Last week I let folks know about our upcoming Women's History Matters Educator Workshop--but we're not the only folks planning summer professional development.
The Montana Writing Project has some excellent workshops on tap for this summer, including Worlds Apart but Not Strangers: Holocaust Education and Indian Education for All. The application deadline has moved to April 20--but, according to the organizers, applying sooner is better. A list of their other workshops is here.
Of course, you don't need to wait until summer to receive professional development training. The Montana Indian Education Association will be holding its 33rd annual conference in Missoula, April 17-20, 2014.
On a completely different note, the director at Chief Plenty Coups State Park asked me to let teachers know the park's field trip program. Can you believe I've never been to Plenty Coups home? But I've heard enough about it to know it is a fabulous resource for folks in the Billings area. And--since we're talking about field trips--what's the best history/heritage education related field trip you take your students on? Let me know at mkohl@mt.gov, and I'll share the responses.
I'll post more summer professional development opportunities in coming weeks.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Friday, April 4, 2014
OPI Is Looking for Feedback on Smarter Balance--And I'm Wondering How Smarter Balance is Changing What You Teach
This post is not Montana history or place-based education or teaching with primary sources, but I thought it was worth sharing anyway. OPI is looking for classroom teachers’ and school administrators' feedback on their experience administrating the Smarter Balanced Field Test, so it has created a short online survey that includes the following four
open-ended questions:
The SBAC Teacher and Administrator Feedback Survey link is posted on the OPI webpage at http://opi.mt.gov/curriculum/MontCAS/.
On a related note, I’m wondering how Smarter Balance is affecting your classrooms in terms of the issues this blog deals with.
My sense is that the Common Core Standards, when implemented correctly, provide a great rationale for using primary sources, teaching students to analyze an author’s point of view, using inquiry, and many of the other things promoted by here. (You can see some of my pro-Common Core Posts here, and here. (Click on the tag "Common Core" at the bottom of this post for more.) But I also have the impression that anxiety about the assessment piece connected to the Common Core standards (Smarter Balance) may be shrinking opportunities for students to conduct real research or engage in place-based learning. I’d be interested in how this dynamic is playing out in your district. Email your comments to mkohl@mt.gov and I will collate them (without including names or other identifying information) to share.
- If you administered the all computer non-Performance
Task (non-PT) portion of the test, please share your comments on the
administration of the non-PT, all computer portion of the test.
- If you administered a Performance Task (PT), please
share your comments on the classroom activity and the administration of
the PT portion of the online assessment.
- Did you feel that you were adequately trained for the
test administration?
Please share your comments on the adequacy of the training that you received and any suggestions that you have for improving your preparation for administering the test. - What was your students’ response to the online
assessment? Please share your comments.
The SBAC Teacher and Administrator Feedback Survey link is posted on the OPI webpage at http://opi.mt.gov/curriculum/MontCAS/.
On a related note, I’m wondering how Smarter Balance is affecting your classrooms in terms of the issues this blog deals with.
My sense is that the Common Core Standards, when implemented correctly, provide a great rationale for using primary sources, teaching students to analyze an author’s point of view, using inquiry, and many of the other things promoted by here. (You can see some of my pro-Common Core Posts here, and here. (Click on the tag "Common Core" at the bottom of this post for more.) But I also have the impression that anxiety about the assessment piece connected to the Common Core standards (Smarter Balance) may be shrinking opportunities for students to conduct real research or engage in place-based learning. I’d be interested in how this dynamic is playing out in your district. Email your comments to mkohl@mt.gov and I will collate them (without including names or other identifying information) to share.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Teaching Women’s History Matters! Montana Historical Society’s Summer Educator Workshop
Looking for Summer professional development that will help you integrate into your classroom:
Where: Montana Historical Society, 225 N. Roberts St., Helena, Montana
Sixteen OPI Renewal Units will be provided.
Why: 2014 is the hundredth anniversary of women’s suffrage in the state of Montana, yet women are still largely overlooked as historical actors. To rectify this situation, and in honor of the centennial, the Montana Historical Society created Women’s History Matters—a web-based project designed to make Montana women’s history visible. Workshop attendees will learn
- primary sources
- new teaching techniques to meet Common Core standards
- women's history, and
- Montana Indian history?
