My Blog

May 3, 2016

Making History Fun

Once again, it is a pleasure to find that we do have inspirational students and teachers.

Texas History Day

Texas History Day

 

TSHA Guidance

TSHA Guidance

This past weekend, the Texas State Historical Association held its annual state-level competition for students from around the state. As part of National History Day, students compete on the local, regional, state and, finally, the national level by producing historical presentations of their choosing that relate to a particular theme. This year it was Exploration, Encounter and Exchange. The topics chosen by the students ranged from Ancient Rome to Ellis Island, from Einstein to Amelia Earhart, from Andy Warhol to Mary Queen of Scots.

 

Student performances

Emotional Performances

Performances

Costumes

I had the opportunity to judge the Group Performances. Students portrayed historical characters, wrote up scripts, designed their costumes and sets, prepared 500-word written explanations and produced extensive annotated bibliographies divided into Primary and Secondary sources. Each presentation could not last longer than ten minutes with five minutes for set-up and five minutes for questions at the end. The students inspired us all with their creativity and ingenuity.

From the Texas History Day web page: https://tshaonline.org/education/students/texas-history-day/75

“After analyzing and interpreting their source material, students create a plan to present their findings to the peers and teachers before moving on to regional, state, and possibly national contests. Students can create and present original research papers, exhibits, performances, websites, and documentaries.

The student projects may be entered into competitions in the spring at one of our regional contests across Texas. Winners from each regional competition will advance to the state contest in Austin. Students who place first or second at our state contest advance to the Kenneth E. Behring National Contest held each June held at the University of Maryland at College Park.”

Stephen Cure unloading

Stephen Cure and volunteers unloading

Because of people like Stephen Cure (far left, unloading boxes), Education Director of the TSHA, our students frequently advance to the National Competition. And because of the help and encouragement of teachers and parents, our students have won medals on the national level against the best from across the country.

 

Teacher Judges Volunteers

Teacher/Volunteer Judges

This program could not be carried on without the help of volunteers. The ones who are most impressive are the teachers who bring students to compete and then stay on to work as judges in the many categories. These teachers are the ones who somehow have to inspire their students to participate and keep them motivated throughout the semester to complete their projects. Then they have to wrangle the money from their principals to bring the students – sometimes from distant Laredo or El Paso or Lubbock- then feed and house them while they are in Austin. It is no easy chore.

There are also dozens of college-age students recruited from the History and Education Departments at the University of Texas. They work all day long as monitors, guides, judges and all-around go-fors to get directional signs set up, to point people in the right direction, help students with their often large and cumbersome props. I met two, Josue and Susana, who are both planning to go on to Law School.

Winners going on to Nationals

Winners going on to Nationals

The TSHA does a tremendous job of organizing the program. They assign students to rooms all over the UT campus, put judges with them, collect the judges forms, rate and rank the students then gather everyone for final competitions.  It is an amazing and impressive display of talent and student ability.

Thanks to all the students, teachers, volunteers, and especially the Texas State Historical Association. Our students couldn’t do it without you!

General
About Caroline Castillo Crimm
Retired Professor Emeritus from Sam Houston State University, interested in writing novels and speaking about topics such as the history of Latin American. Would like to share the AMAZING world of the 18th century in Northern New Spain, that's Spanish Texas and Mexico!
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