Darlington’s Michelle Major, who teaches eighth-grade English, has been selected to participate in a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History and Culture workshop titled “The Richest Hills: Mining in the Far West, 1865-1920” in July.
“I found out about this program through the National Council for Teachers of English conference that I attended in November,” Major said. “This particular workshop really piqued my interest because it will be helpful in further integrating our curriculum at Darlington. I am looking to study primary source documentation and historic sites to bring that era to life as we continue to work across disciplines. When I applied, I was told that here was stiff competition so I was thrilled when I found out I had been accepted!”
Sponsored by the Montana Historical Society, “The Richest Hills” summer workshop will bring scholars to three distinctive mining communities – Virginia City, Helena and Butte. Through walking tours, museum visits, lectures, readings and hands-on primary source activities, NEH participants will learn about the development of placer gold mining, hard rock silver mining and industrial copper mining; the racial and ethnic diversity of the mining West; mining’s impact on American Indians; mining’s environmental effects; and the relationship between capital and labor in mining communities. Most importantly, they will come to understand the place western mining held within the larger context of the last phase of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.
In addition, they will gain new tools to analyze and understand primary sources, particularly photographs, maps and historic buildings. Tips for teaching with historic places and incorporating primary sources into the classroom will help participants transfer what they learn to their own classrooms.
“I will bring back information for the history, science and math departments while we study photos, sift through documents, and read memoirs from that time and place in English class. But mainly, I think every teacher needs to put themselves in their students’ shoes once in a while and become a student themselves,” Major said. “I am going to learn, to experience, to grow in my knowledge and perspective so that I renew that joy that makes a teacher teach in the first place. I have already begun communicating with my fellow NEH summer scholars and we are all expressing the same sentiment, joy, at the opportunities this experience will give us to just learn. This is bringing the whole idea of the Circle Georgia Trip to the next level. Our country is full of incredible people and places that you can only learn about fully by immersing yourself in their experience. That’s the idea behind living history with our kids for a week outside the classroom and I am simply modeling that ideal.”
