[SOA] Workshop at National Archives - Great Lakes Region (fwd)

[Janet Carleton]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Historical Research Training to be Offered for Teachers, Librarians, 
Curators, Advanced Students
"Primarily Teaching" Summer Institute
Monday, July 14 - Friday, July 18, 2008
National Archives-Great Lakes Region, Chicago

Five spaces remain for a week-long intensive training session to learn 
about historical research methods,
primary sources, and the uses of historical documents for teaching critical 
thinking skills.

The "Primarily Teaching" teachers' institute is a five-day workshop 
provides a varied program of lectures, demonstrations, analysis of 
documents, independent research opportunities, and group work that 
introduces teachers to the archival records of the U.S. Government in the 
National Archives and Records Administration, including the Regional 
Archives, the Presidential Libraries, and the National Archives buildings 
in the Washington, D.C.
vicinity.

The National Archives-Great Lakes Region's staff will be joined by guest 
instructors from the Gerald Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor, 
Michigan; an emeritus member of the University of Illinois at Chicago's 
history department; the Chicago Metro History Education Center; the Labor 
Trail labor history mapping project; and the First Division Museum at 
Cantigny near Wheaton, Illinois.

Participants in the "Primarily Teaching" workshop will learn about 
historical research methods in unpublished, original (and unexplored) 
historical records, including maps, drawings, and photographs from 1774 
through the 1970s.

Participation is especially encouraged for teachers in primary and 
secondary schools, college and university professors, librarians in public 
and private institutions, students at the upper-level college and graduate 
levels, museum curators, and independent practitioners and writers of 
historical topics.  The program provides for special extended research 
hours Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, when the National Archives 
is closed to the public, to permit out-of-town workshop participants to 
maximize their research time uninterrupted.

Historical records related to the Pullman Palace Car Company, the Pullman 
Strike and Boycott of 1894, and Chicago's Historic Pullman neighborhood 
will be used as a case study to demonstrate historical research methods and 
the uses of a local historical site to explore the inter-related histories 
of inventions, technology, and intellectual property; the Industrial 
Revolution; transportation; immigration and migration; the racial, ethnic, 
and gender-based stratification of a workforce; the rise and decline of 
labor unions, including African-American workers' unions; and the 
de-industrialization of urban manufacturing districts. Participants are 
encouraged to apply the case study to their own communities, places of 
interest, and teaching circumstances by using certain common types of 
records in the Regional Archives of the National Archives that exist for 
most places and give evidence of varied historical experiences.

Our hope is that participants will "do history" in their communities with 
students, promoting not only archival research activities, but historic 
preservation and civic engagement. Teachers are encouraged to create 
classroom instructional materials from the original historical records and 
present the documents in ways that sharpen students' skills and enthusiasm 
for history, social studies, and the humanities.  Continuing education 
credits are available for teachers who attend the program.

Teachers who successfully complete the workshop are eligible to earn 
continuing education credits, and up to three graduate credits from George 
Mason University. Registration is $100 for the five days, which covers the 
cost of materials, a day of transportation between the National 
Archives-Great Lakes Region and the Town of Pullman, and light 
refreshments.  Meals and accommodations are at the registrant's expense.

 Additional information as well as registration directions can be found at 
http://www.archives.gov/education/primarily-teaching/index.html.

Call 773-948-9001 between 8:00 AM and 4:15 PM Monday through Friday and ask 
for Glenn Longacre, Martin Tuohy, or Thomas Hayes, or write to the National 
Archives-Great Lakes Region at chicago.archives at nara.gov

Douglas Bicknese, Director
Regional ArchivesNational Archives and Records
Administration-Great Lakes Region
7358 S. Pulaski Rd.Chicago, IL
60629-5898 (773) 948-9001
chicago.archives at nara.gov