Jake Downard

History 2710

Service Learning Project

April 20, 2006

Title of Project: Ukraine and the Yalta Conference

Introduction:

Many people don’t have the slightest idea where Ukraine even is and if it even exists, I know this from the first time I ever heard mention of the country. After living in Ukraine for two years I was able to get to know the country a little better, I was able to learn first hand their culture and also was able to get to know the people and some of the events that took place, especially, during Soviet times and also during World War I and II. In our schooling in high school and college we learn a little of the circumstances and situations the people of the Soviet Union had to deal with, however it does not really hit home and do justice until you actually see and hear what took place. Also it was interesting to get a different point of view of the Cold War; even more intriguing is when that point of view is your opposition of that war.

So for my service learning project I made the trek to my alma mater, good old North Summit High School. I contacted one of the history teachers in the school (Roger Crittenden) and asked if it would be possible to come and teach his class about Ukraine. It was perfect timing, in his tenth grade course he just completed the Soviet Union and he wanted me to talk a bit about the Yalta Conference which took place in Ukraine. He also teaches geography to the freshman so my day was to consist of five hours, three was to be World History and the other two was geography.

Timetable

Preparation:

Preparation did not take as long as the anticipated work load I had beforehand anticipated I spent 2-4 hours a week for four weeks from February 15^th to March 14^th preparing the material which was to be presented to the classes. During this time I made arrangements with Roger Crittenden the history teacher and also the librarian whose name is Barbara Denboer to make sure a projector was available for the slideshow. The slideshow was put together consisting of various pictures from Ukraine that I had taken while there. So an estimated total number of hours put into gathering the information, organizing it and making lesson plans was 16 hours. Travel was involved as well, North Summit is located in Coalville, Utah which is about a three and a half hour drive from Cedar City, so during our spring break on March 15^th I traveled to Coalville for the day to teach.

Presentation Day:

This was March 15^th and all went according to plan. Before the classes began I was a little nervous at what exactly was going to take place. How the students were going to respond, and if they would even find the presentation enjoyable and to their liking. The first period was one of the geography classes, I prepared a little differently for this class I focused my lesson on these particular subjects: Land and people, Economy, and the Government. I discussed each one of these for five to ten minutes I then went onto a presentation of the culture and some of my experiences with the people. I showed them many pictures depicting many aspects of the culture and lifestyles. For example I showed them pictures of the rich dark soil that make up Ukraine and explained how Ukraine was the bread basket of the Soviet Union. Using the pictures helped to bring the topics I had discussed to life for the students and they were able to see and visualize the things which we had discussed. The students seemed to respond more to the pictures and when I began to use them they asked many more questions and it involved almost every student. The classes at North Summit are of the smaller variety, the classes I taught ranged from 32 students to 7 students. I was able to have good personal interaction with them and get them involved in the lectures. They enjoyed the presentation as a whole and I believe that it helped them to get a better understanding of Ukraine and also the Yalta Conference.

Timetable at a glance:

February 15-20 – Gathered information from Ukraine on the different topics to be discussed. Found my pictures taken from my mission and put them into a folder.

Feb 21-26 – Put together a slideshow of the pictures consisting of around 60 pictures depicting different aspects of Ukrainian life. Began developing the lesson plan and made contact with Roger Crittenden at the school to confirm the date and time of the presentation.

Feb 27-Mar 6 – Finished the lesson plan and put it together with the slide presentation. Ran through it a couple of times to test it for time

Mar 7-Mar14 – Already had everything completed just reviewed it a few times.

Mar 15 – Presentation day!

Projects intended audience and beneficiaries:

North Summit High School faculty and students

Also anyone interested on viewing pictures and learning more of Ukraine

Local contact person or agency:

-First Person to Contact:

Roger Crittenden

-Where to contact:

North Summit High School

75 East 100 South Box 497 Coalville, UT 84017

-Phone Number

435-336-5654

Explanation of workload and task required to fulfill the project:

The project’s preparation took less time then previously anticipated, but still worked well for the students.

Lesson Plan:

I had two different classes and more or less evolved my lesson plan to suit the different classes. The plan followed this pattern:

-Introduction of Ukraine

-Land and People

-Economy

-Government

-Ukraine and the USSR

-Slideshow of pictures and explanation

For the geography classes I focused more on the economy and the land and people with the world history I mainly spoke about the Yalta Conference and Ukraine in the USSR.

Research History

To better understand the topics I studied up, so that I was able to better explain the information to the students. In more specifics I studied the Yalta Conference and also Ukraine’s role in the USSR. It helped with the presentation

Time learning to teach

This was the time I spent with the actual teacher of the class preparing the necessary items and reviewing with him that which needed to be done. Also asking him if there were any points of emphasis he would like me to touch upon.

Teaching the class

Class periods were 55 minutes long and I taught five periods straight. Some students wished to learn more of Ukraine and I spent time with them after class.

Total time for the project: approximately 25 hours

Technology-related sources or applications:

Microsoft Power Point presentation

Gateway laptop used with projector also played music on the laptop computer.

Connections to other service learning projects:

To my knowledge, there have been no lessons taught on Ukraine and more specifically the Yalta Conference.

Results of the project:

In my opinion the project was a success. I was able to teach five classes and many students were able to develop a broader knowledge of Ukraine, specifically the economic state of the country, the government, the people and culture. The students seemed to comment mostly on the pictures and enjoyed being able to see some things that they had never seen before. The students themselves were not the only beneficiaries; I deepened my knowledge of Ukraine as well. I learned more in depth figures about the country and events that took place in their history. It was a great success!