Hiya! Remember me?

I don’t want to say it’s been a while since I last posted, but I am guessing it isn’t a good sign that I had trouble remembering my username and password. . . Oops!

The good news is that I am back, and it has been a long and exciting road since I last wrote.  I planned and hosted the New York State History Day contest, which we held here in Cooperstown way back in May.  It was the largest state contest we’ve ever had with 410 students, and it basically took over the entire village.  No, that’s not hyperbole. We DID take over the whole village!  We sold out all the hotels, packed the restaurants, and judged entries in every nook and cranny we could find between NYSHA, the Fenimore Art Museum, The Farmers’ Museum, the Otesaga Hotel and Resort, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  (Oooh, I have to again give a big THANK YOU! to the Hall of Fame for extending complimentary admissions to all History Day students and their families on the contest day.  Is that totally generous and cool or what?) 

Once the state contest was done, I was off and running to coordinate the trip to the National Contest, which was held in College Park, MD last week.  That History Day Guy did a great job posting every day about his experience during the event.  Check out his blog here: http://historydayguy.wordpress.com/   I spent a lot of that week helping the NHD staff with tasks to keep everything running smoothly.  I am not sure that I wasn’t more trouble than I was worth at times, but the NHD staff did a great job putting up with Tobi “Um, I have a quick question” Voigt for four days. .  It was amazing to see how much work goes into hosting a contest with roughly 2,500 participants.  Eeek!!!! 

So, you may ask, what’s next?  Well, I am excited to jump into planning for next year’s program.  I hope to spend a lot of time this summer putting together new student and parent resources. I also want to develop some helpful materials for those of you who want to do web site entries.  I have a lot of ideas I want to share with you all regarding next year’s theme, but I think I will wait until we get closer to the new school year before I start that.  Just make sure you check here every now and then.

Congrats to everyone on another great school year.  Have a great summer!   

Technology and History Day Contests

Now that computer software is making it easier and easier for people to edit their own movies, I am pleased to see that we are seeing quite an upsurge in documentary entries for History Day!  This is such a great medium, and I admit I just love watching student History Day documentaries.  I couldn’t be more pleased with this new development.

However, I have attended enough History Day competitions in the last two years to notice that the hardware used to show said documentaries just can’t keep up with the software advances.  The result?  Tech issues crop up at even the best planned competitions. 

I have talked to several parents, teachers, judges, coordinators, and students at contest where DVD players couldn’t read the DVD-Rs.  And I must give you all a pre-emptive apology because I know that some of you will encounter similar tech issues at the state contest this year as well.

Of course I do my absolute best to ensure that all of our technology – televisions, VCRs, and DVD players – are in tip-top condition.  However, I can not know ahead of time if my particular brand of DVD player can’t read a student’s particular brand of DVD-R.  Trust me, this stresses me out as much as you, and I am certainly not trying to avoid taking responsibility here.  I and your other contest coordinators do everything in our power to provide the best equipment, but sometimes our efforts just aren’t enough.

Since many of the tech problems result from issues outside of anyone’s control, I want to suggest a few strategies that you may want to consider when presenting at the state contest.

First, I will issue this general disclaimer:  Judges will not penalize an entry if technology issues delay the start of judging.  The only thing the judges care about is seeing the documentary; they don’t care HOW they see the documentary, they just need to see it.  (As a judge, I have watched more than one on a student’s laptop.  And that is fine!) Plus, I only ask the most compassionate and understanding people to be my documentary judges, so you can count on their cooperation if there is a technology meltdown during your judging time. 

Now, on to my suggestions.

1)  Have your documentary in more than one format.  Specifically, see if you can get your project on a VHS tape in addition to your DVD.  Yes, I know that VHS technology has gone the way of the dinosaur, but you can’t argue that it isn’t reliable.  What works in one VCR will undoubtedly work in another.  And NHD mandates that contests provide VCRs for all documentary judging rooms, so you know they will be there.

