Citrus County Social Studies

Historic Headlines Collaboration

2011-07-24T17:33:00.003-04:00

A true winner for Social Studies teachers in all grade levels is the recently announced collaboration between the New York Times Learning Network and finding Dulcinea in creating an interactive ‘Today in History’ site.

While the Times has had an excellent "Today in History" site - my browser goes to their page when I open my Internet Explorer - they have been working on revising the site.

The NY Times Learning Network stated, concerning an effort to make the NY Times Today In History more interesting and relevant to students, that:

So, to make each day in history a bigger part of the blog, and to help students see how events in the past still resonate today, we’re creating a new daily post that explores a famous event and connects it to something in the news now.

How will this work? The Times article stated that:

staff members from findingDulcinea will write a short daily account of what led up each historical event, what happened that day, and what has happened since. They will then provide a brief “Connect to Today” section that looks at parallels of some kind in current news.

This should provide informative, interactive, and relevant historical information to any teacher who wants to work in the ‘Today in History’ concept in their classroom.

Meanwhile, there is one more site that might be of interest to you for current events, Today in History, type of information that I just discovered - Sweet Search 2 Day. Check it out.

Try it… and see if you like it. All it takes to participate is to create a bookmark, then to visit it regularly!

Jeffersonian Civility

2011-07-01T12:44:00.004-04:00

I had the opportunity to drive to a nearby town today to pick up two sewing machines my wife had taken in to be repaired. Of course - as on any journey of reasonable length - I turn on a podcast.

While the journey is not really a point of discussion for this blog, I think that the podcast is.

The podcast I listened to today originally aired on January 30, 2011, and was from the Thomas Jefferson Hour, a weekly interview with Clay Jenkinson as President Thomas Jefferson. Among other books and articles, Jenkinson is the author of Being Jefferson’s People – which is an interesting read, and rated 5 stars on Amazon. I recently discovered this podcast based upon the recommendation of another podcast that I frequently listen to.

The episode that I listened to today was episode 904, and was titled Civility – and it certainly struck a strong cord with me.

I have long been concerned with the extremes of political viewpoints that we are seeing more and more of – and their reflection in our young people’s manner and demeanor, especially in the area of discussion of current day issues. I have struggled with how to specifically address those concerns in an understandable manner – until I heard this podcast.

Perhaps one of the opening statements can explain it: “But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.” This is the essence of ‘civility’, of reflection before speaking (or writing, or podcasting, or being a really well-paid talking head on any of our ‘news’ cable shows) – and the threat to our democracy when that civility is not evident. If you watch the news today, or listen to politicians, or read blogs – you do not see that civility, that willingness to express your view, but to truly listen to an opponent’s view, and to come to a consensus.

Jenkinson expresses this much better than I do! Therefore…

I would encourage any readers of this blog to do two things: 1) consider spending an hour listening to the Civility podcast; and 2) to read Jefferson’s first inaugural address – at least the first paragraph – where Jefferson talks about the threat of extreme, uncompromising viewpoints to our unique American democracy. The election of 1800 had been a bitter one, and Jefferson saw the dangers of extreme views whose owners were not willing to listen, and discuss things in a reasonable manner with their opponents.

It was truly a voice of the past giving perspective to the events – and the temper of the people – of today.

I see the potential to use the ideas expressed in this particular podcast with our middle/high school students, whether in any current events discussion, or Social Studies classes such as Civics, American History, or Government. Other shows in the series (such as episode 906, the Rights of Man) could be used in World History as well. It could be an interesting discussion.

Somehow all of this seems so appropriate as we approach our July 4th weekend! Happy listening!

Your thoughts and reflections are welcome on this topic.

PHOTO SOURCE:

Thomas Jefferson, by Rembrandt Peale (1800), Wikipedia -

Slave Records Online

2011-06-22T20:58:00.008-04:00

Every now and then you find that true 'gem' that historians look for.

I was listening to a podcast of the iTunes series Colonial and Revolutionary America from Stanford University, featuring Professor Jack Rakove, this past weekend.

In the podcast titled From African to African American, Rakove mentioned that slave records encompassing the trade from Africa to the Americas could be found online.

A quick search on the Internet provided the link for a fabulous site, chuck full of primary resources on the slave trade. Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database was a project of Emory University.

According to an online article from Futurity, the Voyages site is the result of a two-year project by David Eltis and Martin Halbert to collect and digitize the records.

