Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, & Ford: Shaping a Nation through Capitalism

On Saturday, September 17^th, the AHTC gathered at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign to spend some time with the history of American capitalism. H.W. Brands started the day with an amazing keynote about Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Ford and had wonderful discussions in both of his breakout sessions. He was also extremely gracious to sign everyone’s copy of American Colossus. Not only is Dr. Brands an incredibly intelligent and engaging speaker, but he is also one of the kindest & down-to-earth person I have ever met. Everyone had nothing but nice and positive words to say about him. In fact, one of my favorite expressions was, “He’s like a Rock Star for teachers!"

Dr. Mark Leff from the University of Illlinois, and Dr. Andrew Hartman from Illinois State University, ended the day sharing ways to incorporate classic films such as The Wizard of Oz and Modern Times into our instruction of this topic.

For more information on Dr. Leff’s presentation of The Wizard of Oz as an allegory for the political and economic events of the Gilded Age, please check out the following links:

http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/oz.html, http://en.wikipedia.org

/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz

To view the factory scene from Modern Times that Dr. Hartman shared with us, check out this YouTube clip.

Overall, the day was a great success!

Headlines, History, and Hats: American Historical Newspapers and Chronicling America

Hello AHTC Teachers!

The Illinois Newspaper Project is bringing Deborah

Thomas from the Library of Congress to the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. You are all invited you to attend her presentation, "Headlines,
History, and Hats: American Historical Newspapers and Chronicling
America," at 10:00 a.m. in 126 GSLIS on Thursday, June 30.

Deborah Thomas, Program Coordinator for the National Digital Newspaper
Program at the Library of Congress, will talk about the effort to
digitize historically significant newspapers from all over the United
States and make them freely available through Chronicling America:
Historic American Newspapers, a web site hosted by the Library of
Congress.

In June 2009, the University of Illinois Library received funding from
the National Endowment for the Humanities to participate in the National
Digital Newspaper Program. Four Illinois newspapers-The Chicago Eagle,
The Broad Ax, The Day Book, and The Cairo Bulletin-totaling 100,000 pages
of content have already been added to the Chronicling America repository.

Staff from the Illinois Newspaper Project, Mary Stuart (Principal
Investigator), Amy Sullivan (Preservationist and Project Coordinator),
and Tracy Nectoux (Cataloger and Metadata and Quality Review Specialist),
will be available to answer questions about the Illinois Newspaper
Project following the presentation.

Thursday, June 30, 2011
10:00 a.m.-noon
126 GSLIS
501 East Daniel Street
Champaign, IL 61820
Presentation free and open to the public

Krannert Center Prepares a Piece on the Great Migration

Teachers who attended the AHTC Immigration mini-Summer Institute will remember John Skrentny discussing the differences between immigration, emigration and migration. One of the most famous migrations in United States history is The Great Migration in the late 1920s. After the 1927 Mississippi River flood, thousands of Southern sharecroppers were displaced. The mass exodus of rural southern blacks to Northern cities promoted the spread of Delta blues music, which was reinterpreted in the North in various forms.

The Krannert Center has commissioned a piece inspired by this experience to premiere at ELLNORA on September 10, 2011. Grammy-award winning guitarist and composer Bill Frisell has worked with filmmaker Bill Morrison to create a 75 minute work entitled The Great Flood. If you are interested in attending this show of bringing a group of students, please contact the Krannert Center's Engagement Director Sam Smith at smsmith3@illinois.edu, as he may be able to obtain reduced price or complimentary tickets for educators.

Additionally, Mr. Smith has worked with many local educators to collaborate with them on unit plans that utilize Krannert's resources or that integrate music into the unit. If you have ideas for lesson plans or units that would benefit from his expertise, please email him with your ideas.

1787 the Musical Constitution Contest for Students

Hello AHTC teachers!
You may remember the call for auditions for the musical based on the Constitutional Convention that was posted Tursday, February 17th. Production for 1787: We the People the musical has gone forward, and performances are June 30th-July 3rd. To publicize this production, the team behind the musical is holding a contest for students to win a family pack of tickets to the show.
Simply have your students submit a paragraph or two naming their favorite section of the Constitution and explaining why that section is their favorite to: 1787wethepeople@creativedramaticsworkshop.org by the end of may. Winners will have their entries posted on the production website and five family packs (up to 5 tickets each, including 1 to 2 adults) will be awarded.

If you have any questions, please contact the creativedramaticsworkshop.org. at
217-688-2395, or Robert Picklesimer, at PicklesimerRobrt@aol.com or 217-493-
6175.

Freedom Riders Event Featuring Chris Adrian

Those of you who were inspired to learn more about the Freedom Rides after last summer's Summer Institute, those who remember the round table with a few of the Freedom Riders a few years back, and those who are interested in this fascinating aspect of the Civil Rights movement will be exited to hear that PBS is releasing a new documentary "Freedom Riders" this spring. The program will air on WILL-TV on May 16th

To celebrate the release of the documentary, WILL is hosting a preview event on Thursday April 28th at 7pm at the NCSA Auditorium. This event will feature a screening of the film, and a panel discussion which will feature many distinguished speakers, including AHTC teacher Chris Adrian!

To learn more about this event, click here.

To learn more about the PBS documentary, click here.

FREE Civil War Stories Webinar

Hello, AHTC Teachers!

Thinkfinity has joined with the National Museum of American History to produce a 30 minute webinar on the "museum’s interactives, videos, artifacts and lesson plans on the Civil War, available through Thinkfinity and Smithsonian’s History Explorer." Intended for teachers of grades 5-8, this webinar takes place on April 20th and again on the 23rd. Anyone interested in registering should head here:

Thinkfinity Community

Global Studies Forum: Exploring International Humanitarian Law

Hello AHTC teachers,

The American Red Cross will be hosting another workshop in town building off the Humanitarian Law workshop that we hosted last October. This workshop, on April 16th, will look at teaching humanitarian issues in a way to motivate students to think about themselves as part of a global community. If you are interested, the link to register is at the bottom of the page.

Global Studies Forum: Exploring International Humanitarian Law

Saturday, 16 April 2011

I-Hotel Conference Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This forum will introduce American Red Cross modules used to explore humanitarian issues in the classroom and is applicable to teachers of World Literature, Current Events, World History, and US History.

Educators will examine "Responsibility to Protect" by using real examples from historical and present-day conflicts. Through hands-on exercises, participants will learn to motivate students to think like global citizens. The workshop also includes a keynote speaker and guided review of online resources.

This training is provided free of charge and teachers can earn CDPUs.

Organized by the Center for Global Studies at the University of Illinois with the Central Illinois American Red Cross.

Register today at: http://go.cgs.illinois.edu/GSForum2011