2) Bring your own equipment.  If you have a DVD player that you know works with your documentary, bring it.  You have 5 minutes at the start of the judging time to set up your equipment and test it, make sure that the sound is at the right level, etc.  Judges will be busy reading your process paper and bibliography, so you don’t have to worry about them.  I have even seen students roll in a cart complete with a laptop, speakers, and LCD projector from which showed their project on the judging room wall.  I am not saying you have to go that far with your equipment, but at least the technology was one less thing the students had to worry about.  Mostly I have seen students bring their own laptop from which they can show their project if all else fails. 

Again, I make these suggestions only to help alleviate any stress you may have about the technology at the contest.  Also, the contest rule book does suggest that students bring in their own technology for computer entries for these exact reasons. (See Documentary Rule #8).  And again, I will do everything in my power to provide quality televisions, DVD players, and VCRS (which I should say do work for most of the entries at the contest), but it can’t hurt to be extra prepared.

Good luck, and we’ll see you in May!

Judging and the Annual Theme

Hi folks!   I’ve got a really good blog post for you today, and I hope that you will find it very helpful.  Back in October I wrote a post about how to define compromise with this year’s annual theme, “Conflict and Compromise in History. ” I received a great comment from a History Day teacher and parent regarding judging and adherence to the theme, especially regarding last year’s theme, “Triumph and Tragedy in History.”  In typing my reply, I realized that it may be beneficial for everyone if I posted it here, as I am sure Mr. Blendell isn’t the only one with these concerns.  So, without further ado, I present to you Mr. Karl Blendell’s thoughtful and compelling comment (as pulled directly from his comment on my post, “Defining Compromise”), and my response:

 ”Karl Blendell replied:

Tobi,

I am writing in response to your blog.
I was reading the following entry :

****************************************************
Defining Compromise
This year’s History Day theme, like last year’s Triumph and Tragedy, is a two-parter.  However, unlike last year students had to incorporate two differing perspectives of one topic, this year’s Conflict and Compromise seems to be a little less distinct.  
****************************************************

You seem to be indicating that the theme from last last year required students to incorporate BOTH triumph AND tragedy.

This is not correct.

The NHD website and written materials from last year state the following:

“For national History day 2007, students are encouraged to select an individual, idea or event and demonstrate how and why their topic was a triumph and/or a tragedy in history.”

Note the last segment , AND/OR .

I emphasize this point because I am aware of 2 specific examples where judges wrote on written evaluation forms that a student did not address both a tragedy and an triumph. I was disappointed and concerned about this because it appears that some judges were under the impression that both elements needed to be addressed. This is not true ! As a result some students were improperly evaluated. This is a point of significant concern given the time commitment that some students commit to the project. In some cases this might entail hundreds of hours of work !

How are judges trained on the regional, state and local levels to ensure that they fully aware of the contest rules and themes and that they themselves have adequate background in the discipline ?

As far as this year’s theme the rules for conflict and compromise are virtually identical to last years. “Students may choose to focus on a conflict or a compromise, but if the topic includes one as well as the other, the student needs to address both sides of the theme.”

Hopefully, students, teachers, AND judges will all have a very clear understanding of this year’s theme.

Thank you for your attention I look forward to your reply.

Regards,

Karl Blendell”

And here is my reply:

“Hi Karl,

Thank you for your thoughtful comment on my blog post.  I do want to address your concerns about last year’s theme and the judging process.  

I think it is important to remember that the key purpose of the annual theme is to provide students with a framework for conducting analytical research and scholarship.  It also helps students understand multiple perspectives of history and learn that history isn’t a static and unchanging compilation of dates, names, and facts.

“Triumph and Tragedy in History” was a wonderful vehicle for helping students see these multiple and changing perspectives, and NHD encouraged students to maximize their analysis by including both in the their entries.

