This week I traveled to Waco TX where I conducted two days of training for an ESC Region 12 "Teaching American History" grant. I had the chance to work with 5th, 8th and 11th grade teachers on techniques to move the focus of history instruction to document-based instruction. I used resources from my website "Teaching with Documents" and a variety of web 2.0 tools to help teachers see how they can create learning environments that allow students to do the work of the historian. On our second day, teachers used mobile laptops to develop their DBQ's and try out the various web resources.
The response from teachers was very positive. They wrote.
The best part of the workshop is that we had time to practice and digest the information were were using.
A good "kick in the pants" on some big picture ideas.
Made me revisit my own strategies…. Questioning strategies were repeatedly reinforced.
My head is spinning and I am giddy from all the resources and insights.
I need to reevaluate the way I teach. You gave me a lot to think about.
Got me excited about what I'm going to do next in my classroom.
