After 10 years of spearheading the History Day research program at Jericho Middle School, Theresa Cantwell received the Long Island History Day Teacher of the Year Award.
“It’s nice to be recognized because our school has such a great program,” she said.
Cantwell, an eighth-grade history teacher at Jericho Middle School, said she’s been involved with the History Day program as the middle school research coordinator for the past decade.
National History Day is a nonprofit organization that promotes student research and history education through student contests, professional development and curriculum tools, according to its website.
Cantwell said Jericho previously offered the History Day research program as an optional course, but 10 years ago, it became a mandatory part of the seventh and eighth grade curriculum.
She said Eric Sundberg, the district’s curriculum associate for social studies, business and libraries, “had a vision” for the program, which aims to enforce college-level research skills, like citations and annotations.
Students are not required to compete in the contest, but regardless of whether they compete, they must complete a year-long research project on a topic of their choice, Cantewell said.
Cantwell said there are five categories for History Day projects, including exhibits, performance, website, paper and documentary.
She said Jericho students initially participate in a Jericho History Day. The middle school’s “in-house competition” has about 130 seventh- and eighth-grade participants, and the top three students of each category advance to the Long Island History Day.
Cantwell said that more students have advanced in the past decade, from regional to national competitions.
“Our success rate has gone up each year because the teachers really work with the kids,” she said.
She said the older students advance to higher levels because they’ve had more practice and experience, but last year, three seventh graders advanced to nationals.
“We have a great program,” she said. “We have a great support system.”
Cantwell said the History Day program is comprised of seventh-grade teachers Sarah Espinal, Randi Sambursky, Laura Suchopar and Pamela Travis; fellow eighth-grade teachers Marci Kivo, James Lawlor and Michelle Vevante; middle school Librarian and Media Specialist Valerie Conklin; and high school History Research Coordinator Brian Dussel.
“All of the teachers that work with us in the seventh and eighth grade… it’s just not possible if they’re not doing it as well,” Cantwell said.
Cantwell received the Long Island History Day Teacher of the Year Award at the Long Island History Day on March 27.
Seven Jericho students at the competition advanced to the national level, including high schoolers Isaac Chen and Tony Pan and middle schoolers Nathan Chen, Scarlet He, Angela Tan, Amy Qian and Jianna Anand.
Cantwell said the research program has learned to delve deeper into research topics over the past decade. In addition to the district library’s database collection, she said Conklin works individually with students to access collegiate library archives and organize interviews with relevant sources.
Cantwell said that over the past 10 years, she has learned what makes different kids successful. Some students have storytelling strengths that lend themselves to documentaries, while others are strong writers who succeed with papers.
“What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses?” she asked.
Cantwell said students use their History Day research projects in various other research competitions, including contests at the Lowell Milken Center and New York State Archives. She said submitting to multiple competitions allows students to compete in different environments, many of which are successful.
“It gives each kid a chance to showcase their work and not just be done in case they don’t move on for [National History Day],” Cantwell said.
The district recognized Cantwell for her achievement at the board of education meeting on Thursday, April 24.
“Tonight we celebrate a teacher whose reach extends far beyond any one classroom, far beyond Jericho itself,” Sundberg said. “She empowers students to conduct real research, to analyze complex topics, [and to] give voice to stories that are too often forgotten or deliberately erased.”
Sundberg said her students have created award-winning projects on a wide variety of topics and events, research that is “not just” an academic project, but an act of civic engagement.
“Theresa’s is the kind of work that makes Jericho extraordinary,” Sundberg said at the board of education meeting.