While you are correct in that the theme sheet did include the “and/or” clause, the context of the document (and the examples that it gave for topics) stressed the importance of looking at both triumph and tragedy.  Here are a few examples pulled directly from the theme sheet:

“Students should keep in mind, however, that often the same topic can be viewed as both triumph and tragedy depending on the experience of the participants, the perspective of historians and the passage of time. One person’s triumph was often another person’s tragedy. “

and

“Studies should include an investigation into available primary and secondary research, an analysis of the materials, and a clear explanation of the relationship of the topic to the theme, Triumph & Tragedy in History. Students should pay special attention to the possibilities of triumph and tragedy within the same subject.“

During competition, 60% of a project’s evaluation is based on historical quality, which includes research, analysis, and interpretation.  Students who took both triumph and tragedy into account with their topics generally showed more compelling analysis and interpretation, and therefore, were judged to be stronger entries.  

And yes, not including both aspects of the theme in the project legitimately could affect a student’s ranking IF an entry that included both triumph and tragedy was deemed superior in analysis and interpretation.  Judges did not lower a student’s ranking simply because he or she chose to focus on only one of the theme components. If judges wrote something to the effect that the entry only included one, I can guarantee that the intent was only to suggest that the entry could have been analytically stronger had the student considered both.

Among other items and strategies used for training judges, the NHD office provides detailed judging instructions for each category.  (These are available from the NHD website store.) They are the main publications from which all other judges training stems, which in New York includes on-site orientations on contest days and other supplemental materials on citation formatting, a full judging rubric, etc.  Within the judging instructions are detailed instructions on how to assess the use of the annual theme in an entry.  The following statement may lend a little more clarity to why the judges made the decisions they did last year:

“While entries should clearly be related to the annual theme, they need not address every aspect of the theme. For the 1998 theme, “Migration in History: People, Cultures, Ideas,” students could examine people OR cultures OR ideas; they did not have to include all three. The 1997 theme, “Triumph and Tragedy in History,” presented a different challenge. Triumph and tragedy are often intertwined: what appears to be a triumph from one perspective might look like a tragedy from another. Since students are to consider all appropriate perspectives, most entries that year addressed BOTH triumph and tragedy. In a few cases, however, it was acceptable to focus on one OR the other, rather than both.”

I hope that this clears up some of the confusion with History Day themes.  In this contest year with “Conflict and Compromise in History,” I can assure you that projects will be judged similarly to last year.  Judges are again looking for strong historical analysis and interpretation, and I will guess that student entries that try to demonstrate both conflict and compromise will end up being judged as the most compelling.

Best,  Tobi”

“Hmmmmm,” you may be thinking, “This is quite alarming.  I only chose to focus on one aspect, and the contest season is upon us.  What can I do?”  Here’s the good news:  If you have already won at your regional competition (or haven’t yet competed) and addressed only conflict or compromise, it isn’t too late to incorporate both.  You have the ability to make any changes to your project between now and the state competition (or April 1 for web sites and papers.)  The only think you CAN’T change between now and states is 1) your topic and 2) your category.  Other than that, start thinking about how you can boost your analysis for the state contest.  It will be a very competitive contest, and if you are serious about advancing to nationals, you really should consider accounting for both Conflict and Compromise in your entries.

HOWEVER, I will end with this last disclaimer:  If you chose to only focus only on conflict or compromise and you feel you have a clear thesis statement and argument, provide compelling evidence for your stance, show change over time, and meet every other judging criteria for your entry, then you shouldn’t sweat it.  Again, judges are not going to penalize anyone for focusing only on one aspect of the theme.  Their main purpose is to assess the students research, analysis and interpretation.  If you have done that well with just one theme component, then stand behind your work and take it to competition with your head held high!  That’s what makes a compelling History Day project. 

Travelin’

It’s Friday night, and I am all cozy in a hotel in Canandaigua. Why, you ask? Because tomorrow is Finger Lakes History Day!

