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Greetings from the State Coordinator
Greetings!
Welcome to the 2008-2009 New York State History Day year! John and I have spent time this summer updating our teacher resources in order to make this the best History Day year yet.
We are almost read to send out our annual curriculum packet, which includes the new NHD theme book, NHD contest rule book, and our New York State brochure/poster. If you haven't already, sign up for your free packet today by emailing your name, school, and address information to nyshistoryday@nysha.org.
We've also revised our comprehensive teacher guide, History Day in the Classroom: A Teacher's Toolkit. It now includes 10 lesson plans that introduce skills and themes that are essential for History Day success.
Our new Annual Theme Supplement works in tandem with our Teacher's Toolkit and provides theme specific lessons and materials that help students think analytically about their topics.
John and I are looking forward to this program year, and are always here to answer your questions as you start off with the new theme: The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies.
Have a great month!
Best wishes,
Tobi Voigt |
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2008-2009 Theme: The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies
 The 2009 National History Day theme, The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies, may seem like a piece of cake. How hard can it be to pick a historical hero (or villain) and talk about his or her life and accomplishments? Well, History Day projects can't just be biographies. Students need to take their research to the next level.
What "next level," you say? It's the level that requires all History Day projects to contain historical analysis. This means that students will have to provide more than just the who, what, how, and when about their person. The key is going to be showing the "why": Why was this person important to history? Why is this person so well known to history, or alternatively, why isn't this person as well known as others in history? Why should we remember these people? And so on.
According to the National History Day annual theme sheet, "The challenge for students engaged in a National History Day project with the theme of The Individual in History is to capture that specific moment in time in which change occurred and the role played by an individual. As with any NHD theme, the key to good historical study is an examination of cause and effect and change over time."
John and I will post more suggestions about this year's theme on our blogs throughout the fall. See the links to the right to find them.
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Announcing NYSHA's 50th Annual October Conference for Teachers
 The New York State Historical Association is pleased to announce its 50th annual October Conference for Teachers! This two-day professional development opportunity focuses on current issues, topics, concerns, and practices in social studies education.
Each year the conference attracts several hundred educators from across New York State to the campuses of the Fenimore Art Museum and The Farmers' Museum where they participate in workshops and presentations given by classroom teachers and associates from the New York State Education Department, the New York State and National Archives and other historical institutions.
Registration for our 2008 Conference, which will be held on Thursday, October 16 through Saturday, October 18, is now open!
Click on the links below to learn more about the conference:
Or you can download a conference packet (PDF file).
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| Why History Day? Capital Region High School Students Share Their Reasons
 Over the summer, five students from Bethlehem Central Senior High School in Delmar decided to tackle a pretty common, yet very important question: What do you get out of History Day, and why should students participate?
Sarah Aronson, Maggie Chu, Jessica Fiore, Rachel Porter and Kristen Yates interviewed classmates, teachers, school administrators, a New York State archivist, and their New York State History Day regional coordinator to come up with an answer.
Their final answer, delivered in an impressive five and a half minute documentary on YouTube, hit the web-waves right after Labor Day.
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Program Links
New York State
History Day
National History Day
That History Day Guy
John Buchinger
That History Day Gal
Tobi Voigt
Program Sponsor
New York State Historical Association
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