A variety of searches are available at the Voyages site. A visitor can search by particular voyage number (the first voyage listed was the 1817 journey of the Pastora de Lima); examine estimates of slave trade (dating back to 1501); or explore the African names database (with over 67,000 African names). According to the site, the database has information n almost 35,000 slaving voyages.

This is a great tool to use in discussion with students on the extent of the slave trade, as well as where the slaves went to (no, Virginia, they did not all go to the southern United States...). This discussion can be centered on the ESP-C approach - economic, social, political, and cultural aspects and effects of slavery on three continents.

SOURCES:

Plan of the British Slave Ship "Brookes," 1789, Image Reference E014, University of Virginia Library
African Diaspora, Image Reference MILLERENC2, University of Virginia Library
-

Courthouse World War II Exhibit

2010-11-11T12:49:00.002-05:00

Our local Citrus County Old Courthouse Heritage Museum has a special display focusing on Florida in World War II. There is a special focus on our own Citrus County veterans, with memorabilia donated for the exhibit from Citrus County World War II veterans.

Florida had a large role in the American effort to win World War II. There was an active ship building program, agricultural efforts, radar stations, and numerous air bases built to provide both training facilities as well as patrols over the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, seeking enemy ships.

From a press release from the Heritage Museum:

“At this time sixty-five years ago World War II was winding down. Germany had already surrendered to the Allied Forces and concentration camps were being liberated. In early August 1945 the United States unleashed the power of atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to hasten the surrender of Japan. August 15, 2010 was the sixty-fifth anniversary of VJ day. These events are surely etched in the memories of those old enough to remember.

Among Citrus County’s large population of veterans, those who served during World War II are now aged in their eighties and nineties. To honor our World War II veterans, dubbed “the Greatest Generation” by newscaster Tom Brokaw, the Old Courthouse Heritage Museum, in downtown Inverness, is presenting an exhibition titled, Florida in World II, under the theme: World War II …Before the Memories are Gone. The exhibit will focus on the role of Florida in World War II and highlights the Attacks, the Civil Defense, Volunteering on the Home Front, Shipbuilding in Florida, The Cost of Victory, and How the War Changed Florida. Be sure to see this exhibit before or as part of the activities of Veteran’s week 2010 in November."

If you are in Citrus County and can visit the exhibit, do so soon. It ends this month.
And, it’s well worth the visit.

Podcasts: Historical information on the iPod and the Web

2010-09-06T11:30:00.005-04:00

Sigh. Second year in a row - no posts in August. The good news is I've stockpiled some information to turn into blog posts. Here's the first.

I have to admit that I have discovered podcasts. Below are four that I now use, along with their website - just in case you don't have an iPod.

There are many advantages to listening to podcasts - especially well done ones - in our ever-busy world. You can listen to them while you exercise, take walks, drive to work, lunchbreaks, etc. Books are great, and I would never give up on them, but podcasts are usually one-topic, and the ones I've listed run between 13 and 20 minutes.

While this is a very brief list, try them. Post others history related/Social Studies related podcasts if you have some favorites.

The four I'm currently listening to, both American history and World history, are:

Colonial Williamsburg podcasts (American colonial history). Want to know about the importance of fifes in the 18th century military world?

History Network Military History podcasts (Military History, world history). I now know more about howitzers than ever before.

Things You Missed In History Class podcast, by How Stuff Works (Two hosts present world history topics). Tidbits on the fourth crusade that I never realized.

A History of the World in 100 Objects podcast by the British Museum and the BBC. (Unique view of history through 100 different objects and their effect and influence on history).

I realize there are many more out there - and gradually more will be added to this list. Try one, and enjoy!

Photo:

Library of Congress

Nuclear Detonations: 1945 - 1998

2010-07-21T18:51:00.008-04:00

I first saw this site through Matt Rosenberg’s Geography Blog – and I think it could be used in a number of our Social Studies classrooms in our middle and high schools. I’m not too sure about using it in the elementary school.

The site hosts a short video by Isao Hashamoto, a Japanese artist who created a time-lapse animated map of nearly every nuclear detonation (2053 of them) recorded between 1945 and 1998.

Hashamoto stated:

"This piece of work is a bird's eye view of the history by scaling down a month length of time into one second. No letter is used for equal messaging to all viewers without language barrier. The blinking light, sound and the numbers on the world map show when, where and how many experiments each country have conducted. I created this work for the means of an interface to the people who are yet to know of the extremely grave, but present problem of the world."

