News ArchiveClick on the year for which you wish to view articles, or scroll down. MCNEILL AND SNEED PRESENT AT AHA IN PHILADELPHIA, January 2005 Philadelphia, PA Beverly McNeill, long time teacher mentor with the Thomas Day Education Project (TDEP) and Laurel Sneed, TDEP director, presented at the national meeting of the American Historical Association on January 6, 2006 in Philadelphia at the Lowe's Hotel. The topic of their presentation was the Crafting Freedom Landmarks of American History Teacher Workshops and they presented with several other groups from around the country that offered Landmarks workshops. This was the first AHA conference for both Sneed and McNeill and they are both eager to make attendance at the conference a yearly event. "This was an extraordinary meeting, " Sneed said. "It's where many many scholars and educators dedicated to historical research, writing, teaching and learning convene each year and it was very exciting and energizing to attend so many sessions addressing concerns we have at TDEP." Sneed was especially impressed that a scholarly book on free blacks in Virginia, Israel on the Appomattox by Melvin Patrck Ely, won the distinguished Beveridge prize and other accolades at the national meeting. "Any major new research on the free black experience like Dr. Ely's study informs our understanding of the social and legal context of Day, Keckly and so many of the free and enslaved figures our project addresses." THE REAL ROSA PARKS We learn much from how we present our heroes. A few years ago, on Martin Luther King. Day, I was interviewed on CNN. So was Rosa Parks, by phone from Los Angeles. "We're very honored to have her," said the host. "Rosa Parks was the woman who wouldn't go to the back of the bus. She wouldn't get up and give her seat in the white section to a white person. That set in motion the year-long bus boycott in Montgomery. It earned Rosa Parks the title of mother of the Civil Rights movement.'" I was excited to hear Parks' voice and to be part of the same show. Then it occurred to me that the host's description--the story's standard rendition and one repeated even in many of her obituaries--stripped the Montgomery boycott of all of its context. Before refusing to give up her bus seat, Parks had been active for twelve years in the local NAACP chapter, serving as its secretary. The summer before her arrest, she'd had attended a ten-day training session at Tennessee's labor and civil rights organizing school, the Highlander Center, where she'd met an older generation of civil rights activists, like South Carolina teacher Septima Clark, and discussed the recent Supreme Court decision banning "separate-but-equal" schools. During this period of involvement and education, Parks had become familiar with previous challenges to segregation: Another Montgomery bus boycott, fifty years earlier, successfully eased some restrictions; a bus boycott in Baton Rouge won limited gains two years before Parks was arrested; and the previous spring, a young Montgomery woman had also refused to move to the back of the bus, causing the NAACP to consider a legal challenge until it turned out that she was unmarried and pregnant, and therefore a poor symbol for a campaign.
In short, Rosa Parks didn't make a spur-of-the-moment decision. She didn't single-handedly give birth to the civil rights efforts, but she was part of an existing movement for change, at a time when success was far from certain. We all know Parks's name, but few of us know about Montgomery NAACP head E.D. Nixon, who served as one of her mentors and first got Martin Luther King involved. Nixon carried people's suitcases on the trains, and was active in the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the union founded by legendary civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph. He played a key role in the campaign. No one talks of him, any more than they talk of JoAnn Robinson, who taught nearby at an underfunded and segregated Black college and whose Women's Political Council distributed the initial leaflets following Parks's arrest. Without the often lonely work of people like Nixon, Randolph, and Robinson, Parks would likely have never taken her stand, and if she had, it would never have had the same impact.
This in no way diminishes the power and historical importance of Parks's refusal to give up her seat. But it reminds us that this tremendously consequential act, along with everything that followed, depended on all the humble and frustrating work that Parks and others undertook earlier on. It also reminds us that Parks' initial step of getting involved was just as courageous and critical as the stand on the bus that all of us have heard about.
People like Parks shape our models of social commitment. Yet from responses to talks I've given throughout the country, most citizens do not know the full story of her involvement. And the conventional stripped-down retelling creates a standard so impossible to meet, it may actually make it harder for us to get involved, inadvertently removing away Parks most powerful lessons of hope.
This conventional portrayal suggests that social activists come out of nowhere, to suddenly take dramatic stands. It implies that we act with the greatest impact when we act alone, at least initially. And that change occurs instantly, as opposed to building on a series of often- invisible actions. The myth of Parks as lone activist reinforces a notion that anyone who takes a committed public stand, or at least an effective one, has to be a larger-than-life figure--someone with more time, energy, courage, vision, or knowledge than any normal person could ever possess. This belief pervades our society, in part because the media tends not to represent historical change as the work of ordinary human beings,which it almost always is.
Once we enshrine our heroes on pedestals, it becomes hard for mere mortals to measure up in our eyes. However when individuals speak out, we're tempted to dismiss their motives, knowledge, and tactics as insufficiently grand or heroic. We fault them for not being in command of every fact and figure, being able to answer every question put to them. We fault ourselves as well, for not knowing every detail, or for harboring uncertainties and doubts. We find it hard to imagine that ordinary human beings with ordinary flaws might make a critical difference in worthy social causes.
Yet, those who act have their own imperfections, and ample reasons to hold back. "I think it does us all a disservice," says a young African-American activist in Atlanta named Sonya Tinsley, "when people who work for social change are presented as saints--so much more noble than the rest of us. We get a false sense that from the moment they were born they were called to act, never had doubts, were bathed in a circle of light. But I'm much more inspired learning how people succeeded despite their failings and uncertainties. It's a much less intimidating image. It makes me feel like I have a shot at changing things too."
Sonya had recently attended a talk given by one of Martin Luther King's Morehouse professors, in which he mentioned how much King had struggled when he first came to college, getting only a 'C,' for example, in his first philosophy course. "I found that very inspiring, when I heard it," Sonya said, "given all that King achieved. It made me feel that just about anything was possible."
Our culture's misreading of the Rosa Parks story speaks to a more general collective amnesia, where we forget the examples that might most inspire our courage, hope, and conscience. Apart from obvious times of military conflict, most of us know next to nothing of the many battles ordinary men and women fought to preserve freedom, expand the sphere of democracy, and create a more just society. Of the abolitionist and civil rights movements, we at best recall a few key leaders--and often misread their actual stories.
We know even less about the turn-of-the-century populists who challenged entrenched economic interests and fought for a "cooperative commonwealth." Who these days can describe the union movements that ended 80-hour work weeks at near-starvation wages? Who knows the origin of the social security system, now threatened by systematic attempts to privatize it? How did the women's suffrage movement spread to hundreds of communities, and gather enough strength to prevail?
As memories of these events disappear, we lose the knowledge of mechanisms that grassroots social movements have used successfully in the past to shift public sentiment and challenge entrenched institutional power. Equally lost are the means by which their participants managed to keep on and eventually prevail in circumstances at least as harsh as those we face today.
