NCHE, Louisville, Kentucky
As we prepare for the final national conference for this school year, I have to reflect on the differences and similarities of all the conferences. Each conference is unique, and offers a wealth of information, experiences, and networking for our teachers. For me, the most exciting thing about all national conferences is the opportunity to meet teachers from different states. The issues and challenges all are so different, yet so much the same! The NCHE, in my opinion, provides the most teacher-friendly materials and strategies teachers can use on Monday when you get back to your classroom.
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The NCHE conference in Louisville, Kentucky was based on the theme, “Leadership in History”, so I began to think about the early leaders. First of all, most of the early leaders were travelers expecially John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The experience of traveling to a place, such as the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, makes a person more knowledgeable. I could hardly wait to show my pictures of the log cabin and the Abraham Lincoln Memorial to my students. It was most interesting to see the Sinking Spring that was close to the birthplace cabin. Students can vicariously travel to the birthplace and early surroundings of Lincoln. I know that they will certainly remember his humble beginnings. I can still remember teachers telling me about places they had traveled to when I was a student. Somehow, the teacher becomes more credible and more inspiring when they have actually been to the historical place.
Concerning the conference, it was very educational and uplifting. Even after twenty-seven years of teaching history, I can certainly say that I grew as a teacher. My first goal, is to become a “Lincoln School” to celebrate the bicentennial fo Lincoln’s birth. Seconly, I would like to use many of the excellent lesson plans that challenged students to think about the qualities of leadership.
Concerning the speaker, my personal favorite speaker was Mary Beth Norton discussing Anne Hutchinson and John Winthrop. She clarified some of the compelx issues that they debated. Also, I felt like I had been transported back to the 17th century with her vivid portrayal of Anne Hutchinson.
Finally, thank you for the opportunity to become a better teacher. My mind is overflowing with new knowledge.
The NCHE Conference in Louisville, Kentucky was an outstanding conference. I had never attended a history conference, and I gained much from being able to attend. All of the conference sessions were great, but I would like to focus on the daily general sessions.
The first general session allowed us the experience of meeting Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. These two were reenacted by two very believable actors. Abe took the podium and spoke with us for awhile. Later, I met them at break time, and was able to have a nice visit with Mary Todd Lincoln. The actress was delightful and knew her character very well. She had an interesting persepctive on Mary as a person. Her feelings were that Mary had started out as a kind and sensitive person, and that she had been left with a hole in her heart because of so many heartaches.
One of the speakers for Friday’s General Session was Spencer Crew from George Mason University. His topic was “Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.”. His speech was a sobering reminder of our nation’s struggle with racism. It was also a tribute to Martin Luther King. This was in honor of the 40th anniversary of MLK’s assassination.
The last General Session featured Mary Beth Norton from Cornell University. Ms. Norton spoke on Anne Hutchinson and John Winthrop. She was able to weave her story so as to capture my total imagination. Not only is she an accomplised scholar, she is a talented story teller.
I learned a lot from each of the daily sessionS and the general sessions. These noted historians gave me a new out-look on teaching history. It isn’t often that public school teachers are able to meet and learn from such esteemed scholars. I had experienced a unique and special time of learning. I felt uplifted and ready to go back to my classes in order to impart this same enthusiasm that I felt to my students! “History is Interesting”! “History is Fun”! “HISTORY MATTERS”!
A big thanks to all who made this experience possible!
As the old adage goes “a good time was had by all” correctly describes the recent NCHE conference held in Louisville, Kentucky, April 4-6, 2008, that I was fortunate to attend. Since the conference was built around the theme of the 2009 Abraham Lincoln
Bicentennial Celebration, the trip to Abraham Lincoln’s birthplce in Hodgenville was the highlight of the trip–I thought that I wouldn’t ever be that fortunate to go there. Of the eight conference sessions that I attended, the most beneficial was the one conducted by Dr. Looeswald of Adams State University on “Making an American West”. I learned that the West still isn’t settled as previously taught in public schools and universities. We “out here” are still a growing, changing, and diverse section of the country that is still open for discovery and growth. As interesting, was Dr. James McPherson, the keynote speaker’s lecture over the life and times of Abraham Lincoln; Mary Beth Norton’s talk over Ann Hutchinson and John Winthrop, early settlers of Massachusetts; and Ann Perry’s powerpoint presentation of materials available at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. I picked up a wealth of lesson plan materials from the different vendors displaying their “wares” in the conference hall. I also bought three History Channel videos that I need for presentation in my dual credit U.S. History classroom. I was so pleased to get them since they are difficult to get and very expensive if I was to order them from my local bookstore. The weather was rainy and cool–a delight since we are experiencing a drought in the Panhandle. Overall, it was a very rewarding experience–I feel like I can make it now to the end of the school year. On the Boston next year.
The NCHE conference was great! Ditto on the above comments regarding the general session speakers; my favorite was Mary Beth Norton. She gave me insight on 18th century titles that caused me to change a graduate paper I had been working on. The greatest quote I brought away from a keynote speaker at the conference was “Our students need to be scholars not stenographers,” Phil Nicolosi, 2007 Gagnon Prize Winner. That is the goal that I have set for myself as a teacher, have the students DO history.
The breakout sessions were MARVELOUS. I have already implemented one strategy, reading children’s books, and then apply them to my subject material. We invited the Kindergarten class in for the reading of Wild About Books, while the little one’s listened to the story, my older students had a set of questions that analyzed the book in regards to the Renaissance period. It proved VERY successful and rewarding (it was nice to get a bunch of HUGs for my lesson!).
My Kentucky conference excursion took me to the headquarters of the Sons of the American Revolution where I learned about genealogy. They allowed us to tour their extensive holdings of published family history, American Revolutionary art and artifacts.
I am very blessed by the knowledge gained from the NCHE conference, as are my students. Thank you for the opportunity to learn.