Summer Training- NEH Landmarks of American History Workshop

After a few days off when the school year ended, I was excited to attend a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History Workshop. This is the fourth one I have attended and this year it was around the Gold Rush. This means I had to travel to California for a week. These programs are nice in that when you have completed the work they give you a $1200 stipend to help cover the cost of travel and lodging. They do negotiate a discount for lodging and many of the meals are included so that helps keep the cost very reasonable. We received a series of article to read in advance about various aspects of the Gold Rush, and told to report to the Sacramento History Museum on Sunday afternoon at 3:30pm.

I was fortunate to be able to travel with the other U.S. history teacher in my building. He and I have been collaborating on curriculum the last few years and have attended 4 NEH workshops together. We planned to have his son drive us to Boston on Saturday June 21 early to catch a non-stop flight to San Francisco. The flight was about 6 hours and arrived around 10:30am local time. After getting our bags we got some help in figuring out how to get to the BART station at the airport. The BART is kind of a subway type system. We had to use the BART to get to Richmond, CA and the Amtrak station there. It was a little tricky, but after about 75 minutes we finally got to Richmond.

 

(We had to go north from the Airport and get off at Balboa Park to switch to the "red line" which took us to Richmond)

Once we got to Richmond, there were no people working there of any type. Luckily we figured out there was a kiosk there and that was how we had to purchase our Amtrak tickets. This train is known as the Capitol Corridor and it was very nice! It took just about 2 hours to get to Sacramento, and we didn't mind it at all. Not only were the views interesting, but the train had an outlet, wi-fi, and was very comfortable.

(We went from Richmond to Sacramento on this train)

(This is the train we took to Sacramento)

(these are all scenes from the train)

(This is the Amtrak station in Davis, CA)

Around 4 pm we arrived in Sacramento and had only a 5 minute walk to our Hotel, the Holiday Inn, which was situated between the Downtown Plaza and Old Sacramento. Since we did not have to report until Sunday afternoon, we spent the evening strolling around Old Sacramento which is set up to look the way it did when the city was founded in 1849 after the Gold Rush started. We did the same Sunday morning. Then we reported to the Sacramento History Museum and went on an underground tour of Sacramento. As it turned out, the area was prone to flooding so in the 1850's the city decided to force all buildings to be raised 12 feet. However, their basements remain and there are many artifacts discovered in those basements! Our tour was led by a re-enactor.

(one area of Old Sacramento)

(Old Sacramento offers horse drawn carriage rides)

(Our tour guide)

(The Pony Express Monument. The Pony Express route ended in Sacramento)

We had dinner and our first speaker Sunday night. Ken Owens is a retired Professor and historian who has written books about the Gold Rush. He gave us a nice introduction. We also received a book and other resources on the Gold Rush. We had a chance to meet some of the other teachers attending the workshop, most of who were from California. The project Director, Marica Eymann, gave an overview of the work, and Teacher Facilitator Donna Leary, spoke with us about implementing ideas in the classroom.

(Ken Owens)

Monday morning we had to meet just outside our hotel to board the bus for a 30 minute ride to Sutter's Fort. John Sutter was a businessman who emigrated to California from Switzerland. Sutter was attempting to amass a fortune by exploiting Indian labor in the region. His Fort was a trade and commerce center, the only signs of civilization in the region when James Marshall discovered Gold up the river in 1848. Marshall came to Sutter's Fort to look for help in setting up a placer mining operation. Before you knew it, the rush was on!

Traditionally, Sutter was romanticized as one of the founders of Gold in the area. More recently, though, much scholarship has revealed that he bought and sold Indians, and treated them horribly as workers. He was also drunk much of the time and lied and cheated whenever he could. He took sole credit for the discovery of Gold and on his speaking tours in the 1870's, tried to gain sympathy by claiming he would have been a millionaire had he not sacrificed the Mill venture in order to help America by promoting Gold for others to find. One of our speakers, Professor Al Hurtado, has written extensively about what a really bad guy John Sutter really was.