Think again about the different ways one can frame Rosa Parks' historic action. In the prevailing myth, Parks decides to act almost on a whim, in isolation. She's a virgin to politics, a holy innocent. The lesson seems to be that if any of us suddenly got the urge to do something equally heroic, that would be great. Of course most of us don't, so we wait our entire lives to find the ideal moment.
Parks's real story conveys a far more empowering moral. She begins with seemingly modest steps. She goes to a meeting, and then another, helping build the community that in turn supported her path. Hesitant at first, she gains confidence as she speaks out. She keeps on despite a profoundly uncertain context, as she and others act as best they can to challenge deeply entrenched injustices, with little certainty of results. Had she and others given up after her tenth or eleventh year of commitment, we might never have heard of Montgomery.
Parks also reminds us that even in a seemingly losing cause, one person may unknowingly inspire another, and that person yet a third, who may then go on to change the world, or at least a small corner of it. Rosa Parks's husband Raymond convinced her to attend her first NAACP meeting, the initial step on a path that brought her to that fateful day on the bus in Montgomery. But who got Raymond Parks involved? And why did that person take the trouble to do so? What experiences shaped their outlook, forged their convictions?
The links in any chain of influence are too numerous, too complex to trace. But being aware that such chains exist, that we can choose to join them, and that lasting change doesn't occur in their absence, is one of the primary ways to sustain hope, especially when our actions seem too insignificant to amount to anything.
Finally, Parks's journey suggests that change is the product of deliberate, incremental action, whereby we join together to try to shape a better world. Sometimes our struggles will fail, as did many earlier efforts of Parks, her peers, and her predecessors. Other times they may bear modest fruits. And at times they will trigger a miraculous outpouring of courage andheart--as happened with her arrest and all that followed. For only when we act despite all our uncertainties and doubts do we have the chance to shape history.
TDEP RECEIVES HEARTFELT MESSAGES FROM GULF STATES' CRAFTING FREEDOM AND LET IT SHINE PARTICIPANTS, September 2005 Durham, NC Since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf States on August 29th, the Thomas Day Education Project has received many e-mails and calls from all over the country from teachers, scholars, and others expressing concern for Gulf States participants whom they befriended in TDEP's national workshops. For full postings and the opportunity to respond to your colleagues' in the Gulf States ,see LIS folks. "Historic New Orleans is not wiped out!" according to Donna Fricker (Let It Shine National Fellow '03) who is the Coordinator of the National Register of Historic Places for the state of Louisiana. She has some other good news to report. She and her family are fine, although life in Baton Rouge has changed dramatically in the past ten days since it is the major staging area for the disaster relief effort. While Donna underscores that " the impact on historic buildings in New Orleans is not as bad as you see in the media," she does not mean to in anyway to "downplay the significance of the devastation." As part of her "Let It Shine" work in 2003, Donna with support of another National LIS fellow, Pinelle Spain, Social Studies coordinator of Calcasieu Parish, and a team of educators, historians and historic site experts, developed a series of lesson plans related to Louisiana's rich black history to support visits to the state's many historic landmarks. Learn more. "What you see and hear on TV is one thing, but to see, hear, touch, and smell the ravages of the hurricane firsthand, is life altering," according to Henry Price (Let It Shine National Fellow '03; Crafting Freedom participant '04) who is Supervisor of Art for the Caddo Parish Schools in Shreveport,LA in the Northwestern part of the state. Because Shreveport is far from the hurricane's major impact, Henry did not personally suffer from the storm, although he emphasizes that "one cannot see the devastation and not be impacted by it." Henry oversees the arts education for 45,000 k-12 students and those numbers will grow rapidly this school year because "thousands of individuals with nothing have been bussed to (our) area" , according to Henry. " No matter what we try to do to help in a concerted effort or on an individual basis, it just doesn't seem to be enough. Life as we know it will never be the same. Keep us in your prayers." "My heart is so broken that tears are sometimes streaming down my face and I don't even realize it. I have friends - young and old - who are essentially homeless," Janis Dabney (Crafting Freedom '05 Participant) from Franklin, Louisiana writes. Janis' house sustained some wind damage, but she and her family are fine. Her two children attend college in Jackson, Mississippi which has been closed due to wind damage. They have returned home with two classmates from Chicago who had no where to go when college closed. Janis warns that "some of what the media is putting out is accurate, some not as accurate, and some just hype." Mostly Janis is experiencing the "aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. through evacuees from New Orleans, delay in the delivery of goods, and the like...it is very bad in most parts." She asks that "in your prayers, please remember the victims of this disaster, but also pray for the workers who have gone out to work in the aftermath." To read full Gulf Cost messages, see LISfolks TDEP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LAUREL SNEED, SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT TDEP TO A BROAD VARIETY OF AUDIENCES IN 2005, February 2005 Durham, NC Laurel C. Sneed, executive director of TDEP, was invited to speak to a broad variety of audiences on a wide range of topics in 2005, in addition to her presentations on Thomas Day that are part of the Crafting Freedom Teacher Workshops in June and July. In February, Sneed was invited by NEH's Division of Education Programs to speak about her experiences as director of the Crafting Freedom workshops to a meeting of workshops directors in Washington,DC. Sneed returned to Washington later in the year as a presenter at the Association of African American Museums (AAAM) annual conference whose theme this year was: "Sustaining African American Museums." Sneed participated on a panel facilitated by Shirl Spicer of the North Carolina Museum of History (NCMH) that addressed TDEP's partnership with NCMH and its grant application experiences with NEH. Sneed was the featured presenter at the meeting of AAAM's education special interest group led by Valena Randolph, a Crafting Freedom '05 participant who is with the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio. At this meeting, Sneed demonstrated the award-winning CD-ROM, "Exploring the World of Thomas Day" which she created and served as Executive Producer on. In August, Sneed was on a panel at a North Carolina Humanities Council (NCHC) conference entitled: "We the People: Conversations on Identity, Culture and History in North Carolina" that addressed the subject of using new media and information technology to convey humanities subject matter. Dr. Bruce Cole, Chairman of NEH, gave the keynote address at the NCHC conference held at the Sonya Haynes Black Cultural Center on the campus of the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and in his opening remarks, he quoted two Crafting Freedom '05 participant reflections as evidence of the kinds of personal and professional impact NEH programs are having. At the end of August, Sneed was invited by Crafting Freedom '05 participant, Patricia King-Butler to Camp Umoja in Teaneck, NJ. King-Butler is Founder and Director of the camp whose mission