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NEWS UPDATES 1. Explore Durham’s History from Your Classroom By: Pam Lach, Manager, Digital Innovation Lab and Project Manager, Main Street, Carolina Three Durham-based digital history projects, with accompanying 8th grade social studies lesson plans, have been developed to help teachers and students explore Durham’s rich economic, social, and cultural history. Christie Hinson Norris, Project Director at the North Carolina Civic Education Consortium, teamed up with the Digital Innovation Lab at UNC-Chapel Hill to produce classroom curriculum for three Durham digital projects: The Parrish Street Project, The Tobacco Heritage Trail, and Repopulating Hayti. These projects recover and re-create digitally Durham’s rich African -American history while tracing important economic institutions, from American Tobacco Company to North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. Students can wander virtually through interactive maps to discover the influence of Jim Crow segregation and the ways in which individuals tried to overcome racial and economic discrimination. They can experience “hands-on” learning through these websites while the accompanying lesson plans guide teachers in interactive classroom activities to help students engage with the virtual material. These projects were developed as a part of the Main Street, Carolina project. Main Street, Carolina uses an innovative system for linking historical content (documents, photographs, postcards, and oral history interviews, largely drawn from the holdings of UNC, Duke, and the Durham Public Library) with locations on historical maps to create a variety of digital history projects, including online exhibits, virtual walking tours, and “ghost” tours of lost spaces. The software platform used in Main Street, Carolina projects was developed as part of a collaboration between UNC’s Wilson Library and Professor Robert Allen of UNC’s American Studies Department. The system uses historic Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, the most comprehensive set of urban ground plans ever produced, to show changes in the built environment from roughly 1880-1920. The maps have been layered over contemporary Google satellite imagery to allow for comparisons between then and now. Main Street, Carolina has brought together cultural heritage organizations around the state with UNC-Chapel Hill faculty and students to produce digital history projects on the early life of African American artist Romare Bearden (Levine Museum of the New South), the history of downtown Greensboro (UNC-G Public History Program), and the photographic history of Wilmington’s waterfront (New Hanover County Public Library). Since fall 2011, Main Street, Carolina projects have been developed in association with UNC’s new Digital Innovation Lab, which focuses on the development of public digital humanities tools, projects, and programming. These three digital Durham projects were created in 2010 and 2011 by students in Professor Robert Allen’s American Studies graduate seminar on digital history. “Parrish Street” was developed in collaboration with the City of Durham’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development on behalf of the public-private Parrish Street Project in the fall of 2010. It offers a virtual walking tour of downtown Durham’s Parrish Street district, once dubbed the “Black Wall Street” as a tribute to the success of such black-owned businesses as North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and Mechanics and Farmers Bank around the turn of the century. These Jim Crow-era business achievements fueled the development of many important community institutions throughout Durham. The project documents both “lost” sites associated with Parrish Street’s heyday as the hub of African American economic life in Durham a century ago and surviving structures that might serve as the basis for the street’s rehabilitation. The area is now the focus of an intensive redevelopment campaign, led by the City of Durham (see: “The History of Parrish Street,” online). The accompanying lesson plans (http://www.civics.unc.edu/resources/docs/ParrishStreetLessons.pdf) allow students to explore the website while learning about Jim Crow. The culminating exercise asks students to design their own redevelopment plan for Parrish Street. “Tobacco Heritage Trail” was developed in fall 2010 in collaboration with Preservation Durham. The project is a virtual extension and enhancement of Preservation Durham’s “Tobacco Heritage Trail” walking tour. It incorporates ten sites, including Liberty Warehouse (in today’s Durham Central Park), various warehouses and administrative buildings along Main and Duke Streets, the Liggett & Myers Cigarette Factory, and the Imperial Tobacco Building. The virtual tour includes excerpts from oral histories and features examples of typical Piedmont Blues music that emerged out of tobacco auctions and cigarette factories. The lesson plans for this project (http://www.civics.unc.edu/resources/docs/TobaccoHerritage.pdf) give students the opportunity to explore the rich history of tobacco in Durham, including farm and factory life. The culminating activity provides an opportunity for students to design a living history museum exhibit on tobacco in North Carolina. “Repopulating Hayti” was another project undertaken with Preservation Durham, this time in the fall of 2011. This project virtually repopulates Durham’s