The idea behind the Mintz Collection was first “floated” by then-middle-school-parent Jim Mintz. Over the years, Mr. Mintz had collected a number of interesting documents relating to life in America, and he was wondering if there was a way to share these with the 8th grade students as they learned about the process of conducting historical research, the importance of primary sources, and what they tell us about how people lived. After two Social Studies teachers met with Mr. Mintz, it was clear that they couldn’t just “let the kids loose” on these delicate and irreplaceable items. However, the experience of the actual documents and not just the information they contained was the reason that Mr. Mintz first came forward with his collection.
The solution was to scan the documents. The resources to do this were readily available, and with the help of the MS Technology Coordinator, each document was scanned, often with close-ups. The issue of distributing these newly created digital resources was still a hurdle. In response to this challenge, an application dubbed Dalton Primary Sources was developed. Dalton Primary Sources provides an Internet based interface to a shared collection in images. The application first allows a large number of documents to be organized and annotated in custom “galleries” and then allows other users to access and explore these galleries. What was at first an effort to share old knowledge developed into a system for sharing new knowledge as it was created.
Since Mr. Mintz had the most familiarity and detailed knowledge of each source, the teachers relied on him to choose the focal points for each object. In addition, Mr. Mintz created questions for students to think about when they examine each document. It was Mr. Mintz’s idea to break the documents into two groups: How Americans Lived Their Everyday Lives and How Things Moved Around. The Primary Sources application allowed the contribution of Mr. Mintz to be incorporated into the presentation of the scanned documents. Mr. Mintz and the two Social Studies teachers then prepared a presentation where Mintz would “take center stage,” assisted by the teachers who would step in as needed to help highlight assignment goals or ask the students to delve deeper in their observations/analyses. The students were not only engaged by the discussion; they were also "treated" to a new "teacher."
The Mintz Collection remains a feature of the 8th grade curriculum. The Primary Sources application has evolved into one of three components that make up Dalton’s online knowledge-sharing system. The teacher/parent collaboration that lead to the development of these two resources serves as a model for inter-community teaching efforts.
Since Mr. Mintz had the most familiarity and detailed knowledge of each source, the teachers relied on him to choose the focal points for each object. In addition to this, Mr Mintz created questions for students to think about when they examine each document. It was Mr Mintz’s idea to break the documents into two groups: How Americans Lived Their Everyday Lives and How Things Moved Around. The Primary Sources application allowed the contribution of Mr. Mintz to be incorporated into the presentation of the scanned documents. Mintz, Lorentz and Sclafani then prepared a presentation where Mintz would “take center stage” and Lorentz and Sclafani would step in as needed to help highlight assignment goals or ask the students to delve deeper in their observations/analyses. By combining classes they were able to limit the actual presentations to three (two classes per presentation) and thus the entire grade was involved. The students were engaged not just by the discussion but since many of them knew Mr Mintz as “Hannah’s Dad” they also were “treated” to a new “teacher.”
The Mintz Collection has remained a feature of the 8th grade curriculum. The Primary Sources application has evolved into one of three components that make up Dalton’s online knowledge sharing system. The teacher/parent collaboration that lead to the development of these two resources servers as a model for inter-community teaching efforts.