April Educator Workshops in Great Falls, Billings, Miles City, and Sidney

Mark your calendars and tell your friends! The Montana Historical Society is going on the road with four educator workshops, at venues across the state.

First up is “Teaching Montana’s Charlie Russell: A Workshop for Educators,” cosponsored by the C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls. 

Place: C. M. Russell Museum, 400 13th Street North, Great Falls, Montana
Date: April 21, 2016
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

6 OPI Renewal Units available

Register here.
View schedule.
Limit: 40 people

Topics will include Visual Thinking Strategies, C. M. Russell’s rich biography, and Common Core aligned Russell-related lesson plans. The workshop is free and attendees can earn 6 OPI Renewal Units. Registration is limited to 40 participants. 

Next we're heading to Billings (April 27), Miles City (April 28), and  Sidney (April 29) with "Crossing Disciplines: Social Studies, Art, and the Common Core." 

Billings (Cosponsored by the Yellowstone Art Museum)     Place: 401 N 27th St     Date: April 27, 2016     Time: 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Miles City (Cosponsored by the WaterWorks Art Museum)     Place: 85 Waterplant Road     Date: April 28, 2016     Time: 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Sidney (Cosponsored by MonDak Heritage Center)     Place: 120 3rd Ave SE     Date: April 29, 2016     Time: 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Cosponsored and held at local museums, these workshop are targeted to 4-12 teachers interested in meeting Common Core ELA and Math standards while engaging students in active learning.

The morning will be spent on Visual Thinking Strategies, a technique that uses teacher-facilitated discussions of art images to train students in “key behaviors sought by Common Core Standards: thinking skills that become habitual and transfer from lesson to lesson, oral and written language literacy, visual literacy, and collaborative interactions among peers.” (VTShome.org)

In the afternoon, participants will be introduced to ready-to-use cross-disciplinary lesson plans from the Montana Historical Society, including lessons inspired by Charles M. Russell’s art, a primary-source based exploration of homesteading, and a lesson that engages students in collecting and analyzing survey data to learn change over time.

Attendees at all the workshops will leave with a Teaching Charlie Russell packet that includes fifteen prints, PowerPoints, and grade-specific art-, ELA-, and social studies-themed lesson plans as well as information on how to access all of the Montana Historical Society’s free primary-source based lessons. 

The workshops are free but space is limited. 6 OPI Renewal Units available. 

Learn more, view the agendas, and find the links to register here. 

This is the first time we've tried something like this--so please help us spread the word. Questions? Don't hesitate to contact me.