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As part of the Teaching American History Grant program, the U.S. Department of Education asks local educational agencies (LEAs) to partner with institutions of higher education, nonprofit history or humanities organizations, libraires, or museums to create model programs of professional development for teachers. "By helping teachers to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of American history as a separate subject matter within the core curriculum," the guidelines state, "these programs will improve instruction and raise student achievement."
OAH can provide the following resources to help meet your teachers' professional development and history content needs, strengthening your TAH grant program and application:
OAH MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
Designed especially for teachers, each issue of the OAH Magazine of History offers articles, lesson plans, bibliographies, reproducible handouts, and current historiography on a focused theme. In addition to 4 new issues each year, nearly 70 back issues represent a wealth of experience from many notable guest editors and contributors. This magazine can furnish substantive history content for professional development seminars and workshops as well as practical teaching ideas. Subscriptions for teachers of history can ensure regular access to outstanding historical and pedagogical content. Recent back issues can be purchased at volume discounts and can become the basis of workshops and other focused discussions.
OAH Distinguished Lecturers
Nearly 300 historians who have made major contributions to the many fields of U.S. history are available through the OAH Distinguished Lectureship Program for presentations. Host institutions pay a lecture fee, beginning at $1,000, directly to the OAH, in addition to the speaker's travel and lodging expenses. OAH Lecturers can give keynotes or take part in grant-funded workshops and institutes, discussing specific historical content or approaches to history education in general. Speakers' curricula vita are available to supplement grant proposals. For more ideas on how other TAH grant programs have involved OAH Distinguished Lecturers, please see "OAH Lecturers Connect with the Secondary School Community," OAH Newsletter, May 2005.
OAH Meetings
Teachers are cordially invited to attend OAH annual and regional meetings. Annual meetings are held every spring and regional meetings are held biennially in the summer. History educator registration rates are available, and professional development certificates are provided upon request. Of special interest to teachers:
- Attending an OAH conference itself is an excellent way to build professional networks, participate in workshops and sessions to enrich historical content knowledge, interact with nationally known historians, peruse new books in the exhibit hall, and learn about using local historic sites to teach history.
- Focus on Teaching sessions explore all aspects of teaching history and engage precollegiate as well as college faculty. A sample call for papers from a recent meeting is available.
- State of the Field sessions provide introductions to fields of study and overviews of the best historiography and its newest trends.
These sessions may be duplicated or repeated as part of the LEA's program, workshop, or symposium, and built into its grant proposal.
The 2006 Annual Meeting, and future OAH conferences, will include pre-conference meetings on the best practices and model projects of the past five years of TAH programming.
Award-winning Teachers
Each year the OAH Tachau Teacher of the Year Award recognizes the contributions made by precollegiate and classroom teachers to improve history education. OAH bestows this national award for activities which enhance the intellectual development of other history teachers and/or students. OAH can help coordinate the involvement of Tachau Prize winners and other award-winning historians in the symposia and seminars of your TAH project.
Teaching Units
Based on primary documents for U.S. history at the precollegiate level and written by teams of teachers and historians, these resource guides help bring history to life for students. Each unit contains reproducible images and lesson plans for use in the classroom. The units correlate to the National Standards for History and are the joint effort of OAH and UCLA's National Center for History in the Schools. LEAs can reference these teaching units as touchstones of professional development activities, consult with their authors, or use the units in a more systematic way to bolster the curriculum.
These are just some of the ways in which OAH can assist LEAs in improving history education. The resources and services listed above can also be built into a specific program, such as a summer institute for teachers. OAH can also help to share information about the best models, techniques, products, services, and materials that result from Teaching American History Grant projects.
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