(Al Hurtado)

We also visited the State Indian Museum, which is right next door to Sutter's Fort. In a symbol that shows just how far Sutter's Fort has to go in its thinking, the two historic facilities barely recognize the existence of the other. No photographs are allowed inside the Indian Museum, but I can tell you it does a nice job of explaining how the Indians at Sutter's Fort were exploited. It's estimated there were anywhere from 300,000 to 1 million Indians in California before the Fort. By 1860, the number was down to 30,000. There are still Indians living here, though their numbers are small. The museum shows a bit about their culture, mostly focusing on the Nisenan and Miwoc Indians who lived nearby. After lunch on our own, we were taken to the California State Library. Here Marcia spoke to us about Daguerreotypes and showed us some taken during the Gold Rush period. We also had a talk from Library Director Gary Kurutz who showed us some of the Library's collection from the period including some maps drawn by Sutter, and letters written about mining for Gold.

(real California Gold)

(Gary Kurutz)

On Tuesday we were taken to Coloma, CA and to Sutter's Mill where James Marshall discovered Gold while creating the water route for the Mill in 1848. Our tour guide here was fantastic! He showed us where the Nisenan Indians lived first, and explained how they were exploited and destroyed once the Rush took hold.

(our tour guide)

(Nisenan dwelling)

He then took us down to the river and showed us where Marshall discovered gold. He explained how others soon arrived and started placer mining. This is the process of using a pan and just finding gold naturally. After a few years of this, most of the gold readily available was gone and miners quickly turned to underground deposits to find their gold. All of this mining led to many different people coming to California and the population boom the State experienced in the years that followed.

(this is where Marshall discovered gold)

Our guide also discussed the influx of Chinese miners who were hired for cheap to help mine for gold. They were discriminated against in most cases, but still created their own settlements in the area. Most of them later got work on building the railroads.

(this may be the only photo that shows both Americans and Chinese at the mines)

In the afternoon we listed to historian Shirley Moore discuss her research into African-Americans and the Gold Rush. Some came as slaves with their owners, some came as freemen to find gold on their own. Either way, for most who came it was a liberating experience. Although eventually California did experience intolerance and racism toward Blacks, much of this was muted compared to other parts of the country, by the rush for gold. Moore quoted one Black man from the time who was mistaken by a white man for a Porter. The man basically snapped at the white man that he wasn't "carrying anyone's bags" and held up his bag of gold dust. Wealth being a powerful tool to empower the powerless.

(Moore discusses her research on her upcoming book about African- Americans and the Gold Rush)

Moore's husband, Joe, was also there. He spoke to us about a living history project he participated in to recreate the wagon Hiram Young was famous for building in the 1850's for those wishing to travel overland to California. Hiram was a free African-American who became famous for this.

(Joe Moore explains the living history project)

Tuesday we also had our lesson plan project explained. We had to choose an activity to design for our classes around the use of a primary source related to the Gold Rush. We would then present them on Friday before we left.


On Wednesday they took us to Indian Grinding Rock, also known as Chaw-Se. This site is sacred to Miwoc Indians and located here is a giant rock which Indians used for many generations as a place to grind rocks for tools and jewelry. We learned a bit more about the Miwoc culture and had a chance to view this large historical artifact.

(site in the rock where Indians were grinding for generations)

(Broad view of Indian Grinding Rock)

(recreation of the village at Chaw-Se)

Completely unrelated to Indians... we found a rattle snake at Chaw-Se. After we all used the restrooms, someone saw it hiding inside the ladies room. We were lucky no one got bit!

(if you look closely, you can see the rattle snake)

We had a few other things in the afternoon. Al Hurtado spoke to use again about Indian culture in the area. Also, Professor Stacey Smith spoke to us about labor and how the Gold Rush changed the way labor is viewed from her book about free labor.  After this, we went to the Sacramento Center for History and had a chance to see some of the items in their archives and discuss how we could use these resources in our classes.

On Thursday they took us to the Empire Mine. This was a working Gold mine. In the years after placer mining was no longer an option, many began hard rock mining, and William Bourne was the man who created the Empire Mine which his family owned until 1929. A different company bought them out before mining regulations shut the mine down in 1956. Now it is a historic site. Inside the Bourne home, reenactors portray the family as if it is 1905.

(Mr. and Mrs. Bourne who owned the Empire Mine)

They took us on a tour of the mine and showed us what it looks like today. The mine entrance is still there and we were able to sit on the "Man skip" that was used to send men down into the mine.

