This past week, I worked primarily on research for the teaching trunk. Thanks to Dr. Barbara Gannon, a professor at the University of Central Florida, I was able to obtain the book Confederate Florida, The Road to Olustee by William H. Nulty and research the Battle of Olustee as Union General Seymour headed from Jacksonville to Lake City. This battle follows the NGSSS: SS.4.A.5.1 Describe Florida's involvement (secession, blockades of ports, the battles of Ft. Pickens, Olustee, Ft. Brooke, Natural Bridge, food supply) in the Civil War. I also created two assignments for the students; one is a Morse code translation for them to understand the technology of the time and the other is a crossword formative assessment for the end of the lesson (these files will be uploaded once the lesson plan is complete).

Next week I will have the opportunity to conduct a lesson in the Native American Exhibit for one of the 4th Grade student tours. In this exhibit I will take the students through a tour of the museum's garden explaining the Three Sisters Crops (corns, beans, and squash), and then conducting a lesson plan inside the Native American Room - which focuses on the local Timucuan Tribes. We discuss their various tools, agricultural life styles, and the local wildlife.

For research this week, I plan on examining the lives of an Antebellum Northerner, Southerner, and slave. Finding documents for these categories for students to read will be key in the lesson plan.

During my first week at the Public History Center in Sanford, Florida I was given the opportunity to view the presentations of the various exhibits, learning their displays, activities, and time periods.  After traveling through the exhibits, I began working on the first deliverable (a teaching trunk for local teachers who would like supplemental instructional materials for a particular topic), 4th Grade Civil War.  I began with a one day lesson plan and have the skeletal structure for it, I plan to have it finished the following week.  After the one day lesson plan, I will begin working on a 3-day lesson plan for schools who follow a block schedule.

 I intend to start teaching the exhibits next week as more 4th Grade classrooms come in for their field trips.

The five exhibits in the museum are: The Pioneer Exhibit - what life was like for the first settlers in the United States, the Native American Exhibit - what the daily life of a Florida Native American would consist of (specifically the Timucuans), the 1902 Classroom Exhibit - how the average classroom was run after the school house was built in 1902, the Talk of the Town Exhibit - a representation of daily life for families that lived in Sanford during the 1930's, and the Geography Exhibit - where students can learn about various countries, important cities, and geographical locations in Florida.

About me: I am currently a Senior at the University of Central Florida; I am a History major and a Social Science Education minor.  I have always been interested in history and the mysteries it holds, as people have shaped our everyday lives through their seemingly unimportant actions (or through ones they hoped would change the world).  I love to juggle, unicycle, stilt walk, and fire breath; I can also make over 150 different balloon animals and have worked in movie theaters and restaurants all over Central Florida.  After graduation, I plan to move to New York with my girlfriend in hopes to find museum work up there (while she looks for a job in fashion or theater).  We both love the constant hustle and bustle and cannot wait to see what the Big Apple has in store for us.

This blog is about my experiences as an intern at the Public History Center in Sanford, FL in partnership with the University of Central Florida's History Department.  While at the museum I am expected to learn the various exhibits, conduct presentations, archival techniques, and create a deliverable for the end of the semester.  This deliverable is to be a teaching aid for local schools and is known as a "Teaching Trunk."  These trunks are filled with lesson plans, supplemental reading, and activities for teachers to use in their classrooms on specific lessons.  The first lesson I will be creating will be for the Civil War Unit of a 4th Grade class.