It’s been a busy month, and I thought I should check in and let you know that I have been having a blast attending our regional History Day competitions. I saw some fantastic documentaries and exhibits at Catskill Regional History Day on March 1, and read some amazing papers for Lower Hudson History Day on March 8. Tomorrow I get to view web sites at the Finger Lakes contest. Woo-hoo!

I wrote a little column in the monthly e-newsletter this month, and I think I am going to put it here as well, so forgive me for the reprint:

“What is that folk saying we have about March? In like a lion and out like a lamb, or in like a lamb and out like a lion? Either way, I am sure most History Day students are feeling their lion’s share of pressure right now.

It’s competition time, which is both the best and most difficult part of the program. For students, I imagine it is exciting to meet like-minded students from across the state and share a year’s worth of scholarship. I can also see how it can be difficult to face judges in interviews, and making it through award ceremonies can wrack even the most stoic student’s nerves.

During this stressful time, I find it helpful to keep in mind the long-term benefits of History Day. Years from now only a few students will be able to boast that they won medals in competition. But EVERY student will be able to communicate more clearly, think more critically about their world, write more eloquently, and much much more.

These are the true awards of National History Day, and although they may offer little consolation now, they will become more apparent in time. I congratulate every student who participated in History Day this year; medal or not, your experience will benefit you in ways you have yet to imagine!”

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Project Titles

Can I offer one more teensy-weensy suggestion for your History Day projects?  You can take my advice or leave it, because this has nothing to do with the rules.  It has everything to do with clarity, however, which is something I value very much.

I was thinking today about project titles.  I have been to many History Day contests now, and I want to point out an observation I have made.  It has to do with project titles, which as you know, are all that the public sees before you educate them on your topic.  Some of these project titles clearly let us know what the project is about by simply using the topic as a title: “The Atom Bomb in World War II” is an example.  Some start with a catchy phrase – like a quote or the NHD annual theme – and then their topic is listed after a colon.  I love this because, as an observer, I know what I am getting in to when I step into a judging room.   

What confuses me, and this is really personal preference so take what I say with a grain of salt, is when project titles use obscure quotes or words that don’t clearly state the topic.  Now, there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that, but as an audience member, I always appreciate when I am given a clue as to what to expect.  It can be unnerving to walk into a performance called, “And The Band Played On” expecting to hear the conflicts and compromises associated with being a contestant on American Idol, only to be blindsided by a stunning and sobering presentation about the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. 

Ok, ok, that is not the best example, I know.  But do you see what I am trying to say here?  All I ask is that you give serious thought to your project titles.  I am all for including a clever catch-phrase that grabs attention in your title, but make sure you put a colon after that with your topic clearly indicated.  Here are a few good examples from last year’s contest:

“Spinning for a Living: A Lowell Mill Girl’s Diary”

“Lucky Lindy? The Triumph and Tragedy of an American Hero”

“Man of Destiny: MacArthur’s Triumph and Tragedy in the Philippines”

“Mistaken Identity: The Triumph of Japanese Americans in the Face of Tragedy”

“Broken Rings of Peace: The Tragedy of the 1972 Munich Olympics”

“‘They Hit the Pavement Just Like Rain:’ The Tragedy and Triumph of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire”

See what I am saying?  These titles are strong; they have an emotional punch.  And the best part?  They help people like me prepare for your project emotionally and mentally.  So keep this in mind when you are filling out your registration forms for History Day.

What?  You have already filled out your form and your title wasn’t like my examples?  That’s OK!  As a said, this is just my personal preference here.  Your title isn’t part of your judging evaluation.  I just wanted to share my thoughts with you.

Good question!

I’ve had a few teachers, students, and parents call me the last couple of days with some really good questions.  I thought it might be befenicial for everyone if I put them here, so here we go!

Q: How do I cite a primary source quote that I got out of a secondary source book?

