Recent Teacher Development Programs
2009
2009 Fall Conference: "Birthdays, Bicentennials & Civil Wars "
The Missouri Council for History Education and the Illinois Council for History Education sponsored a joint conference September 24-25 at the Gateway Conference Center - Saint Louis Federal Reserve Bank.
The program featured an outstanding array of topics and presenters. Featured among them was Jonathan Zimmerman, Director of the History Education Program at New York University. See our PDF download of the full conference program!
Workshops on Teaching Mark Twain
The Mark Twain Museum continued its national strategy of assuring that teachers have effective ways of using Twain's stories in the classroom. Because of demand, the museum increased the scope of the summer program from two institutes to three. Participant Nancy Bagge, a high school drama/speech/art teacher, wrote the day after her session ended:
Having just returned home from Hannibal, I wanted to send my thanks to you, for the most wonderful week learning about Mark Twain while focusing on his book Following the Equator and several short stories. What a pleasure studying his work in his hometown, seeing his beloved river and listening to his words from such talented and devoted people. Henry Sweets and Dr. Lovell made his work "come alive" with their insights, and they have given this teacher so many wonderful ideas to share in her classroom. I am thrilled with the "hands-on" CD that I can use immediately. Learning with other teachers and having the opportunity to share our techniques with each other is such a "gift!" The speakers are so knowledgeable and so organized! The MEANINGFUL field trips, the DELICIOUS food and of course, Mark Twain's treasure of books, will always be remembered...and will be the first things to be introduced in the fall!
Participant Emily Hayes of Carterville, IL, wrote:
I attended the workshop with two of my colleagues. We teach English III at Carbondale Community High School in Carbondale, Illinois. We expected to arrive in Hannibal and attend a variety of lectures [and] to take back a few lesson plans for Junior English. Instead, we were greeted by some of the most knowledgeable, educated, and excited people we had ever met, all of whom assured us that our week would be eye-opening, memorable, and different from anything we'd ever experienced before. Dr. Cindy Lovell, Mr. Henry Sweets, and Mrs. Kim Ahrens led a workshop that was life-changing for us, both in terms of enhancing our knowledge about Mark Twain and also in our abilility to apply that knowledge to the classroom experience. Our experience exceeded expectations in every sense of the word, and let me assure you that we took home much more than a few lesson plans!
Exploring Missouri's French Heritage
The National Frontier Trails Museum in Independence organized a "classroom on a bus" experience by taking western Missouri teachers on a learning tour through the French Colonial Heritage region centered in Ste. Genevieve.
From Trails to Rails
The National Frontier Trails Museum offered a week-long institute on Westward Expansion at its Independence site.
2008
Changing Political Power: Democracies, Monarchies, Dynasties
The Missouri Council for History Education and the Kansas Council for History Education sponsored a joint conference September 26-27 in Blue Springs.
The program featured Sam Wineburg, author of Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, and H.W. Brands, author of The First American, a biography of Benjamin Franklin that was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in biography.
Workshops on Teaching Mark Twain
The Mark Twain Museum in Hannibal entered its third season of offering week-long institutes for teachers from around the nation. The institutes began in 2006 with eight participants from three states. In 2007 the institute grew to two "sections" with fifty-two participants from six other states.
The Missouri Humanities Council funded the 2008 expansion to three "sections." Teachers studied The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with leading Twain scholars, in the settings Twain described. The lesson plans they developed were posted on the museum's web site, which has had over 18,000 downloads of previous teacher-related materials. The workshops took place in the weeks of June 16 - 20, July 14 - 18, and July 28 - August 1, 2008.
The
workshops were open to any teachers from grade 3 through high school. Workshop
scholars include Dr. Cindy Lovel, a Twain scholar specializing in Curriculum
and Instruction at Quincy University; Dr. Tom Quirk, a Twain scholar at the
University of Missouri; Kim Ahrens, an experienced teacher of Twain at Hannibal
High School; Regina Faden, Executive Director of the Mark Twain Museum (pictured);
and Henry Sweets, Curator of the Mark Twain Museum.
Laptop computers were available for participants to use during their workshop so that projects and lesson plans could be substantialy completed during the week. Participants were able to register to receive 4 Graduate Credits through Quincy University or 40 in-service credits. Those costs were borne by participants.
Workshops on The Kansas-Missouri Border War
The National Frontier Trails Center in Independence continued an annual tradition of outstanding teachers' institutes created in partnership with the Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site in Fairway, Kansas (partially pictured below).
The institute from July 21 - 25 treated the topic, "Blazing Border: Missouri and Kansas, 1850-1875." It gave participants insight into the hostilities before, during and after the Civil War and how these experiences shaped the unique identity of the region. The seminar included lectures by noted historians, two day-long field trips to explore significant sites, numerous first-person interpretations, workshops, and hands-on experiences. Extensive use was made of the personnel and primary source materials in the collections of the Jackson County Historical Society, Mattes Research Library, National Archives, and the Kansas State Historical Society.
Participants had the option of taking the course for graduate credit or in-service hours within their districts.