Where: Montana Historical Society, 225 N. Roberts St., Helena, Montana
When: Monday, June 16, 1:00-6:30, Tuesday, June 17, 8:30-5:00, and Wednesday, June 18, 8:30-12:30 (Participants must attend all three days)
Who: Grades 4-12 Social Studies teachers, English Language Arts teachers, and Librarians
What: FREE, hands-on workshop. Taking women’s history as the theme, the workshop will focus on
- building content knowledge,
- practicing techniques, and
- uncovering free, easily accessible primary and secondary source material that can be used with students to meet Common Core ELA standards and IEFA.
Participants will engage in hands-on learning activities and leave the workshop with ready-to-use lessons and primary sources to integrate into their current curriculum.
Why: 2014 is the hundredth anniversary of women’s suffrage in the state of Montana, yet women are still largely overlooked as historical actors. To rectify this situation, and in honor of the centennial, the Montana Historical Society created Women’s History Matters—a web-based project designed to make Montana women’s history visible. Workshop attendees will learn
- how to use these newly created resources in their classrooms
- how looking at history from a female perspective changes the stories we choose to tell
- how they can find primary and secondary sources to meet common core standards
- how women’s history can be integrated into classes that are already being taught
Limit: 25
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, June 1, 2014 (Deadline for scholarship applicants May 1, 2014)
Want to know more? See the Workshop Agenda, below, or contact Martha Kohl at mkohl@mt.gov.
Montana Women’s History Matters Agenda
Monday, June 16
1:00-1:40 Introductions
1:40-2:30 Women’s History 101: An Introduction to Workshop Themes (Anya Jabour, University of Montana Professor in the History and past co-director of the Women's and Gender Studies Program)
2:30-2:50 Writing Reflection/Discussion
2:50-3:00 Break
3:00-5:00 Mining Childhood/Doing Oral History (Janet Finn, University of Montana Professor of Social Work and author of Mining Childhood: Growing Up in Butte, 1900-1960)
5:00-6:30 Opening Reception/Scavenger Hunt
Tuesday, June 17
8:30-8:45 Discussion of Day 1 (especially scavenger hunt results)
8:45-10:30 Women’s History for Elementary Students (Deb Mitchell, Montana Historical Society Program Specialist)
10:30-10:40 Break
10:40-11:30 Women and the Changing Law: A Historical Overview, Montana State Law Library staff
11:30-12:30 Lunch
12:30-1:20 Taking Action: A Political History of Women in Montana (Diane Sands, independent scholar on women's history, Montana state representative)
1:20-2:50 Using Personal Narratives to Learn about Indigenous Women's Lives during the Treaty Period (Laura Ferguson, Indian education consultant and curriculum developer and a contributor to the Women’s History Matters blog)
2:50-3:00 Break
3:00-5:00 Women’s History Tour (Ellen Baumler, Montana Historical Society Interpretive Historian)
Wednesday, June 18
8:30-9:00 Discussion of Day 2
9:00-9:45 Overview of Available Resources (Martha Kohl, Montana Historical Society Historical Specialist and Women’s History Matters Project Manager)
9:45-10:00 Break
10:00-11:15 Crowd-Sourcing Project: Gathering Resources to Integrate Women’s History into the Teaching of Montana History (participants, led by Martha Kohl)
11:15-12:15 Crow Women in the Twentieth Century (Mardell Hogan Plainfeather, retired National Park Service supervisory park ranger, Crow field director of the American Indian Tribal Histories Project at the Western Heritage Center in Billings, and coauthor of The Woman Who Loved Mankind: The Life of a Twentieth-Century Crow Elder, by Lillian Bullshows Hogan, As told to Barbara Loeb and Mardell Hogan Plainfeather) (awaiting confirmation)
12:15-1:15 Lunch/Evaluations/Depart or Research on your own
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Teaching Strategies for Using Historic Newspapers
The Library of Congress Education Team and the Teaching with Primary Sources Program at Metropolitan State University of Denver are offering a free webinar on teaching strategies for using historic newspapers on March 27, 2014, 3:00 EDT.
This "Hangout" will feature a panel that includes Billings school librarian Ruth Ferris. Panelists will highlight the historic newspapers available through Chronicling America and discuss teaching strategies for using the materials with students. More here.
Can't make the Hangout to participate in the webinar in real time? It will be preserved on YouTube after the fact. You can also access it from TPS Colorado's YouTube page.
This "Hangout" will feature a panel that includes Billings school librarian Ruth Ferris. Panelists will highlight the historic newspapers available through Chronicling America and discuss teaching strategies for using the materials with students. More here.
Can't make the Hangout to participate in the webinar in real time? It will be preserved on YouTube after the fact. You can also access it from TPS Colorado's YouTube page.