Hayti community of Durham on the eve of its destruction by urban renewal in the 1960s. The Hayti neighborhood of Durham was a vibrant African-American community that flourished from the 1880s to the 1940s—one which W.E.B. DuBois held up as a shining example of black success. With its own thriving businesses and culture, Hayti was home to / or associated with many important institutions, including North Carolina Central University (NCCU), White Rock Baptist Church, and Lincoln Hospital. By 1960, the community was targeted for destruction during the process of urban renewal. Many homes and businesses were torn down to make way for the Durham Freeway (Highway 147). Very little remains of Hayti’s built environment today, though its legacy still persists. The site currently maps over 200 homes and businesses, using the photos and parcel appraisals from the Durham Urban Renewal Records. The accompanying lesson plans (http://www.civics.unc.edu/resources/docs/Hayti.pdf) guide students through the complicated questions of urban renewal and redevelopment. The students will reenact a town council meeting in which they must debate the benefits and drawbacks of urban renewal before voting on whether to carry it out. These lesson plans are available for download from the NC Civic Education Consortium’s online database: http://www.civics.unc.edu/resources/. Preparation of the lesson plans was supported through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 2. Lessons and Resources for Black History Month from the Constitutional Rights Foundation In celebration of Black History Month, the Constitutional Rights Foundation has just published online free Lessons and Resources for Black History Month. The lessons include the entirety of the African American experience in the United States, from the founding of the United States, to the Civil War, to the Jim Crow era, to the Civil Rights Movement.
Additional resources include profiles of prominent Civil Rights activists – including WEB DuBois, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Gandhi, and Cesar Chavez – lists of prominent African American literature and films about the African American experience, and a Guide for Positive Change which helps students to make a positive impact on the world around them. To access all the FREE lessons and resources, visit the Constitutional Rights Foundation’s Black History Month website. 3. Celebrate Women this Black History Month with Teaching Tolerance Historian Carter G. Woodson established the first Negro History Week in 1926—a celebration that later became Black History Month. The Association for the Study of African American Life and History, a group founded by Woodson, selects a new theme for Black History Month each year. This year’s theme is "Black Women in American Culture and History."
These will just get you started discussing black women in American culture and history. That discussion can—and should—take you through the year. For more information, visit the Teaching Tolerance website.
CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES 1. New Roots in the Old South: Immigration & the Changing Face of North Carolina March 16-17, 2012 UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government The 2010 census revealed a changed and changing U.S. populace. More than half of the growth in the total population of the United States between 2000 and 2010 was due to an increase in the Hispanic population, and more than three-quarters of this population live in the West and in the South. Between 2000 and 2010, North Carolina experienced a percentage growth of 111% in the number of Hispanic or Latino residents. What does this mean for our state's educators, in terms of who we are and who we are teaching, and in terms of what we should be teaching? Middle and high school teachers are invited to join the NC Civic Education Consortium and UNC’s Program in Humanities and Human Values for a two-day exploration of immigration and its impact not only on the state of North Carolina, but also what it means for our classrooms. An array of topical experts will lead participants in learning more about immigration in North Carolina, exploring how the state is changing and how Latinos and Hispanics are changing along with it. Looking behind the numbers, our presenters will highlight the human dimensions of the immigration experience to see just how deep the new roots of Hispanics and Latinos are in the “Old North State.” Teachers will also spend time considering what such changes mean for their classrooms, particularly exploring how to successfully teach about immigration, a topic that can be riddled with controversy. Teachers will receive and participate in sample lesson plans for engaging students in the study of immigration, as well as explore how to involve students in the safe and effective discussion of controversial issues. Open to middle and high school teachers who are interested in teaching and/or learning more about immigration, our hope is that this two day seminar will provide educators a more comprehensive understanding (pedagogically and intellectually) of this complex and often controversial topic. For more information on the speakers and to register for this exciting event, click here. 2. Register Now for the 2012 North Carolina Council for the Social Studies Conference Conference Dates: February 23 & 24, 2012 Greensboro, NC The 2012 North Carolina Council for the Social Studies 42nd Annual Conference will feature a series of workshop sessions on topics that reflect developments in social studies education from around the state and nation, with a focus on the theme “Dimensions of Diversity”. To register, visit the NCCSS website. Join the NC Civic Education Consortium for one of our innovative sessions, including:
3. Educators Invited to Apply for United States Holocaust Museum Teacher Fellowship Program Deadline: February 10, 2012 Applications are invited for the 2012-13 Museum Teacher Fellowship at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Since 1996 the Museum Teacher Fellowship Program has developed a national corps of skilled educators who serve as the core of the museum's efforts to ensure quality Holocaust education in secondary schools. Teacher fellows organize conferences, lead workshops, write curricula, serve on boards of Holocaust museums and education centers, lead study trips to Holocaust sites, and serve as conduits to the museum for educators, institutions, professional organizations, and community groups. Each year up to twenty educators in grades 7-12 and community college faculty are designated as new museum teacher fellows. These educators must show evidence of extensive knowledge of Holocaust history, successful teaching experience, and participation in community and professional organizations. Fellows participate in a five-day, all-expense-paid summer institute at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., that is designed to immerse them in advanced historical and pedagogical issues. Following the summer institute, fellows are expected to create and implement an outreach project in their schools, colleges, communities, or professional organizations. In July of the following year, fellows will attend a follow-up program at the museum to assess their various efforts and to continue their study of the Holocaust. Community college faculty and middle and high school history, social studies, foreign-language, English and journalism teachers, as well as librarians and instructional media specialists, are encouraged to apply for fellowships. Other content areas also will be considered. It is expected that applicants will have taught the Holocaust for a minimum of five years. Applicants must teach in United States schools. Visit the Holocaust Museum website for complete program guidelines and the application form. 4. PHHV Seminar: Shakespeare's Henry Plays: Power, Politics, & the Legacy of War Dates: February 17 & 18, 2012 Sponsored by the Program in the Humanities and Human Values in conjunction with PlayMakers Repertory Company Come hear distinguished professors discuss different aspects of Shakespeare’s work as we consider whether Prince Hal can ever truly be redeemed, examine if he has to out-do his father in order to live up to the throne, and explore the relationship between war and peace in Shakespeare’s work. Participants can attend Henry IV on Friday evening after our first speaker and dinner, and Henry V on Saturday afternoon after our concluding panel discussion. This combination of lectures and plays extends the conversation beyond the theater experience. Attend just the seminar or link the experience with the plays; whatever you decide, this will truly be an adventure in ideas, taking you from palaces to battlefields, from taverns to the “vasty fields of France.” Topics and Speakers
Time and Cost The Seminar begins at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, February 17 and ends at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 18. The Making of a King: Henry IV, the first half of the optional play, will begin at 7:30 p.m. Seminar resumes from 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 18, 2012.The Making of a King: Henry V, the second half of the optional play, will begin at 2:00 p.m. Tuition for teachers is $62.50. 10 contact hours for 1 unit of renewal credit. The optional dinner on Friday evening is $20.00. The optional play ticket is $50.00 for the two-part performance. For Teachers Thanks to the generosity of the PlayMakers Repertory Company, complimentary tickets to The Making of a King: Henry IV & Henry V, on Friday, February 17 and Saturday, February 18 are available to you on a first-come, first-served basis. You must be a currently-employed, full-time, public or private school K-12 teacher or community college instructor. PlayMakers Repertory Company is committed to the integration of arts in education, and to offering educators resources to make theater a part of a diverse and creative curriculum. For more information, please visit PlayMakers website or call 919.962.2491. For information about lodging click here. Co-Sponsored by the General Alumni Association For information about GAA discounts and other scholarships available to Humanities Program participants, click here. 5. PHHV Seminar: Leaders of World War II: Part I Date: February 25, 2012 A Distinguished Scholar Seminar Featuring Gerhard L. Weinberg, sponsored by the Program in the Humanities and Human Values Come join the world’s most eminent historian of World War II to learn about the leading personalities of this world-wide conflagration. In this two-part series, held on consecutive Saturdays, Gerhard L. Weinberg, William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus, will draw on his broad and detailed knowledge of the decisive decisions, battles, and events to focus on the men who made history. In this first seminar, Professor Weinberg will lecture on Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Winston Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek. Speaker Gerhard Weinberg retired from teaching at Carolina in 1999, but remains active in his field. He is one of the world’s most distinguished scholars of World War II and National Socialist Germany. He is the author of ten books, including A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II, which received three major awards for scholarship, was a Book of the Month Club Main Selection, and is widely considered to be the best single-volume history of World War II. Most recently, Professor Weinberg was awarded the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award, a lifetime achievement prize for excellence in military writing. Topics