A: This is a really really really good question, and I bet every single researcher in the world has run into this situation at least once.  Let’s set up a scenario here:  Say you are doing your project on the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.  You are reading a great book written by a historian on the time period, and stumble across an incredible quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. that proves your thesis statement.  Sure, you could stop right there and use the quote directly out of the secondary source book this way:

MLA in-text example:  Martin Luther King, Jr. once remarked, “Human salvation lies in the lands of the creatively maladjusted” (qtd. in McHistorian 123). 

Turabian foonote example: Martin Luther King, Jr., “[title primary source document that quote came from],”[primary source publication information]; quoted in History McHistorian, Really Important Things about the Civil Rights Movement, 123. Cooperstown: New York History Day Press, 2008.

And in your bibliography, you must cite the secondary source.  Yup, sorry.  You can’t count this quote as a primary source because you didn’t find it in a primary source.  You can put in your annotation that what you used was a primary source.

But let me suggest you go about this quote in a different way: go find the primary source and take the quote directly from it.  Sure, it may take a little more time, but you’ll be a better researcher for it.  How do you start your search for the primary source?  Check out the citation of the secondary source author.  Dr. History McHistorian had to find that quote somewhere, didn’t he?  Check his notes pages, citations, and bibliogpraphy.  Oftentimes they will refer you directly to the institution, library, archive, and maybe even website where the original quote is from. 

Trust me, the extra work will pay off.  Teachers will notice, judges will notice, and you’ll feel like you did a more thorough job.

 Q: Is there an official rule that states how old a historical event has to be before it can be picked as a History Day topic?

 A. As far as I know there is no official rule, but there are some strongly suggested guidelines.  In essence, NHD suggests that students pick a topic that happened at least one generation ago, or roughly 30 years.  Why?  Well, as far as I can reckon, there are two good reasons: 1. A sufficient amount of time must pass after a historical event in order for historians, the public, etc. to gain an objective view of it.  Events that happened recently – like September 11 and Hurricane Katrina – are so recent that the full historical impact of these events can not yet be determined.  2: Events that are less than 30 years old tend to have fewer reliable primary source materials available, and primary sources are the thing with History Day. 

Since the 30 year gap isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, judges can’t penalize entries that focus on recent history.  However, the students who pick recent topics will most likely be questioned about it by the judges.  They will ask some hard questions about historical perspective that may not be so fun to answer on the spot.  Students who place a lot of value on the competition aspect of the program should make it easy for themselves and focus on older topics.  However, if you are really interested in studying the history behind a current event and don’t care if you win in competition or not, I’d say you should do what makes you happiest.

As always, let me know if you have any questions.  I am here to help!

New York History in the News

I wanted to share this article that was in Newsweek magazine a couple of weeks ago.  It’s about New York State history, and it instantly made me think:  “This would be a great History Day topic!”  I know it is way too late for this year, but keep the article in the back of your mind for next year:

“Dreams and Suitcases:  An attic in a former insane asylum offers a vivid reminder of the ways we’ve treated the mentally ill.

By Anne Underwood | NEWSWEEK

It was a chilly afternoon in April 1995, just weeks before the Willard Psychiatric Center in upstate New York was set to close for good. Two staffers, Beverly Courtwright and Lisa Hoffman, were racing to salvage pieces of Willard’s 126-year history when they came across a long-forgotten attic room in one of the buildings. Peering inside, they saw the slanting rays of the sun streaming through the windows, revealing wooden racks filled with hundreds of dusty old suitcases, steamer trunks, footlockers and leather bags—the property of former patients who’d arrived in the first half of the century. Courtwright wanted to leave, feeling that they had disturbed a gravesite. But Hoffman was intrigued. Who were the owners? Where had they come from? Over the ensuing weeks, researchers began opening the cases and cataloging their contents—photos, books, wedding albums, silver spoons, military uniforms—things that had been taken from the patients on arrival, never to be returned. ‘I felt these lives needed closure,’ says Hoffman. ‘These patients didn’t even have relatives to claim their things when they died.’