Monday, March 24, 2014
More on the 1964 Flood--and Student-led Community History Projects
I received a fair amount of feedback from last week's post on the 1964 flood—all of which reinforced my belief that this would be an EXCELLENT community history project for high school students. When I pitched the topic, I provided a link to previous posts on teaching disasters and oral history in the classroom—but I thought folks might also be interested in some additional resources on conducting large community study projects.
The master of student-led community studies was the Montana Heritage Project, which was active from 1995 to 2006, but still has resources posted online.
Particularly useful, I think, are the MHP resources under the tab “Research with ALERT” (ALERT stands for “Ask,” “Listen,” “Explore,” “Reflect,” “Teach.”) Their website does a good job outlining the process for encouraging "high school students to take their communities as the subject of serious historical research."
But back to the flood itself, and the memories it evoked.
Bonnie Boggs (now of Miles City) wrote:
Some people suggested resources.
Sandi Vashro recommends the book Sky, by Pamela Porter (grades 3-5). “A Blackfeet girl and her family are wiped out by the '64 flood. However, she finds a young colt in the aftermath. Good book touching on many issues at the time.”
Reference Historian Zoe Ann Stoltz noted that the Montana Historical Society Research Center has put together a list of Montana disasters, that might make a good starting point for student research projects: . She also recommended the book Montana Disasters: Fires, Floods, and Other Catastrophes, by Molly Searl.
The master of student-led community studies was the Montana Heritage Project, which was active from 1995 to 2006, but still has resources posted online.
Particularly useful, I think, are the MHP resources under the tab “Research with ALERT” (ALERT stands for “Ask,” “Listen,” “Explore,” “Reflect,” “Teach.”) Their website does a good job outlining the process for encouraging "high school students to take their communities as the subject of serious historical research."
But back to the flood itself, and the memories it evoked.
Bonnie Boggs (now of Miles City) wrote:
This letter reminds me, with a heavy heart, the flood of 64. I was 14 and we lived outside of Browning, 9 miles to the east. The flood was devastating and I will remember it always. So much was lost and so many perished, including friends. I remember we didn't leave our farm because we had a cow that was due to calf at any time and we didn't have the means to leave the animals behind. I recognize now that it meant my families livelihood as we had a dairy farm as well. As the water rose we found ourselves on a small island completely surrounded by water. We moved everything to the attic with hopes it would survive. I also know that it made a deep impact on me, more than I ever thought. Well, we did survive and I remember helicopters flying over and dropping food supplies. I also remember the radio saying that people needed to get shots as protection from flood caused disease and my 3 sisters and I feeling so lucky that since we couldn't get to Browning, we didn't have to get the shots........how lucky we were.....kids thinking no less. Only later did we realize the people who were lost and missing, one being my best friend and several of her family. The loss was tremendous and the fear was ongoing for weeks after. Floods are so powerful and when Mother Nature speaks the wrath can be enormous. We survived, others did not and still life goes on with questions unanswered and perhaps it is meant that way. I might add that 3 weeks after the floods subsided, the cow had a beautiful little Holstein calf. We named her Miracle.Diane Van Gorden (now of Baker) wrote:
I remember the Flood. I was 9! The HS Gym in Valier became the Red Cross center for many of the displaced families and my dad logged many hours on search and rescue while my mom worked at the gym and I babysat my younger brother. And I remember trying to help by baking a batch of Ranger cookies that were a major flop.
Some people suggested resources.
Sandi Vashro recommends the book Sky, by Pamela Porter (grades 3-5). “A Blackfeet girl and her family are wiped out by the '64 flood. However, she finds a young colt in the aftermath. Good book touching on many issues at the time.”
Reference Historian Zoe Ann Stoltz noted that the Montana Historical Society Research Center has put together a list of Montana disasters, that might make a good starting point for student research projects: . She also recommended the book Montana Disasters: Fires, Floods, and Other Catastrophes, by Molly Searl.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
1964 Flood
As I read about flooding in Roundup, I was reminded of a post I wrote in 2012, "Teaching Disasters"--which talked about using disasters as teachable moments, pointed to some essential questions to ask about disasters (for example, "What role did policy and human decisions play in either exacerbating or mitigating the disaster?"), and that gathered historical resources on floods, fires, and earthquakes. You can read that post here.
It also made me remember that this is the 50th anniversary of the 1964 flood, one of the worst disasters in Montana history. High school teachers might want to assign their students Aaron Parrett's article, "Montana's Worst Natural Disaster: The 1964 Flood on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation," published in Montana The Magazine of Western History (Summer 2004): 20-31. (If your high school library doesn't subscribe to Montana, it should.)
