In Fall 2015, David Jones, American history teacher at Eastside High School in Gainesville, was awarded the Martha Ross Teaching Award from the Oral History Association for his longtime work teaching International Baccalaureate American history students to conduct local oral histories.
In 2013, SPOHP, the UF Center for European Studies, and Mr. Jones’s IB Junior Class collaborated on the year-long oral history project “Getting to Know You: Our Neighbors of European Heritage Oral History Exhibit,” which displayed at the Thomas Center. Students interviewed 32 individuals who had firsthand experiences of some of the most significant events in European history over the past 70 years, from the Spanish Civil War through the end of the Cold War. Jones has archived most of the students’ projects and now displays the new projects on the high school’s IB Oral History Project page.
Read about Mr. Jones and his ongoing project work with students: “Eastside High School Teacher Wins Oral History Award,” by Kelsey Jordan, WUFT, November 3, 2015. Photo courtesy of Jacqueline Johnson.