If recognition represents closure, 10 of these patients have finally found it. Next month their stories will be published in a book—The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From a State Hospital Attic by researcher Darby Penney and psychiatrist Peter Stastny of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the writers who pieced together the patients’ stories. It was a painstaking task, matching faded names on luggage tags with medical charts and patient records. But the result is a fascinating, though somewhat academic, glimpse into a closed world, where “incurables” were sent as a last resort, with no expectation that they would ever return to society.

The haunting thing about the suitcase owners is that it’s so easy to identify with them. Perhaps they had a predisposition to mental illness. But many were hardworking men and women who seemed to be coping until they suffered setbacks—job losses, physical abuse, diseases, deaths in the family—that apparently triggered a downward spiral. One, Ethel S., had just divorced her alcoholic, abusive husband in 1930 when her landlady reported her to the authorities. Ethel, who had also lost two infant children, packed an embroidered christening gown and hand-knitted baby cap in her luggage. Dmytre Z., an immigrant from Ukraine, had survived a Nazi labor camp, only to crumble after his wife bled to death during a miscarriage. A craftsman, he had presented a scale model of the wooden church in his hometown to President Harry Truman as a gift of gratitude in 1950. His luggage included patterns for making toy animals, créche figures and a doll’s carriage. Granted, the patients displayed some odd behavior. Gravedigger Lawrence M. was ‘praying, claiming to hear the voice of God and seeing the angels,’ as one medical report put it—and Dmytre tried to propose to Margaret Truman, the president’s daughter, after his wife’s death. But if they were alive today, it’s hard to imagine that the three of them would have been locked up for 43, 24 and 50 years, respectively.

The irony is that Willard represented progress. On its opening day in 1869, four patients arrived, one of them in a box resembling a large chicken crate—an indication of just how poorly people with mental problems were treated then. Another had reportedly been chained to the walls of a poorhouse in Hudson, N.Y., for 10 years. Willard offered them life in a rural, if institutional, setting. Spread across 600 acres in New York’s Finger Lakes region, it included a farm, a dairy, a bakery, a blacksmith shop and workshops for making shoes, clothing, soap and brooms. For a place filled with ‘lunatics,’ it was curiously dependent on the unpaid labor of patients. Only the violent and debilitated were permanently confined to locked wards. Still, many people received misguided therapies. Dmytre was given 20 electroshock treatments, though they failed to help.

Like many former asylums, Willard has changed with the times. Today it houses drug-abusing parolees, while psychiatric patients have moved out. But the authors argue that many mental patients have traded one set of problems for another. Though people can often recover with the right support, getting that support remains a huge issue. Many have been released from hospitals, only to end up in nursing homes, jails or on the streets. As Penney sees it, significant improvements will come only when patients with mental problems are viewed not as dangerous misfits but as real people, with lives, careers, dreams—and suitcases.”

Here’s the link to the article (and a photo) on the Newsweek website: http://www.newsweek.com/id/74384

It’s been a while. . .

Hello friends!  I haven’t posted in a while because, well, there hasn’t been much to say!  Travel for John and me really died down in November, and then the snow hit!  I don’t know about you all, but we are buried by over a foot of snow right now.

I am assuming that my phone hasn’t been ringing and my email has been quiet is because everyone is having a wonderfully successful time with their History Day research.  Don’t forget that we have some great links about research in our Student Support Center at our website: http://www.nyshistoryday.org/Students.htm.

I have been keeping myself busy by starting the plan the 2008 History Day contest here in Cooperstown.  It makes me excited just to think about it.  With our new region in the Western Southern Tier, and renewed interest and participation in the North Country and Mid Hudson regions, I am convinced this will be our largest contest yet!

Well, if I don’t talk to you all before year’s end, I want to wish you all a very happy holiday season and a great new year! 

Sleep? What’s that?

