FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Neil Howe
November 18, 2011
(701) 205-7802
BISMARCK — Janice Harildstad, a teacher at Carrington Elementary School in Carrington, has been named the 2011 North Dakota History Teacher of the Year. The award is co-sponsored by The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, HISTORY® and Preserve America. The North Dakota History Teacher of the Year Award is coordinated by Neil Howe at the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Howe is the coordinator of the North Dakota Studies Project, which merged with the state’s history agency effective July 1, 2011.
Janice Harildstad has been teaching for 34 years, with the last 28 years at Carrington Elementary. In receiving the award, Harildstad said that she has always enjoyed a love of history.
“I have a wonderful school system in which to work,” she said. “To me, teaching history is one great adventure story”, only better. I like to take those historical events and bring them to life through plays, projects, research, and presentations. I enjoy seeing the excitement in students when they get wrapped up in their history lessons.”
Harildstad received a $1,000 honorarium and the Carrington Elementary School library received a core archive of history books and educational materials from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and HISTORY®. She also received an invitation to a Gilder Lehrman summer seminar, and Carrington Elementary School will be named a Gilder Lehrman Affiliate School.
“This award gives us the chance to recognize great history teachers across the country,” said Neil Howe. “It puts exceptional educators front and center.”
Inaugurated in 2004, the National History Teacher of the Year Award promotes and celebrates the teaching of American history in classrooms throughout the United States. The award honors one exceptional K-12 teacher of American history from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense schools and the U.S. Territories.
The 2011 award honors elementary teachers of kindergarten through sixth grade. The selection of the state winner is based upon several criteria, including: at least three years of classroom experience in teaching American history; creativity and imagination in the classroom that address literacy and content beyond state standards; close attention to primary documents, artifacts, historic sites, and other primary materials of history, including oral history; and evidence of thoughtful assessment of student achievement.
From the state winners, one is recognized as the National History Teacher of the Year and is honored in a fall ceremony.
About the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization supporting the study and love of American history through a wide range of programs and resources for students, teachers, scholars, and history enthusiasts throughout the nation. Gilder Lehrman creates and works closely with history-focused schools through its Affiliate School Program; organizes teacher seminars and development programs; produces print and digital publications and traveling exhibitions; hosts lectures by eminent historians; administers a History Teacher of the Year Award in every state and U.S. territory; and offers national book prizes. The Gilder Lehrman website, www.gilderlehrman.org, serves as a gateway to American history online with rich resources for educators designed specifically for K–12 teachers and students.
About HISTORY®
HISTORY® and HISTORY HD® are the leading destinations for revealing, award-winning original non-fiction series and event specials that connect history with viewers in an informative, immersive and entertaining manner across multiple platforms. Programming covers a diverse variety of historical genres ranging from military history to contemporary history, technology to natural history, as well as science, archaeology and pop culture. Among the network's program offerings are hit series such as American Pickers, Ax Men, Brad Meltzer’s Decoded, Ice Road Truckers, Top Gear, Pawn Stars, and TopShot, as well as acclaimed specials including America The Story of Us, WWII in HD, 102 Minutes That Changed America, The President’s Book of Secrets, and Life After People. HISTORY has earned four Peabody Awards, seven Primetime Emmy® Awards, 12 News and Documentary Emmy® Awards, and received the prestigious Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for the network's Save Our History® campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. Take a Veteran to School Day is the network's signature initiative connecting America's schools and communities with veterans from all wars. The HISTORY website, located at www.history.com, is the leading online resource for all things history, featuring over 20,000 videos, images, audio clips, articles and interactive features that allow visitors to dig deeper into a broad range of thousands of historical topics.
About Preserve America
Preserve America is a federal partnership program begun in 2003 that encourages and highlights community efforts to preserve and enhance the priceless cultural heritage of the United States as well as associated natural resources. The program’s goals include fostering greater public knowledge of, and appreciation for, the nation’s past and its cultural traditions; encouraging broader support for saving the special places that help document and tell the story of America; strengthening civic pride and participation in ways that help build and sustain communities by preserving, enhancing, and using cultural heritage; and improving local economic vitality and livability through heritage development and heritage tourism. The Preserve America program is administered by the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in cooperation with the White House, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
For more information, contact North Dakota Studies Project Coordinator Neil Howe at (701) 205-7802 or email at nhowe@nd.gov.
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