Oregon Social Sciences Teacher Update #89

Oregon Social Sciences Teacher Update #89

January 4, 2011

Nominations Sought for Oregon’s 2011 History Teacher of the Year
Cannon Beach Arts Symposium Featuring Taylor Branch: America in the King Years: 1954-1968
WorldQuest Global Knowledge Competition for High Schools
Exhibits Open in Portland and Salem
Classroom Law Project offerings
LearningExpress Library Has Career Resources Plus Much More
2011 NEH Seminar for School Teachers—The Dutch Republic and Britain: The Making of Modern Society and a European World Economy
2011 Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminars in American History
American History Affiliate School Program
Facing History and Ourselves Winter Online Seminars
Florida Humanities Council Workshop on the Life and Work of Zora Neale Hurston
Memorial Library Summer Seminar on Holocaust Education in New York City
Issue 26, December 2010 of History Now Available
National Humanities Center Offers New Seminars
Lesson Plans Available from Council for Economic Education
42% of Americans AttributeCommunist Slogan to America’sFounding Documents
ODE Resources (in every issue)

1. Nominations Sought for Oregon’s 2011 History Teacher of the Year

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is seeking nominations for the annual $10,000 National History Teacher of the Year Award, given to the best American history teacher in the United States. The National History Teacher of the Year is chosen from outstanding history teachers in each state, district, and U.S. territory. The award is sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute, Preserve America, and HISTORY™ (the History Channel).

Nominations can be made by a student, parent, colleague, supervisor (including department head, principal, superintendent, curriculum director), or other education professional familiarwith the teacher’s work. State winners receive $1,000 and an archive of books and other resources for their school. Each winner is honored in a ceremony in his or her home state.

In 2011, the Gilder Lehrman Institute will honor an elementary teacher of grades K-6. Middle and high school teachers are honored every other year. Oregon’s 2010 winner is Marsha Klosterman (see article above).

To nominate a teacher and learn more about the award, visit or contact the Gilder Lehrman National History Teacher of the Year coordinator at r 646366-9666. You may also contact your state coordinator: Andrea Morgan, Education Specialist, , (503) 947-5772. Materials are posted on the Oregon Department of Education web site at

The nomination deadline is February 1, 2011.

About the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History:

Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization improving and enriching American history education through a wide range of programs and resources for students, teachers, scholars, and history enthusiasts throughout the nation. Gilder Lehrman creates and works closely with history-focused schools; organizes summer seminars and development programs for teachers; produces print and digital publications and traveling exhibitions; hosts lectures by eminent historians; administers a History Teacher of the Year Award in every state and U.S. territory; and offers national book prizes and fellowships for scholars to work in the Gilder Lehrman Collection as well as other renowned archives. Gilder Lehrman hosts serving as the gateway to American history online and featuring the quarterly online journal History Now, designed specifically for K-12 teachers and students.

2. Cannon Beach Arts Symposium Featuring Taylor Branch: America in the King Years: 1954-1968.

Friday, January 28th, Saturday, January 29th

Cannon Beach Arts Symposium presents a weekend enquiry into the Civil Rights Era, featuring Pulitzer Prize winning Civil Rights author, Taylor Branch; University of Washington scholar and Northwest historian, Dr. Quintard Taylor, Saturday panels with emphasis on Freedom Rides and era music, featuring Portland artists Marilyn Keller and Ron Stein. This is a unique workshop for educators with humanities or Continuing Ed. Credit available through Clatsop Community College. Lodging discount with symposium registration accepted. Contact or phone for reservations (503)739-0452.

3. WorldQuest Global Knowledge Competition for High Schools

The World Affairs Council of Oregon’s 9th annual WorldQuest is a team competition involving 40 teams of students from schools in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Each participating school is invited to send one or two teams to show off their knowledge in areas such as culture, religion, language, landmarks, current events, history, geography, flags, and people in the news and much more! Topics change each year.

Each team is comprised of up to four students, grades 9 through 12, and may be coached by a teacher, youth leader or parent from your school. This competition is free and will take place on Saturday, March 5, 2011 in Hoffman Hall at Portland State University from 1:00-7:00. Besides the competition, this day includes breaks for an ethnic meal together, a variety of cultural experiences and a chance to meet with PSU International students. Each team will leave with WorldQuest T-Shirts and new friendships with students from around the world. First prize will be a chance to compete in the National WorldQuest Competition in Washington, D.C. on April 2, 2011. The top three teams will receive an International Trophy to display in their school.

The deadline for registration is February 14th, 2011.For more information please contact Karen Ettinger, World Affairs Council K-12 Education Director, 503-306-5270, . For information on past WorldQuests go to and click on “K-12 Education”.