is to provide a stimulating environment that promotes awareness and appreciation of African and African-American culture. Campers there are entering 2nd-6th graders. Sneed served as master of ceremonies of a "game show" activity derived from materials in the "Thomas Day Furniture Kit" in which teams competed by answering questions that required critical thinking about photographs of pieces of furniture. In early November 2005. Sneed was invited by Linda Strange-Dillard, Executive Director of the Fayette Area Historical Initiative (FAHI) in Martinsville, VA to speak on "Crafting Freedom: Thomas Day, Elizabeth Keckly and the 19th Century Black Business Tradition" to citizens of Martinsville. She spoke at the Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church located on historic Fayette Street, the vibrant center of black commercial, social, and religious life in Martinsville during Segregation. FAHI is dedicated to revitalizing Fayette Street through providing historical and cultural activities that enhance understanding of the experiences and contributions of African Americans in Martinsville and beyond. FAHI works in close partnership with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH), the state affiliate of NEH. A reception followed Sneed's presentation at FAHI's headquarters on Fayette Street where attendees enjoyed an exhibit of African headdresses at the " Ancestral Court", a gathering place where many of FAHI's small to medium scale cultural events occur. To learn more about customized TDEP lectures, presentations, and workshops available to educational, cultural or other groups, please contact Laurel Sneed at (919) 405-2326. TDEP PARTICIPATES IN THE ASSOCIATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUMS NATIONAL CONFERENCE, July 2005 Washington, D.C. Laurel C. Sneed, TDEP director, was a presenter at the 2005 national conference of the Association of African American Museums held July 28-30. She served on a panel led by N.C. Museum of History educator, Shirl Spicer, about effective collaborations with a focus on TDEP's collaboration with the NC Museum of History. Sneed also conducted a session with the Education Special Interest group on TDEP's CD-ROM, "Exploring the World of Thomas Day." JUNE CRAFTING FREEDOM WORKSHOPS RECEIVE HIGHEST PARTICIPANT RATINGS EVER, July 2005 Durham, NC The June '05
Crafting Freedom Workshops received the highest participant ratings of
any workshops TDEP has ever conducted. "I think it's because the
planning team paid close attention to the feedback we received last year
and incorporated most of the modifications that past participants asked
for," Crafting Freedom director, Laurel Sneed commented. "We eliminated
activities that were highly labor intensive, yet did not yield excellent
learning outcomes and outstanding feedback among the majority of
participants." PRESTWOULD PLANTATION, CLARKSVILLE, VA - LANDMARK TO BE ADDED TO CRAFTING FREEDOM WORKSHOPS TOURS, June 2005
"CRAFTING FREEDOM" VIDEO PRESENTED TO NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE HUMANITIES, February 2005 Washington, D.C. On Friday,
February 25, during the public session of the National Council for the
Humanities quarterly meeting, NEH Chairman Bruce Cole delivered his
opening remarks and introduced the video, "Crafting Freedom", which
describes our Crafting Freedom workshop. The 150 guests included NEH
staff, journalists, humanities leaders, as well as the twenty-four
members of the presidentially-appointed National Council - recognized as
the top humanities scholars in the country. Chairman Cole used the video
to illustrate the monumental successes of the Endowment's on-going
initiative We the People.
LANDMARKS OF AMERICAN
HISTORY PRESS CONFERENCE, January 2005
"SOUL STITCHING WITH CHUBBS" - Newark, NJ On October 8, 2004 Nellie "Chubbs" Miles, a native of Person County and a long-time citizen of Yanceyville, North Carolina where she is proprietor of "Chubb's Quick Fix and Alterations", a sewing and alterations business, was named the first recipient of the "KIDS-IN-BUSINESS ®: Artisan & Entrepreneur Award of Excellence." She received this honor from the Discovery Charter School in Newark, New Jersey for her exceptional skills as a professional seamstress and for being an outstanding mentor to young people in both the skills of sewing and the skills of life. Miles is the first recipient of this award. Barbara Weiland and Irene Hall, co-founders and co-leaders of Discovery Charter School where Miles was a mentor-in-residence in early October, had nothing but praise for the Person native. In fact, they were inspired to create the award because of Miles' mentorship in Newark. "We've had artists and artisans from all over visit Discovery Charter," Weiland explained, "and all of these people have been outstanding. However, Mrs. Miles - whom the students call 'Ms. Chubbs' - has been the most exceptional artisan we've had to come here. She has a rare ability to connect immediately with all the children. In addition, she has both exceptional skill as a seamstress and as a teacher of sewing. She's one of the most naturally gifted teachers I've seen in my 30-year career as an educator. She also has a business in which she uses her sewing skills. In addition, through her vivid stories and recollections, she's able to bring to life for the students a vitally important aspect of the American experience - that of growing up on a farm and living off the land without the conveniences of electricity and running water." During her mentorship at the school, Miles conducted sewing workshops with 4th - 8th graders and also gave a presentation to students, some faculty and visiting parents about her life in a tobacco sharecropper's family during the 1940's and 1950's. When asked by a 4th grader what the most memorable day of her youth was, Miles replied that it was the day her mother was able to register to vote. "I remember that day because I'd never seen her that happy,” Miles said. She further explained to the enthralled audience that she learned from her mother that voting was an honor. Because of her mother's example, Miles told the students that she has never missed an opportunity to exercise her right to vote in an election. In addition to her intensive work with students and faculty at Discovery Charter, Miles was showered with VIP treatment that included first class airline and luxury hotel accommodations as well as limousine service. She was also feted with a VIP evening tour of major sites that included the Manhattan skyline at sunset, Times Square, Ground Zero, China Town, and dining at "Junior's" a landmark restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. Miles' customized tour of New York City was filmed for a short documentary about Miles' life as a traditional craftsperson that is being produced by Laurel Sneed. Because a film crew and entourage from Discovery Charter School accompanied Miles on her tour of the New York metropolitan area, it was assumed by many people on the street that Miles was a celebrity. Some stopped and asked those accompanying Miles "Who is it?" When one woman was told "It's Chubbs!" she turned to her companion and said "Didn't I tell you that's who it was?” Discovery Charter School is one of more than 1,700 charter schools nationwide established to promote innovation in public education. Although, only 6 years old, the school has already received accolades for being among the most successful charter schools in New Jersey. The school's curriculum is unique in that students learn the knowledge and skills required by the state curriculum through the exploration of sewing, weaving, mechanical engineering, architecture, multi-media technology, and other real-world fields or work. The school embraces a philosophy of "discovery” in which students use their own innate talents to understand the world around them. Discovery Charter's innovative, hand-on teaching style has long benefited local schools through KIDS-IN-BUSINESS®, which was started in 1987 to better prepare students