About the UCI History Project The UC Irvine History Project provides an institutional framework for collaboration between the UCI History Department and K-12 history/social science teachers in Orange County. The core of our Project is the series of teacher-training institutes we offer in the subjects of literacy, world history, and United States history. These institutes provide the basis for our on-going development of grade-appropriate curriculum that responds, among other things, to the challenges that teachers face in answering to district and state standards.
The UCI History Project is dedicated to the mission of providing a space for history teachers at varying points in their career, from credential candidates to veteran teachers, to engage in high-quality professional development. Teacher participants will experience a collaborative, scholarly environment that supports the development of historical thinking, content knowledge, and pedagogical expertise. To this end, the UCI History Project staff, which includes scholars and teacher leaders, are dedicated to building a model of professional practice within their own site in order to demonstrate the habits of mind, attitudes, and behaviors necessary to continuously improve the way history is taught, as well as to more deeply understand and appreciate the discipline of history itself.
The UCI History Project is one branch of a much broader program of regional outreach at UCI. For more information on these other UCI programs, please visit the Humanities Out There (H.O.T) website as well as the Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP). In addition, the UCI History Project is a regional branch of the California History and Social Science Project, a statewide umbrella organization that promotes university-public school collaboration.
The History Project Staff:
| Robert Moeller
Email: rgmoelle@uci.edu | | http://www.hnet.uci.edu/history/faculty/moeller/ |
| |  Nicole Gilbertson
(949) 824-2057
Email: gilbertn@uci.edu | Nicole’s passion for collaboration with teachers, researchers, and students has led her to the UCI History project where she is the Site Director. She is the author of a published world history curriculum that emerged from her work with the Humanities Out There (HOT) program, a partnership between the UCI School of Humanities and Santa Ana Unified School District. Her experiences with HOT and the History Project prompted her to earn a teaching credential in History-Social Science at UCI in 2005. In September 2007, Nicole completed her dissertation on gender and citizenship by studying a group of Spanish
exiles in Britain in the 1820's. Her research on these exiles, and her work with the History Project, allow her to examine the historical evolution of citizenship from a variety of perspectives. |
| |  Robert Vicario
(949) 824-3980
Email: vicarior@uci.edu | | Prior to working with the History Project, Rob was a classroom teacher for 15 years in the Santa Ana Unified School District. He taught 8th grade US history for 13 years at Willard Intermediate and served as the history-social science department chairperson for 10 of those years. During his two-year tenure at McFadden Intermediate starting in 2002, Rob enjoyed participating in a Teaching American History (TAH) Institute hosted by the UCI-HP. He was subsequently invited to join the History Project team as their Literacy Coordinator and has since helped to create cohorts of teaching fellows who use research, share best practices, and analyze student work to improve instruction. Rob now concurrently serves as the project director of a TAH grant program in SAUSD and as the Co-Site Director of the History Project. Both positions afford him the chance to bring world history and US history teachers together to collectively address the challenges of developing students’ academic literacy and historical thinking skills in order to learn the content. |
| |  Courtney Amaya
Email: camaya@orangeusd.org | Courtney has taught at her alma mater, Canyon High School for the past 6 years. As
an active member of the Orange Unified School District, she is the Laptop Lead
teacher, an International Baccalaureate teacher, a member of the Professional
Development team, Department Chair, and the 2006 Teacher of the Year. Courtney
was thrilled to join the coordinating team for the World History Project in January of
2007. |
| | Beth Anderson
Email: electa@uci.edu | For the past 14 years, Beth has worked at El Toro High School,
teaching US History and Economics. She is also a PhD candidate in UCI's
History Department. Her dissertation examines the reading as reform in the
Progressive Era, with particular focus on women's reform groups,
libraries, and reading in the US West. Her high school teaching experience
and her experience working with the Humanities Out There program at
Santa Ana High School have made her very aware of the need for K-16 team
building and better communication to help prepare all students for
rigorous college work. |
| |  Simon Fellowes
Email: sfellowes@wsd.k12.ca.us | | Simon has been a Social Studies teacher at Johnson Middle School in the Westminster School District for the past five years. As well as being the Department Chair, Simon is also a member of the Principal’s Advisory Committee and was voted 2005 PTSA teacher of the year. Before teaching in Westminster, Simon taught in Japan, Australia, and England. Simon is excited to have become a member of the coordinating team for the World History Project in the summer of 2007. |
| |  Sara Jordan
Email: sarajordan25@yahoo.com | | Sara teaches History at Segerstrom High School in the Santa Ana Unified School District, a partner of the University of California, Irvine History Project. She earned both her teaching credential and MA in curriculum design at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, California. Sara enjoys working with many types of learners, from English Learners, to students with special needs, to the Advanced Placement student. As the teacher leader for the Literacy in the History Classroom program, she helps in the planning of the Literacy Institutes and the follow-up meetings, supports teachers in the institute, and has presented with Co-Director Nicole Gilbertson on teaching Document-Based Questions. |
| | MaryEllen Nicholson
Email: Maryellen.Nicholson@SAUSD.US | | MaryEllen has taught 4th and 5th grades for Santa Ana Unified for the past 9 years. She was first introduced to the Teaching American History program as a participant in the Summer Institute. As a result of this experience, MaryEllen "absolutely fell in love with the philosophy of the program and the collaboration of talented professionals." She believes that every student can learn to "think like a historian," and that these thinking skills are vital to the success of our schools, communities, and country. MaryEllen considers it her duty to teach students HOW to think, not WHAT to think. |
| |  Kara O’Keefe
(949) 824-2640
Email: kokeefe@uci.edu | | Kara is currently a PhD candidate in the department of History at UC Irvine. She began her career as a high school history teacher. Her dissertation looks at the memory of lynching in the late nineteenth century U.S. West with particular focus on gender and race. She works closely with the Literacy in the History Classroom programs at our site. |
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