4. Exhibits Open in Portland and Salem

Portland: "Ernest Bloch: Framing a Vision of the World" is an exhibit of photographs by the 20th century composer Ernest Bloch that opens Jan. 12 at the Oregon Jewish Museum, 1953 NW Kearney St. Photographer and guest curator Eric Johnson discovered Bloch's photographs when he was a student at the University of Oregon and made a number of prints from Bloch's negatives. The exhibition includes 40 photographs printed by Johnson, original music scores, family memorabilia and personal letters. Bloch lived and composed music in a house overlooking Agate Beach from 1941 until his death in 1959. A series of programs will accompany the exhibition through its run. For more information, visit

Salem: Do you have the pioneer spirit? Then take the trail to A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village, where a new exhibit, "The Oregon Room", has opened. The exhibit is a recent addition to the dozens of hands-on exhibits at the children's museum in downtown Salem's Riverfront Park. Visitors can walk behind a waterfall, through a volcanic mountain and enter a miniature Willamette Valley. Families can learn about the state's food web as they pick apples in the orchard and tend vegetables in the fields. A coastal mountain range divides the exhibit. "Our museum is all about playing and learning," explained assistant director Kim Baldwin. "We typically do a 'soft open' of our exhibits, watch how the kids play, and learn from them in order to fine-tune the exhibit. We'll continue to make changes and additions (while keeping the exhibit open) throughout the year." For more information, please call the museum at 503-371-3631 or visit . The museum is located at 116 Marion St. NE.

5. Classroom Law Project offerings

Rekindle Your Relationship With The Constitution: A We the People Workshop for High School Teachers

This workshop combines observing the We the People competition with discussion of the curriculum, and how to get started in your school.

Who: High school teachers using or interested in using the We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution textbook.

What: A day-long workshop organized so that teachers observe students competing in the state finals of the We the People competition, and then participate in an interactive session with other teachers to review, debrief, dissect, and learn from what was seen.

When: Friday, January 21, 2011, 8:30am – 3:30pm

Where: Hatfield U.S District Court, 1000 SW 3rd Ave, downtown Portland

Why: Students begin We the People knowing little about the Constitution, but leave owning it. Teams compete in mock congressional hearings posing as experts testifying about the Constitution. They are questioned by state and federal judges, constitutional scholars, and other civic leaders. At the culminating event – the high school competition – schools from each of Oregon’s five congressional districts compete for the honor of representing Oregon at the national finals in Washington, D.C.

Incentives: Reimbursement for substitute teacher; $50 travel stipend for teachers traveling 150+ miles roundtrip (contact CLP if travel requires an overnight stay); Professional Development Units (6 hours)

Cost:$20 non-refundable reservation fee. LUNCH provided.

For more information and to register online, visit

Workshops: PROJECT CITIZEN (Introductory & Intermediate)

Who: Teachers grades 5-12 (all subject areas)

Teacher teams – combinations of language arts, social studies, math, and science – are urged to attend.

What: Project Citizen is an interdisciplinary curriculum for upper elementary, middle and high school students, designed to teach responsible participation in local and state government. Students work cooperatively to identify a public policy problem in their community, evaluate possible solutions, and develop an action plan for local government leaders to use in addressing the problem. The work culminates with a class portfolio and mock hearing.

For teachers with Project Citizen experience, the intermediate workshop offers additional strategies and resources as well as opportunities to exchange ideas with colleagues from around the state.

When: Saturday, February 12, 2011, 9:00am – 4:00pm

Where: Oregon State Bar, Tigard (Introductory & Intermediate); Higher Education Center, Medford (Introductory)

Why: Project Citizen’s interdisciplinary, service learning approach allows for integration of many subject areas and engages students with real community problems. Students learn about local government while honing reading, research, writing, speaking, and critical analysis skills.

Incentives: Classroom set of Project Citizen textbooks ($220 value); $100 portfolio bonus to teacher when submitting a portfolio to the May 2010 Project Citizen Showcase; $100 travel stipend for teachers traveling 300+ miles round trip; Professional Development Units (6 hours)

Cost: $20 non-refundable reservation fee. LUNCH provided.

For more information and to register online, visit

Educators needed to judge the 25th Annual Oregon High School Mock Trial Competition (no experience necessary)!

Join Classroom Law Project at a courthouse near you (Albany, Bend, Hillsboro, Medford, Oregon City, Pendleton, and Portland) on Saturday, Feb. 26 (regionals) or at the Hatfield Federal Courthouse in downtown Portland on Mar. 11-12 (state finals), to see students make their case with passion and poise. Each year, more than 70 high school teams, totaling some 1,200 students, compete in mock trials at the regional, state and national levels. This unforgettable experience for students depends on the participation of hundreds of educators, attorneys, and other community representatives who serve as judges at the competition. If you are interested in being a part of this great event, please sign up online at

6. LearningExpress Library Has Career Resources Plus Much More

LearningExpress Library (LEL) is a test prep and computer skills database, and then some. It is now available to all Oregonians, and K12 access is via the Find Information pages on OSLIS ( or

There are loads of resources for elementary, middle, and high school students, but there is also great stuff that could help educators and parents of students:

Practice tests and eBooks to prepare for specific career exams (firefighter, teacher, nursing, and more)
Practice test and eBooks to prepare for the U.S. citizenship test
Computer tutorial courses for apps like Microsoft Excel and Adobe Flash
Test prep for grad school entrance exams (GRE, LSAT, GMAT, MCAT)
Help honing resumes and interviewing skills
Skill building in reading, grammar, writing, math, and other areas

First-time users must access LEL via OSLIS, register under New User, and remember the user name and password they selected. For questions about this resource, ask your library staff or contact Jennifer Maurer, the School Library Consultant at the State Library: or 503.378.5011.