(photo of miners on the man skip)

(the mine today)

(entrance to the mine)

(some of us on the man skip)

(this is a hunk of gold that came out of the mine. Its worth about $5000 in today's prices)

(they fed us a typical miner's meal called a Pasty. Its kind of like a pot pie)

After the mine tour, Andrew Eisenberg talked to us about the impact of mining on the environment. Andrew is a Professor at Temple University who wrote a book called Mining California. He explained how hard rock mining and hydraulic mining radically shaped California's environment. It changed rivers, and hillsides to the point where flooding is more likely and access to clean water is more limited. He also talked about how they used cyanide and mercury to get the gold from the rock and both polluted the land and the water. Those effects are still being felt today. He concluded that the environmental wealth extracted was not worth the environmental costs and that we will continue "paying" for the Gold Rush for years to come. It was a depressing presentation, but an important one. It is very interesting to consider Gold and California. It's very unlikely the State would be so populated today if not for the discovery of Gold, and yet that very discovery of Gold has likely created many of the problems Californians have today.

(Andrew Eisenberg)

Thursday night, a group of us went to the Sacramento River Cats game. The Cats won in extra innings 7-5.

(fellow teachers at the game)

(view of the field at the game)

Friday morning we were taken by bus to the City Cemetery. This Cemetery is the oldest one west of the Mississippi River. It was really interesting to see the founders buried there. In addition, free Blacks were buried there as well as immigrants from other countries. There were even some Japanese people buried in the cemetery. John Sutter had moved to Mexico, but his family had his body brought to the cemetery for burial.

Then we went to the Crocker Art Museum. It was truly an amazing place. The Crocker family was wealthy thanks to Gold and used their money to create an art museum, much of the art depicting the Gold Rush.While there, museum educators spoke to us about analyzing art and how we could use art in the classroom.

Friday afternoon we shared our lesson plans with teachers who were at the same grade level and had our final goodbyes to everyone. It was truly an amazing week learning about the various aspects of the Gold Rush! The NEH programs are very good and this one was no exception. I am very thankful to have attended these workshops.

(this is the primary source I used for my lesson)

Since my colleague and I were in the "Old West", we decided to get a fun photo taken...

Friday night, my colleague and I were the only ones still in town! Our flight didn't leave San Francisco until Saturday night, so we went to another River Cats game. They lost this one. Then we got up early Saturday morning and caught the Capitol Corridor to go back to Richmond. From there, we got on the BART once again and stored our bags at the airport. Then we had about 6 hours to explore San Francisco. We took the BART to Union Square and bought a bus tour of the city. This allowed us to see Lombard Street, Fisherman's Wharf, Chinatown, Alcatraz, and more. We even got to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge!

(Alcatraz)

(Lombard Street)

After this whirlwind tour, we were very tired. Our flight left Boston at 10:45 pm local time. I tried to sleep with little success. We landed at 7 am Boston time and rushed to get our bags and jump on the T to get to North Station. We were trying to make the 9am train back to Maine and we made it just in time! I was jet-lagged, tired, and in need of a shower when I got home. As I said before, it was a great experience and I learned a lot. I was, however, very happy to see my family!

In 3 weeks I will be attending a training on the redesign of the AP U.S. History course for a full week at St. Joseph's University here in Maine. That should be very interesting. I will rest in the meantime!

2013-2014 School Year comes to close!

My favorite school week of the year! I love my job, but who among us who love our jobs can't love a 2 day week? Especially when it comes just before a vacation? Thanksgiving week is one of my favorites for the same reason.

We had our last days of Finals on Monday, and had just one class left. After they finished, I spent the next period grading them, and it took me into the afternoon to finish. There is nothing like entering those last grades into PowerSchool for the year! There are some students who didn't pass their classes and many of them were close. For those students there is a "Credit Recovery" program that lasts about 8 days starting the day after school gets out. Students have a teacher and an Ed Tech to work with on any classes that they were just a few points shy of passing. They work on projects or other assignments they did poorly or didn't do at all the first time in an effort to pass the class. I wish them the best, but I'm glad I'm not there!

