It felt so great getting dressed again and seeing faces lighting up and asking questions. On March 5th, I had the opportunity to speak for an hour with 60 fourth graders, a few parents and some teachers, IN PERSON!! The school used me as a test case to show it can be done and it was an honor to be trusted with this experiment. This was the first in person, interactive program these kids have had in over a year, and they were so engaged and excited.
Thank you to all of you that shared your ideas with me on Facebook. My challenge was narrowing down all the ideas to share in 1 hour. I still didn’t narrow it enough. The kids were asking so many, truly fabulous questions I didn’t cover about a third of what I had planned. Their teacher said to me afterward, “You could have gone on for 4 hours.” She has already invited me to come back and share with the fourth graders next year. How I got the opportunity this year was because my son, Conrad, is in her class.
I put together just 11 PowerPoint slides with images from our reenactments and actual CDVs. I focused on names they would know and then expanded to the stuff they wouldn’t know. The images included children so they could really identify with the stories. We talked about the 24th Michigan and their part in the Iron Brigade, escorting Lincoln’s body home, and their connection to Henry Ford. Seriously, this was enough to get the kids so excited. I talked about women in the Civil War, spies, nurses, and lobbyists/activists. I used their recent study of percentages by having 20% of them stand up to show how many of them surveyed day 1 of Gettysburg based on how many were in the gym. I wish you could have heard their exclamations of surprise on how many of them would have died. It really helped them to understand the gravity. I also took many reproduction artifacts and actual artifacts I have from my family (including original Harper’s Weekly after Antietam and telegrams to my relatives fighting in the war). They were so inquisitive and in awww to see things so old and actually from the war.
They had so many wonderful questions I had to stop taking them cause we were running out of time. When the kids got to take a closer look at everything I brought I think some future reenactors came up to me asking more questions! I brought period appropriate candy thinking it would help create engagement, but boy that wasn’t needed. The kids did love that treat though. It helped that I had portions of the presentations that got the kids standing up, like teaching them the proper way to stand and walk (they thought this was pretty funny). I had planned to do more activities with them, but we went over the time allotment as it was.
If you can’t sense the joy and enthusiasm I feel coming from this article, please know I was floating on clouds. This is why I do this hobby! We make history come alive and help people experience history, not just read about it. Hopefully we all are back in a situation we get to share this love and joy with others again soon.
Stay well, keep sewing, and I hope to see you all in 2021!
Warm regards,
Samantha Joseph