PACETAH

The Texas Panhandle was represented by seven participants at the OAH conference in Washington,D.C. in April 2006.  We were pleased that Dr. Shaffer was able to join us on the first day of the conference.  As always, the OAH offered provocative sessions which encourage critical thinking and debate!  Our teachers occasionally were amazed (and dare I say, horrified?) at some of the sessions.  The off-site sessions offered such rarities as a behind-the-scenes tour of the National Archives, the nuts and bolts of digital access to the Library of Congress, and other useful and fascinating topics.  For my part, best of all was simply being in the nation’s capital and actually seeing all the things we teach our students.

Seventeen grant members attended the NCHE conference in Austin last week.  The sessions were really informative!  On Thursday we did our own tour of historic sites in Austin, including the Texas State Cemetary, the Capitol and downtown Austin, as well as the LBJ Library.  We observed the “circus-like” atmosphere on the Capitol grounds as, on one side of the Capitol, we observed a group promoting ethanol (several teachers got both a free meal and a free T-shirt out of that deal!). On the other side of the Capitol a protest against the proposed immigrant legislation allowed lots of students and a few older folks to wave flags, chant, and perform for the TV cameras that were in evidence.  It appeared that most were having a good time.  Our teachers had a good time, too, although I didn’t notice any of ours dancing in front of the TV cameras!

Jill, Monica and I just returned from the NSSA meeting in Las Vegas where we presented a session on mentoring.  Jill and Monica did a GREAT job!!  There was lots of interest, and some really good discussion.  Thanks, Monica and Jill for being great ambassadors for the grant and for the Panhandle.