Our last day of school was on Tuesday. My 9th grade Advisees and I went to where their lockers are and made sure there was nothing in them, nor in any of the lockers nearby us. Then we had the Awards assembly in the Gym. This assembly can be especially difficult. It's often long and students are anxious to start their vacation.

We then had a staff meeting in the afternoon. Here is where we say goodbye to those who are retiring and celebrate our end of year accomplishments. I am not comfortable talking about folks in front of everyone so I never say anything, but I'm glad for those who have the need to say things publicly that they have the chance. I spent the rest of the afternoon getting my room in summer shape for cleaning. I left by 4 for the Staff retirment party at the Yacht Club in Wayne. This was a great gathering with food and music to send off 3 Staff members into retirement.

Its hard to believe its over and it always takes me a few days to adjust. I always a feel a bit like I've been in some sort of trauma and am recovering from that the first few days of summer vacation. There is a Learning Leaders retreat next week but I am unable to attend because I will be at the NEH summer institute studying the Gold Rush in California.

I plan to post once in July about my NEH institute and once in August about the training for AP US History I will be doing and then back to my weekly posts the week before school starts.

Of course I end the school year the same way I have every year for quite a long time with Alice Cooper...

Finals are Finally here

Graduation was on Sunday and it was really nice! I was asked to be a Class Marshal along with another colleague and it was quite an honor to be asked. It was a really hot day in the gym, but the ceremony was only about an hour and a half. It was nice to see the seniors one more time before they graduated. This year I am not a Senior Advisor, but those "lucky" Senior Advisors got to spend all night with their Advisees at Project Graduation. It was a well kept secret, but I know they went to a High Ropes Course facility (Monkey C Monkey Do), and a place for Dinner and dancing as well as a boat cruise before coming back to school around 5 am. We did something very similar last year when I was a Senior Advisor. Because they were up all night, those Advisors get to stay home and sleep. The rest of us had our annual Advisee Day Out on Monday. I have 9th graders this year and so we went to the Big Adventure. Here we had access to Mini-Golf, Rock Climbing, Laser Tag, and an arcade. We had a nice Barbecue for lunch. the weather was very nice, just a perfect day for us.

Tuesday was our final regular class day of the year. With the seniors gone, the halls were much quieter. Students spent the day putting last minute touches on their Finals and emailing things to me they might need for their Finals. They had to turn in their iPads for the Summer, so sending me files they may need for the presentations was very important.

We had our final Learning Leader meeting of the year on Thursday. Most of the Team is going to meet with a facilitator for a 3 day retreat the last week of the month. I won't be there because I will be at the NEH Landmark of American History Institute on the Gold Rush in California. The next time after the retreat that we meet will be 8/20 and 21 during the day at school to get ready to start the new school year.

(The red on the left is where we will be in California, there is a close up on the right)

Finals began on Wednesday. Each day students have 2 of their classes in the morning and are dismissed at 11:30. Teacher use the afternoon to grade Final assessments. One of the down sides when you are a Senior Advisor, is that you lose one of these afternoons to meet your incoming 9th grade Advisee group. that was me last year, so I had plenty of time this year to grade assessments.

(presentation similar to how my students presented)

Finals continued in the same fashion Thursday and Friday. This leaves me with one more Final on Monday. Because I have some classes of Seniors and an online class through VHS, I really only had the U.S. History Finals left this week. Students in those classes were role-playing as if they supported a new Civil Rights Act for Native Americans. They had to present evidence and support claims to show why they supported the new Civil Rights Act. Then they had the chance to role play the Senate and come up with arguments to refute the claims. Its always a very interesting debate and discussion and many questions rise for students. We found ourselves delving into a sports mascot discussion outside of the presentations. During the NBA Finals, this commercial had aired just the night before our class:


I also shared this clip from a CNN story from a few years ago:
As a result, students were very much intrigued to continue discussing race and it's place in America today. Great stuff! It helps that we had been watching a documentary made with cooperation form the Maine Native American tribes called "Invisible" that made many claims about white privilege and racism today. It's a nice way to finish up the year!

