Although teachers from large districts have the benefit of sharing content and pedagogical strategies with peers, that is not possible for teachers in small, rural districts who are frequently departments of one.  In order to help fill the gaps in my professional experiences, I have participated in several local workshops and three different Teaching American History (TAH) grants. This is my first NEH institute and I really cannot say enough positive things about the experiences I have had. 

My educational background has been in history.  By taking a cross-curricular approach, this program has asked me to stray from my comfort zone and I am thankful.  Going into the program I felt that I had a pretty firm grasp of the material that was to be covered.  It didn’t take long before I realized that a lot of my knowledge was surface level. Sure, I understood the larger concepts, but some of the details were missing. Once we got beyond the history section and into literature, poetry, and music, I realized that the surface level knowledge was more thinly spread. 

Within my 9^th grade American History curriculum, I traditionally cover the Harlem Renaissance as part of a continuum of the Civil Rights movement. Like most, I covered the usual suspects (Langston Hughs, Zora Neal Hurston, Claude McKay).  I was surprised at how little I knew about Marcus Garvey.  Most of our coverage has focused on his back to Africa movement. In addition to his moving speeches, I think that the most important thing I learned about Garvey was that the UNIA was more widespread than I previously thought.  In fact, I found a dissertation titled “The Garvey Movement in the Rural South, 1920-1927” by Mary Gambrell Rolinson, which has some interesting data that will be easily related to my rural students. 

With our time constraints, there is no way for me to cover all of this information within my classroom, but I plan to work with the English teacher so that we might be able to create a cross-curricular unit to incorporate African American literature from the New Negro Renaissance into our 9^th grade curriculum.

In addition to learning a lot of new information, it has been great seeing so many teachers who are excited about what they do.  Too often, we are surrounded by the negativity in the teacher’s lounge. It is nice to know that I am not the only one who enjoys what I do.  Thank you all for making this experience one I will remember.

-- Joseph Hunter