In preparation for NHD

Right now our office is gearing up to travel with the Ohio group to NHD. What does that involve? Well mostly visiting students in their schools, answering emails, having a reception, and answering lots of questions. I'll blog about our trip to the University of Maryland and you can cheer Ohio on during the awards ceremony by watching the web cast. You can see it at: http://www.history.com/classroom/nhd/ plus a few cool videos about NHD produced by the History Channel.

We are also starting to look towards and plan for 2010 History Day activities including teacher workshops, student outreach, materials, and contest dates. Stay tuned, there's a lot of new info coming up about Innovation in History: Impact and Change!

Ohio History Day Wrap Up

Thanks to all the parents, teachers, volunteers, students, family, and friends that participated in the 2008-2009 NHD in Ohio season. Ohio History Day was last Saturday and it was a great showing of scholarship and student work. While no History Day is ever perfect, the day went well and the weather was beautiful. The results can be seen online on the Ohio History Day website. I also want to send my congratulations to all the 4th and 5th graders that participated in our second annual Youth Division.

After five years of running state History Day events, I think I've finally got the hang of it.

Here's how the day looks behind the scenes:

6:00am- Arrive and get buildings unlocked and finish set ups.
7:00am- Volunteers arrive, get everyone in place, unload t-shirts, try to grab some coffee
7:30am- Registation opens, exhibits come in, tables are moved around (thanks to those who helped!), computers are turned on, judges start to arrive
8:00am- Judge Orientation- about an hour of talking about how great all of the students are and what to expect.
9:00am-10:30am- Judging starts, run around and answer questions, fix scheduling problems, switch rooms (thanks for your patience in 302), get stuck in elevator for a little while (it happened!), and remind everyone to be parked in a spot to avoid towing, chat with some History Day friends
10:30am- First set of judges start to arrive back at headquarters
11:00am- Start compiling results for second round
12:00pm- Start pestering judges for results, round up second round judges, orient second round judges, get documentary and performance run offs written down, answer judge questions, enter run off info into database, print off run off schedules, exhibit hall opens to public
12:30-12:45- Posting of run offs
1:00pm-2:00pm Send out run off judges, close off exhibit hall, enter other results, work on final special awards, sorting evalation forms, eating a sandwich
1:000pm-2:00pm- Make sure run offs get started, send out exhibit run off judges
2:00pm-3:00pm- Run off judges come back, answer questions, collect results, enter results, enter special award information, start cleaning up
3:00pm-3:30pm- Double and triple check all winners, alternates, and honorable mentions, compile awards ceremony binder
3:30pm-Jump in car and drive to Palace Theater
3:45pm- Run backstage and get ready
4:00pm- Awards ceremony showtime
5:15pm- National qualifiers meeting
5:30pm- Return to OHS
6:00pm- Home, pjs, food, bed!

Thanks again to everyone, and feel free to share your History Day stories.