Accolades for Liberty Missouri teacher Eric Langhorst continue with the receipt of the 2007 Governor's Humanities Education Award

(PRLEAP.COM) Each year the Governor of Missouri and the Missouri Humanities Council celebrate the accomplishments of people who have made exceptional contributions to our understanding of Missouri, its people, and its stories. The Humanities Education Award recognizes one or more teachers of English, history, languages or social studies, grades K-12 in public or private Missouri schools. .

An eighth grade social studies teacher at South Valley Junior High School in Liberty, Eric Langhorst uses the rich media and communications tools of the internet to amplify his teaching and engage students in his classes, as well as students and teachers around the world. His goal is to make learning meaningful and exciting for his students, “Teaching about George, Thomas and Abe using the latest technology.”

This past fall his students read Pat Hughes’ Guerilla Season is about the friendship of two 15-year-old boys who live in a dangerous time and place, western Missouri in 1863. Eric’s students were able to correspond directly with Ms. Hughes through blogs. Another class in California, studying the civil war time, and with fewer personal ties to this chapter of history, participated along with Eric’s class in the conversation. This exercise was featured in USA Today on November 15, 2006, and in School Library Journal for December 2006.

The Missouri Chapter of the DAR recently awarded Mr. Langhorst the Missouri History Teacher of the Year. In a surprise ceremony on April 23, 2007 Mr. Langhorst was named Liberty Teacher of the Year. In August the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education selected Eric Missouri’s Teacher of the Year 2007, and our state’s candidate for the 2008 National Teacher of the Year award.

At South Valley, Eric is the social studies department chairperson, on the district’s technology team and was head eighth-grade boys’ basketball coach from 2001-2007. He is on faculty at Park University, Parkville, and serves on the Clay County Historical Society Board of Directors.

Eric was raised in Howells, Nebraska and holds degrees from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Lincoln.

“One thing I’m very excited about is the opportunity to discuss the potential of the web 2.0 classroom with a broader audience,” writes Eric, “and I can’t wait to spread the potential of blogs, podcasts, wikis, etc. to a variety of people.”

A recent example of the creativity and invention uses to engage is found in podcast #120 - Teaching the Declaration of Independence as a Break Up Letter, on his blog "Speaking of History."

Today’s podcast describes one of the activities I use in class to teach about the Declaration of Independence. Students often don’t really understand the purpose of the document and this activity usually helps. I act as if I have found a note on the floor of my class the day before after school and then I read it to the class. It is a break up letter and at the end the students are stunned to learn that it is from “the American Colonies”. I have included the text of the letter that I use and the podcast has a recording of what happens when I read the letter in class and the discussion that follows. The podcast also has some hints and suggestions if you would like to replicate this activity in your classroom. I really enjoy this activity and my students have fun with it as well.

Nominations for 2008

These awards are based on nominations from the public, for outstanding contributions by a person, group, or organization to the humanities in Missouri. The deadline for submission for next year’s awards is Friday, January 25th, 2008. To submit a nomination, please complete a one page information form, and include a one page summary and any supporting material to illustrate the nominee’s accomplishments.
Links to more information
2008 Nominations form, due 1-25-2008: PDF DOC
Links to all 2007 Humanities Awardees http://www.mohumanities.org/programs/awards/gaward07.htm
Previous Governor’s Humanities Awards 2006 : http://www.mohumanities.org/programs/awards/gaward06.htm
2005: http://www.mohumanities.org/programs/awards/gaward05.htm
2004: http://www.mohumanities.org/programs/cultural/guvaward.htm
Programs of the Humanities Council: http://www.mohumanities.org/programs/index.htm
Missouri Passages Newsletter: http://www.MissouriPassages.com
Humanities Blog: http://mohumanities.blogspot.com
Missouri Humanities Council logo jpg: http://mohumanities.org/images/newlogo5.jpg

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