Post date: Jun 30, 2015 7:42:04 PM
6.30.15
Last week I had the opportunity to attend the third and final event for this year as a part of a U.S. History Teacher Cohort through the Minnesota Historical Society. For you students who don’t know what a cohort is click here. Our event took place at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul, MN. There were twenty-five or so teachers from all over the state of Minnesota in attendance. We spent last Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30-5:00 learning how film, music, and fashion of United States history can help enhance our U.S. History classes.
The event unofficially began by some of us teachers attending a Minnesota Twins game on Tuesday night versus the Chicago White Sox. It was a cool game for me personally because it was my first time seeing super-star Twins prospect Byron Buxton in person. He didn't have that great of a game but is was still sweet to see him play. In addition to hanging out with some teacher friends from my cohort, I ran into two local celebrities to our school: Mr. DeBaere and Mr. Leritz, who were up visiting from their AP workshop. The Twins ended up losing.
Wednesday was filled with a great morning discussion on how 3D objects can help bring a lesson to life and make it memorable for students. Various teachers shared how they have talked about using costumes to dress up like various people throughout history. It made me really think about how I don’t do that in my classroom. I need to start collecting items that could help bring those experiences right into the classroom. Look for some of those items in my room in the future.
We continued to discuss how fashion has played its role in pop culture trends in the United States. I do not consider myself a trendsetter or of having any kind of fashion sense at all but it was interesting learning about the ways in which fashion has evolved based on the time period. One interesting nugget I had never thought about but the next time you watch the red carpet shows or go to a formal dance. Notice how all the men are wearing basically the exact same dress clothes. Not much in terms of men's fashion has changed in a hundred years. But women’s formal dress attire as we know changes all the time. For example a few years ago neon color was all the rage, before that it was pastels, long dresses, short dresses, excreta, excreta.
One cool opportunity I had to do while at this conference was I was given the privilege to tour a portion of the collections under the museum. The history center has over 250,000 pieces in the collection. Here is a snippet of what I saw:
1. A 1500 year old clay pot from SW Minnesota.
2. Bloomers (underwear) from the early 1900's.
3. Children’s clothes from 1900's. (They look like miniature versions of adult clothes.)
4. Children’s shoes through the decades of the 1900's.
5. Various Minnesota Sports Jerseys.
6. Princes’ “Purple Rain” outfit he wore when he first sang that song at First Avenue.
The afternoon session focused on the role that film has played in pop culture. We discussed how movies can be a sign of the times. Movies can have monumental effects on how people saw issues at a particular moment in time. We looked at three film clips that were filmed at different times over the last 100 year and specifically looking at how slaves were portrayed in those films. The first film the slaves were filmed to look like they were almost pets for the slave masters. The second film was a clip from Gone with the Wind and it showed white people interacting with the slaves but only on their terms. Then the final clip was from Twelve Years a Slave and it showed what life was like from their experience. Power images that can be used to help bring the experiences back into the classroom. I left with a long list of films that I need to watch before the summer ends.
I will save day two’s experiences for another post as this one is long enough.
Enjoy your day
Mr. P