News release Public Information Office  SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu summer 05 news releases Public Information home News archive Contact: Christina Chapple Date: 10/28/05   SOUTHEASTERN TEACHING AMERICAN HISTORY WORKSHOP FOCUSES ON DISASTERS IN LOUISIANA HISTORY        HAMMOND – In the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Southeastern Louisiana University is sponsoring a workshop for history teachers on “Hurricanes, Epidemics and Floods: Natural Disasters in Louisiana History.”        The workshop, scheduled for Nov. 19, is offered through the Teaching American History Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to Southeastern, the Tangipahoa Parish School System, Louisiana Public Broadcasting and other educational partners.         The workshop will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Fayard Hall, room 101. It will provide teachers with knowledge, resources and hands-on activities exploring past Louisiana disasters from epidemics and hurricanes to the 1927 flood. Sessions, presented by Southeastern history, geography, sociology, psychology and education professors, will also detail the geography of natural disasters and environmental challenges in Louisiana’s past.        Southeastern public historian David Benac and psychology professor Matt Rossano, whose research focuses on memory, will present a session showing teachers how students can conduct oral histories as a learning experience and as therapy.        Ann Trappey, director of the TAH project, said participating teachers can earn a $65 stipend and receive a six-hour certificate of instruction in content area. She said hours can also be applied toward Continuing Learning Units. Teachers will also receive the Louisiana Public Broadcasting video and book, “Louisiana: A History,” and a teacher’s guide for using the materials in the classroom.        The workshop is open to teachers in the grant’s 14 school districts: East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Washington, West Baton Rouge, West Feliciana, and Tangipahoa parishes, and the cities of Bogalusa, Baker, and Zachary.        Given the workshop’s timely focus on Louisiana natural disasters, Trappey and Bill Robison, head of Southeastern’s Department of History and Political Science and academic coordinator for the grant, said teachers from parishes not included in the grant are also welcome to attend.        “The response to the workshop has been amazing,” Robison said. “We have had heard from more than 150 teachers and expect the number to go higher."        “I think that our teachers are looking for positive ways to incorporate our recent disasters, which are continually on our minds, into their classrooms,” Robison said. The workshop’s eight sessions will help them illustrate that “disasters have happened to Louisiana before,” he said. “Hurricane Betsy or the 1927 flood may not have been of the same magnitude as Hurricane Katrina, but Louisiana did recover. Knowing that will hopefully help students cope.”         Sessions include:         -- 8:30-9:15 a.m.: “The Geography of Natural Disasters,” an examination of the physical conditions that make Louisiana prone to hurricanes, presented by geographers Gerald McNeill and Molly McGraw        -- 9:15-10 a.m.: “Environmental Challenges in Early Louisiana,” presented by history instructor and TAH lecturer Charles Elliott.        -- 10-10:45 a.m.: “Yellow Fever Epidemics,” presented by Samuel C. Hyde Jr., director of Southeastern’s Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies and Ford Family Chair in Regional Studies.        -- 10:45-11:30 a.m.: “Cholera & Spanish Influenza Epidemics,” presented by Keith Finley, assistant director of the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies and a TAH instructor.        -- 11:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.: “Hurricanes and Manchac Ghost Towns,” a look at the destructive 1910 and 1915 hurricanes presented by Charles Dranguet and Roman Heleniak, leading historians of Manchac Swamp.        -- 12:45-1:30 p.m.: “From the 1927 Flood to Hurricane Betsy,” a discussion of the 1927 flood and his own experiences with Hurricane Betsy by history professor Michael Kurtz.         -- 1:30-2:15 p.m.: “Doing Student Oral Histories of Katrina and Rita,” presented by Benac and Rossano.        -- 2:15-3 p.m.: “Resources for Teaching Natural Disasters,” a guide to Internet and other resources presented by Trappey and education professor William Miller.        To register or for more information, contact Trappey at Cynthia.Trappey@tangischools.org, 985-748-2443 (phone), or 985-748-2445 (fax).