Designed for middle/high school social studies teachers who teach United States history and government, this intensive week-long workshop will immerse participants in early American history "on location" in Williamsburg, the restored capital city of 18th-century Virginia, and nearby Jamestown and Yorktown. 25 teachers and a returning mentor teacher will be selected for each session. Participants will be involved in an interdisciplinary approach to teaching social studies with colonial American history as the focus. Teachers will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with noted historians, meet character interpreters, and take part in reenactments of 18th-century events. They will review various interactive teaching techniques with a mentor teacher and with each other. Instructional materials in a variety of media will be provided to participants to use in their classrooms. Together with Colonial Williamsburg staff, teachers will prepare new instructional materials for use in their own classrooms.

From a Densho email announcement:

"Oral histories offer a valuable way to preserve and document the memories of individuals. They are also useful for creating innovative educational materials. This workshop is for individuals who collect or want to collect oral history interviews for educational use. The 3-hour training will look at real world examples like videos, websites, classroom activities, books, and multimedia presentations. The session will examine important factors to consider in preparing oral histories so that effective educational materials can be created."

To register, contact info@densho.org.

From the Continuing Education Options website:

"The Twin Cities is blessed by having various outstanding organizations and institutions willing to share their facilities, information and talents with the community. While participating in this class you will visit a number of organizations throughout the area and have an opportunity to meet with education directors and be given extensive tours of their facilities. You will visit The Hubbard Broadcasting Company (KSTP TV and radio) and the Star Tribune. You will tour the various facilities of MNDOT and see the communication and technology systems that are involved in monitoring and maintaining our roadways. On the U of M campus you will tour the Bell Museum of Natural History where children and adults can explore wolves, loons, moose and other Minnesota wildlife. We will also visit the Weisman Art Institute. In St. Paul you will be given a tour of the State Capitol and see government come alive. Finally, the past will be tied with the present when you visit historic Fort Snelling, which was once a symbol of American ambition in the wilderness."

This cross-curricular program helps teachers incorporate economic reasoning into their high school American history courses. Program instructors provide economic explanations of pivotal historical events. Participants learn interactive teaching strategies that incorporate the actual circumstances of historical periods of study.

In the 1920s, changes in America that had been underway for several decades came fully into view. This is the period when cultural wars first appeared (e.g., the Scopes Trial) and the transformative effects of industrial capitalism touched every part of American life. In the 1930s, an economic crisis challenged received views of the proper relationship of the government to the economy. The course examines various political and economic changes that occurred in this period, with a special emphasis on the New Deal.

The seminar will explore the separation of powers as it applies to the allocation of responsibility between Congress and the president concerning national security and foreign policy powers. Presidents and legislators have been warring over the question since the earliest days of the republic. The nation's political experience suggests that there are sound arguments to be made on both sides. It also suggests that the issues are unlikely to be finally resolved anytime soon. As participants in this seminar shall see, the debate between President Bush and Congress concerning the war in Iraq is but a modern re-setting of an argument that prompted a spirited exchange on the war powers between James Madison and Alexander Hamilton in 1793. Indeed, it may be argued that there is very little to this debate that was not more or less fully anticipated by those two worthies four years after the Constitution was ratified. Through a series of focused historical readings, the seminar will begin by examining the foundations of the Framers' thought and some of the controversies that exhibit the founding principles at work during the early days of the Republic. Participants will go on from there to examine selected executive-congressional debates as they arose during later military conflicts, especially the Civil War, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the current conflict in the Mideast. The seminar will meet formally for three 90-minute sessions on four days of each week. Each of these sessions will be devoted to a particular set of readings and each of the participants will have a one-on-one session with Professor Uhlmann to discuss the best ways in which the lessons of the seminar might be converted to his or her particular classroom environment. Because the seminar takes place in Washington and devotes a great deal of time to the Founders' thoughts, it would be remiss if it did not take advantage of the knowledge of Pamela Scott, a noted Washington architectural historian, who will share ways in which the art and architecture of Washington reflects the principles of the American regime. The greater part of one day during each week, she will lead specially arranged tours, including Mount Vernon.

This seminar will have daily discussion at the Library Company of Philadelphia, which was founded by Benjamin Franklin, and where participants will have hands-on access to writings and images of this tumultuous era. Daily meetings will look at the ups and downs of fighting a long war for American independence, and then relate these experiences to the wider Atlantic world of revolutionary contagion. Participants will visit some of the historical places Philadelphians would have known more than 200 years ago, many of which are within blocks of the Library Company.

This workshop offers academic content about place-based western history and women's suffrage on the western frontier, juxtaposed with myths of the West and contemporary women's issues in the West. It affords opportunities to engage in study and conversation with leading scholars; an introduction to four forms of primary historical sources—the built environment, artifacts, government records, and private papers—all of which have application in all history classrooms; and networking with other social studies, history, English, and other subject matter teachers, librarians, and media specialists, from grades K–12, representing a variety of states.

The workshop investigates the interaction between Europeans and Native Americans in the struggle to control North America, both during the colonial era and the early years of American independence. Participants will study early French contact with the Iroquois Great League of Peace, warfare between France and Great Britain and the Iroquois caught in the middle, Patriot struggles against Loyalists and Indians during the American Revolution, and key battles fought at the Fort during the War of 1812, which resulted in the eventual dispossession of the Iroquois after that conflict.