Place-Based Projects

 In my post about the Buffalo Unity Project a few weeks ago, I asked folks to send me information about the place-based projects they were doing with their students. Bainville fifth-grade teacher April Wills responded: 

This year we will be doing a 4 week unit on the effects of the Yellowstone River on Eastern MT. We will make ties to YNP, learn about the diverse ecosystems, homesteading efforts and conservation through time. We will partner up with our HS CTE teacher and 5th grade students will work alongside HS students to learn about surveying, planting crops, irrigating land and using native species to enhance the production of crops in the area. We will wrap up with creating model homestead sites that will be made to scale, create a historical narrative about what the family faced and overcame, and finally get the Montana Historical Society trunk on homesteading to lead us to our last week of school, when we will go to the confluence, do some rock hounding for agates, and learn about fish species in the river. So all in all it isn't just a social studies project, but it will encompass many content areas. I am working out the lesson plan for this and would be happy to share that once it's complete. 

If you want access to April's lesson plan, contact me and I'll put you in touch.

If you have a great lesson to share, I hope you'll complete our end-of-year survey. Among other questions, I always ask folks to share a resource, lesson, or strategy that they plan to do next year no matter what. I collate them into a series of grade-level posts that I send out every fall at the start of school. These posts are everyone's favorites, including mine; by sharing tested ideas and materials, they make social studies better across the state. Need more incentive? I always give prizes: this year to the eleventh, eighteenth, twenty-eighth, thirty-eighth, and forty-eighth person to complete the survey.

 

K-12 IEFA Cultural Exchange Grants for 2023-2024

 I'm probably late to the party, but I just learned that School Services of Montana and OPI will be offering K-12 Cultural Exchange Grants for 2023-2024.

My understanding is that these grants will provide funds so students on-reservation can travel to visit an off-reservation partner school and students off-reservation can travel to visit an on-reservation partner school. 

I learned about this program too late to promote the first networking and information gathering, but there's another, on Zoom, 3:45-4:30, Tuesday, May 16, 2023.

Attend to

• Meet other teachers on and off reservations who are interested in
  exchanges.
• Begin new friendships and collaborations..
• Find out how to start planning.
• Get extra points towards grant approval.

Interested? The first step is to complete this interest survey. Step two is to attend the May 16 networking and informational gathering. 

 

Join us for the 50th annual Montana History Conference

Save the Date! The 50th Annual Montana History Conference, "Building on the Past," will be held in Helena September 28-30, 2023 at the Delta Hotels Colonial in Helena. As we eagerly awaits completion of the Montana Heritage Center addition in Helena, we’ll be looking back on 49 years of gathering to talk about Montana history. Keynote speakers will include Pulitzer Prize winning author Elizabeth Fenn, who will be talking about Sacagawea's capture and the history of the early West, and Salish educator and author Julie Cajune, who will be performing her one-woman show Belief: Lives and Stories of Montana's Salish Women.

Renewal units will be available for both the Thursday educator workshop and all conference sessions. (Check here beginning 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 a $300 travel/expense reimbursement. All teachers and students in Montana’s colleges and universities are eligible to apply (residents of Helena and vicinity are eligible for the conference registration scholarship but not the travel reimbursement). 

Teacher recipients 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

• Teachers and students from Montana’s tribal colleges;
• Teachers from Montana’s on-reservation schools;
• Teachers and students from Montana’s community colleges and four-year universities;
• Teachers from Montana’s rural, under-served communities.

Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. June 11, 2023. Awards will be announced on Friday, June 23, 2023. Applying for a scholarship is quick and easy. Apply online. 

 

Prizes

 Since 2012, I've sent out a survey asking for feedback as well as asking folks to share information about "the best Montana history or IEFA lesson or project or resource you taught this year--the one you will make time for next year no matter what." Each year, I make changes to the newsletter and our other offerings based on the feedback you give. And the "best of" posts that I create every fall, based on the ideas you share, are perennial favorites. 

That's why I'm asking for your help once again. Take the survey!  

If you've been part of this community for a long time, you are probably tired of this request. You may also feel as if you've already shared your best ideas--but I hope you'll think of the new teachers, just starting out, trolling for good lessons, and take a moment to share them again. Take the survey!

Need more encouragement? I'll be offering a prize to the eleventh, eighteenth, twenty-eighth, thirty-eighth, and forty-eighth person to complete the survey. Say it with me: Take the survey! In all seriousness, I appreciate your help, and your fellow teachers will appreciate learning about the lesson you share.

