Montana Grantees

Active:

Western Montana CSPD (Comprehensive System of Personnel Development)

Grant Contact: Nancy Marks- Director
Email: nancymarks@wmcspd.org
Website: http://www.wmcspd.org

Grant awarded September 24, 2012
Western Montana CSPD provides professional development and on-site technical assistance to educators in the seven counties of Western Montana. Through its new TPS grant, Weaving Common Core and Indian Education for All, this organization will entice teachers to investigate the resources available at the Library of Congress and use them in the classroom to encourage higher level thinking skills and inquiry. Further goals include training teachers to design authentic lesson plans in the curricular area of Indian Education for All and to develop strategies for implementing the new Montana Common Core Standards through the use of primary sources. This grant will combine pre-conference activities (including the online, interactive modules at www.loc.gov), face-to-face instruction, online asynchronous/synchronous webinars and social networking to effectively reach teachers across a vast geographic area. Western Montana CSDP is hoping to replicate this model to the four other regions in Montana.

Montana Historical Society

Grant Contact: Martha Kohl - Education Coordinator, Montana Historical Society
Email: mkohl@mt.gov
Website: http://mhs.mt.gov

Grant awarded January 12, 2011
This grant enhanced previous TPS activities in Montana and was a direct result of another TPS grant funded through the Western History Association. The Montana Historical Society grant provided funding for workshops and conference presentations designed to reach teachers statewide in Montana. The first workshop presented on September 22, 2011 in conjunction with the 38th Annual Montana History Conference, included a one-day Teaching with Primary Sources Educators Workshop and a two-day session focused on “War, Resistance, and the Montana Experience”. These TPS workshop reached 40 participants including teachers, museum educators, pre-service teachers, high school students and community members.

As TPS Western Region Project Coordinator, Taylor Kendal, observed, “I think this workshop further solidified our belief that collaborative efforts are truly the most successful. The back-and-forth nature of the instruction between national LOC material and local Montana resources really seemed to resonate with the majority of participants." The sustainability of TPS was evident at the Montana Education Association Conference on October 19-21, 2011 through TPS presentations by Martha Kohl, Montana Historical Society (“Landmarks of Montana History Do Matter”) and Michelle Pearson, TPS Mentor and Colorado Teacher of the Year 2011 (“Primary Sources 2.0: Technology Meets LOC”).

Grant Contact: Kirby Lambert – Outreach and Interpretation Program Manager, Montana Historical Society
Email: klambert@mt.gov
Website: http://mhs.mt.gov

Grant awarded November 17, 2008
The Montana Historical Society enhanced the "Big Read" project already in operation using primary sources from the Farm Securities Administration. They disseminated copies of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and Hope in Hard Times by Mary Murphy to 9 high schools throughout the state allowing students to analyze primary sources and compare depression-era photographs to current day photographs. The Enhancement Grant also enabled Montana to bring 20 teachers to Helena for a Big Read symposium in January, 2009.

This grant was completed during the second quarter of 2009 with a total of 142 educators reached. Based on the reports from the 9 participating schools, hundreds of students and community members participated in numerous presentations and culminating events held in schools and public libraries in small Montana towns. Activities also included analysis of primary sources through historic and original photographs, collection of oral histories and simulations of Depression-era soup kitchens.

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