Thought for the Day: Teaching as a Pilgrimage

"I believe that the American teacher is the most solid supporter of democracy and that education ought to be teacher-centered as well as child-centered. Teaching can never be mediocre or it becomes self-defeating. Teaching must be great, yet greatness has many dimensions. It is not a possession, but a pilgrimage. It is measured by consequences -its influence on the lives of students and on culture."

Frederick Mayer

Recipe for Education from Teacher's Treasury of Stories

RECIPE FOR EDUCATION

Ingredients:

1 cup of thinking
2 cups of dreams
2 to 4 years of youth
3 1/2 cups of persistence
3 teaspoons of ability
1 cup of cooperation
1 teaspoon of borrowing
1 cup of good books, lectures, and teachers
1 cup of health
1 cup of plans made and followed through

Procedure:

Cream the thinking and the dreams.
Add the years and beat until creamy.
Sift persistence and ability together and add alternately, with cooperation, to the first mixture.
Add borrowing, books, lectures, teachers, health, and plans.
Fold in the years of youth, beaten stiff.
Bake in any moderately good college or university.
Time in college: 4 or more years, depending on how you like your finished product.
Temperature: plenty hot.

Servings will last for life.

ABC World News: Holocaust Survivors Reunite with WWII Liberators

On this evening's broadcast of ABC World News the impact history teachers can have on their students was featured in the Person of the Week segment.

In 2001 Matt Rozell, a history teacher in the small town of Hudson Falls, New York started an oral history project focusing on stories from World War II. His students ended up discovering a nearly-forgotten chapter in history. Click here for the text of the story on ABC World News.

Here is a similar story from the Associated Press. Click here. And here on ABC 33/40 Talkback.

We also furnish for our visitors the Hudson Falls High School World War II Living History Project. Click here.

You can also view the broadcast via the ABC News channel on YouTube. Click here.

Our congratulations are extended to Matt Rozell and his students for a job well done.

The J. Franklin Jameson Fellowship in American History

The Franklin Jameson Fellowship in American History is offered annually by the Library of Congress and the American Historical Association (AHA) to support significant scholarly research for one semester in the collections of the Library of Congress by scholars at an early stage in their careers in history.

The fellowship is named in honor of J. Franklin Jameson, a founder of the Association, longtime managing editor of the American Historical Review, formerly Chief of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, and the first incumbent of the Library's Chair of American History. It is designed to assist scholars early in their careers.

This fellowship is being offered again for the 2010–11 academic year. For more information regarding how to apply, deadlines and other important information please click this link to the AHA.

Research Grants from the American Historical Association (AHA)

The American Historical Association (AHA) has published a list of available research grants. Please note that only AHA members are eligible to apply for these grants, all of which are offered annually and are intended to further research in progress.

Preference is given to advanced doctoral students, non-tenured faculty, and unaffiliated scholars. Grants may be used for travel to a library or archive; microfiliming, photography, or photocopying; borrowing or access fees; and similar research expenses.

Applications are all due on February 15, 2010 for the following:

The Albert J. Beveridge Grant for Research in the Western Hemisphere are available to support research in the history of the Western hemisphere. Individual grants do not exceed $1,000.

The Michael Kraus Research Grant in colonial American history, with particular reference to the intercultural aspects of American and European relations, offers cash awards of up to $800.

The Littleton-Griswold Grant offers grants of up to $1,000 for resear4ch in U.S. legal history and the field of law and society.

The Bernadotte Schmitt Grants support research in the history of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Individual grants will not exceed $1,000

For more information click this link.

Thought of the Day: Andrew Carnegie

"Only in popular education can man erect the structure of an enduring civilization."

Andrew Carnegie

AHA Calls for Nominations: Nancy Lyman Roelker Award

The American Historical Association has published a ‘Calls for Nominations’ for the Nancy Lyman Roelker Award in the September 2009 edition of Perspectives on History.

This award was established to honor history teachers “who taught, guided, and inspired their students in a way that changed their lives. Mentoring is as important to the discipline of history as fine scholarship and good teaching. The ideal mentor is forthright, supportive, and constructively critical, committed to the student as a person, regardless of age or career goals.”

The Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award is given on a three-year cycle for graduate mentors, undergraduate mentors and secondary school teachers. The 2010 award is for secondary school mentors and carries a cash award.

Nominations should include:

1) A completed cover sheet and checklist.

2) A minimum of five letters supporting the nomination. These letters can be from students, former students, parents, colleagues, and others. There is no set proportion or formula for the “right” mixes of letters. Individuals organizing nominations should solicit a cross section as appropriate to address the essential elements noted above. Preferred maximum length of letters is two pages.

3) The nominee’s vita highlighting educational experience and student mentoring (publications and professional activities should be summarized in no more than 2 pages). The preferred maximum length of a c.v. is two-to-five pages.

Mail to: Roelker Mentorship Award, AHA, 400 A Street S.E., Washington, D.C. 20003.

Coversheet and checklist, all letters supporting the nomination, and vita must be postmarked no later than March 31, 2010.

The 2010 award will be announced at the January 6-9, 2011 AHA 125^th annual meeting in Boston.

The History Education Council of Hawaii recognizes that there are many qualified secondary-level history teachers and mentors and urges Hawaii educators to pursue this opportunity.