Buffalo Unity Project

 For many people, the highlight of the Indian Education For All Best Practices Conference held in Helena in March was learning about Poplar Middle School's Buffalo Unity Project. For those who weren't lucky enough to attend in person, there's a film about the project, which combined math, industrial arts, social studies, English Language Arts, and science. Most schools don't have the resources or opportunity or desire to stage a buffalo hunt for their middle schoolers. But every school can engage students in place-based projects rooted in their community history.

I'd love to learn how you and your students are engaging in place-based education. I'd love to gather examples of projects happening across the state that we can share to encourage others to take the plunge. I'm also interested in figuring out ways that the Montana Historical Society can support your efforts. One thing I know we can do is connect you with teachers who are already doing place-based education and can offer tips for getting started. So write me!

And then take a moment to watch Rezilient: The Buffalo Unity Project 2022 on YouTube to gain inspiration from this remarkable project.

P.S. The deadline is fast approaching. If you are a middle school teacher who loves Montana history, consider applying to become a Teacher Leader in Montana History. Find out more here. Applications are due April 23.    

Teaching about Montana’s Chinese Communities: A Workshop for Educators

 Learn the history of Chinese Montanans, their struggles and contributions to the region’s development, and how they kept their culture alive on the Montana frontier. 

Saturday, May 13, Butte, MT

12:30 – 2:30: Butte Public Library: Learn about new research and approaches for teaching about the history of Chinese communities in Montana

3:00 – 4:00: Tomb Sweeping Festival: Chinese section of Mount Moriah Cemetery

4:00 – 5:00: Tour of the Mai Wah Museum & Wah Chong Tai Mercantile

5:00: Dinner at the Pekin Noodle Parlor (the longest continuously operating Chinese restaurant in the U.S.)

Open to twenty teachers. Each participant receives:

• The Middle Kingdom under the Big Sky, new book on the region’s Chinese history
• $50 to help with travel expenses
• Entry to the Mai Wah Museum
• Dinner at the Pekin Noodle Parlor
• Five Professional Development Units toward certification renewal (provided through the Montana Historical Society)

Contact: Mark.Johnson@nd.edu to register.

Cross Curricular Integration

Back in February, I shared Bill Moe's strategy for getting students to explore Charlie Russell's paintings. Carrie Sorenson took Bill's idea a step further and conducted an actual auction and images from the PowerPoint of the Russell images we created as part of our Teaching Montana's Charlie Russell materials.

She said: "I  used fake money, and picked 5 of his pieces from the Powerpoint, and actually ran an auction with auction numbers and everything.  They LOVED IT!  And asked me to print out the painting they purchased in color so they could take them home.  I had 4 boys negotiate a cooperation so they could go together and buy one of them." She's thinking of framing some post cards next year.

Charlie Russell's paintings are a great way to integrate art and social studies. In March, Big Fork Teacher and Teacher Leader in Montana History Cynthia Wilondek shared other ideas for integrating Montana history into other curriculums at our final online PD of the season.

Because it was Women's History Month, she suggested

• Biographical Poems (ELA)
• Having students create comic books based on Girl from the Gulches (Art/ELA) [More Girl from the Gulches lesson plans here.]
• Women in Sports (Math) [If you are in middle school, you should ABSOLUTELY do this lesson.]
• Plateau Women’s Art (Art) [Find materials by grade level on the MTHS Integrating Art and History page.]

Since I think Women's History Month is EVERY month, I'm including her plug in this post.

Cynthia also pointed attendees to OPI's website, which lists IEFA lessons by disciplines and grade levels.

She suggested that science classes could examine the environmental impact of mining, pointing to this PPT for background. (Fourth-grade teachers will want to look Part 3, Lesson 3, Mining Today, in the Montana: A History of Our Home curriculum for lessons.) 

She suggested using the digitized Montana newspapers to teach American history (why not use examples from Montana). She also spent some time on Structured Academic Controversy (an alternative to debate) that attendees found particularly valuable.  

All and all, it was a very valuable session and hopefully these links can inspire you even without listening to Cynthia's enthusiastic delivery. Want more? Check out our Interdisciplinary Lesson Plans page. 

 Apply to Become a Teacher Leader

Middle school teachers! If you love Montana history and want to share your passion with colleagues, consider applying to become a Teacher Leader in Montana History. Find out more here. Applications are due April 23.