Like most people, when I reflect back on my K-12 education, I don't remember specific assignments, but I do remember specific teachers. Whether it was Mrs. Saunders, who taught my 7th and 9th grade Social Studies classes, or Mr. Christie who taught my 11th grade Advanced Placement United States History class.  At the University of Notre Dame, Fr. Bill Miscamble and Fr. Robert Kerby picked up where the previous teachers had left off and steered an accounting major with an interest in history toward a history major. And, in graduate school at Louisiana State University, Bill Cooper helped shepherd me from a history student into a historian. Reflecting back on these influences, it is clear that regardless of whether someone teaches first grade, eleventh grade AP students, college freshmen, or graduate students, we are all teachers.

Yet, in graduate school and in academic life in general, one can easily forget the idea of being a teacher. Personally, I immersed myself in antebellum Louisiana politics, and out of this immersion, I produced a dissertation and a book — A Perfect War of Politics: Parties, Politicians, and Democracy in Louisiana, 1824-1861 — on the subject. Now, I've steered my research interest more toward the Civil War as I'm writing a book on Confederate conscription. In addition, I worked for six years at Emporia State University, including three years as chair of the Department of Social Sciences. I am now in my second year at the University of Central Florida, where I'm currently serving as the Associate Chair of History. While I am proud of my research and love what I am doing (well, except for being in charge of scheduling), somewhere in the midst of this research, writing, administrating, and attending academic conferences, my connections to the Mrs. Saunderses and Mr. Christies of the world disappeared.

Luckily for me, my work with Teaching American History grants and with the American Institute of History Education has helped rekindle that connection. In the past year, I have spoken to groups in Clay County (FL), Jefferson (LA), and Elk Grove (CA). I have also been actively involved on the steering committees for Teaching American History grants in Kansas and in Orange County (FL). When I speak at colloquia, my number one goal is to enhance the teachers' subject area expertise. I feel that the best way to accomplish this goal is to know my subject matter inside and out, to present it in an interesting and organized manner, and to demonstrate enthusiasm for the topic at hand. Most important, I immediately acknowledge to my audience that I consider myself their resource and request that they ask questions, interrupt me, and challenge me as often as they want. Overall, it continually impresses me that the teachers at AIHE colloquia not only sacrifice their precious time to improve their content knowledge, but also that they thoroughly engage themselves in the subject at hand. After most of my speaking engagements, I am convinced that I have gotten as much out of the interactions as the teachers have. 

Most rewarding, this past January, I had the opportunity to return to Miami-Dade County, the very district where I attended public school for twelve years, to speak to its teachers.  While Mrs. Saunders and Mr. Christie were not in attendance, I'm proud to think that my academic career has come full circle as I've helped their successors hone their craft. Perhaps they will use the material I presented to help spark one of their own students to embark on a career in history.

David Martinez is a teacher in Edison, N.J., and a participant in the Woodrow
Wilson Liberty Fellowship. Recently, Dave used the Paideia framework as a review for his class to prepare them for their AP exams.

"Don't be confused by the fancy Greek word" was how I started the description for our Paideia review. Using the Paideia as a review tool to chart the changes in U.S. History from colonial times to the modern era, students were asked to present a Paideia chart summarizing a time period, and also a Binary Paideia that illustrated competing historical forces within a time period. Working in small teams, students had a weekend to put their presentations together and ten minutes to present and explain their work to the class.  

As an Advanced Placement U.S. History teacher at J.P. Stevens High School in Edison, N.J., my students are high-achieving juniors with big academic aspirations in their futures. And even these students needed a 'gentle' introduction to the Paideia format. Paideia is a formidable word that even high-achieving students need a long introduction to. Diffusing the apprehension to the word was my first goal.

My second goal was to use the Paideia to chart change over time, and the Paideia gave us an exceptional format to achieve our goal. As I explained to the students, if liberty was the highest moral excellence (virtue) of the Revolutionary generation, what events led us to forgo liberty for security, the highest moral excellence of post 9/11 America? Obviously an easy answer, but also an easy way to attain the greater idea of charting virtue in American society, and more importantly comparing and contrasting virtues over time periods. After all, success on the AP exam is due to being able to make those historical connections over time.

My third goal was to have the students recognize the ongoing debate between historical forces within a time period. Though the majority view defines a period in U.S. history (Jacksonians), there is also a minority competing view that helps define the majority through highlighting differences in policy and practice (National Republicans/Early Whigs). Be it Patriots and Loyalists or even competing forces within a singular party like the 1880s Half-Breeds and Stalwarts, understanding the forces that shape a time period, as well as the names and events associated with these forces are also necessary for success on the exam. 

Finally, I wanted the students to chart these forces over the course of U.S. history. I created a simple Paideia chart with 20 Paideia columns for each student to record each other's presentations. At the end of the project, the students will have columns that list regime, ruling class, virtue, Paideia and their contrast for 20 time periods that make up U.S. history from colonization to the modern era. The Paideia becomes a student-generated review sheet for the AP exam. I was very pleased with the results, enough so, that I am going to attempt the project again at the end of the year with my class of special needs learners. I believe the results in that environment will be equally promising. 

dmartinez@villanova.com

It is a rare event when the confluence of right people, right ideas and right ideals come together in one package. The Frontier Liberty Fellowship is just such a project! Even though the project has just gotten underway, I have already observed that all the individuals connected to the grant seem to share both a love of the magic of history unfolding and a commitment to being lifelong learners, themselves. And, with the project's use of advanced distance-learning technologies, the "coming together" aspect of the grant is no longer narrowly confined to four walls and a ceiling. The Frontier Liberty Fellowship, with schools spanning the continent, deepens the learning experiences for all by offering multiple geographical and philosophical perspectives.

