This hands-on session with Andy Mink, NHC Vice President for Education Programs, featured guides and resources in support of disciplinary practice—including U.S. and world history, English language and literature, music, art history, classics, geography, civics, and philosophy. Participants received new digital resources with classroom-ready materials as well as opportunities for new workshops and seminars.
How has the digital environment changed the way English is taught at the high school and college level? What kinds of possibilities have been generated and new challenges presented? In this podcast, Nancy Gardner, with the Center for Teaching Quality, and Patricia Matthew, associate professor of English at Montclair State University, discuss the advantages and anxieties that accompany the use of digital technologies to support the study of literature and instruction in writing.
How can teachers help students draw connections between humanities and STEM subjects? In this podcast, Omar Ali, professor of history and Dean of Lloyd International Honors College at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Andromeda Crowell, who teaches science at Orange High School in Hillsborough, NC, discuss similarities in the ways historians and scientists approach the process of discovery. They also consider how digital technologies have made it easier for students to think and act like researchers, regardless of discipline, in a classroom setting.
How should the study and teaching of music be integrated into K-12 classrooms? In this podcast, Ben Wides, who teaches social studies at East Side Community High School in New York, NY, and Warren Zanes, former executive director of the Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, discuss the benefits of music education for all students and the ways that music can be used in the teaching of other subjects to help students make connections and appreciate cultural context. They also consider some of the opportunities and challenges presented by new technologies that provide ready access to extensive musical resources.
How have technological innovations helped students and others engage with, and better understand, longstanding philosophical questions? How does philosophical training help us grapple with contemporary concerns surrounding technology and its influences on our lives and societies? In this podcast, Michael Burroughs, executive director of the Kegley Institute of Ethics and assistant professor of philosophy at California State University, Bakersfield, and Allison Cohen, who teaches Advanced Placement U.S. government and philosophy at Langley High School in McLean, VA discuss the ways technology has contributed to the study and teaching of philosophy.
How has the study and teaching of world history been transformed by the proliferation of digital tools? In this podcast, Elizabeth Mulcahy, social studies teacher in Albemarle County, VA, and Molly Warsh, assistant professor of world history at the University of Pittsburgh, discuss the ways new technologies expand the possibilities for exploring world history, how those changes shape thinking, and the positives and negatives associated with readily accessed information.
What are the habits of mind specific to art historians? How does their practice, centered around the careful observation of artistic works, provide a basis for the questions they ask? In this podcast, Teresa Assenzo, director of visual arts at Saint Mary’s School in Raleigh, NC, and Morna O’Neill, associate professor of art history at Wake Forest University, demonstrate the ways art historians interpret artists’ works and situate them within larger greater historical and cultural contexts through an in-depth conversation about Claude Monet’s painting “The Gare Saint-Lazare.”
Mapping the American Experience is a collaboration between the National Humanities Center and central North Carolina school districts to create professional development training for K–12 educators on the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology in teaching and scholarship. With a focus on geoliteracy skills as they apply to the humanities, each training session will support the integration and application of Esri GIS services to curriculum and classroom. This institute will focus on the integration and application of GIS tools for teachers new to the field as well as those experienced with GIS technology.
How has the study and teaching of classics been changed by the proliferation of digital tools? In this podcast, Michael Fontaine, professor of classics at Cornell University, and Skye Shirley, Latin teacher at Newton Country Day School in Newton, Massachusetts, discuss the remarkably diverse ways the information age has rejuvenated the study of Latin and Greek—altering the ways ancient languages are taught, expanding opportunities for learning, and fostering a robust network among scholars, teachers, and students.
Members of the Center’s 2017–18 Teacher Advisory Council gathered for a two-day orientation and planning meeting on September 7 and 8, 2017. Selected from schools in twelve states, the Teacher Advisory Council is a 14-member board that supports the Education Programs of the National Humanities Center for a one-year term of service. Chosen to represent multiple disciplines in the humanities, these teacher leaders accept an active role in the development, evaluation, and promotion of NHC materials and projects.