for the workplace. Since then hundreds of children, K-12, have explored the working world, including making and selling products such as calendars, greeting cards and other handmade items. Thousands of dollars in proceeds from the KIDS-IN-BUSINESS products have been donated to local charities. Today, KIDS-IN-BUSINESS® programs are also key components to Discovery Charter's curriculum. In addition to its activities at Discovery Charter, KIDS-IN-BUSINESS® continues to operate as an outreach program to other local schools and community centers. Weiland and Hall became acquainted with Miles last summer when she conducted a hands-on-history workshop on traditional sewing for 100 teachers at the historic courthouse on the square in Yanceyville. The teachers from throughout the United States were in Caswell County for a series of workshops entitled: "Crafting Freedom: Thomas Day and Elizabeth Keckly, Black Artisans and Entrepreneurs in the Making of America." These were funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, sponsored by the North Carolina Museum of History and conducted by the Thomas Day Education Project. The Caswell County Historical Association, Inc. hosted the teachers while they were in Yanceyville and the Thomas Day House Union Tavern Restoration, Inc. hosted the teachers when they were in Milton. The "Crafting Freedom" workshops will be offered again next summer pending funding. The highly favorable response to Miles' "hands-on-history" workshop on traditional sewing and her successful mentorship in New Jersey has motivated the seamstress to begin offering her services as a speaker and as a traditional artist/artisan to schools and community organizations in North Carolina and beyond. She has named this new business venture, "Soul Stitching with Chubbs.” To find out about bringing a Chubbs workshop to your school, call her at (336) 694-6188. LET IT SHINE IN DETROIT, September 2004
Detroit, MI On September 17, 2004 Laurel Sneed,
TDEP Director; Lisa Randle, Let It Shine Coordinator; and Leah Potter,
Crafting Freedom Coordinator went to Detroit, MI for a site visit to
meet with Detroit teachers who have participated in TDEP workshops and
to investigate opportunities for TDEP in the "motor city." The meeting
focused on discussing services the "Let It Shine" network may be able to
provide both K-12 teachers and museum educators. The meeting was held at
Malcolm X Academy, an
elementary school in the Detroit inner city. 100% of Detroit teachers
who participated in "Let It Shine" and "Crafting Freedom" workshops were
in attendance! They are: CHIPSTONE FOUNDATION GRANT, January 2004 Durham, NC The Thomas Day Education Project (TDEP) was notified in early October by Jonathan Prown, Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Chipstone Foundation, that it has been awarded a grant to provide the instructional resource kit, "The Art and History of Furniture Making in the Carolinas" and professional development to selected Charleston, South Carolina teachers. The training will take place at the School of Education of the College of Charleston in early 2004 which is sponsoring the kit launch along with the Avery Institute. The Chipstone Foundation is a furniture and decorative arts foundation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin which has been instrumental in funding the development of the kit which was the brainchild of five Durham, NC public school teachers. The NC Arts Council was also a major funder. "Low Country" Furniture Tradition Important to Chipstone Dr. Virginia Bartel, a 2003 National Thomas Day Fellow, and a professor of early childhood education at the College of Charleston has been instrumental in organizing this professional development opportunity to bring the furniture kit to Charleston schools and teachers. Jonathan Prown explained that the Chipstone Foundation was very pleased to fund this dissemination of the kit and teacher training especially because of the importance of the "Low Country" furniture making tradition in American furniture history. According to Thomas Savage, curator for the Historic Charleston Foundation, "The Carolina Low Country, under the cultural dominance of Great Britain for most of its early history, developed a highly sophisticated furniture market receptive to outside influences but still quite capable of producing its own distinctive wares." What is the Furniture Kit? The furniture kit is a hands-on instructional resource that teaches elementary and middle grade students (4th - 8th) about the art and history of furniture making in the Carolinas. Thomas Day, one of the most famous furniture makers in the history of both Carolinas, is a major focus of the kit. The Chipstone Foundation has played the major role in making the kit a reality through its very generous support in 1998 and 2002 combined with that of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the North Carolina Arts Council. The kit is an interdisciplinary resource that includes teacher and scholar developed lessons in art, history, language arts, as well as math and science. All of these have as their focus, furniture. As his been previously stated, a major theme of the kit is the life and work of Southern furniture maker, Thomas Day (1801-ca 1860) who is the most well documented African American furniture maker in history. His unusual work and enthralling life story deepen understanding of the extensive, although little known, role of African Americans in the Southern furniture making tradition. The kit lessons are aligned to the national curriculum standards across disciplines and the South Carolina curriculum standards as well. The kit includes numerous manipulatives like different types of joints, wooden squares with varied veneer patterns, a card "detective" game on furniture as history and material culture, and Styrofoam material with which students learn to practice measuring and cutting dovetail joints. History of the Chipstone - TDEP Relationship Thanks to the Chipstone Foundation's past generous support, TDEP was able to produce and extensively field-test the kit in North Carolina and several other states, including Texas and California. Chipstone was instrumental in the major launch of the kit in North Carolina in the summer of 2002 to 25 schools. It is very important, with a unique resource like the kit, that it be introduced properly and in a manner that comprehensively trains teachers in its use and also honors them and their respective schools for their participation. When this kind of attention is not paid to the introduction of a new educational innovation in a school district, it will frequently not be successfully adopted. Chipstone's support in the past enabled the TDEP to provide an in-depth training on the kit that included an outstanding recognition luncheon honoring the teachers who created the kit as well those selected to receive it. This kind of "perk" is very appreciated by teachers. The support from Chipstone also enabled the TDEP to offer teacher participants a tour of Thomas Day sites in Caswell County, North Carolina. Since then, the kit has been distributed to teachers in eleven additional states with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). It continues to be a very well received and popular instructional resource, although it is not a resource that teachers immediately realize will enhance their teaching in a broad range of hard to teach subjects and skills. Properly introducing the kit in a state requires effective recruitment and a very well executed orientation and training program. In short, like other instructional innovations, the kit has to be appropriately introduced and "infused" into a school system to achieve maximum instructional impact. There are no other instructional resources on furniture as art, as history and as culture in the educational market place and most Americans - including teachers - are ignorant about furniture, especially furniture making history. Fewer still have been exposed to the view of furniture as material culture.
