I'm fishing for material for a website that memorializes Miles City's teachers. This site is associated with the alumni site ClassReports.org, where I admin the class of '76 section.
http://www.classreport.or...cdhs/1976/
(halfway down the page is the "Faculty and Staff" section, that links to the memorial pages on my personal website.

Please share your memories: funny, interesting, appreciative, etc. These people affect our lives so much as we pass before them.

Please indicate whether I have your permission to edit and post your replies to the appropriate articles at the above mentioned website (else I'll be hunting you down for the permission). Or you can send them directly to me ( http://www.birchy.com/Gen...Wiki:About ) but it would be good to share them in this forum, as well.

I've started articles for the CCDHS teachers of '76, but would like to have all teachers (Sacred Heart, MCC, elementary, all years, admin, coundselors, janitors, etc.).

You've done a fabulous job! I hope a lot of people check it out!

Ah, you found it. I was hoping to get a few more rememberances on your parents' pages before the "reveal".. Now that the cat is out of the bag, feel free to flesh out their bios. I'll bet a lot people remember the fish pond in your backyard.

This is a great website and you should be commended for what must have involved a lot of work. I am from the Class of 1966, would consider being administrator if others from my class would contribute and if I could have some guidance. Note that many of the class of 1976 teachers (Tracy, etc.) were first year teachers I believe during my senior year. Of course Ms. Boe was our advisory instructor and her daughter Barbara was in my class. Ralph Hartse was the band director, etc. etc.

I have to limit my work on anything as at age 60 years I am doing my research, writing for my doctorate in curriculum and instruction, mathematics. Comments by Irene Hoffman, my 10th grade teacher at CCHS, as it was called them, many, many years ago sent me on this quest.

I would encourage you to sign up as admin, a little work is better than none. The site allows sub-admins, and you can pass off the role if someone steps up, as well.

I'll be glad to provide guidance, I don't know everything, but I've ventured into most of the nooks and crannies.

FaceBook is becoming a useful place to reconnect with old friends and classmates, it's not just for college students anymore.

Maryann:

Irene Hoffman was an instrumental instructor for me as well--besides being a faculty brat and knowing her from childhood, she was most instrumental in getting me to a point where I didn't run every time someone said "numbers"... I used to have lunch with her every day during my sophomore year while taking geometry, and we got to be excellent friends. Under her careful tutelage, I learned enough to pass that class. I won't say I didn't work hard though--because math was never easy for me. More like climbing Mt. Everest...

Barbara Boe Anderson

Excuse me, Mr. Birkholz?

Mr. Hawke just called - he said he's still waiting for you to pay for your newspaper subscription!

Couldn't resist, James...saw your name on this thread and had a flashback about how Mr. Hawke (God rest) used to come bother you at work about not paying for the Star....those were the good-old days.

O....M.....G....
I had totally forgotten about that. Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I had both Gazette and Star routes when I was pretty young, so Hawke and I went back a bit. He must have worked until the day he died, which couldn't have been much after that time.

This thread has generated a lot of traffic for the HS teachers articles. I've been adding material to their pages and hope to have time to keep working on them in the next few days. If you visited a few days ago and didn't find much, please make plans to revisit later this week. (And if you have rememberances to add, log in and add them, or just email them to me.) Thanks!

I've completed the bulk of the editing for this material for a while.
http://www.classreport.org/usa/mt/miles_city/ccdhs/1976/
Now it's *your* turn. There is a link on every page that you can use to email me your rememberances.

Also, the current status is missing for these people:

Bill Armitage
Paul Armstrong
Les Bishop
Joe Lynell
Dan Marinkovich (or is it "Marinkovinch"?)
Gary Martin
Mike Merideth
Joanne Perkins
Tom Peterka
William Ray
Terri Retan
Marci Sanwald
Elizabeth Seaburg (was she also called "Susie"?)
Jeanne Williams

Never mind...I posted something stupid.

[This message has been edited by Vicky Strom (6/9/2009)]

Dan Marinkovich is in Anaconda. He moved there after his rapid departure from CCHS.

Joanne Perkins lives on Main Street with her husband, although they are getting up there in years.

Marinkovich was principal when I was there. Why did he depart rapidly?

His daughter Jamie was in my class.

I noticed that Mr. Jeffries recently passed away. I think that he was only at CCHS for one year. I had him in Distributive Education. Some of my fellow classmates included Hal and Chuck.

I remember Mr. Jeffries as a very tolerant man with a sense of humor. How he tolerated us is beyond belief.

RIP Mr. Jeffries and my prayers are with you Jan, Kathy and Ken.

In looking through the older yearbooks, I noticed a couple of subjects that I've never heard of:

1) maybe this is a typo, but in 1930, Harry Hoffman teaches "Smith-Hughes". In 1933, he teaches "Vocational and Agriculture". [I preempted you all and Googled it and found the answer, but I'm leaving it here 'cuz it might provoke conversation]

2) "Commercial". My best guess is that this is secretarial training.

3) "Normal Training". My guess: trying to train students to be "normal" (an exercise in futility?).

Paul Armstrong passed away quite a few years back.

Normal training was a class to improve us as human beings. It focused on physical, moral and aesthetic culture. It included building the foundations of character and cultivation of taste.

Maybe we need to bring that back!

Maybe we need to that to be primary and the "book learning" secondary. How about this curriculum for starters:

* Behavior in public and large groups 101
* Your future childrens' behavior in public and large groups 301
* Driving courtesy 201
* Functional relationships I, II, III, IV and advanced
* Quit your lazy whining and get back to work 310 and 311 (lab)
* Love is a choice, those are your hormones screaming 305
* How to save, instead of borrow (lab class)

I know we traditionally think that that's the parents' jobs, but that isn't working, and assumes that all parents are good at all things.

That's like leaving all health care to the parents. "Didn't get born into a family of good doctors? Too bad, so sad.."

Jim, I'm afraid that your brand of socialist nihilism won't go ever well on mc.com...

Both my mother and mother-in-law attended Normal school at Dillon, now MSU Western. It was primarily for teacher education and offered what today would be considered an associate of arts degree. Some of you may remember Duncan Skinner who attended Poly Tech in Billings, now Rocky.

I found a wikipedia article that confirms Bill Zook's take on this, but am still confused as to why a HS teacher's teaching subject (or job title) was listed as "Normal Training", unless:
1) she was a student teacher
2) she was involved in developing or implementing standards ("norms")

My I remember Duncan Skinner and his flattop also!

Teacher training was provided at high schools for students that had completed their regular studies & wished to become teachers. Those students were mostly girls. Other areas of vocational education were also available. With the advent of available Normal Schools the practice discontinued. The plains states had a shortage of teachers in the early 1900's. Perhaps the courses were still taught in Miles City's high school in 1930 because of the distance to a Normal School.

My geometry teacher,Irene Hoffman, had the greatest influence of any teacher I had in my 20 years of schooling.
Jim are you related to Norman Birkholz? I attended MSU in the 50's with Norman. He went on to teach college in College Alaska.