Teaching American History: Building Bridges

Just as the Mackinac Bridge connects our geographical area to the remainder of the State of Michigan, we will use professional development to bridge the gaps in our teachers’ content knowledge. This Upper Peninsula Teaching American History proposal will build bridges from the past to the future and create scholars of history. It will bridge past and current events and connect historical events to the lives of our students. It will build a bridge to cover the distance of time, knowledge and resources, in order to provide quality instruction to our students delivered by highly qualified teachers.

The focus of Building Bridges is to develop a deeper understanding, knowledge and appreciation of traditional American History, thus creating scholars of American History. The purpose of this project is to establish a model of professional development connecting the three universities located in the Upper Peninsula (Northern Michigan, Michigan Technological, and Lake Superior State, and five Intermediate School Districts (Copper Country, Dickinson-Iron, Eastern Upper Peninsula, Gogebic-Ontonagon, and Marquette-Alger), serving the K-12 teachers and students of 52 local school districts