Conroy 09

Teachers Discovering
History As Historians

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Mike Conroy

09 Project History Club Summary

General Overview of the Proposed Project:

The Allegany-Limestone History Club proposes to team up with our local historical society as a project for 2008-2009. We will form a relationship with our historical society with a clear purpose and objective . We will pursue this goal with an understanding of future collaboration of members and resources.

2. Clear Purpose and Objective:

The purpose of this years project is to establish a working relationship with our local Historical society. We have three distinct objectives for the 2008-09 year.

1. To establish a sharing of resources. We would like to be able to share both human and physical assets between the two organizations. The Allegany Historical Society is centrally located in the village of Allegany. It has a small, knowledgeable, and mature staff. We would like to utilize their facility and their resources to complete our mission. In response we are also looking forward to volunteering our time to help them with their mission.

2. To utilize the shared resources to work on two history based projects. The first is the National History Day Competition. We will use space and resources to design and complete our projects (www.nhd.org). The second project we would like to begin is the Library of Congress’s Veterans History Project (http://www.loc.gov/vets/).

To utilize our new relationship to apply for the Save Our History Program through the History Channel (www.history.com). Grants are available through the History channel up to $10,000 dollars for organizations that partner with schools on community preservation projects that engage students in learning about, documenting, and preserving local history (see above).

3. Stakeholders: grade level, who will benefit, who will participate in this project.

Students from both the Middle and High School are invited to join the History club. We will even have a few elementary students participating in certain events.

4. U.S. History Content Area

U.S. History content will be brought into the club through several activities. The National History Day Competition is an intense study of a particular topic in U.S. History. The Veterans History Project will bring in local history connections to all wars of the latter 20^th and early 21st century. Our relationship with the historical society will expose the students to Allegany’s local history.

5. Outline Describing Content

1) National History Day competition (preparation and participation)

2) Veteran History Project-direct contact with living history

3) Guest speakers- The history club will have access to Allegany Historical Society guest speakers

4) Local history resources-The historical society has a well organized filing system with many resources tied to national and world events

6. Software to be used, internet materials, contacts, etc.

1. See above three websites and organizations.

2. Allegany Area Historical Association

P.O. Box 162

Allegany, New York 14706

Francie Potter- President

7. Level of Student Involvement

This will be a student run club and therefore the student involvement will be at a very high level. It is for both Middle and High School students. Individual student participation is voluntary but the students we are seeking are those with a passion for history.

8. Evaluation process (include students when possible)

Evaluation of the club’s process will come through our success throughout the year. Student projects and participation will be an excellent gage of how we will proceed.

9. Timeline: how you envision the project being carried out between start up and conclusion

Collaboration with the Historical Society will begin immediately. Participation in National History Day competition will begin in October and carry through Spring. Our first interviews for The Veterans History Project will begin once we have the equipment, location, and participants in place. We are currently anticipating a digital video camera via our local Boces center. We will be using the main hall of the historical society for interviews. Our first candidate has already agreed and is waiting for contact from us as to when to begin. The success of our first interview will determine the pace thereafter.

10. Comments or Questions:

Our club goal is 100% participation with the National History Day Competition. Our problem in the past has been finding a suitable time to meet to complete the considerable challenges of the program. If we are successful in meeting this need through the facility and resources of our historical society then we may be in need of material resources from the grant.

We may also have need of material resources for the Veterans History Project. We anticipate a grant from our local Boces center but without that we will have to rely on student provided technology.

TAH Project Reflection 2008-2009

Michael F Conroy

Allegany-Limestone Central School

8^th Grade Social Studies Teacher

General Overview of the Proposed Project: The Allegany-Limestone History Club proposes to team up with our local historical society as a project for 2008-2009. We will form a relationship with our historical society with a clear purpose and objective. We will pursue this goal with an understanding of future collaboration of members and resources.