Time and Cost Saturday, February 25. 2012 from 9:15 a.m. through 4:15 p.m. Tuition for teachers is $62.50. 10 contact hours for 1 unit of renewal credit. The optional lunch is $15.00. For information about lodging click here. Co-Sponsored by the General Alumni Association. For information about GAA discounts and other scholarships available to Humanities Program participants, click here. 6. PHHV Seminar: Leaders of World War II: Part 2 Date: March 3, 2012 A Distinguished Scholar Seminar Featuring Gerhard L. Weinberg, sponsored by the Program in the Humanities and Human Values In this second part of a two-part series, Gerhard L. Weinberg, William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus, will continue to share his immense knowledge of World War II, focusing on both the details and the broad picture to make the story of the war come to life. In a series of four lectures, Professor Weinberg will provide insights into the lives and decisions of Charles de Gaulle, Joseph Stalin, Tojo Hideki, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Topics
Time and Cost Saturday, March 3, 2012, 9:15 a.m. through 4:15 p.m. Tuition for teachers is $62.50. 10 contact hours for 1 unit of renewal credit. The optional lunch is $15.00. For information about lodging click here. Co-Sponsored by the General Alumni Association. For information about GAA discounts and other scholarships available to Humanities Program participants, click here. 7. 2012 Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers Deadline: March 12, 2012 Since it began in 1995, the Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers has brought together over 850 teachers from across the country to convene in Washington, DC, for six days of educational activities related to teaching about the U.S. Supreme Court. The Institute is co-sponsored by the Supreme Court Historical Society.
The Institute includes sessions led by Supreme Court experts, journalists, authors, and attorneys, who give teachers an in-depth understanding of how the Court chooses and decides cases, and what it is like to argue before the Court. The Institute covers six current or recent cases. This exciting opportunity culminates with a visit to the Court to hear decisions handed down and a private reception at the Court.
The Institute prepares teachers to use innovative teaching methods with current and past cases. Beyond the content-rich sessions and activities, teachers are also equipped with the skills and tools to train fellow teachers at home. For more information about this terrific opportunity, please visit the Street Law website.
8. 3rd Annual First Amendment Cartoon Contest Deadline: March 16, 2012 Celebrate Bill of Rights Day with the 3rd Annual First Amendment Cartoon Contest. The contest is open to high school, middle school, and elementary school students nationwide. The theme of this year’s contest is Free Expression through the “rights of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” These rights are particularly significant in this an era of protest both in the United States and around the world. Encourage students to exercise their creativity by entering the First Amendment Cartoon Contest. Six winners will each receive a $50 prize*. In addition, up to five entries will receive honorable mentions. Winners and honorable mentions will be announced on Law Day, May 1, 2012.
For more information, including contest rules and entry form, please visit www.courtsed.org.
9. International Paideia Conference Date: April 12 & 13, 2012 Change is the essence of life. The key to understanding its nature. Learning how to not just respond to change but to embody it may well be the key to human happiness… as well as professional success. Education is in a period of profound transformational change, and how we respond will set the stage for how our students respond. This is our opportunity to make the future if we are willing to do so… Join us while we consider the fundamental nature of change–both within and without–and consider how to “be the change we wish to see in the world.” This two-day conference will be held in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains on the campus of the University of North Carolina-Asheville. Key note speakers will address both philosophy and instructional methods. Presentation strands for beginners to veterans will be offered on a range of leadership and instructional issues. School leaders and faculty network with educators across the country with varying degrees of Paideia experience and will share effective strategies and materials. Conference participants include:
Participant Registration Costs
For more information about the Conference and Paideia Program, visit the Paideia website.
