
Help student voices be heard with an innovative nonprofit
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Please donate to help establish our nonprofit organization
Hi, I'm Eric. I'm a public high school social studies teacher of 16 years and I have witnessed how audio creation benefits young people in nearly every facet of their academic and social-emotional development. Working with audio content has enduring value for teachers and students, making the nonprofit I am establishing and its goals vital to classrooms across the region and country.
The organization, Everything is a Primary Source (EPS) looks to innovate an open-source, collaborative online resource that creates and shares history through people’s connections to artifacts of everyday life. And, working with other groups, EPS will supply teachers with the means to create podcasting clubs or enhance existing ones for the purpose of giving students agency and having their voices heard through an initiative titled "Podcasting for Posterity."
None of this can be done without your support. EPS needs to obtain its tax exempt status to fully carry out its mission. Please consider giving what you can so that the Everything is a Primary Source Project can get started and bring these valuable initiatives to life.
The $3,200 to be raised is broken down into two costs:
- $2,600 for compliance company to prepare and file necessary paperwork to start the nonprofit
- $600 filing fee to the IRS for Tax Exempt Status
The Everything is a Primary Source Project is a collaborative, open-source digital archive of oral history based on reactions and relationships to popular culture.
Each entry into the archive begins with a conversation recorded during one of our Your History Through Pop Culture exhibits, also known as “podcast karaoke.” These are held at a variety of different venues, and can be booked for your school, library, museum or business to be carried out in person or virtually.
The next step is to post the primary source in its appropriate category at everything-history.com, and supplement it with a short essay, contextualizing the book, movie, album, show, toy, game, gadget or whatever else might be the subject. This will usually be done by us, but these essays could be your way of collaborating.
Each recording typically covers just one or two of the nine critical thinking questions that are asked in order to decide what an artifact tells us about time and place. This leaves room for teachers and their students from all over to contribute by recording their own thoughts on the subject until all of the questions are answered.
Teachers and their students can even take part without typing or talking. Each entry will have a space for participants to include pictures of related primary sources that help to further make the time period and place in question clearer.
Teachers and their classes are able to use the archives as reliable secondary sources while the entries are under construction, and absolutely when they are completed. And while some topics might be reserved for older students, the Everything is a Primary Source Project will always have something for everyone.
The Everything is a Primary Source Project promotes history, media and digital literacies, cultural appreciation, and collaboration between people of different ages, geography and backgrounds. Ultimately, it demonstrates how fun it is to learn about history through pop culture.
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I would like to share the thoughts of one of my students with you. The quote below is from John, a founding member of my school's Podcasting Club, who He and five other club members were invited to give a presentation about their experiences with creating a podcast for their school this past Fall at the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference in Manchester, NH:
“I feel that a benefit [of podcasting] is I’m not afraid to say my own opinions to others, as I was shy last year in high school. I didn’t have many friends and it was hard to talk to people, but now as a sophomore I feel safe and feel confident. Podcasting…can help you get out of your comfort zone.”
The nonprofit to be established will oversee Podcasting for Posterity, a project dedicated to equipping teachers with what they need to integrate audio into their humanities classrooms, and celebrating the results of student-made podcasts.
Regular installments of discussions and interviews with teacher-podasters, industry insiders, and technical experts will help educators build their audio skill set. Activity, lesson and assessment ideas will also be supplied so that employing audio in your classroom or library stays fresh and exciting.
But what “Podcasting for Posterity” is really about is getting students active, creating and delivering podcasts of their own design.
Teachers of any level can oversee their students as they make episodic history, storytelling, current events, or literary criticism programs. Innovation and creativity with podcasting is also encouraged through “Podcasting for Posterity.” And if teachers and their students are in need of direction, or would like to take on additional projects, they can turn to the collection of ideas and requests supplied to “Podcating for Posterity” by nonprofits such as museums, public libraries, historical societies, and other organizations that want audio to be created on their behalf.
All of this will take place with the goal of showcasing and celebrating student-made podcasts at an end-of-school-year School Podcast Festival. There podcasting clubs will share their work, learn more about the craft and industry from pioneers and professionals in the field, and be officially recognized for their hard work and creativity.
Visit everything-history.com to learn more.
Organizer

Eric Paul
Organizer
Milton, NH