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Michael Tuccio
New York State History Day
Michael Tuccio
History Day Reflection
The second time seemed to be the
charm for History Day this year. I had doubts about doing it again
because of the time involved. I am so glad I did it again, as it
was such a great experience for me and my students. I ended up with
two projects competing at the Regional competition, held at SUNY
Fredonia on March 8th. I had an 8th grade
girl competing in the exhibit category with a project on
Abolitionist newspapers, as well as a group of three girls who wrote
a skit on the Underground Railroad and competed in the performance
category. I had wonderful kids participating, as well as very
supportive families. Both of these are a must if a teacher’s
experience is going to be a good one, let alone do well enough to
compete.
All students began work on their
projects as soon as we returned from Christmas break. I had another
group of four 7th graders after Christmas as well, but
two could not get permission from their parents to participate and
they stopped. The students I had spent two afternoons a week with
me for about a month, as well as time of their own at the
Prendergast library. We also met once a week during lunch and once
a week before school. That took us into mid-February. For the last
four weeks until the Regional competition, I met an additional
morning with students and encouraged them to work everyday up to the
March 8th competition.
Fredonia’s competition went
smoothly and it was great not to have to go to Elmira. My student
with the exhibit came in second and my girls with the skit took
first place. It was on to Cooperstown! One thing I changed this
year was the emphasis put on judges comments. All my students took
the comments seriously, knowing that they needed to work hard to
make their projects worthy of the state competition.
Cooperstown was wonderful. The
competition ran smoothly and the students had a fantastic time. We
learned that the skits are open to anyone that wanted to watch and
my girls performed in front of nearly 50 people. They did a great
job. There were even more exhibits than last year and my other 8th
grader also did a fantastic job.
Though neither project advanced to
the national competition, the students with the skit, called “The
Underground Railroad: Where Am I Going?” received a special award
for the outstanding project related to the Civil War. The award was
called the Thomas W. Malone Civil War Roundtable Award. It was very
exciting to see a Chautauqua County project earn an award at the
state level, along with one from Westfield, the first from our
county I believe. It’s a wonderful experience to be a part of, for
everyone involved. Next year’s theme: The individual in history.
Michael
Tuccio Reflection in Word
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