7. 2011 NEH Seminar for School Teachers—The Dutch Republic and Britain: The Making of Modern Society and a European World Economy

London and The Netherlands, June 26 to July 29, 2011

This five-week National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for school teachers, directed by Dr. Gerard M. Koot, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, will investigate how a region of northwest Europe, centered on the North Sea, acquired the characteristics that historians have labeled modern. We will study how the economy of the Dutch Republic rose to preeminence in the new European world economy of the seventeenth century, how Britain acquired this supremacy in the eighteenth century, and how it transformed itself to become an industrial nation. The seminar will meet at the Institute for Historical Research at the University of London for the first week and at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Wassenaar (near The Hague) for four weeks. NEH will provide a stipend of $3900 toward expenses.

For an application and a full explanation of the seminar, go to: For a mailed copy, contact Sue Foley, or call 508-999-8301. For further information, write Gerard or call 508 994 3145. Application deadline is March 1, 2011.

8. 2011 Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminars in American History

K-12 history, social studies and English teachers are invited to apply to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History 2011 Summer Seminars. Taught by renowned historians on college campuses in the US and the UK, these one-week seminars give educators the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of topics in American history while gaining practical resources and strategies to take back to their classrooms. Apply early: seminar space is limited. APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 1, 2011.

NEW Seminars in 2011:

Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Caribbean, Philip D. Morgan, University of West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados
William Faulkner and Southern History, Don H. Doyle, University of Mississippi
Culture and Politics in the Age of the Cold War , Alan Brinkley, Columbia University
Native American History , Colin G. Calloway, Dartmouth College

Returning Seminars, among others:

The Era of George Washington, Gordon S. Wood, George Washington’s Mount Vernon
From the Founding of a Nation to the Crisis of the Union, Carol Berkin and Fritz Fischer, Tulane University , For Elementary and Middle School teachers
Twentieth Century Women’s Rights Movements, Nancy F. Cott, Harvard University
The Great Depression and World War II, David M. Kennedy, Stanford University
The Age of Lincoln, Richard Carwardine, St. Catherine's College, Oxford University, U.K.
The Global Cold War, Odd Arne Westad, Clare College, Cambridge University, U.K.
Economic and Financial Crises in American History, Richard Sylla, New York University

For a complete list of Gilder Lehrman’s 2011 seminars, information about full and partial fellowships, graduate credit, and to apply online, visit:

9. American History Affiliate School Program

The Affiliate School Program is a unique gateway to education resources, events, and tools designed to bring American history to life in the classroom. The program is free for teachers and schools. Apply online at Joining the nationwide network of schools connects teachers and students to valuable resources, including:

An Affiliate School web portal with lesson plans, teachable documents, videos, podcasts, toolkits, and more.
Professional development opportunities, including regional forums and summer seminars.
Free and discounted books, multimedia kits, and traveling exhibitions.

10.Facing History and Ourselves Winter Online Seminars

HOLOCAUST AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR (Feb. 3–March 30, 2011): The twentieth century—one of the most murderous centuries in history—will forever be marked by the Nazis’ attempt to murder the Jews of Europe. In no other history are the steps that resulted in genocide so carefully documented, not only by the victims, but also by perpetrators and bystanders. The events that led to the Holocaust raise profound moral questions about the consequences of our actions and our beliefs, and how we make distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil. While the Holocaust was unique, the questions remain universal. This online seminar includes a conference call with a Holocaust survivor.
CHOICES IN LITTLE ROCK(Feb. 10-March 30, 2011): Facing History and Ourselves' newest online seminar, Choices in Little Rock, is a rich and engaging exploration of the 1957 desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The seminar traces the legal and personal struggles of African Americans from Jim Crow America through the landmark Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education, and ultimately, to the courageous actions of nine young men and women determined to make desegregation a reality. Their efforts would lead to a crisis that historian Taylor Branch once described as "the most severe test of the Constitution since the Civil War."

Further information and application materials are available at:

11. Florida Humanities Council Workshop on the Life and Work of Zora Neale Hurston

The Florida Humanities Council invites K- 12 educators from across the U.S. to explore the impact of Eatonville, Florida on the life and work of Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Writer, folklorist, anthropologist, and arguably the most significant collector and interpreter of Southern African-American culture, Hurston spent her childhood in Eatonville, the oldest incorporated black municipality in America.

This week-long workshop will be led by distinguished historians, folklorists, and literature scholars. Participants will stay at Rollins College, located in Winter Park near Eatonville and Orlando. Stipends will be paid to help cover travel and living expenses.

Who: K-12 teachers (public & private), administrators, and other school personnel
When: Two week-long workshops: June 19 – 25 or June 26 – July 2, 2011
Where: Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida
How: Visit our website at: or call (727) 873-2010
Application deadline is March 2, 2011.

This Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop is presented by the Florida Humanities Council and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.