NC MUSEUM OF HISTORY Raleigh, N.C. The North Carolina Museum of History has been awarded a $301,000 teacher training grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for a series of residential teacher workshops in African American history and culture titled “Crafting Freedom: Thomas Day and Elizabeth Keckly, Black Artisans and Entrepreneurs in the Making of America.” Teachers from North Carolina and other states can apply to engage in intensive study and discussion of important African American historical topics. The five-day workshops, in late June and late July 2004, will take place in the Triangle area. A total of 200 teachers can attend. The grant will cover their expenses and study materials. The workshops are part of NEH’s new Landmarks in American History initiative, designed to give teachers direct experiences in the interpretation of significant historic sites and the use of archival and other primary historical evidence. A total of eighteen Landmarks projects were funded nationwide. The workshops will be designed and conducted by the Thomas Day Education Project (TDEP), an independent multicultural history education initiative based in the Research Triangle Park. Most workshop presentations will center on two Piedmont landmarks: Union Tavern in Milton, the home and shop of the celebrated free black cabinetmaker Thomas Day (1801-ca. 1861); and Burwell School in Hillsborough, the girlhood home of the formerly enslaved dressmaker-turned-Lincoln White-House-insider Elizabeth Keckly (1817-1907). These two locations, along with Stagville Plantation outside Durham, are unusual because very few sites in the country illuminate the experiences of African American artisans and entrepreneurs before the Civil War. Many of the lectures and seminars will occur at the North Carolina Museum of History, which houses the largest collection of Thomas Day furniture as well as other examples of African American artisanship. “ ‘Entrepreneurship’ is not a word that immediately comes to mind when most people think about the 19th-century African American experience,” explained Laurel Sneed, executive director of TDEP and manager of the workshop series. “These workshops may change that, because they will raise awareness that African Americans have always been involved in the free enterprise system—even when they were not themselves fully free citizens.” “The North Carolina Museum of History is very pleased to receive this major national grant to sponsor these workshops,” Elizabeth F. Buford, director of the museum, commented. “Teachers quickly come to see the African American artifacts in our collection as powerful tools for teaching about the values and aspirations of the thousands of enslaved and free African Americans who created many of our state’s and nation’s greatest cultural treasures.” “I think these workshops will be especially interesting to North Carolina teachers,” Sneed said, “because so much of the content is directly tied to the state’s standard course of study. But teachers everywhere who want to help students understand our complex past will be intrigued and inspired to learn how enslaved and free African Americans used their trades and artisanal skills to improve their lives and in many cases to purchase their freedom.” “There are many important gaps in general knowledge of American history and culture that the ‘Crafting Freedom’ workshops will directly address,” Buford commented. Though the business successes of Day and Keckly were not typical for people of color in 19th-century America, their lives illustrate the broad range of experiences of enslaved and free artisans, whose roles in American history and the free enterprise system have not been widely documented until recently. Dr. Juliet E.K. Walker, one of the scholars who will contribute to the workshops, has conducted the most comprehensive research on this subject. She is the founder/director of the Center for Black Business History, Entrepreneurship and Technology at the University of Texas-Austin and author of The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship. Thomas Day and Elizabeth Keckly
Thomas Day and Elizabeth Keckly achieved wealth, status and privilege during the mid-nineteenth century in spite of the racially based legal and societal constraints that confronted all blacks at the time. Day was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, in 1801 and moved to the North Carolina town of Milton, a booming tobacco market center, as a young man. Here, he went into business and became one of the most prominent furniture makers in the antebellum South. By 1850 his shop in the Union Tavern was the state’s largest furniture-making establishment. Today, Day’s striking designs are considered outstanding examples of 19th-century southern vernacular furniture.
Elizabeth Keckly, who is widely considered the most successful free black woman in the clothing industry in the 19th century, was born into slavery. During the 1830s and 1840s, she was the only slave at the Burwell School, a girls’ school in Hillsborough. The Burwell School Historic Site has made Keckly a focus of its interpretive programs. As Keckly grew into adulthood, she became a highly accomplished seamstress and dressmaker. Once free, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she became the proprietor of an exclusive dressmaking shop and the seamstress and confidante of first lady Mary Todd Lincoln. In 1868, Keckly wrote a detailed memoir, Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House. EXPLORING THE WORLD OF THOMAS DAY CD-ROM RECEIVES MAJOR NATIONAL AWARDS, December 2003
Durham, NC "Exploring the World of Thomas Day," an interactive multimedia CD-ROM on the life and world of Thomas Day (1801- ca. 1860), a free black furniture maker, has received an Award of Excellence from Technology and Learning magazine. This is the most prestigious award given in the nation for educational software. Each year the magazine convenes panels of teacher-judges to evaluate works produced in the given year and recognizes the highest rated educational software titles. "Exploring the World of Thomas Day" was produced with a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and numerous smaller grants including a start-up grant from the N.C. Humanities Council. It teaches 4th - 11th grade students how to do historical research with primary sources and to "think" like a historian. Students learn important critical thinking skills as well as a great deal of 19th century history with a focus on race, free blacks, the market revolution and everyday life in the antebellum South.
"I am very proud to receive this award on behalf of the outstanding multimedia design team I had the privilege to work with: Leah Potter, Producer; Charles Lee, Programmer; Adam Brill, lead illustrator; Robby Poore graphics artist; and Charlie Sneed, project administrator," Laurel Sneed, Creator and Executive Producer stated. "I also share it with the hundreds of teachers, students, scholars, production staff, actors, and citizens of North Carolina who contributed to this intensive five year R&D effort." "Exploring the World of Thomas Day" was selected from over 200 educational software titles and only 10% of those submitted received the top Award of Excellence. In addition, "Exploring the World of Thomas Day" received an "All Star Award Seal" from Children's Software Review, a publication that evaluates or "rates" all types of software including games and non-educational products. Programs that achieve 4.5 + on a scale of 1-5 qualify for this evaluation rating. Children's Software Review rates the CD-ROM Exploring the World of Thomas Day, 4.5: Very High, September 2003 Read Text of Review TDEP seeks a NEH Landmarks of American History Grant for Summer 2004 for More Teacher Professional Development, August 2003Durham, NC Working in collaboration with the North Carolina Museum of History Associates Inc. (NCMHA), the Thomas Day Education Project (TDEP), submitted a grant proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) on August 15, 2003 to support four one-week residential professional development workshops during the summer of 2004 entitled, "Crafting Freedom: Thomas Day and Elizabeth Keckly, Black Artisans and Entrepreneurs in the Making of America." Grant awards will be announced in December 2003. Centered around two landmarks in the North Carolina Piedmont, the project features the Union Tavern, home and shop of the celebrated free black cabinetmaker Thomas Day (1801-ca. 1860), and the Burwell School, girlhood home of the formerly enslaved dressmaker-turned-Lincoln White House-insider Elizabeth Keckly (1817-1907). These two locations, along with Stagville Plantation, are unusual because very few historic sites in the nation teach about the experiences of African American artisans and entrepreneurs. The North Carolina Museum of History (NCMH) is where most of the lectures and seminars will take place if funding is received. The museum has state-of-the-art educational facilities and houses the largest collection of Thomas Day furniture in the world as well as other examples of African American artisanship. The proposed workshop series "Crafting Freedom" is based upon recent scholarship on the participation of enslaved and free black men and women in the nineteenth-century "market revolution." Thomas Day had the largest furniture shop in North Carolina in 1850 and Elizabeth Keckly, is considered the most successful woman in the clothing business in the antebellum period. Though Keckly and Day's successes were not typical for people of color in America, their lives illustrate the broad range of experiences of enslaved and free artisans, whose roles in American history and the free enterprise system have until recently been little known because of a lack of scholarly research on these topics. Let It Shine Educator Network Is Launched, August 2003Durham, NC -- It's been called "America's hidden history" and it's been called "Black History," but more and more the historical experience of African Americans is simply being described as American history that needs to be taught - not just during Black History month - but year-round. On June 21st twenty-eight educators and twelve scholars from eleven states convened in Durham for Let It Shine, a week-long conference concerned with enhancing the teaching of African American history and culture. The educators and scholars who are part of Let It Shine will form the nucleus of a new national educator network. Over the course of the week, participants, called "national fellows," heard lectures on African American history and culture topics, toured sites concerned with black history in the antebellum period, shared new approaches to teaching this history, and worked on their own instructional projects. Let It Shine is an initiative