While the work does not include the North Korean tests (estimated at two) that have been held in the 21st century, it is a significant and accurate piece of work.

This is a shocking and disturbing visual image, especially when we get to the early 1960s and the height of the Cold War era.

Possible topics of discussion for our students would be where were the detonations held – and why?

Other questions come to mind as well that could prove worthwhile for discussion/exploration.

For example: What happened to the people who lived on Bikini Island – which became a test site – as well as what long term effects happened to the land there? What are the long-term effects of nuclear blasts in the American West, especially Nevada, where nuclear testing took place for years – and the underground water table? What about testing sites in the former Soviet Union states?

And, perhaps, more importantly, what is the probability of nuclear weapons being used either by terrorist organizations, Iran, Israel, or North Korea?

An excellent article titled “The Growing Nuclear Club” by Kathy Sutcliffe appeared on the Council of Foreign Relations website. The article discusses current and potential members of the “Nuclear Club”. Another good visual to use is from Doomsday Clock.

Yet, it is also important to remember the conditions that formed the basis of the development of the atomic weapon (a race between the U.S. and Nazi Germany in World War II), as well as the reason for the continuing development of weapons and delivery systems (the Cold War, spies, selling of state secrets – a whole variety of interesting topics of discussion).

Do you know where your local Civil Defense shelter is???

This all could lead to wonderful exploration, critical thinking, as well as use of all aspects of Social Studies (from history to sociology, geography to environment and economics).

WEB RESOURCES:

Site for nuclear detonations
Matt’s Geography Blog
Profile
Bikini Island
International Atomic Energy Agency

PHOTO SOURCE:

Screen Shot of Video/Geekosystem
Bikini Relocation/Bikini Atoll
1954 Nuclear Explosion at Bikini Atoll/atomic archive
Civil Defense Guy/Civil Defense Museum

Subtle Change in Declaration Draft

2010-07-14T20:39:00.006-04:00

Even the best of us can make mistakes – including that renown Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson.

In a press release on July 2, research chemist Dr. Fenella France and Librian of Congress James Billington pointed out that Jefferson had made, then soon caught and corrected, a slip in wording.
While listing the grievances against King George III, Jefferson had written: “He has incited treasonable Insurrections of our Fellow Subjects, with the allurement of Forfeiture and Confiscation of our Property.”

He realized his error almost immediately, as evidenced by the fact that the still wet ink was smudged. France thinks that Jefferson wiped over the original word with his hand, then wrote “Citizens” over the brown smudge he had created. Although the discovery was made last year, it was only revealed recently. The word was found through the use of digital imaging technology and other scientific tests. The camera also revealed erased text and fingerprints from the Founding Fathers who handled the document. France called it a “spine-tingling” find.

France stated: "This has been a very exciting development".

The rough draft includes other corrections made by the committee (Including Benjamin Franklin and John Adams) on Jefferson’s work – a lined through word here, notes in the margin, smaller writing in the spaces between the lines… all the work of an editorial committee.

But the smudge is different – corrected by the man who made it, before it went before the committee. Oddly enough, the sentence did not make it into the final version of the Declaration of Independence.

There is now a debate being generated among historians as to whether it was a Freudian slip by a man who had been born under the rule of an English monarchy, or if it was taken from a draft of Virginia’s constitution, which includes the word “subjects” – or any of a number of other possible reasons.

According to Librarian of Congress James Billington:

“It shows the progress of his mind. This was a decisive moment. We recovered a magic moment that was otherwise lost to history.”

What does this show us? How about… we are human and make mistakes???

Of course, this inspired me to read the original draft to compare it to the final draft – just out of an interest as to what other changes might have been edited in, as well as trying to find other ‘smears’. While I have neither the original document nor the scientific equipment for analyzing it, I can ‘suppose’….

WEB RESOURCES:

AOL News
The Huffington Press
Library of Congress (Look at page three of the draft document)
Newser
Yahoo News

PHOTO SOURCE:

Library of Congress
Yahoo News Slideshow

Fenella France with slide of image/AOL
-

County-Level Migration Map

2010-07-12T20:07:00.002-04:00

How cool is this???? A migration map based on 2008 IRS information that highlights the number of people moving into or moving from any county in the United States.

Red lines on the map show movement from one county to another (the map even shows the county they go to) while black lines show movement into the county.

