2010 - A New Summer Institute at Salem State

We were pleased to hear that Patricia Johnston of Salem State College is offering a summer, 2010 Institute; click on http://archive.salemstate.edu/picturing_america/index.html for more information.

If the experience we had in 2005 is any indication, this event will undoubtedly have a major impact on the teaching capability of anyone fortunate enough to be selected to attend. The length of the Institute is four weeks, making it difficult for many educators to schedule into their increasingly-hectic summers.

There is a stipend of $3,300 per attendee.

A Repeat of a Classic - NEH Workshop at Lowell, MA

Our good friend Sheila Kirschbaum, director of the NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture workshop Inventing America: Lowell and the Industrial Revolution at Lowell, Massachusetts, has let all of us former attendees know that this workshop is being offered for the summer of 2010.

This was a great workshop in every respect, not least because of the gracious hospitality of Sheila and Ellen and everybody else involved. This workshop covered all of the topics that you can read out about by clicking on http://www.uml.edu/tsongas/NEH/. It also touched on all the human aspects of this period in American history: the waves of immigration that came to Lowell, the eventual closing of the mills and the end of a way of life that many more people are having to become used to in present-day America.

We also had the pleasure of visiting Old Sturbridge Village and learning a lot more about old-fashioned ways of preparing a meal than we ever wanted to know! Hard work indeed.

Got Any Good High School Writers?

Among the nine NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) workshops we have intended, one of the most memorable for us was held at Mt. Vernon in Virginia. It was presented under the auspices of The Bill of Rights Institute.

As we completed this workshop in the summer of 2008, we were informed about an essay contest that provides students with the experience of competing at a high level, and also provides some potentially significant financial rewards as well.

This essay contest was offered again this year. The deadline for entries was December 1, 2009. Please check it out - http://www.beinganamerican.org/. You may want to check back next fall to get your high school students involved then.

Great Sources for History Teachers

• http://teachinghistory.org/nhec-blog

• The National Council for the Social Studies has created a new era-searchable web resource called the U.S.History Collection, searchable by historical period and academic level and can be found at: http://www.socialstudies.org/teacherslibrary.

• Ever wondered whose Founding Fathers personality is most like your own? Check it out at www.constitutioncenter.org/FoundersQuiz

• ProCon.org recently posted three new timelines: The History of Legal and Illegal Immigration in the United States, History of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports, and, History of Alternative Energy and Fossil Fuels.

• C-Span is once again sponsoring a national competition (cash prizes) for middle and high school students to produce a 5-8 minute video on one of the following topics: One of the Country's Greatest Strengths or, A Challenge The Country is Facing. Details at http://www.studentcam.org/

Personal Info. (SJG)

Since the summer of 2004, my wife Linda and I have been fortunate to be selected to attend nine Landmarks of American History workshops; they are now called Landmarks of American History and Culture workshops, and this change may be more than change for change's sake; it may be an indication of a wider perspective than "just" history, and may encourage teachers other than history teachers to apply.

The purpose of this blog is to communicate to any of you who are teachers but may not be aware of the incredible opportunities available to you! Every one of the workshops we attended was underwritten by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and provided attendees with a stipend of $500 plus a payment to assist with travel expenses (although the amount of reimbursement varied widely from workshop to workshop). The workshop we attended this summer provided a stipend of $750.

We are aware that Gilder-Lehrman workshops are also highly regarded.

The fact that we were able to attend so many of these workshops is a matter of some good fortune ("serendipity" seems like too pretentious a word for me to use). My wife is a teacher in a middle school and noticed the pamphlet on NEH workshops in January of 2004. She immediately suggested that we apply for several of these workshops, but I did not think I would ever be accepted, as I serve mainly as a substitute teacher; it seemed logical that every workshop director would select full-time teachers, as they would be most likely to impact the largest number of students. Anyway, we did apply in 2004 and every year since, and have attended the following summer workshops:
2004 -

• “The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson, and America 1801-1861" Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN
• Plymouth, MA - “Encounters and Change: Expanding Perspectives on Natives and Colonists in 17th Century Plymouth"
  

2005 -

• "Becoming American: Trade, Culture, and Reform in Salem, Massachusetts, 1801-1861"
• Lockport, IL - "America's Last Great Canal: How the I&M Canal United 19th Century America
  

2006 -

• Lowell, MA - "Inventing America: Lowell and the Industrial Revolution"

2007 -

• Kalamazoo, MI - "The American Farm in U.S. History

• Dearborn, MI (Greenfield Village) - "America's Industrial Revolution"

2008 -

• "A View from Mount Vernon: Shaping the Constitution 1783-1789"

2009 -

• War of Invasion—War of Liberation: Occupied Nashville and the Civil War and Emancipation in the Upper South