of the Thomas Day Education Project, (TDEP) a teacher training and educational materials development project that's received major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as well as funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council (NCHC) through its sponsor for six years, the North Carolina Central University Foundation (NCCUF). Some of the instructional plans created by participants include: a student produced documentary about Thomas Day; creation of a school-based archive of primary resources - both textual and material- on black history in a Virginia community; a curriculum that engages students in the study of Delaware laws that affected blacks before the Civil War; and a series of lessons that challenges students to design a memorial to Americans who were enslaved. In addition to developing this project and getting it up and running at their schools, the national fellows will be also be responsible for "disseminating" their projects throughout their school systems and beyond. Participant feedback to the Let It Shine professional development experience has thus far been overwhelmingly favorable with many rating the experience as among the best professional development experiences they have had. The opportunity to study this historical material on-line and to hear lectures from outstanding scholars as well as the opportunity to be exposed to new strategies for teaching this history were the most highly rated features of Let It Shine. "In the coming year, the Let It Shine network hopes to continue to grow and to serve as a means of nurturing the exciting instructional projects that these outstanding educators have conceived," Laurel Sneed, Executive Director of the Thomas Day Education Project, explained. "We are confident that the Let It Shine network can help lead the way to addressing the gaps in our collective knowledge of American history - and of African American history in particular," Dr. Percy Murray, historian at NCCU's History Department and a long-time scholar advisor to the TDEP advisory board commented. Let It Shine, A National Educator Network on Improving African American History Instruction to Kick-Off in Durham This Month, June 2003Durham, NC It 's been called "America's hidden history" and it's been called "Black History," but more and more the historical experience of African Americans is simply being described as American history that needs to be taught - not just during Black History month - but year-round. Beginning on June 21st, thirty-nine educators and twelve scholars from thirteen states will convene in Durham, NC at the new School of Education at North Carolina Central University and other Piedmont locations for Let It Shine, a week-long conference concerned with enhancing the teaching of African American history and culture. These educators and scholars will form the nucleus of a new national educator network concerned with improving the quality of African American history instruction - especially for elementary and middle grade students. "Let It Shine" is an initiative of the Thomas Day Education Project, (TDEP) a teacher training and materials development project that has received major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as well as funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council (NCHC) through its sponsor, the North Carolina Central University Foundation (NCCUF). This week-long event will include lectures by historians and art historians from NCCU and other universities on important but little known African American history topics as well as teacher-led presentations on classroom-tested ways to teach these subjects. In addition, the national participants will be expected to develop new strategies for bringing African American history to light in their own educational settings. These educational action plans may take the form of curricular materials, multimedia programs, web-based applications, teacher training initiatives, performances, exhibits, or other offerings. "In a sense, Let It Shine began almost 200 years ago when Thomas Day (1801 - 1860), a highly skilled cabinetmaker, set up his shop in the town of Milton, North Carolina in Caswell County on the Dan River, " Laurel Sneed, Executive Director and founder of TDEP explained. "He had the idea that he would make furniture, build a life for himself and his family, and become an integral part of his community. He accomplished these goals and in the process he made history." By 1850, Day had the largest furniture shop in North Carolina and was widely regarded throughout the upper South as the region's premier furniture maker. Today, he is considered the state's most famous furniture maker and an early pioneer of its modern furniture industry because he made the transition to steam power in the 1850's at a time when industrialization was a novelty in North Carolina. His accomplishments would be impressive for any man at that time and place to achieve, but they are especially significant because Day was a free black during the antebellum period when the vast majority of African Americans were enslaved. Free blacks have been called "slaves without masters" by Dr. Ira Berlin, a nationally acclaimed historian of slavery in America who will be giving the keynote address at the conference. They were not "free" in the same sense that whites were because they faced such enormous legal, social, and economic barriers. For example, Day and other free black males in North Carolina could not vote after 1835; when they traveled, they had to carry papers vouching for the fact that they were not enslaved ; they were forbidden by law to testify in court against a white person and in the Dred Scott decision of 1857, the Supreme Court found that African Americans have "no rights which the white man is bound to respect." In spite of these oppressive laws, free blacks grew in number in North Carolina over the course of the 19th century and worked individually and collectively in a variety of ways to improve the social conditions for all African Americans. According to Dr. Berlin: " Day… and others like him took the (American) ideal for the reality. They claimed it as their own…they became the great spokesmen for the idea of American nationality, and hosed down the hypocrites , those who were denying the universality of the Declaration of Independence. (They did this) by their actions, if less often by their words. (They did this) by indirection, by railing, by challenging things directly and in public, by what we would call today their 'street smarts.' " "Thomas Day was one of millions of African Americas whose stories can expand and enrich our understanding of America's past and the role race has played in it," Lesley Williams, National Dissemination Coordinator for the Let It Shine conference explained. " We are very excited to be bringing together this group of outstanding educators and scholars from across the country to focus on historical subjects that too often don't get the attention they deserve - sometimes because they are in our own backyards! Teachers and administrators, as well as historic site and museum educators, are part of the Let It Shine network along with historians, art historians, and literary scholars. We believe that the cultural, racial, geographic and professional diversity of this group will result in a strong, innovative base of support for African American history and culture education." "We are confident that the Let It Shine network can help lead the way to addressing the gaps in our collective knowledge of American history - and of African American history in particular," Dr. Percy Murray, historian at NCCU's History Department and a long-time scholar advisor to the TDEP advisory board commented. To register for free admission to the public lectures and presentations, call (919) 405-2326 OR go to TDEP02@aol.com. Announcing the Let It Shine:
Public Event Schedule
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Saturday, June 21 |
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NCCU SCHOOL OF EDUCATION |
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9:00-9:30 |
Welcome and Introductions |
Dean Cecelia Steppe - Jones, NCCU School of Education |
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9:30-10:30 |
Opening Lecture: |
Facilitator: Murray |
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10:30-10:45 |
Break |
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10:45-12:30 |
Addressing Challenges to Teaching African
American History and Culture: A Sampling of TDEP Strategies |
Facilitators: Presenters: |
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12:30-1:30 |
Lunch (On Your Own) |
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1:30-4:30 |
Presentations by Thomas Day National Fellows: Our Educational Settings , Projects, & Plans |
Facilitator: Lesley Williams, Thomas Day Education Project Presenters: Thomas Day National Fellows |
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Monday, June 23 |
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NCCU SCHOOL OF EDUCATION |
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9:00-9:30 |
Announcements and Introductions |
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9:30-10:30 |
"A Hidden Host: 19th Century African American Artists and Artisans" (Slide Presentation) |
Dr. Juanita Holland |
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10:30-10:45 |
Break |
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10:45-11:45 |
"The Furniture of Thomas Day" |
Jon Prown, Chief Curator and Executive Director, Chipstone Foundation |
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11:45-12:30 |
Q & A with Holland and Prown |
Facilitator: Williams |
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Wednesday, June 25 |
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NCCU SCHOOL OF EDUCATION |
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8:00-9:00 PM |
"Thomas Day: Free Black Craftsman in a Slave Society" |
Dr. Ira Berlin, Professor of History, University of Maryland College Park |
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9:00-10:00 PM |
Reception for Dr. Berlin & Book Signing |
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Durham, NC Fourteen teams of two educators from twelve states participated in the Let It Shine dissemination network activities that commenced in February 2003. The selected participants, who were known as "National Thomas Day Fellows" experienced the following: an online self-guided study and reflection experience; a June 21-28, 2003 national dissemination conference was held at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina and other sites in the Research Triangle area; and development of replicable action plans that they will implement in their own educational settings.
