NAU History Education Students Teach Teachers
The History and Social Studies Education Program teamed up with the Martin-Springer Institute on Saturday, February 24, to offer a professional development workshop, “Stories of the Spanish Civil War: Strategies and Resources for Middle and High School Teachers.” The event grew out of a partnership with MSI, which invited History/Social Studies BSED students to create materials to accompany their digital history website, Stories from the Spanish Civil War. Four BSED students worked with Dr. Lauren Lefty last fall to develop inquiry-based lessons for the MSI website: Matt Lankton, Liv Hall, Meagan Engels, and Fredreka Wheeler.
Around 20 local teachers and history education students attended what turned out to be a “great event,” as history teacher educator Christi Carlson commented. “The teachers all had positive things to say and seemed to find the workshop useful…. It was great to see our students and the teachers chatting and interacting, and it made me grateful for the strong partnership we have with our local schools!”
MSI’s director, Dr. Björn Krondorfer, opened the workshop with some background on the project. He was followed by the Department of History’s Dr. Foster Chamberlin, who gave a background lecture on the Spanish Civil War and the International Brigades, discussed the causes of the conflict, and why it was globally significant, and shared details about the Americans who volunteered to fight in the war. BSED students Matt Lankton and Meagan Engels then led a demonstration of the lesson they created using the MSI website, which centered around two artifacts, a commemorative fan signed by 31 men from the International Brigades and a photograph of some of the volunteers. The lesson was exemplary on multiple levels. It encouraged teachers to embrace an under-studied but significant topic in their US or World History classrooms; it had all the elements of the National Council for the Social Studies C3 inquiry model; and it promoted historical thinking skills, global awareness, and civic engagement.
The Department of History looks forward to further collaborations with MSI and hopes to host more professional development opportunities for area teachers in the future.