Smithsonian Education Online Conference: Abraham Lincoln

Description

The Smithsonian is honoring Abraham Lincoln's bicentennial with special exhibitions and programs, and educators will be able to participate in the national celebration through the first Smithsonian Online Education Conference: Abraham Lincoln. Participants will explore Smithsonian research and collections related to Lincoln's life—everything from portraits and diaries to documents and historical artifacts. Alongside Smithsonian curators, participants will look at Lincoln's life and legacy from the perspectives of history, science, and art.

Sponsoring Organization
Smithsonian Institution
Location
Online
Start Date
End Date

Book Event: Mine Okubo, Following Her Own Road

Description

Asian-American studies scholar Greg Robinson will speak about Mine Okubo: Following Her Own Road, a new book about the pioneering Nisei artist, co-edited with Elena Tajima Creef. Okubo's landmark Citizen 13660 (1946) is the first and perhaps best-known autobiography of the wartime confinement experience. The book is richly illustrated with Okubo's artwork and contains essays that illuminate the importance of her contributions to American arts and letters.

Sponsoring Organization
Elliott Bay Book Company
Phone number
800-962-5311
Start Date
Cost
Free

Life on an Antebellum Plantation

Description

This workshop examines the questions "How did the self-contained environment of a plantation—its layout, buildings, isolation, and use of the land—influence the lives and self-image of the enslaved?," "What made a plantation 'home?'," "What made a plantation 'hell?'," "How did a slave reconcile 'home' and 'hell?,'" and "What can plantation photographs tell us about plantation life?"

The Center's online resource workshops give high school teachers of U.S. history and American literature a deeper understanding of their subject matter. They introduce teachers to fresh texts and critical perspectives and help teachers integrate them into their lessons. Led by distinguished scholars and running 60 to 90 minutes, they are conducted through lecture and discussion using conferencing software. A resource workshop identifies central themes within a topic and explores ways to teach them through the close analysis of primary texts, including works of art, and the use of discussion questions. Texts are drawn from anthologies in the Center's Toolbox Library. To participate, all that is needed is a computer with an internet connection, a speaker, and a microphone.

Contact name
Schramm, Richard R.
Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
National Humanities Center
Target Audience
High school
Start Date
Cost
$35
Course Credit
The National Humanities Center will supply documentation for certificate renewal credit.
Contact Title
Vice President for Education Programs
Duration
One and a half hours

Jacob Riis and Progressive Reform

Description

This workshop addresses the questions "In what ways is Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives a document of progressive reform?," "What does How the Other Half Lives tell us about urbanization and immigration?," and "How does Riis use photography in How the Other Half Lives?"

The Center's online resource workshops give high school teachers of U.S. history and American literature a deeper understanding of their subject matter. They introduce teachers to fresh texts and critical perspectives and help teachers integrate them into their lessons. Led by distinguished scholars and running 60 to 90 minutes, they are conducted through lecture and discussion using conferencing software. A resource workshop identifies central themes within a topic and explores ways to teach them through the close analysis of primary texts, including works of art, and the use of discussion questions. Texts are drawn from anthologies in the Center's Toolbox Library. To participate, all that is needed is a computer with an internet connection, a speaker, and a microphone.

Contact name
Schramm, Richard R.
Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
National Humanities Center
Target Audience
High school
Start Date
Cost
$35
Course Credit
The National Humanities Center will supply documentation for certificate renewal credit.
Contact Title
Vice President for Education Programs
Duration
One and a half hours

The Christmas Truce of 1914

Description

Tim Mulligan, retired from National Archives and currently teaching at the University of Maryland, will speak on the Christmas Truce of 1914. The truce was not one ordered from above, rather the French, German, and Scottish troops in the trenches began singing carols, which lead to a meeting in "no man's land" (the area between trenches) and exchanging of gifts. The presentation will include a showing of the film Joyeux Noel 2005 about the same topic. Mulligan often uses this film in his course "History through Hollywood."

Sponsoring Organization
First Division Museum
Phone number
630-260-8274
Start Date
Cost
Free
Course Credit
Up to 1.5 teacher CPDUs available for this event.

Allstate Community Conversation

Description

Facing History is excited to present its first community event in Chattanooga featuring author and concert pianist Mona Golabek. Golabek is an internationally acclaimed concert pianist, the host of a syndicated classical music radio show, and the author of The Children of Willesden Lane, the story of her mother's rescue from Nazi-occupied Austria on a Kindertransport and her teenage years as a refugee. Through a powerful musical and narrative performance, Ms. Golabek will relate her family history and address Facing History themes of identity, participation, courage, and resilience.

Sponsoring Organization
Facing History and Ourselves
Start Date
Cost
Free
Duration
Two hours

Banished: A Film Screening and Conversation with Director Marco Williams

Description

A hundred years ago, in communities across the U.S., white residents forced thousands of black families to flee their homes. Even a century later, these towns remain almost entirely white. Banished tells the story of three of these communities and their black descendants, who return to learn their shocking histories. This event presents a screening of the film, followed by a conversation with director Marco Williams. Williams, a member of the faculty at NYU, is a documentary and fiction film director. His films have been broadcast on cable and public television, including Showtime and Frontline, and have been screened at film festivals throughout the world.

Contact email
Sponsoring Organization
Facing History and Ourselves
Start Date
Cost
Free

Film Screening and Discussion: "Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath"

Description

Divided We Fall is the first feature-length independent documentary about hate violence in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Filmmaker Valarie Kaur documented stories in the Sikh, Muslim, and Arab American communities. Over the next five years, Kaur's journey unfolded into a larger exploration of "who counts as American." In 2005, Sharat Raju and his film crew joined Valarie as she retraced her steps across the country, revisiting her original interviewees and other scholars, lawyers, and legislators about race, religion, and security in post-9/11 America. The screening is free and open to the public. It will include a showing of the film and comments by Dr. Jaideep Singh, co-founder of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Assistant Professor in Department of Ethnic Studies, CSUEB, and Ranjit Singh Sabharwal Chair in Sikh and Punjabi Studies and by Neha Singh, Western Region Director of the Sikh Coalition, Fremont. A question-answer period with panelists will end the program

Sponsoring Organization
Facing History and Ourselves
Start Date
Cost
Free
Duration
Two and a half hours

The Civil Rights Movement: A Workshop for Boston Public Schools 10th-grade U.S. History Teachers

Description

This is a two-day workshop for Boston Public Schools teachers who will be teaching the Civil Rights Movement in their 10th-grade U.S. History courses. The seminar will focus on three units: "The murder of Emmett Till," "Voting Rights: From Selma to Montgomery," and "Desegregation of Boston Schools." All BPS Teachers must also register with the Boston Public Schools at www.mylearningplan.com.

Sponsoring Organization
Facing History and Ourselves
Target Audience
10
Start Date
Cost
None
Duration
Two days
End Date

What Students Should Know About 9/11 and the War on Terrorism

Description

On Thursday, September 11, 2008, the Foreign Policy Research Institute will sponsor two webcasts on what students should know about 9/11. Schools may sign up to view either or both webcasts live online and participate in the question-and-answer periods. All questions not answered during the session will be answered by email shortly thereafter. The webcasts will feature speakers drawn from FPRI's Center on Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Homeland Security.

Sponsoring Organization
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Target Audience
Secondary
Start Date
Cost
None
Duration
45 mins. for each session