The "Let It Shine" project was completed in the Summer of 2004. Selected "project results" of LIS teams will be posted on the Fellows Forum beginning in the fall of 2004.
Greensboro, NC The seventh annual "Closing the Achievement Gap - Improving Minority and At-Risk Student Achievement Conference" took place March 24 - 26, 2003 at the Four Seasons /Joseph S. Koury Convention Center in Greensboro and the TDEP was well represented. Educator consultants to the TDEP, Vanessa Richmond Graves, Brenda McLeod, Lewis Nelson, and Meg Millard presented on the "gap sensitive" resources developed by the TDEP including the kit, "The Art and History of Furniture Making in the Upper South," and the CD-ROM, "Exploring the World of Thomas Day." Laurel Sneed, Executive Director of TDEP, introduced the session and provided a demonstration of the CD-ROM. The educator consultants focused on how they are successfully using these resources with their students - especially with their minority and at-risk students--at elementary, middle, and high school levels. Educational Consultant to the Department of Public Instruction, Carlotta Banks Armstrong, facilitated the session.
Sneed highlighted how the CD teaches critical thinking using 40+ primary source documents housed in the CD and how the computer game maintains student attention. She reviewed characteristics of the TDEP - created resources that makes them especially "gap-sensitive." Extensive teacher involvement in materials development; extensive field-testing with students; scholar involvement; and a focus on minority figures who overcome enormous obstacles were among the features emphasized.
Vanessa Richmond Graves discussed strategies and techniques she has developed for working with her students at the Score Center, an alternative high school in Reidsville, NC. Graves explained how she exposes her students to Thomas Day by customizing the kit lessons to their non-traditional needs. She uses the story of Thomas Day to empower her students and she explained that the resources have helped her to positively impact student attitudes as well as performance. Graves, a native of Milton, NC, site of Thomas Day shop and home, also teaches at Rockingham Community College and is a trainer with the North Carolina Teacher Academy. She was an NC Thomas Day fellow for three years before becoming an educator consultant to the project.
Meg Millard, a 4th grade teacher at Frank Porter Graham Elementary
School in Chapel Hill, modeled the kit lesson, "Who Was Thomas
Day?" created by Rodney Berry, an art teacher at Durham School
for the Arts and TDEP advisory board member. Millard exhibited student
drawings of Thomas Day and explained how this lesson stimulated a discussion
of racial stereotypes past and present. Millard also demonstrated other
lessons in the kit including "Exploring Trees and Woods Around
Me" created by Marylu Flowers, art teacher at Forestview Elementary
in Durham. Millard brought photos taken of student explorations of trees
and woods in the vicinity of her school. Millard, who played a key role
in the development of "Exploring the World of Thomas Day"
as a field-tester and advisor on the Educational Companion CD, explained
how she uses the CD by setting up a "single computer station"
in her classroom where students take turns working with it. Millard
was a North Carolina Thomas Day fellow for three years before becoming
an educator consultant to TDEP.
Brenda McLeod, an 8th grade language arts teacher at C.W. Stanford Middle
School in Hillsborough and Lewis Nelson, 8th grade social studies teacher
also at C.W. Stanford, made a joint presentation on how they team teach
using both the kit and CD-ROM. Nelson explained that when he teaches
the antebellum period in North Carolina, he focuses on themes of slavery
and the free black world of Thomas Day. He uses the CD-ROM in the computer
lab. At the same time that Nelson is teaching these lessons, McLeod
teaches a language arts lesson on creative writing using the kit lesson,
"Diary of a Runaway Slave" created by Beverly McNeill a fourth
grade teacher at Watts Elementary in Durham and TDEP advisory board
member. Nelson and McLeod described how they approach slavery as resistance
to oppression using not only slave narratives but African American folk
tales and historical fiction such as the book, Night
John. McLeod explained how she builds upon the groundwork that
Nelson's history lessons on slavery and the free black experience in
the upper south provide. McLeod and Nelson were Thomas Day fellows for
three years before becoming educator consultants to TDEP. They have
been extensively involved in the development of these resources since
C.W. Stanford has been a major field-test site for the Thomas Day Education
Project.
After responding to numerous questions about the resources and techniques for teaching with them, the presenters invited the participants to get their hands on the resources and interact one-one-one with them. This segment of the presentation was received very favorably by all.
Announcing the Exploring the World of Thomas Day CD-ROM Release, February 2003
Durham, NC
Exploring the World of Thomas Day, an interactive
multimedia educational CD-ROM that teaches 19th-century African-American
history and historical research skills, is being released nationwide
in February by the Thomas Day Education Project (TDEP), an educational
media and teacher training project based in the Research Triangle Park.
"Reviewers have called it 'an interactive documentary'; 'a simulation
of doing history"; a 'fresh approach to Black history'; and simply
a 'really cool game, '" creator and executive producer, Laurel
Sneed commented.
The CD-ROM engages elementary and middle grade students in an exploration
of the life and times of Thomas Day, a free black who had the largest
furniture business in North Carolina in the decades before the Civil
War. Today, his work is highly sought after by furniture and African-American
decorative arts collectors. The largest collection of Day furniture
is at the North Carolina Museum of History which has over 20 pieces,
most of which were donated to the museum in the 1970's by Delta Fine
Arts, the Winston-Salem organization affiliated with Delta Sigma Theta,
a national African-American sorority.
