Yankee Magazine Features David McCullough on the Future of History

Yankee Magazine recently featured an interview with America's Historian, David McCullough. The question posed by Ian Aldrich: What's the future of History?

Any one of us concerned about historical literacy wonders about this, too. Go to this link and read McCullough's thoughts about an issue very important to all of us.

PBS: Enter The 2012 Teacher Innovator Awards

Did you know that America's teachers innovate every day? It's true! We've heard that PBS LearningMedia and The Henry Ford are sponsoring the third annual Teacher Innovator Awards. The awards recognize innovative PreK-12 classroom educators, media specialists, technology coordinators and homeschool educators who use digital media to enhance student learning. 

There's no doubt in our minds that there are some talented history teachers in Hawaii whose inventive thinking and use of technology fuels, inspires and engages young minds. You deserve to be recognized!

Enter here to tell how you have innovated with digital media to enhance student learning. You can send the sponsors a short video or PDF with text and images that showcases your work. Your entry can be a demonstration of a unique teaching technique or the outcome of your influence in a student work. See frequently asked questions and contest rules for more details.

NOTE: Entries for the 2012 Teacher Innovator Awards are from September 26, 2012 to December 12, 2012. Winners will be notified by March 31, 2013. 

America In Class: Winter/Spring 2012-2013 Seminars Announced

The National Humanities Center has announced its Winter/Spring 2012-2013 online seminar schedule.

Each seminar is led by a distinguished scholar who provides a live, interactive experience that focuses on teaching with primary resources. This includes the use of historical documents, literary texts, visual images and audio. 

All seminars emphasize critical analysis, close reading addressing skills of the Common Core State Standards. Participants will be immersed in an engaging, useful and convenient professional development seminar offering new pedagogical approaches and FREE online resources.

Here is list of the seminar offerings:

Winslow Homer's Civil War Art

The Civil War in Global Context

Teaching Through Close Reading: Poetry and Fiction

Teaching Through Close Reading: Historical and Informational Texts

The Struggle for Woman Suffrage

Economic Development of the West in the Late Nineteenth Century

The American Business Revolution: Corporate Consolidation in the Nineteenth Century

Teaching The Great Gatsby: A Common Core Close Reading Seminar

The Business of America and the Consumer Economy of the 1920s

The Causes of the Great Depression

The Causes and Consequences of Indian Removal

The Emergence of Jim Crow

Click here for the NHC's list with links to more information and registration. Hawaii teachers, historians, students and all others and encouraged to register and participate! 

HawaiiNewsNow Reports: New documentary details Date of Infamy

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -

The film is a frame-by-frame account that took a year to create.

A new documentary called "Pearl Harbor Declassified" offers a fresh look at the sequence of events that started at 7:52 a.m. on December 7, 1941. The main focus is the sinking of the battleship USS Arizona.

"They were able to go back and get the best copy of the footage of the Arizona exploding and replicate it in high-definition," National Parks Historian Daniel Martinez said.

A company called Creative Differences pieced together film with photographs from the National Archive and the Naval Historical Center into the 60-minute documentary that captures the first 15 minutes of the attack.

It includes rarely seen military footage from Japan and a home movie taken by U.S. Navy Dr. Eric Haakenson. Mixed in are underwater shots of the sunken vessel and first-hand accounts from attack survivors.

Martinez said the movie is the best documentation to date of the date that will live in infamy.

"I've worked with these images since 1991, and to see it in this clarity was remarkable," he said.

A free screening will be held Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center theaters.

"Pearl Harbor Declassified" debuts on the Military Channel on December 7, the 71st anniversary of the attack.

Common Core State Standards

You've heard a great deal about the Common Core State Standards. But do you know what they are? 

According to the official web site, "The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy."

Click this link to download the standards for English language education and learning. History teachers will find these very useful in planning their lessons and assignments. 

Thanksgiving Wishes from History Education Hawaii, Inc.

The officers and directors of History Education Hawaii, Inc., wish all of our members, friends, colleagues, partners a supporters a joyful and bountiful Thanksgiving holiday. 

Thanksgiving is a special time in which we pause to express to you our sincerest appreciation and aloha for your confidence and support for our efforts to improve and promote historical literacy in Hawaii. 

We are deeply thankful for our island history teachers and all their efforts in and outside the classroom. Our thoughts also turn to our historians, history buffs and students with warmest appreciation, too. 

Safe travels to all who are visiting family and friends in distant places. May your holiday be abundant and joy-filled. 

Aloha,

Jeffrey Bingham Mead, President and Co-founder. 

"Thanksgiving Day First Observed Here in 1838"

Thanksgiving Day First Observed Here in 1838

Instigated by Missionaries

Source: Honolulu Advertiser. Wednesday, November 24, 1948. 5:1.

Thanksgiving Day came early in Hawaii.

Hawaii's first Thanksgiving Day was observed 110 years ago, records of the Territorial archives show. According to a passage from Frear's 'Lowell and Abigail,' Dec. 6, 1838, was the date.

The Chronicle notes: "This day has been observed by us missionaries as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God. Something new for this nation. The people turned out pretty well to meetings and they dined in small groups and in a few instances large groups. WE missionaries all dined at Dr. Judd's and sipped at Brother Bingham's."

ON NOV. 23, 1849, just 99 years ago, King Kamehameha III issued this now-famous proclamation:

"In accordance with the laws of this kingdom and the excellent usage of Christian nations, it has pleased His Majesty, in council, to appoint the 31st day of December next as a day of public thanksgiving to God for His unnumbered mercies and blessings to this nation.

People of every class are respectfully requested to assemble in their several houses of worship on that day to render united praise to the Father of nations, and to implore His favor in time to come upon all who dwell upon these shores, as individuals, as families and as a nation."

The authority for annual Thanksgiving proclamations was provided under the statute laws of 1845, which added: "When thus promulgated, they shall be obligatory according to their general spirit and intent upon all persons, provided that they shall have no sectarian tendency, and not be calculated by favoring one sect to injure another." 

One of the best-known Thanksgiving messages in Hawaiian annals is that in which the Hawaiian Evangelical Assn. recommended Thursday, Nov. 28, 1861 as a day of general thanksgiving.

This message, signed by E.W. Clark and E. Corwin, recounted the Biblical quotation: "Let all His people, then on the day appointed, enter His courts with thanksgiving and His gates with praise." 

It cited the "manifold blessings" which had been bestowed upon the islands: "new and becoming avenues of industry have been opened…the necessities of life have been supplied to all…industry and enterprise have been duly rewarded…a free press and an equitable representation of public opinion in matters pertaining to the public welfare as secured…religious toleration is enjoyed…no pestilence has desolated the islands…institutions of learning and religion abound."