This month, 230 prek-12 teachers are learning around the world with Fund for Teachers grants, making this our busiest “Fellow Season.” Highlighting one teacher for our weekly Friday Fellow post is tough, as our exemplary grant recipients are checking in from near and far with updates that inspire wanderlust from behind our computers. In light of this holiday weekend, however, Jean Molloy‘s learning seems most timely.

Jean teaches American History at Robbins Middle School in Farmington, CT. She is currently in the middle of her fellowship exploring Civil War landmarks, monuments, and museums in four southern states to document how historians preserve and honor the past while maintaining values respectful to all Americans. We caught up with Jean to see how the research is going…

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Why this fellowship? Why now?

As a U.S. history teacher, I need to develop the critical thinking and reasoning skills of my 8th graders. Students tend to accept non-fiction text without questioning or extending their thinking and they struggle when reading primary sources. Middle school students sometimes have difficulty understanding the perspectives of others. One of the social studies standards that we want them to master in my district is the ability to analyze both primary and secondary sources to determine claims, evidence, and perspective. One of my goals is to help them improve this skill which is imperative to creating lifelong learners as students navigate through controversial issues throughout their education and beyond.

My fellowship will help me frame the following key questions for my U.S. History course:

1. How should Americans preserve history and at the same time be respectful to all humanity?
2. How do decisions about preserving our past impact how we live today? And,
3. What actions can we as citizens of a democracy take to make sure we preserve our history and learn from the past?

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What’s on the itinerary?

A great focus of the fellowship is on National Parks where significant events took place, but I’m also visiting some state- and privately-funded museums and engaging in conversations with curators, docents, and volunteers to help in my evaluation of how Americans are preserving our history.  In Gettysburg, I’m participating in two professional workshops for teachers: What was the Civil War really about? and Why do we preserve and protect Battlefields? In Richmond, I plan to meet with a member of the City Historic Preservation Committee to discuss the five Confederate statues on Monument Avenue. I hope to secure an interview with representatives of a movement to remove the statues as well.  According to a survey conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2017, “…our schools are failing to teach the hard history of African enslavement.” I chose destinations that will inform my teaching of this history in a balanced and coherent manner and also help students see the connections between our past and our society today.

Have you experienced any “A Ha!” moments you particularly want to share with students?

I am about half-way through my Civil War exploration and it is hard to process all that I have learned so far! Speaking with park rangers, museum docents and volunteers has deepened my understanding of this great conflict in American history and especially of the key people who were making critical decisions on each side. I have also learned that Virginians are very proud of their history and they want to talk about it. In addition to interacting with professional historians, I have been speaking with people in restaurants, B&Bs, and with other tourists at historical locations. I would have walked right by a slave auction block on a Fredericksburg street corner if I had not been chatting with my waitress at dinner. She explained how the city council recently voted to remove the block to a museum. I had to stop and think about what it must be like to walk by this every day which prompted me to dig a little deeper. The Fredericksburg website states that, “It is important to recognize that the City Council decision-making process, specific to the future of the auction block, has been taking place within the larger context of a community dialogue about race, history, and memory.”

In most of the Civil War Museums, there have been exhibits that also document the story of slavery in America, its role in the Civil War, and in American economics. Although I have grappled with how this story should be preserved, what I have seen so far in Virginia has helped me learn and is helping me frame questions for my students.

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Jean teaches 8th grade U.S. History, which includes a project based learning event on local history. Previously, she taught 7th grade Asian studies and participated in a teacher exchange program with the Republic of Korea organized by the East-West Center for UNESCO and also a teacher study tour in China with the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. You can follow Jean’s FFT fellowship on Twitter @IARMolloy.

[minti_dropcap style=”normal”]B[/minti_dropcap]ack in the ’80s, when Saturday Night Live was funny, Jon Lovitz did a skit called “Get to Know Me!” espousing how people (i.e. Steve Martin) benefited from knowing him. We believe the same is true of our 2019 Fellows and are, therefore, continuing a blog series throughout the summer to introduce you to many of our grant recipients.

Today, we meet Reid Daniels, teacher at Soddy Daisy High School in Soddy Daisy, TN. He plans to travel more than 5,500 miles across the United States to help students understand the structure of the New Deal and the continuing impact of the government’s intervention on behalf of the people.

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On Why He Designed This Fellowship

The students I teach represent a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds, many of whom rarely even leave the county. Their ability to conceptualize the vastness of our country, and our country’s resources is very limited, making it difficult to grasp the scope and initiatives involved in the New Deal.

My students also demonstrate a great interest in the natural world around them. They are avid fishermen, hunters, hikers, boaters, photographers, and rock climbers. Academically, they have a great deal of interest in the sciences, construction, and art. All of these interests can be exemplified within the New Deal projects that I will be visiting on my fellowship.

Another tangential goal will be to show the students that during one of the worst times of economic and social struggle in the US, the country was able to construct a network of parks that is truly unique in the world.  This kind of unity is refreshing to think about especially in these seemingly divided times. I hope to demonstrate this to my students to give them hope about the US for the future.

The two key questions I will seek to answer through this fellowship and the student involvement afterwards are:

1. To what lengths were Americans willing to go in order to earn a living? And, what were the immediate impacts of the New Deal, and,
2. What are the long term consequences and benefits of the New Deal projects?

On His Itinerary

Over the course of 22 days and 11 states, I will pull my camper in order to give myself the best opportunity to experience the environment that the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers were living and working in. Destinations include:

• the St. Louis Arch
• Custer State Park and the dams built by the CCC
• Badlands National Park and the infrastructure built by the Works Progress Administration
• Wind Cave National Park‘s reservoir, water system and concrete stairs in the cave
• Mount Rushmore
• Devil’s Tower and the museum built by the CCC
• Grand Teton and the library built by WPA
• Yellowstone National Park and the terrain tended by the “Tree Army” of the CCC
• Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and,
• Fort Snelling

On Plans for His Students

My students will create their own virtual trips to our national parks and monuments developed during the New Deal.  To demonstrate the outcome of their projects, my students will create a digital video that will walk me through the trips that they have planned, and the locations that they will be visiting. This project will give my students, who have such limited experience with travel outside of the immediate area, the tools they need to create real trips instead of virtual trips.

The daily (short term) plans for student learning will include direct instruction on this project to include the documentation, visual as well as tangible (maps, books, additional artifacts I will find, etc.) of the locations I visit. I will largely focus this instruction on the living and working conditions at these locations for the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corp workers. The long term unit plan will demonstrate my fellowship takeaways, starting with President Hoover’s decision to not intervene, governmentally, in the Great Depression and will conclude with the start of World War II.

Lastly, I will set up an interactive booth at the local history day in which I can share my experiences with the community at large. I will be available to answer questions about my travels as well as share the stories that I have learned from the experts at the locations I have visited. I will work with my students to host a clean up day at a local New Deal park in order to give them a feel for what it is like to address global needs.

Closing Thoughts

My own family was greatly affected by the New Deal, as my family’s land was taken over in eminent domain in one of the first projects developed. The New Deal has been a constant topic in my family for the last 80 years. Even in what my family had to give up, they were able to appreciate the transformation within their community due to these projects. The sacrifices made by the families whose homes were taken over, and whose young men were sent off to work on these projects (and eventually off to World War II) are a significant part of the fabric of our nation. They tell of our national character in a way nothing else can. My intent with the fellowship is to add the stories of other families to my own to enhance my understanding of the magnitude of the New Deal. That will, of course translate into an enhancement of how I teach this time period in American History.