The 1964 flood would also make a dandy oral history project/community history project for folks living in areas affected by the flood. It completely transformed the social world of the Blackfeet reservation, for example--after the flood that many Blackfeet moved from rural areas of the reservation to Browning.) Fifty years ago is a long time ago--but not so long that there aren't people who remember it and students could make a really meaningful contribution to Montana history by gathering and preserving memories of the flood and its aftermath.
Find tips on conducting an oral history project here.
It also made me remember that this is the 50th anniversary of the 1964 flood, one of the worst disasters in Montana history. High school teachers might want to assign their students Aaron Parrett's article, "Montana's Worst Natural Disaster: The 1964 Flood on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation," published in Montana The Magazine of Western History (Summer 2004): 20-31. (If your high school library doesn't subscribe to Montana, it should.)
The 1964 flood would also make a dandy oral history project/community history project for folks living in areas affected by the flood. It completely transformed the social world of the Blackfeet reservation, for example--after the flood that many Blackfeet moved from rural areas of the reservation to Browning.) Fifty years ago is a long time ago--but not so long that there aren't people who remember it and students could make a really meaningful contribution to Montana history by gathering and preserving memories of the flood and its aftermath.
Find tips on conducting an oral history project here.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Searching Chronicling America
Huntley librarian Pam Roberts made my day recently with an email talking about her work with a Child Growth and Development class. She said the students had a marvelous time researching child care and baby equipment in the advertisements of the historic newspapers on Chronicling America. (The differences between accepted practice then and now was "eye opening," she said.)
As many of you know, Chronicling America is one of my favorite sites. The Montana Historical Society is actively digitizing Montana newspapers. I just talked to the project coordinator and she expects many more Montana titles will be available soon.
Of course, new technology is always a little daunting, and in Chronicling America, as with all large digital collections, it can be difficult to find what you are looking for—especially at first. TPS Barat’s blog, which focuses on primary sources from the Library of Congress, has put together a very useful post “Advanced Search Tips: Chronicling America Historic Newspapers” that can make your (and your students’) research more fruitful.
If you are looking for even more guidance, consider using one of the lesson plans we’ve created with Billings school librarian Ruth Ferris.
“Thinking like a Historian: Using Digital Newspapers in the Classroom” asks students to explore daily life in Virginia City during the gold rush before the coming of the railroad, using the following essential questions: “How has life changed and how has it remained the same? How does transportation affect daily life? What would it have been like to live in Virginia City during the gold rush?”
Three additional Chronicling America lesson plans were included in the new study guide for Girl from the Gulches: The Story of Mary Ronan. Two of them can be adapted to use without reading the anchor text and can easily be adapted to other time periods. “What Can You Buy? What Could Mary Buy?” has students looking at advertisements today and in the 1860s, and choosing presents for themselves and their family. The second, “Found Poetry,” asks students to create a found poem, based on an article from the Montana Post.
Many other folks are also creating Chronicling America lesson plans. See here for more details.
As many of you know, Chronicling America is one of my favorite sites. The Montana Historical Society is actively digitizing Montana newspapers. I just talked to the project coordinator and she expects many more Montana titles will be available soon.
Of course, new technology is always a little daunting, and in Chronicling America, as with all large digital collections, it can be difficult to find what you are looking for—especially at first. TPS Barat’s blog, which focuses on primary sources from the Library of Congress, has put together a very useful post “Advanced Search Tips: Chronicling America Historic Newspapers” that can make your (and your students’) research more fruitful.
If you are looking for even more guidance, consider using one of the lesson plans we’ve created with Billings school librarian Ruth Ferris.
“Thinking like a Historian: Using Digital Newspapers in the Classroom” asks students to explore daily life in Virginia City during the gold rush before the coming of the railroad, using the following essential questions: “How has life changed and how has it remained the same? How does transportation affect daily life? What would it have been like to live in Virginia City during the gold rush?”
Three additional Chronicling America lesson plans were included in the new study guide for Girl from the Gulches: The Story of Mary Ronan. Two of them can be adapted to use without reading the anchor text and can easily be adapted to other time periods. “What Can You Buy? What Could Mary Buy?” has students looking at advertisements today and in the 1860s, and choosing presents for themselves and their family. The second, “Found Poetry,” asks students to create a found poem, based on an article from the Montana Post.
Many other folks are also creating Chronicling America lesson plans. See here for more details.
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