Grantee: Stratford Public Schools, Stratford, OK
Project Name: American History: Learn It! Live It! Love It!
Project Director: C. J. Vires (580) 310-5701
Funding: $864,592
Number of Teachers Served: 22
Number of School Districts Served: 4
Number of Students Served: No information available

This consortium partners 4 rural school districts with East Central University, the Oklahoma Historical Society, the Chickasaw Nation Museum, and Seminole Nation Museum to help students meet state American history standards and enhance teachers' knowledge and appreciation of U.S. history. The research-based professional development project aims to bring history to life for all 12 U.S. history teachers in consortium schools through summer institutes, colloquia each semester, model lesson development, summer internships, national conferences, graduate course work, and historic site visits. The project provides content knowledge focusing on major periods and themes of American history, pedagogical techniques, access to primary material, and opportunities for interactions with historians, archivists, technology specialists, and master teachers. Participants are supported in earning National Board Certification. The providers of history expertise will concentrate on slavery, the Civil War, the New Deal, U.S. history 1828-1877, and U.S. history 1919-1945.

Grantee: Vinita Public Schools, I-065, Vinita, OK
Project Name: America (Appreciating Movements, Events & Rule-Makers Influencing the Character of America) Project
Project Director: Judy Bryan (918) 256-4193
Funding: $640,302
Number of Teachers Served: 8
Number of School Districts Served: 1
Number of Students Served: 1,636

The America Project seeks to provide the school children of Vinita, a small isolated town in the extreme northeastern corner of Oklahoma, with access to mainstream resources. The project will provide Internet access, research opportunities, research-based models and activities, and on-site and off-site American history enrichment activities for both students and teachers in order to broaden their exposure to American history issues and best practices. The following web-based models will be part of the comprehensive plan: (1) Teaching with Documents, using National Archives documents accessed via Digital Classroom; (2) History Matters, which serves as a gateway to pre-screened Web sites and features innovative teaching materials, primary documents, and discussions with leading historians on teach U.S. history; and (3) Integrative Studies Model, which teaches history by gathering documents and objects around a theme. The fourth component investigates the history of Native Americans through historical films and videos. During participants' research and summer immersion activities, content focuses on colonial America, the Civil War/black history/Native American removal, and far western expansion/Asian immigration.