STRIVING TO CONNECT Our #1 Job as History Teachers

About Me 8 th Grade U.S. History Teacher in my 14 th year Social Studies Department Chair at Decatur Middle School in Indianapolis Author of the Indiana Historical Society Press 2014 publication The Carter Journals: Time Travels in Early U.S. History

Question—Discuss with Someone Near You… Who or what sparked your passion for history?

My Maternal Grandfather Searching the Indiana countryside at 29 mph.

My Paternal Grandfather My East Tennessee Roots—BIG Influence! State of Franklin Rotherwood Mansion Kingsport, Tennessee

Connection My dad was a history teacher We traveled to historic places My grandfathers I had a natural curiosity and a nurturing that sparked my interest and passion for history Long story short…After a long and winding road, I became a history teacher.

The Challenge of Middle School It didn’t take me long to realize that only about one out of every four or five of my 8 th grade students come to me with any real passion for history. How do we hook the other 75-80%?????? I found out quickly that the more I knew about my content, the more interesting I could make it… STORIES!!! 8 th graders love a good story Who doesn’t? I began to read more biographies and historical novels about the content I teach.

Books = Story Ammunition!

What About Books for 8 th Graders? The books I highlighted were great resources to strengthen my content knowledge and broaden my library of stories to use in my classroom. However, most of them were written for adults… Some are at reading levels too high or just too dry to hold kids interest Some have content that is too mature in nature I wanted a book that my students could read that would better connect them to history.

Young Adult Historical Fiction There are some good historical novels for younger readers that are available. I have used My Brother Sam is Dead in class and many kids like it. But most of the books for young adults are extremely detailed depictions of one time period or event (such as My Brother Sam is Dead) That is a big time commitment to one topic in an already cramped year of standards to cover. The frustration of looking for a book that was appropriate for my students, did not burn too much class time on one subject, and would be entertaining enough to be engaging led to the idea for The Carter Journals: Time Travels in Early U.S. History.

The Indiana Historical Society Press I decided to build the story around a fictional 8 th grade boy. Old family journals Time Travel Experiences history first hand in the bodies of his ancestral teens Pitched idea to the I.H.S. Press and they liked it.

The Idea I decided to write a book that would be kid AND teacher friendly. I wanted the book to cover the entire timeline of the Indiana 8 th grade U.S. History standards. I wanted the book to be suitable to be read in sections or all at once. The challenge was to weave this all into a single story. That is when I decided to make the book a time travel story.

What to Include? I had a main character...Indianapolis area 8 th grader Cody Carter…and I had a premise…he would read journals of his teenage ancestors, travel back in time and enter their bodies and experience history through them. Next, I needed a timeline. I decided to loosely follow my own family’s path to Indiana. I wanted to write about events in history that paralleled the major events I teach in class, but lesser known…things that aren’t in the history textbooks we commonly use. I also decided to go with the old adage for writers…write what you know.

Journal 1—Beaufort, N.C Frequent family vacation spot…I knew the area well Blackbeard—Queen Anne’s Revenge Tuscarora Wars Hunting Story

Journal 2 Yadkin Valley Settlements, North Carolina, 1757 Again…familiar with area Young Daniel Boone Frontier living Maple Syrup making Hunting trip with Boone into the high country of the Blue Ridge The Blowing Rock

Journal 3 Ft. Watauga at Sycamore Shoals— Treaty of Sycamore Shoals Transylvania Colony/Daniel Boone and Cumberland Gap Indian Siege of Fort Watauga

Journal 4 State of Franklin—1788 This time, Cody Carter is a girl! (a little comic relief) In the aftermath of the nation gaining independence from the mother country, a group of settlers on the western frontier of North Carolina seek independence from their mother state to form a new state.

Journal 5—Ft. Knox, Vincennes, Indiana Territory—1811 Governor William Henry Harrison Tecumseh and The Prophet Battle of Tippecanoe Tragedy of war…

Journal 6—Metamora, IN Why Metamora? Whitewater Canal Canal Locks Underground Railroad

Journal 7—Corydon, Indiana—1863 Surprise in my research Battle of Corydon…one of two pitched battles of the Civil War fought on free soil (other was Gettysburg) Debates rage in Indiana The senses of war.

Conclusion The main character in my book gets to experience history through his family’s personal connection to it. He began to realize that all of us are connected to history intimately, whether we are aware of it or not. When we come to that realization, we spark a passion for history through those connections. That should be our goal as history teachers…to spark a passion and connection to history within as many of our students as we can.

Last Paragraph of the Book…Quote “Then Cody understood. It was like his history teacher said: Sometimes we do get a better view of history the further we get away from it. Sometimes, when you are living through something, you don’t see it as history. It’s just life—but life is history, and history is life. And that, Cody thought, might be a good first entry in his own journal.”

Status of the Book The book has been published by the I.H.S. Press Currently, the book has only been released as an eBook. The print version of the book is scheduled to be released in the Spring of 2015.