10. NCACC Sponsoring County Government Essay Contest Deadline: April 30, 2012 The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners will be hosting for the fifth year an essay contest on county government. The topic of the essay is, “How does my county government improve the lives of its citizens?” The annual contest is open to 9th and 10th grade students in North Carolina public and charter schools. Students are asked to write a 500-word essay. The entry deadline is April 30, 2012. The winning student and the teacher who submits the winning essay will each win $500 and will be recognized at a meeting of their county’s board of commissioners. Rebecca Lowder, a student at West Forsyth High School in Clemmons, won the 2011 contest. Her winning essay focused on the role that counties play in public safety, protecting the environment and animal control, among others. The complete contest rules, along with the winning essays from each of the previous four years, are posted on the NCACC’s county government education website, www.welcometoyourcounty.org. The site is designed for citizens and students who would like to learn more about county government and contains information on why counties and county governments exist, where counties receive their funding, what services they provide, who runs county governments, and more. In 2004, the Association Board of Directors adopted five strategic goals. One of these goals is to inform the public and the media about the role of county government. In 2008 as part of the Association’s centennial celebration, the Board of Directors approved the annual essay contest to encourage students and teachers to focus on county government in the classroom. Previous winners have been from Onslow County, Pender County and Cleveland County. For more information on the contest or the website, please contact Todd McGee, NCACC communications director, at (919) 715-7336 or todd.mcgee@ncacc.org. 11. ING Unsung Heroes Program Invites K-12 Educators to Apply for 2012 Class Project Awards Deadline: April 30, 2012 For the past fifteen years, the ING Unsung Heroes awards program has recognized K-12 educators in the United States for their innovative teaching methods, creative educational projects, and ability to positively influence the children they teach. Since honoring the first "unsung hero" in 1996, ING has awarded nearly $3.8 million to nearly 1,600 educators across the country. Educators are invited to submit grant applications describing class projects they have initiated or would like to pursue. Each year, one hundred educators are selected to receive $2,000 each to help fund their innovative class projects. Three of those individuals will be chosen to receive awards of an additional $5,000, $10,000, and $25,000. All awards must be used to further the projects within the school or school system. All K-12 education professionals are eligible to apply. Applicants must be employed by an accredited K-12 public or private school located in the U.S. and be a full-time educator, teacher, principal, paraprofessional, or classified staff member working on a project with demonstrated effectiveness in improving student learning. Complete program guidelines, the application form, and information on previously funded projects are available at the ING website. 12. Teaching with Primary Sources: BASICS Online Course Dates: Tuesdays, March 13 - April 10; 5:30 - 6:30pm (chat sessions) Designed specifically for educational leaders, participants complete independent assignments and five one-hour voice chat discussion sessions. TPS:BASICS models inquiry teaching and learning, incorporating primary sources at each stage of the inquiry cycle, classroom-ready model activities and time-tested practices. Working individually and collaborating with colleagues, participants complete and develop inquiry-based learning activities. Participants will complete a total of fifteen hours of professional development and will receive a certificate of completion. Please note that the 1:00pm session is not available for these dates. Register online: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BV7X96H More Information: http://tps.waynesburg.edu/tpseasternregion/events
13. Carolina Teacher Workshop Series for AP History Teachers March 30, UNC-Chapel Hill This event is sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and by leading academic departments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is open to advanced-level high school history teachers in North Carolina. This half-day workshop is designed specifically for those who lead advanced courses for juniors and seniors and will cover both content-based and pedagogical topics. Participating teachers will be eligible for 0.5 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credit hours for the half-day session. The session is free and includes lunch. For more information about the program, the program agenda and registration information, please see your high school’s principal or Patty Baum at pbaum@admissions.unc.edu.
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