Next week is my favorite school week of the year, with Thanksgiving week coming in second place. That is the LAST week of school. This year, it happens to be only 2 days long (though I will be coming to school on Wednesday to make sure my room is picked up and in summer mode). This year the last week is a little crazy because I will be leaving the following Saturday with a colleague for California, but its nice to get that over with early in the summer break! As an aside, the weather this week has been cool, cloudy, and a little wet. This is nice, because otherwise it would be almost unbearable for the students if it was hot since we have no air conditioning in the classrooms. Perhaps next week will be different?

Graduation week

For anyone who deals with Seniors, Graduation week is a mix of stress and emotions. Seniors are scrambling all week to make sure their Finals are done, missing books or equipment are returned, and all of the proper good byes they wish to say have been said. You also have the pageantry of Graduation with marching practice, Senior Assembly, and Class Night. Luckily I am not a Senior Advisor this year and so much of this is diminished this year, but either way, it's a bit stressful.

Seniors presented their Ethics And Psycholgy Finals this week, which is always interesting for me! Its always nice to see students analyze current ethical dilemmas using some of the paradigms and analysis tools we practiced during the year. I always learn a few things I hadn't learned before. In Psycholgy we had presentations on Autism, Narccissism,  PTSD, OCD, and more. The presentations were very professional and engaging. I think it helps that these are real issues that most students are interested in and many have experience in dealing with.

The Seniors voted me as one of the Class Marshals who leads the Marching at Graduation. This is my third time doing it but its always an honor that I much appreciate and look forward to whenever I am asked. Though I'm lacking in rhythm completely, I am ironically leading the marching to "Pomp and Circumstance" along with a colleague of mine who has way more rhythm than I do! I plan to watch her our of the corner of my eye in order to keep the beat.

(This is a random stranger, but it is a Class Marshal doing exactly what I will be doing!)

On Friday the annual Senior Assembly was held. This includes Awards presentations, and I always look forward to this opportunity to recognize a few key Seniors in particular who were especially interested in Social Studies. I have a tradition of awarding a few Seniors with Awards named after famous people in history. The student who receives the award exhibited at least a few of the qualities exhibited by the historical figure the award is named for. For example, Teddy Roosevelt is one of my favorites in history and so I always give a "Theodore Roosevelt Award" to someone who showed some of the same passions and interests as he did. We also give a Book Award from the whole Social Studies Department to a Senior who was the most passionate and successful in Social Studies during their whole High School career. It's often hard to pick just one, but its nice to recognize these students!

(example of one of several awards I give out to Seniors)

The underclassmen still have 7 school days after the Seniors graduate, and so in U.S. history students put the finishing touches on their Native American Civil Rights presentations. Next week they have their Finals!

We had out last Department meeting of the year this week. There are so many things we are working on for next year! Those who teach 9th grade are working with other 9th grade teachers across Departments in order to ensure that Common Core and Content Standards will be met. Next year's 9th graders will be the first to graduate with a Proficiency Based Diploma. Part of the stress of this is that there are still many unanswered questions about this we need to find answers to. But we move forward as best we can. One of my colleagues in my Department is headed to Salt Lake City next week to read the AP World History Exam essays. At the end of the month, two of us in the Department are going to California as part of the NEH Landmarks of American History program. We also discussed the NCSS Conference to be held in Boston next Fall. Because I am presenting, my registration is paid for by the Newseum, but I still have hotel to pay for myself. In addition, my colleagues would have to pay for their own registrations. I hope we can find a way for everyone to attend, but I have my doubts. We also discussed the budget, which is quite lean. We are getting no books, fewer supplies, and no Professional Development money next year. This is all assuming the Budget passes the community vote next week. If it does not, there may be even more cut.

Sunday is Graduation day, and next week we have Advisee Day out and the start of finals for the underclassmen. I have 9th grade Advisees and 4 groups of 9th graders are all headed to the Big Adventure to have access to mini golf, laser tag, rock climbing, and bowling. We will also have a Barbecue while we are there. It's a nice way to end the year with our Advisees while the Senior Advisors sleep after being up all night with the Seniors on Project Graduation. The last 5 days of the year are half days for students with Finals in the morning. Teachers have time in the afternoon to grade the Finals. There will be plenty of other things to do to end the year as well! This includes awards for underclassmen, and a retirement celebration for 3 Staff members who are retiring. When June 18th comes around, I will be ready for a vacation!