have two $100 gas cards that I'll give to two teachers (drawn at random) who thoroughly shares information about resources or strategies (No one-word answers will be entered into the drawing).

I’d also appreciate your feedback on the services and resources MTHS.

Would you be willing to take an online survey? If so, click here. In addition to the gas card drawing, we'll be offering prizes to the 13th, 23rd, and 32nd person to submit a response, so there are lots of chances to win.

P.S. I'll continue posting for a little while now since most of us still have more school ahead of us--but wanted to get the survey out in order to reach everyone.

P.P.S. There's still room in our free summer workshops, which will be held in Missoula, Helena, and Billings (travel scholarships are available!). Learn more and find links to apply.

Free PDs for K-5 Teachers

We don't do enough for elementary teachers, especially those of you who teach K-3. That's why I was very excited when Salish Kootenai College professor Tammy Elser agreed to offer two daylong PDs, one in Helena, June 30, and the other in Missoula, July 18 that focuses on using picture books to help elementary students build the social studies background knowledge and vocabulary that will help them become better readers. If you teach K-5, this workshop is for you!

Integrated Literacy Strategies for Building Background Knowledge

No time to teach social studies? No time to read during the school day?  Then this workshop is for YOU!  Throughout the day you will learn powerful strategies for using picture books to enhance reading practice and build background knowledge and vocabulary for elementary learners. Tammy will demonstrate powerful one minute extensions to your regular read aloud routines that will support your students in building conceptual understandings making new content, facts, and vocabulary "sticky."  Employing principles from cognitive science, you will explore ways to enhance students' long-term memory and retrieval and determine short fast lists of facts - or as Tammy calls them, "sets of knowns" that behave like magnets for acquisition of new knowledge.

Do you live over 45 miles away? We invite you to apply for a travel scholarship. 

In Helena

• June 30, 9 am-4 pm, lunch provided
• Lincoln Center, 1335 Poplar St.
• Register. (Helena teachers: Please register directly with the district.)

• Bring: One of your favorite picture books to share with others and analyze for new learning opportunities

In Missoula

• July 18, 9 am-4 pm, lunch provided
• University of Montana, Phyllis J. Washington College of Education, Room 123
• Register.
• Cosponsored by Montana Council for Social Studies

• Bring: One of your favorite picture books to share with others and analyze for new learning opportunities

P.S. It's not too late to take our survey about how many hours per week elementary students in your district are studying social studies--and be entered to win a $100 gas card. Curious why we are asking? Read more here. 

P.P.S. NHD in Montana is sponsoring another free workshop (with travel stipends) for grades 4-12 teachers: "Historical Thinking through Student-Driven Research," August 5-6, 2025, at MSU-Billings. Learn more and apply.

Discussion Guides for MMWH Articles

 Thanks to the work of Teacher Leaders in History Dylan Huisken and Kim Konen, we've been able to add discussion guides for select articles from Montana The Magazine of Western History Discussion Guides. 

Kim and Dylan will each periodically choose one article from the magazine to spotlight. Each discussion guide includes a summary of the article, learning activities, discussion questions, and links to relevant resources. We'll post their guides along with a PDF of the article for free download.  

Here are their first two articles pulled from the Winter 2024 issue: 

“A Hotel and Its Novelist: Thomas Savage and Dillon’s Andrus Hotel”

• Article by Author O. Alan Weltzien
• Discussion guide by Kim Konen

“When Did People Arrive in Montana? An Excerpt from Land of Beginnings: The Archaeology of Montana’s First Peoples”

• Article by Douglass H. MacDonald
• Discussion guide by Dylan Huisken

Also available for your reading pleasure (and your students' research quests) are articles we've digitized from the magazine in years past--some with discussion questions but others as part of special projects, including women's history articles provided as part of

the commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of non-Indigenous women's suffrage; 

the commemoration of World War I; and

a free digital magazine focused on African American experiences in the West.  

Happy reading!

P.S. We have three in-person workshops this summer, two for K-5 teachers in Helena and Missoula on literacy integration and one for 4-12 teachers on Historical Thinking through Student-Driven Research in Billings. All offer travel scholarships. Learn more and find links to apply.  

Free Workshop in Historical Thinking

 

Historical Thinking through Student-Driven Research

August 5-6, Montana State University-Billings

Want to engage your class with student-driven research projects using primary sources? Want to promote more historical thinking and critical analysis? Join teachers from across the state as Jamie Holifield, an educator for National History Day and former Milwaukee public schools social studies teacher, teaches you how to facilitate student research, analyze sources, and think historically. Think of it as a two-day “doing history” bootcamp.

In this workshop you will learn about:

• Keywords and frameworks to help students write historical research questions and thesis statements
• Free online databases where students can locate primary and secondary sources
• Research organization strategies
• How to focus student research around a common theme
• How to modify primary and secondary sources to make them more accessible for a range of students
• How to teach students to place topics in historical context and think about short and long-term impacts
• How to define lenses of historical analysis
• How to support historical arguments with reasoning and evidence

You will get hands-on practice:

• Analyzing and curating primary sources related to federal policy to assimilate American Indians
• Creating and annotating historical questions and thesis statements
• Differentiating descriptive from analytical writing
• Evaluating historical projects created by real students

Eligible Applicants:

• Teach 4th-12th grade in Montana
• Can commit to teaching student-driven historical research projects using primary sources in the 2025-2026 school year
• Can commit to attending BOTH days of the August 5-6 summer institute from 9 am to 5 pm at MSU Billings

Successful Applicants will receive:

• Meals during the workshop
• Lodging
• Travel stipends
• 16 OPI renewal units

Applications will be accepted until all spots are filled. Apply now!