National History Day Philly Educator Newsletter Volume 1, September 17, 2009
On this page:
Hello Educators, and welcome to the new school year! 2009-10 will be another great year for NHD Philly — interest and participation in the program continues to grow, and we look forward to another year of helping students discover the excitement of "doing history."
Important Competition Dates: The competition will be a week earlier than usual this year, on Wednesday March 3 (juniors) and Thursday, March 4 (seniors). Registration Deadline will be Friday, February 5.
We are not accepting any registrations past the deadline this year. In-school contests to qualify students for NHD Philly must be completed early enough so that all students will be registered by Friday, February 5. I will also be reaching out to each of you separately about your plans for NHD this year, so we can better gauge and plan our capacity to hold our regional competition this year.
New Contact Information: As the Education Specialist for the National Archives at Philadelphia, I am the main contact person for teachers and schools. Any questions about the NHD program content/rules/resources, as well as education services at the National Archives, should be directed to me. My direct contact information is andrea.reidell@nara.gov and 215-606-0103. Feel free to share my contact information with your colleagues.
Also, I plan to send out a monthly newsletter, to help keep you informed of changes in the program. Accidentally delete an e-mail or have trouble finding it in your inbox? No problem; we will also be posting the newsletters online, so you can just check the teacher section of the website to access them: nhdphilly.org.
New Website Rules: The national program has changed how website projects must be developed. Students must now use the NHD Web Portal to create their websites, which will then be assigned URLs and be available online for judging. (Three cheers for no more multiple copies of the website on CD!) For more information, please see the NHD website [pdf].
Theme Books: NHD Philly has resource books available for this year's theme: Innovation in History: Impact and Change. I am sending a free hard copy to teachers on our current mailing list. Additional copies are available upon request. For those of you who prefer online access to the resource book (and other theme-related information) it is available on the NHD website.
Teacher Seminars/Student Workshops: NHD Philly partners expect to offer a teacher seminar this fall in Germantown — details soon. History Day presentations/workshops/mentoring for your students are also available through the NHD Philly collaborative; contact me and I will help coordinate an in-school or site visit.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions or would like more information.
Best, Ang Reidell, Deputy Regional Coordinator, NHD Philly