Local Culture and Public History
Dear Students,
Welcome to our class in local culture and public history. In this class we will undertake two primary explorations. First, we will use historical techniques to investigate the history and culture of our city, our state and our region. Second, we will explore and utilize the techniques of Public History to share our knowledge with our school and our community.
In our exploration of local history and culture we will partner with local institutions and work independently to answer questions about our own community. Gulfport is home to a rich and unique history that deserves to be explored. This class will teach you some of the techniques that historians use to uncover the stories of the past and to connect them to the modern day. You will use these techniques to answer questions about our community and the past that has brought us to today.
Our study of Public History will allow us to share the fruits of our labor with our peers and our community. This component of the class will require you to present secondary source material as well as original research to your peers and community using the tools of the Public Historian. To this end, we will explore the careers available to students of history beyond the classroom. Before we present history, we will see how history is presented online, in museums, universities, archives and corporations in our region and across the country. We will go visit these institutions, connect with them online and through social media and we will host Public History presentations at Gulfport High School. This component of our course will introduce you to the field of Public History and ask you to act as a Public Historian for Gulfport High School.
The following pages will tell you more about what you can expect from this class. If, at any time, you have questions or concerns about this class or its direction, please let me know. I expect my students to be an equal partner in shaping the course and I look forward to your participation and your leadership.
Mr. B.
What is Public History?
One of the key goals of this class is to introduce students to the ways that history is experienced beyond the classroom. Among the many reasons for doing this is the exposure to career opportunities. Public history is the fastest growing field of history education after high school. Public historians are engaged in presenting history to the public in settings as diverse as museums, businesses, amusement parks, the Internet and social media. Public historians create physical installations like the ones you would see anywhere from the Smithsonian Institution to the lobby of the local Chic-Fil-a. In a related field, corporate historians are responsible for fact checking, creating and promoting materials related to some of our best-known brands. How many times have you seen a sign or a commercial that included the year of an organization’s founding? How many commercials tell the story of a company’s founding? Think about the way that successful brands like Levi’s and Coca-Cola use their history as a way of maintaining their success.
These companies, and hundreds more like them, employ teams of historians to maintain their own historical record and to help share that with the public through their online and social media presence, through museums and corporate installations and through marketing. Universities, museums and archives employ still more public historians to maintain and curate collections and to find new ways to bring information to the public. As a result, the fields of Public History and Corporate History offer a fantastic opportunity for career exploration. In this class, you will study the diverse ways in which history is presented beyond the classroom and you will take part in public history. You will also be a part of one of the only secondary-level public history programs in the country and that will give you a great advantage over your peers in this growing industry.
Project Based Learning
This class will consist of a series of hands-on projects that will culminate in a presentation by you, the student. Before we can present, you’ll be expected to research a topic and, in many cases, create the material to be presented. Along the way, you will earn weekly checkup grades and occasional major grades for completed projects. You will be accountable not only to your teacher, but also to your team members.
While Mr. Bodenhamer has compiled a long list of projects for this class to take on, you are encouraged to come up with your own ideas for local history research and public history presentations. Our class will maintain a project board with a list of ongoing projects, upcoming projects, project proposals and brainstorms. You will be expected to add to our project board and to help us check items off of our list.
Project Teams
Each project will be taken on by teams of students. Team size will vary based on the needs of projects. In some cases entire classes (or multiple classes) may work on a project together and, in other cases, a project only call for a pair or small group. Because of this format, your teacher will serve as a guide, but not an ultimate arbiter of how your time is spent. You will be expected to complete projects on time, and to justify how you have spent your time, but you will have to rely on yourself to be certain that you maintain a steady pace of work toward your project goal. Regular progress toward the completion of a project is a requirement for success in this class.
Grades
Because students may be working on projects on or off campus with their instructor or without, they will be expected to complete weekly time sheets showing that they have completed five hours of work toward class goals. Our class will meet for approximately five hours per week but, as the semester goes on, you will be increasingly likely to spend some of your class time off campus. If you are working on a project with an outside organization (a local museum, university or historical society for example) you may be asked to have a supervisor with this institution sign off on your work hours. Be prepared to show Mr. Bodenhamer some work product to justify the hours that you are requesting credit for.
Students should, at all times, be working on at least one project and have plenty of opportunity to earn work hours toward this grade but, if they are uncertain about how to best use their time, they should see their project team leader or Mr. Bodenhamer. Hours do not have to be earned during the regular class period, but students are expected to meet their minimum required hours weekly (hourly requirements will be adjusted for holidays). These weekly timesheets will comprise the “Daily Work” portion of a student’s grade.
“Assessment” grades will come from student presentations and completed projects. Larger projects may be worth more than one Assessment grade. Be certain to keep a close eye on the class calendar as make up work for school and community presentations and events that are scheduled with outside institutions is unlikely to be available.
Attendance
Students should expect to abide by the Gulfport School District attendance policy. While some assignments (particularly later in the semester) may require students to be off-campus during class time, students are expected to participate in regular class activities. Students should keep a close eye on the class schedule to know where they are expected to be each school day.
Off Campus Travel
All students are required to have a Gulfport School District travel form on file. This form must be signed by a parent or guardian regardless of the student’s age.
Career explorations, site visits, museum trips and other activities will take us off campus regularly and they will begin soon. These opportunities are among the most important purposes of this class. Students are expected to attend all of these events and, as such, should keep a close eye on the class calendar. These trips are designed to showcase history and government related job opportunities and could help students establish professional contacts that could benefit them long after they have graduated from high school. As such, students are also expected to behave and participate in each of these activities in a professional manner and to follow all of the rules of Gulfport High while they are traveling with our class and representing our school. Failure to participate in a constructive and professional manner in off campus activities could have a severe impact on a student’s grade and ability to travel with the class.
Contacting Mr. B
Because you will be expected to participate in off-campus activities and because you will be expected to keep up with a class calendar, it is important that you be in close contact with Mr. Bodenhamer. The two best ways to do this are through email or Twitter. You can and should email me at . From time to time you will be expected to turn in assignments via email so, if you haven’t already, you should familiarize yourself with using email. Until they think of something better, email will remain the tool of business and higher education so get used to using it now.
For an even faster reply, and for quick questions, interesting links and networking you should follow Mr. B on Twitter. Twitter is the place for breaking news and direct connections to people who are interesting, helpful and fun. Furthermore, it is the social media outlet of choice for businesses and universities. If you haven’t begun to do so already, you should establish a positive presence on social media sites like Twitter as future employers and college recruiters will be expect to find you there. You can start by following Mr. Bodenhamer @GHSRBodenhamer.
For information on your grades you can visit and click on the link for “Student Center” or “Parent Center” and follow the links to my online gradebook. For more information on the class please visit our Google Classroom page. You’ll be sent an email invitation to join the class there. I’ll keep helpful links and class documents here as well as pictures of our ongoing adventures.
Please keep an eye on the calendar that I keep on my door for information on when I’ll be available after school and on the in-class project board and class calendar for information on your upcoming responsibilities. If a parent would like to reach me, email is always best but they can also schedule a conference by calling the school at (228) 896-7525.