SUNY Geneseo’s Department of History is hosting its fourth annual Teachers' Day Friday, March 10. Approximately 50 high school history teachers from 17 school districts in the region will hear Geneseo faculty members review scholarly trends in U.S. and global history.
“In designing the program, we’ve tried to frame Teachers' Day as a series of conversations within the historical discipline,” explained Joseph Cope, professor and director of the Center for Inquiry, Discovery and Development.
“Faculty workshop presenters provide short updates on the state of the field–for example, this year’s workshop on medieval history led by Yvonne Seale will explore the ways that historians of the middle ages are increasingly doing research that connects European history to wider regional and global contexts,” said Cope. “This is a relatively recent trend and allows our experts in the field to bring the secondary teachers up to date on important scholarly trends.”
In addition to Assistant Professor Yvonne Seale, Michael Oberg, SUNY Distinguished Professor of History, will host a workshop on Native American history. A lunchtime keynote on the Irish potato famine will be given by Cope.
As in past years, faculty workshop facilitators create course packs of relevant historical documents, contextual information, study questions, and other pedagogical materials for the attendees. “The participants leave with a packet of material that they can immediately incorporate into lesson plans and, we hope, some good ideas about ways that they can engage students with the content,” said Cope.
On Monday, March 13 at 1 p.m., Cope, Justin Behrend, associate professor and chair of the Department of History, and Sarah Prinzi, a college alumnus and social studies teacher at Geneseo Central School, will appear on WXXI’s show “Connections with Evan Dawson” to discuss Teachers' Day and the department's other outreach programs. The show can be heard on 1370 am or streamed live. It will be available at the Connection’s website as a podcast shortly after airing.
Teachers' Day is supported by a gift from former teachers and alumni Joe ’67 and Elaine ’66 Bucci.