Final Thoughts About History 480

I can't believe that this semester is coming to an end, as well as my undergraduate career. I have taken a lot of history classes in the last four years, but I have never taken one quite like this one. When I signed up for this class, I didn't know much about what we were going to talk about, but it sounded interesting so I thought I would give it a try - I'm glad I did.

This was my first class about public history and in just one short semester I feel like I've learned a lot. There are a couple of things that this class has taught me, which I will take with me as I transition from being a student to being a teacher. The first is that history doesn't mean anything unless it is shared. I think this is a very important point that Dr. K brought up countless times in class. Part of the reason why I want to become a teacher is so that I can share my love for history with my students. I hope that they in return, will want to share what they learn with their peers, families, friends etc.

The second thing that I learned from this class is that history is complicated. It's not like I didn't know this before, but after doing the class project, I realized just how complicated history is. The class project was a challenge for me and I think for a lot of others but it was also very rewarding. When we started out, I felt like we had way too much to do and I was worried that we wouldn't find the types of sources that we wanted to. After a few weeks of contacting lots of people, running all over Lansing, and spending countless hours in the Library of Michigan, I was amazed at how much we were able to dig up (and how much is still out there). I think that we worked well together and came up with a quality product.

The last thing that I learned from this class is the value in local history. Too often, the focus is put on what has happened at the national or state level, but there are a lot of interesting things going on at a local level. There are also a lot of resources that can be found at a local level, if you know where to look. I was amazed at how much we could find locally for this class. As a teacher, I think that local history is a great tool to use to get students interested in what you are talking about, because they can probably relate to it a lot easier.

This semester has been a crazy but fantastic one. This class was a lot of fun to take but also very informative. I appreciate all the work that everybody put into this class to make it worthwhile. Thanks for a great semester everybody! :)

Engineering Reports

Last Thursday, Ed and I went to the Library of Michigan (yet again!) to look over the MDOT reports that Bernadette was able to get for us. I was so excited to finally get our hands on these plans!

Ed and I skimmed through the Engineering Reports and think that they will be extremely useful for our project, especially involving the planning of the highway. The reports contain a lot of aerial maps for the interstate and mentions an alternate route that we have been looking everywhere for. The reports we have are the Engineering Report 1588 and Engineering Report 1588 Supplement 2. We don't have the first supplement, but supplement 2 is supposed to be the "newest" information. The report lays out the reasons why they chose the area they did for the interstate and breaks down the costs for the recommended area and the alternate area (which were actually fairly close in estimates).

I am very grateful that Bernadette was able to get these documents for us and spend so much time trying to help us find information for our project. After looking through these engineering reports, I really think that our project is coming together and finishing up.

Under Pressure...

Now that it's April, I'm really starting to feel the pressure for all of my classes, especially this one. I feel like there is still so much to do for our class project, even though it seems we have accomplished a lot. I'm not really sure how far away we are from our end goal and what else we still need to find. On top of our class project, the individual project is looming overhead. I know it is a huge task and I'm worried that there isn't enough time left in the semester! I have some ideas on what I want to do but I really need to just narrow it down and get started. I'm hoping we can finish our class project soon so that I can devote all my spare time (which seems to be very little) to working on this individual project. I'll update on my progress...

Beginning our Class Project - I-496

After reading Matt Miller's article, "Looking Back: I-496 Construction: A Complicated Legacy" from the Lansing State Journal, I was able to get a little background information on our class project about the construction of I-496. Miller's article offers two different viewpoints about this event - destruction and a blessing. The article was a great start for information on what we will be focusing on this semester, but I have some questions that hopefully we will be able to answer during our research and proposal.

1. What is the timeline of events? When was it decided that 496 was going to be built? What objections were there?

2. What reasons were given for the need to construct I-496? Pros/Cons?

3. What new neighborhoods did displaced people move to (both White people and African Americans)?