Why should you join us at the Place-Based Learning Conference?

One reason is that you’ll get a chance to hear the professional techniques of some of Montana’s best teachers. The Heritage Project’s demonstration site directors regularly prepare their students to deliver stirring academic performances before large audiences at our annual Youth Heritage Festival at the state capitol. Here are a few of the things these teachers will tell you:

• How to get your kids to write like Studs Terkel

• What techniques work to lead students from stories about family heirlooms into the essential questions of American history and literature

• How well-planned research serves the development of voice and creativity

• Ways to escape the boredom of reading “copy and paste” research papers

• How to transform your classroom into an adventure by joining our Expedition to the 1930s.

• Simple strategies that draw on the power of family history to teach authentic writing.

You’ll also have a chance to hear what nationally acclaimed educators have to say about place-based approaches to teaching:

• Greg Smith, from Lewis and Clark College in Portland has written the definitive articles on place-based learning for Phi Delta Kappan and Educational Leadership. He will speak on “Learning to be where we are.”

• Rachel Tompkins, president of the Rural School and Community Trust, will speak on “Finding our way: examples of place-based teaching from around the nation."

• Sharon Bishop, co-director of the innovative Nebraska Writing Project, will talk about what she has learned as a high school English teacher about using the power of place to get quality writing. Her topic is “Place-conscious education and the teaching of writing.”

• Guha Shankar from the Library of Congress works with programs around the nation (some inspired by our work here in Montana) that extend schooling into the community. He will discuss “Getting beyond textbooks: fieldwork as education.”

You’ll even get to hear some of Montana’s own leaders in education and writing:

• Historian Martha Kohl, Montana Historical Society historian, writer, and editor, has championed the Project since her arrival in Montana in 1995 and recently served as our guest student-writing judge. In this presentation, she’ll describe the way our students can become scholarly detectives, analyzing historic buildings, neighborhoods, and local primary source records--in the context of big issues and themes.

• Poet Mark Gibbons writes powerful poems. He speaks in a voice that is not afraid of what matters. He talks about what we need to talk about. He’s also a gifted teacher. Don’t miss this chance to hear how he values his deep Montana roots. He’ll read from his new collection, Connemara Moonshine.

• Mike Umphrey has directed the Heritage Project since it began in 1995. He’ll draw on his background as a poet (The Lit Window and The Breaking Edge) and a teacher to explain how a focus on story--including narrative environment and narrative identity--can help teachers untangle all sorts of knots that bedevil schooling today.

• Professor Chad Okrusch will take a hard look at Butte’s past and its present, drawing lessons about community health and renewal that are applicable anywhere. His topic is “Environmental History, Education, and Community Renewal in Butte.”

And if that isn’t enough, you might come for the music. Montana’s widely known musical group, Dublin Gulch--named for a Butte landscape–will offer a concert of the Butte Irish music they’ve been gathering and performing for many years.

Lodging is available at the Red Lion in Butte. More economical dorm rooms may also be booked. Most sessions will be held on the campus of Montana Tech.