This year’s project was successful in many areas. We accomplished much within the proposed objectives while needing to be flexible with others. Our overall objective of future collaboration is well on its way.

Purpose and Objectives:

1. To establish a sharing of resources with the Allegany Historical Society. We began the year last summer by meeting with the Allegany Historical Society President Francie Potter. She was amenable and excited to have our interest in the village society. She immediately provided us with a key to their building and invited us to participate in Allegany’s Heritage day festivity. Past President Tyler McHone and new member Jefferson Dedrick set up a Civil war table (both students participate in local Civil War re-enacting troops). Upon exploration of the society’s storeroom and files they found several items (Civil War musket and bayonet) as well as letters (written during the war to loved ones) that they included in their display. One item the association was please we displayed was poster board of Allegany Civil War soldiers. This was created by past Allegany student Kyle Stets detailing our village’s participation in the war (299 village residents enlisted in the New York Regiment). Interact president Faith Benson and her board also used the facility to conduct early season meetings.

2. To utilize the shared resources to work on two history based projects. Our intended purpose for the year was to utilize the facility as a base of actions for both the National History Day project and the Veterans History Project (see below). While we were successful in using human resources we ran into a snag with the historical society property. For one they were unwilling to allow us to use the facility for meetings disconnected with Allegany history (which meant we could no longer use it for Interact Club). The second issue was from our side in that our newly elected president of History Club is disabled and wheelchair bound. The facility is almost two hundred years old and had no handicap entrance that we could use. As a result we had to move our base of action back to the Middle School. From the human resource standpoint we did make some connections. For one Mrs. Potter, historical society president, spoke to the entire eighth grade about her experiences during the Great Depression World War II. We were also able to use the files in the historical society for personal interest.

3. To utilize our new relationship to apply for the Save Our History Program. We realized quickly that the scope of the Save our History program was well beyond our capacity but we will revisit it in the future.

Stakeholders: We were again successful in recruiting and retaining members from both the middle and high school of Allegany-Limestone. We currently have about twenty active members. This was a student run club.

US History Content: Our focus this year ended up on the Veterans History Project and our connections with the Allegany Historical society which are both entirely US history centered.

Evaluation: As described above we had various levels of success through our objectives. Some of this is a continuous process. We will continue to develop our relationship with the historical society and already have plans to move our Veterans History Project to their facility. The national History Day project continues to elude us. We find that the level of student commitment must be very high in order to compete. We will continue to look for ways to implement the program but the sustained effort of the project requires a stable location and time. Our once a week meetings and diverse needs distract us from the NHD goals. We did, however, have success with the Veterans History Day project. It took us a bit longer to set up than we anticipated. The technology grant that my eighth grade team procured included the equipment needed for the project. This we did not receive until the fall. It then required training which was conducted through the Cattaraugus Learning Center (Mark Karls). Once we had the equipment and the training we practiced. Practicing led to more practicing and a change of location. We wanted to have it right before we began our interviews. Once satisfied with our training we contacted our source to arrange the first interview. This had to be rescheduled until after Spring break according to our volunteers needs. We finally pulled off our first interview and it was an exciting event. Mr. Curly was a Marine Corp machine gunner in the Korean conflict. When he answered the kids questions there was no holding back. He spoke for almost two hours and had the kids’ attention the entire time. It was a memorable occasion and the kids have caught the idea of how important this project can be to our history. Many of the kids have relatives that they want to interview for the program. For next year we plan to conduct an interview a week at the Allegany Historical Society. I envision this will become the core mission of our club. Please use the link below and listen to some of the fascinating, and no holds barred, discussion with our first veteran.

Korean War Veteran

Jamestown Public Schools

197 Martin Road

Jamestown, NY 14701

Project Director: Paul Benson
716.483.7112
Fax: 716.483.7104

Web Design and Research Team:
Paul Benson
Pam Brown
Rick Bates
Carol Shick
Rick Walters
Mike Swanson