This educational game was created with major funding from the National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to the North Carolina Central University
Foundation (NCCUF) which serves as fiscal agent for the Thomas Day Education
Project. The CD-ROM was researched and developed entirely in North Carolina;
much of it in the Durham Public Schools in collaboration with educational
media designers, artists, historians and art historians at North Carolina
Central University, Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill , UNC-Greensboro,
North Carolina Museum of History and Old Salem. A portion of net sales
will go to NCCUF to help support scholarships and university activities.
Exploring the World of Thomas Day focuses
on one extraordinary American, but teaches broader lessons, including
how southern laws discriminated on the basis of race, what forms resistance
to slavery took, and how steam power affected manufacturing and trade.
"Students are not only exposed to Day's work, and personal and
professional life, but also to the larger worlds of antebellum society,
politics, and business," explained Leah Potter, CD-ROM producer
and doctoral candidate in American history at UNC-Chapel Hill. "There
are studies showing that high school students perform worse in history
than in any other required subject, including science and math. With
this CD-ROM, students begin developing important skills, such as gathering
and analyzing primary source materials, in a way that is fun. The game
encourages and rewards them for being like detectives tracking down
evidence and using it to solve questions about the past."
The CD-ROM development team aligned the game to the National Standards
for teaching history and critical thinking skills. One of the team members
was Lesley Williams, a senior advisor on the CD-ROM who specializes
in African-American culture and folklore. "When I first saw the
CD prototype I was thrilled to see an opportunity to hook young people
on primary source research .When you say "research," a lot
of kids think about writing lengthy term papers and re-hashing material
from encyclopedias or the Internet. This teaches them that history is
in their own backyards.
Dr. Charles Lee, president of Alexor Software Group, an educational
technology company in Durham donated programming services to the original
CD-ROM prototype built in 1997 and stayed with the project when finishing
funds were acquired. "The objective of applications such as this
is to teach concepts. If we can make it fun and have the students learn
without them knowing that they are picking up valuable research skills,
we've done our job."
More and more, educational software applications are being designed
for the web, but the web has some disadvantages. "Kids are pretty
sophisticated customers," Lee said. "They don't tolerate bad
connections or server delays. Using CD-ROM technology allowed us to
create a sophisticated application that can maintain student interest."
Lee believes that, "Technology should be transparent to the user.
One main thing that I emphasize is not to use technology just because
it's there. Understand what your goals are and use the appropriate technology
to meet those goals. I think we've done that with this project."
The CD-ROM is divided into three content spheres that address Thomas
Day's world: Family & Community; Laws & Society; and Shop &
Marketplace. Students learn about these areas by finding and examining
over 40 sources that are located in a virtual research landscape called
"Searchboro." Most of the sources are shortened replicas of
actual documents from the 19th century, including Day's personal letters,
business records, and newspaper advertisements. There are also secondary
sources, such as videos of real historians and museum placards about
Day furniture and tools.
Each sphere begins with a short video dramatization featuring a youth
from Thomas Day's world. One of these dramatizations is of Archibald
Clark, an actual orphan boy who at age 10 was indentured to Thomas Day
as an apprentice. In the CD-ROM, Archibald has been falsely imprisoned
as a runaway slave and asks students to help him win his release. He
tells students that in order to prove his innocence he must demonstrate
that he knows everything about Thomas Day," his employer. The desire
to "Free Archibald" by learning about Day becomes the primary
motivation for students to explore Searchboro.
Created with extensive teacher input, a separate Educational Companion CD-ROM is included with the game. It includes a Teacher's Guide that helps instructors use the application effectively at different skill levels and with different classroom facilities. The Educational Companion also provides numerous instructional resources: full-text versions of over 40 documents that can be used to teach skills and content; assessment guidelines and answer keys that help teachers evaluate student performance; a list of suggested resources for further study; and a timeline, glossary, and map. The CD-ROM is compatible with most Macintosh and PC operating systems.
Visit this URL to learn more about upcoming conferences of interest
nationwide:
http://databank.ncss.org/index.php?topic=usevents
February 7 - 8, 2003
First Teacher Education Summit at North Carolina Central University
School of Education "Opening the Doors to Achievement and Excellence"
http://www.nccu.edu/Support_Services/Employee_Resources/edsummit2.shtml
February 19 - 21, 2003
North Carolina Council of Social Studies Thirty-Third Annual State Conference,
Sheraton Greensboro-Hotel At Four Seasons, Greensboro, NC
courses.ncssm.edu/nccss/proposal.html
March 24 - 26, 2003
Closing the Achievement Gap: Improving Minority and At-Risk Student
Achievement Conference, Sheraton at Four Seasons/ Joseph S. Koury Convention
Center, Greensboro, NC
For more information: (919) 876 - 3912
Durham, NC Fourteen teams of two educators from twelve states will participate in the Let It Shine dissemination network activities that commence in February 2003. The selected participants, who will also be known as "National Thomas Day Fellows" will experience the following: an online self-guided study and reflection experience; a June 21-28, 2003 national dissemination conference held at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina and other sites in the Research Triangle area; and development of replicable action plans that they will implement in their own educational settings.
The action plans may take the form of the following: traditional curricular materials and lesson plans; multimedia programs or web-based instructional applications; performances; exhibits; or other educational offerings targeted primarily to elementary- and middle-grade students. TDEP teachers and scholars will support the Fellows in the implementation of their plans.
"We are very excited to be bringing together this group of outstanding educators from across the country," Lesley Williams, National Dissemination Coordinator of Let It Shine, recently commented. "Teachers and administrators, as well as historic site and museum educators, will be part of the Let It Shine network. We believe that the cultural, racial, geographic and professional diversity of this group will result in a strong, innovative base of support for African-American history and culture education."
"We had many excellent applications we could not accommodate because we were limited by our funding to selecting a certain number of teams to participate," said Laurel Sneed, Executive Director of the TDEP. "I got the distinct impression from the applications that opportunities at the elementary- and middle-grade levels for professional development in African-American history and training in how to best teach it are quite rare."
"We are confident that the Let It Shine network can help lead the way to addressing the gaps in our collective knowledge of American history-and of African-American history in particular," stated Dr. Percy Murray, a professor in North Carolina Centrals' History Department and long-time scholar advisor to the TDEP.
The Art and History of Furniture Making Furniture Kit Training Meeting, October 2002
Yanceyville, NC At the Historic Caswell County Courthouse, the TDEP hosted a day of training on the educational kit, The Art and History of Furniture Making in the Upper South for a group of teachers from Club Boulevard Magnet School and Forest View Elementary School in Durham, NC and Albert Harris Elementary School in Martinsville, VA. A private tour followed the training for the teachers and invited guests to two Thomas Day houses and Thomas Day sites in Milton, NC. This event was made possible by the School of Education at UNC-Chapel Hill, the