Oh boy, last week was crazy busy for both John and me.  We started the week in Yonkers, and ended in Ellicottville, just south of Buffalo.  Despite the long drives, I wouldn’t have changed a thing.  Have I mentioned that we have basically commandeered NYSHA’s Ford Freestar minivan?  It is such a great car to drive, and makes it easy for us to tote exhibits and other History Day swag all across the state.  Now that I can plug in my iPod, John and I have spent many-an-hour singing at the top of our lungs to Neil Diamond and Billy Joel.

Anyway, I didn’t start this post to give you a play-by-play of the 1,000+ miles we’ve put on the van in two weeks.  I wanted to share with you where we have been.  I already shared with you our great Yonkers adventure in my last post, but I must restate how much I love it that they are so serious about implementing History Day in the entire district.  Anthony Brooks and his teachers are my heros!

Last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, John and I travelled to Ellicottville to attend the inaugural conference of the new Western Southern Tier Council for the Social Studies.  Boy, do Paul Benson, Rick Walters, and company know how to throw a educator’s conference!  I have never spent time with such motivated educators and enjoyed the keynote speakers and sessions so much.  John and I both presented at the conference.  John gave a session on how to create a History Day exhibit.  I showed how to use Windows Movie Maker to create awesome digital documentries.  Both our sessions seemed to go well, so thanks to the teachers who attended them!

On Saturday we attended a town hall meeting session about history clubs.  Mike Conroy from Allegany-Limestone hosted the session, and it was great to hear how he has implemented History Day as an extra-curricular activity in his school. (Side note:  Last year was Mike’s first year with the program, and his student Stephanie Mackowski took her Junior Individual Documentary all the way to the National competition!)

The session reminded me how the History Day program makes a perfect after-school program.  Perhaps you’re interested in starting History Day but just don’t have the time to do it in the classroom, or the commitment from co-teachers and administration to start a school-wide program.  Try it as an after school club!  See if your school will give you a little extra $$$ for being a club advisor.  It can’t hurt to ask. 

I’ve even tried to make it easy on you by developing a free after school History Day club toolkit.  You can download it for free at our website: http://www.nyshistoryday.org/AfterSchoolClubKit.htm

Take a look and let me know your thoughts.  I swear I am a very much under-used resource.  Call me and email me and I can help you! I promise!

Yonkers Rules!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?  Sorry! It’s just that John and I have been traveling like mad lately, spreading the joy of History Day to teachers and students statewide. Last Thursday and yesterday we conducted workshops in Yonkers. 

The Yonkers Public Schools, under the direction of their new Assistant Director of Social Studies Anthony Brooks, have banded together to start History Day in all middle and high schools in the district! Anthony is a former History Day teacher who had helped several students make it to the National level of competition.  He knows what a difference the program can make in the lives of students, and is eager to get Yonkers involved.

Anyone who has started History Day in their school or district knows that it can feel a little overwhelming at first, but at both our presentations John and I encountered motivated and excited teachers.  They are eager and ready to start the History Day year.  Most already do project-based learning in their classes and are looking forward to merging History Day with their already successful initiatives.

What I loved the most about visiting the Yonkers schools was atmosphere of teamwork and support they have already begun cultivating.  Anthony is working to find funding to help off-set some of the costs associated with the program.  The district’s tech guru, Don DeMatteo, has already posted many History Day resources on their district’s intranet system.  The teachers seemed ready and eager to support each other and share tips and best practices.

As their participation grows, Anthony has asked each school to host their own internal competition.  The top five projects in each category from each school will then compete at a Yonkers History Day contest in February.  Winners from Yonkers History Day will move on to the Lower Hudson Regional Contest, which will be held at the St. Thomas Aquinas College in March.

I am so excited to be involved with the Yonkers Public Schools as they implement History Day.  I think Anthony and his team have amazing drive and dedication, and I really look forward to seeing them succeed with the program.