Memoirs: An Exploration of the Vietnam
Veteran Experience and Collective Memory
2006-2007
Memoirs Project Overview
See the success of our first Collaborative Cinema Project!
During her first year of teaching (2006) her principal asked her to be a part of an EETT grant. Caroline Haebig welcomed this opportunity as a way to integrate technology in ways that it would connect her students to the real world, bringing course content to life.
No longer was Haebig just teaching about US History; students learned to find the stories of individuals within their course content. Haebig’s students synthesize what they learned from a variety of informational sources and interviews with the men who served on the front line during the Vietnam War. To delve more deeply into their course content students collaborated with other specialists, studying monuments, exploring and even creating their own poetry all reflective of the historical events and memories of the Vietnam War Era.
Caroline Haebig’s students learned the power of using a camera in a meaningful way to show their learning and how to become more critical of the spoken, written and visual messages they receive in their own lives. Teaching the elements of cinematic language, focusing on motion media literacy, Haebig awakened her students to a new way of constructing a compelling message. Haebig’s students engaged in much ongoing reflection, growing more aware of their own learning styles and progress.
The goal of Caroline Haebig's work is to work with students to create an authentic audience for her students’ work- producing the Memoirs film premiere and community event, attended by over 200 people. Later that spring Haebig was awarded acceptance to the Apple Distinguished Educator community, and the Wisconsin State Superintendent Service Learning Award.
As a first year teacher, I had an amazing journey unfold, this is where I started.
Spotlights of the Memoirs Project
*Multiple perspectives and interpretations of key events: The goal was to have my students examine the roles of minority populations, such as women. As well as to have my students understand how the Vietnam war has impacted people in our local community as well as in various disciplines of study: such as arts, sociology.
* Assignments that emphasized writing and analysis of key events: Students focused on writing essays, reading and writing poems, examining photography from the war as well as social memorials in order to evaluate collective memory. These assignments would later be useful in organizing our digital documentary and storyboarding.
* Using Technology: We focused on technology that would help students to research as well as construct and demonstrate their own interpretation and understanding of the historical and contemporary impact of the Vietnam War.
Memoirs Project Trailer
This is the trailer to Memoirs, the very first technology integration I did during my first year of teaching.
Caroline D. Haebig
Evolving Educator