Focusing on an implied ideal of the Frontier Liberty Fellowship, the fostering of a historical learning community among all participants, inspires me as I think about my planned contributions to the grant and also my own growth as an educator. In my role as a faculty member at the University of San Diego teaching courses in Curriculum and Methods in History-Social Science, I see that learning to think critically and learning to learn are highly important for student success in every curriculum area across the entire K-12 grade level spectrum. Furthermore, unfolding research in cognitive psychology tells us that visual learning is among the very best methods for teaching students of all ages how to think and how to learn. Now, with the powerful advances of visual learning technologies, students are being shown new ways to organize and analyze information, to think critically and to integrate and synthesize new knowledge.

As a participant and co-learner in the Frontier Liberty Fellowship grant, I am able to see for myself the powerful impact of these visual learning technologies. I look forward to each colloquium with anticipation knowing that what I learn, I can share with my students with the goal of enriching their experience of teaching and learning history.

chansen@sandiego.edu

By Steve Graham, Marketing Division, AIHE

I was researching web sites targeted at teachers and students for the purpose of developing a web banner advertising campaign for the American Institute for History Education (AIHE). I stumbled upon www.TeacherTube.com, a video based web site modeled after the ever popular www.YouTube.com.

TeacherTube was only in existence since March 2007. TeacherTube was the brainchild of Jason Smith, a 14-year veteran educator in the Texas public school system. He asked the question, "Why can't teachers, students and schools utilize the power of the read/write web for learning?" To overcome these barriers, he decided to create the TeacherTube site. He turned to the technical skills of his brother, Adam Smith, for development of the site. Jason's wife, Jodie, joined the team to start populating the site with videos and help to improve communication. She too has 14 years experience as a classroom teacher, campus technology integrator and a district curriculum coordinator. And so was born TeacherTube, a web site for teachers, developed and designed by teachers.

According to Jim Dawson, the marketing arm of TeacherTube, the site is drawing over 1.1 million page views a month from all over the globe. My thought process quickly changed from making AIHE an advertiser, to making AIHE a partner with TeacherTube.

The fit was perfect. AIHE's video production team was already busy making high-quality videos for AIHE's CICERO web site, and we had over three years of professor interviews and field trip footage "in the can" as we say in the video production business.  My plan was to open the conversation between the two companies (TT and AIHE). Everyone involved immediately recognized the value of a partnership, and following a few legal formalities back and forth, AIHE was the proud owner of the History Education Station on TeacherTube.

I loaded the first video late one evening in February. A brief 10 minutes after I uploaded the video, the screen was flashing 45 views. The Internet never ceases to amaze me. Today, AIHE has 30 videos loaded and growing. We are presently creating a series featuring John and Abigail Adams, complete with classroom lessons.

From professor interviews, to historical site tours, to mini-documentaries, to interviews with historical impersonators; the AIHE History Education Station is reaching teachers and students throughout the United States and the world with content-rich videos for the classroom.

To view the site, log onto www.TeacherTube.com, then click the CHANNELS link at the top of the home page. You will then see a menu page with the AIHE logo, and a link to the AIHE HISTORY EDUCATION STATION. Enjoy the videos!

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation (formerly the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation) owns and operates Monticello, the mountaintop home of Thomas Jefferson and the only home in America on the elite World Heritage List of the United Nations.

Incorporated in 1923, after the federal government waived its third opportunity to acquire Monticello for the nation, the Foundation purchased the house and land from the Levy family, stewards of the estate for 89 years. As a private, nonprofit organization, the Foundation receives no regular federal or state budget support for its twofold mission of preservation and education.

Since 1923, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation has steadily expanded its role as a museum and educational institution. Its facilities now include the house and gardens on nearly 2,400 of Jefferson's original 5,000 acres; the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies next door at Kenwood, a headquarters for Jeffersonian research and teaching and home to the new Jefferson Library; a museum shop; and the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants, which propagates heirloom varieties and makes them available to institutions and individuals. Beginning this November, a new, larger facility will open on the grounds of Monticello. Currently under construction, the 42,000-square-foot Thomas Jefferson Visitor Center and Smith Education Center will provide enhanced ticketing, educational, exhibition, service, dining, and shopping features.

Monticello means "little mountain" in Old Italian and is named for the small mountain that is home to the main house. Jefferson began work on Monticello in 1769, five years after inheriting 3,000 acres of land from his father.

The main house that exists today is, for the most part, the house that Jefferson lived in during his retirement with the family of his surviving daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph. Physically, the house is a fine example of Roman neoclassicism with influences from contemporary French architecture. Enlarged by 1809, the house itself has twenty--one rooms and is 100 feet long, almost 88 feet wide and 45 feet high (to the oculus of the dome). Often viewed as extensions of the main house, the two L-shaped, terraced wings contained further living and support spaces where some of the essential domestic work of the plantation was done.

More than 25 million individuals have visited Monticello since its purchase in 1923 by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation. Recently renamed, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation continues to operate Monticello with a dual mission of preservation and education, working in a variety of ways — from the recreation of Monticello's gardens and restoration of its unique roof system to ongoing archaeological study of the plantation to programs for students, teachers, and scholars in the United States and abroad.

For more information, go to www.monticello.org.