Colonial Williamsburg was the site of the summer colloquia sponsored by the Patchogue-Medford School District, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the National Council of History Education. The seminar was held from August 7th through the 12th, 2005. Many members of the PM Social Studies staff attended the 6-day event. Having received a history grant from the federal government, the Social Studies department sponsored this fine opportunity for professional development. Along with Social Studies Director Gloria Sesso, the following PMCT members attended: Robert Alonso, Andrew Bacon, Lori Botta, Shaun Carlson, William Carpluk, Alicia Connelly, Lydia DeAngelis, Eufemia DeMasi, David Gervino, Patrick Godfrey, Clay Haskell, Frank Juzwiak, Laura Klein, Janny Lao, Lorraine Matheson, Thomas Maxwell, Rita Marie Murphy, Jeff Peterson, Connie Reutzel, Robyn Schaefer, Lauren Stolworthy, Timothy Trava & Danielle Voje.

The seminar held this year is part of a three-year program for professional development. The 18th century was the topic in Williamsburg in August. The 2nd part of the program will be held at Columbia University in 2006 and will cover the 19th century with the Pulitzer Prize winning author, Eric Foner, as lecturer. The 3rd and final year of the colloquia will be held in Washington, D.C. and will cover the Civil Rights Movement.

The objectives of the seminar were to define “What is History?”, expand knowledge of at least one episode of history, demonstrate and share effective ways of presenting historical knowledge, developing skills in recognizing, using, finding and evaluating primary source documents and artifacts and demonstrate technological applications and resources for studying historical narratives and stories.

While attending this colloquium, the teachers also had the opportunity to visit the Colonial National Historic Park-Yorktown Battlefield and Historic Jamestown where lectures and presentations were also held. After an in-depth tour of Colonial Williamsburg, the participants worked on different strategies for analyzing documents. After the 5 days of touring and lectures, all participants found the colloquium very informative and are looking forward to the next two seminars in the series.

The National Conference of History Education will hold its National Conference from April 30th to May 2nd, 2006 in Austin, Texas and will explore the theme of The Americas in World History. PMCT members Alicia Connelly and Laura Klein will be presenters at this conference.