Thursday, June 25, 2009
Education Week: Time to Kill 'No Child Left Behind'
Monday, June 22, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Last day of TAH-Heartland
This been a great week with a new group of teachers from Andover USD #385. They're eager to engage with the material and the presenters and I'm looking forward to seeing the work that they do for and in their classrooms over the next three years of the grant. David Blight and Lisa Kapp, sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute, really connected with the teachers. We can only hope that our future summer institutes go as well as this one did.
Labels: Andover, David Blight, Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLI, Lisa Kapp, primary sources, USD #385
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Stripping Gypsy
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Summer in TAH Land
For most of this decade, Teaching American History grants have dominated my summer responsibilities and taught me as much as I ever learned in any formal schooling. We just finished up our fourth grant, TAHPS (Teaching American History with Primary Sources), with a trip to Boston the first week of June. With a week in between at home to mow lawns, water flowers and gardens, and other various duties, I'm now preparing to go to Andover for a the first summer institute with our new group of teachers. This is the first grant we've had where teachers are all from the same district so it will be a new experience regarding curriculum coordination. It's a growing district and I'm looking forward to getting to know the teachers.
We've set up a Google groups account since the education service center is moving away from Blackboard and we didn't want to be stuck with various transition issues. It's also a way to more fully utilize Web 2.0.
Our Logistics Director is on maternity leave but has made arrangements for most everything we need this month. Two critical members of the team are two veteran teachers who compose part of our Teacher Leadership Team. Will has been with us since our first TAH grant, Project Mine. In fact, that's how I first met him. Kevin was a former student who also possesses keen insight into what works for teachers and what doesn't. The informal feedback they continually provide throughout the grant is as crucial as the formal feedback.
Through our partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute, David Blight and a master teacher will be joining us to share his expertise on slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Civil War in modern memory. They will be with us Tuesday through Thursday. On Monday, Kevin and Will will be sharing what they have learned about teaching with primary sources from their involvement in previous TAH grants and how they have implemented more primary sources into their classrooms. The teachers will do some presenting of the work they have put together on Friday. This fall, we will have an online class focusing on historical cognition and then in the spring we will have a spring institute and three reading seminars where they can get together to discuss significant monographs in American history.
The weather looks good for next week, too - always an added bonus.
We've set up a Google groups account since the education service center is moving away from Blackboard and we didn't want to be stuck with various transition issues. It's also a way to more fully utilize Web 2.0.
Our Logistics Director is on maternity leave but has made arrangements for most everything we need this month. Two critical members of the team are two veteran teachers who compose part of our Teacher Leadership Team. Will has been with us since our first TAH grant, Project Mine. In fact, that's how I first met him. Kevin was a former student who also possesses keen insight into what works for teachers and what doesn't. The informal feedback they continually provide throughout the grant is as crucial as the formal feedback.
Through our partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute, David Blight and a master teacher will be joining us to share his expertise on slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Civil War in modern memory. They will be with us Tuesday through Thursday. On Monday, Kevin and Will will be sharing what they have learned about teaching with primary sources from their involvement in previous TAH grants and how they have implemented more primary sources into their classrooms. The teachers will do some presenting of the work they have put together on Friday. This fall, we will have an online class focusing on historical cognition and then in the spring we will have a spring institute and three reading seminars where they can get together to discuss significant monographs in American history.
The weather looks good for next week, too - always an added bonus.
Labels: Andover, Blight, Boston, Gilder Lehrman Institute, TAH, teachers, Teaching American History, USD 385
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