You can enlarge the map to focus on a specific area – although then you lose the complete US perspective. The width of the lines of migration (the black and red lines) indicates number of migrants – wider means more people moving.

Hovering over one of the lines of migration that lead to a county of your choice with your mouse shows the number of individuals moving into or from the county, as well as the per capita income for each group.

You can even ‘share’ the map showing migration patterns by clicking the ‘share’ button.

This could be an interesting tool to see migration patterns, especially when you look at the Northeast, major Midwestern cities, and Los Angeles. The information on this map could lead to interesting discussions on why people move, where they move, and the effect on the culture, economy, and politics of where they move from and move to.

Think of the possibilities!!!

. Many thanks to Forbes for hosting the site and to Matt Rosenberg who publishes the Geography.about.com blog for this fantastic site.

Jaywalking Independence Interview

2010-07-07T05:30:00.003-04:00

July 4th has passed, but one wonders just how much Americans know of the origins of that rather significant date of history.

There is a lot of hoopla going on today concerning creative thinking, group work, and numerous other strategies in education, but there are some basic facts that every student should know and be responsible for.

The origin our our nation, our freedoms, our basic rights is something that falls under the category 'you should know this'.

Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" - where he interviews citizens on a topic, asking them factual based questions - the answers to which are readily evident to the audience - often leads to funny, often embarrassing replies. Of course, seldom are all of the interviewee's (especially those who answer the questions correct) shown, for what would be the humor in that - and Jay Leno is a successful comedian.

Here is a clip from YouTube showing the "Jaywalking" for some July 4th questions. Interesting, humorous, embarrassing. I can't help but wonder how our students would do....

Happy Independence Day

2010-07-04T08:11:00.004-04:00

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America:
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,...

What an inspirational document - one every American should read and ponder at least annually - yes, reading and discussing even the list of grievences as well. That document, the Declaration of Independence, is in the news today on this, it's 234th birthday.

Some sites of interest:

The Declaration set to song, as published in the LA Times.
An interesting commentary by Stephen Henderson at the Detroit Free Press.
A comparison of the original draft, reported copy, and final copy at the US History.org site.
And, of course, the wonderful primary resources available at the Library of Congress.

Happy birthday to the Declaration of Independence and all that it stands for. May we as a people study it, embrace it, and try to understand it.
-

Fifty Books that Changed the World

2010-06-24T11:53:00.002-04:00

Our friends at the US History blog recently posted a listing of “Fifty Books That Changed The World”.

People find lists fascinating, and I found the list interesting – hence the sharing of it with you. The books are listed on the Online Education Database.

There is no information on the site about how they chose the books. However, they did state:

“For centuries, books have been written in an attempt to share knowledge, inspiration, and discoveries. Sometimes those books make such an impact that they change the way the world thinks about things. The following books have done just that by providing readers an education in politics and government, literature, society, academic subjects such as science and math, and religion.”

The Fifty Books That Changed The World” is categorized – grouped under such headings as Politics and Government; Literature; Society; Science, Math, and Geography; and Religion.

Each of the book titles is followed by a brief summary of the book, and is linked to another website that might contain a review of the book, notes on the book, or even the book itself. The resources go from Paine’s Common Sense to Guerilla Warfare by Che Guevara to the Christian Bible.

An interesting site to look at, and – perhaps – to see how many of the “Fifty Books That Changed The World” you have read. While I have read parts of most of them, I have only completely read 19. Guess I’ll have to crack open my copy of Guerilla Warfare!

Photo from Flickr
-

Kon-Tiki Sets Sail - 63 Years Ago

2010-04-28T10:29:00.009-04:00

April 28, 1947: Thor Heyerdahl and a crew of five set sail on a raft made of balsa wood to prove a point: peoples from South America could have originally settled Polynesia. He had published his theory earlier, but it had received scant acknowledgement in the scientific community, which felt that balsa – the wood available to build ships in the South America hundreds of years earlier – would only float for two weeks.

Heyerdahl and his crew of four Norwegians and one Swede, went to the Ecuadorian forest to cut down balsa trees, hauled them to the Peruvian coast, and built the Kon-Tiki, which was modeled after rafts that had been common in Peru when the Spanish first arrived in Peru hundreds of years earlier. The Kon-Tiki was named after a legendary pre-Incan sun-king, who ruled the land, and then migrated westward across the sea.

They set sail from Callao Harbor, Peru, on a difficult journey – the raft was not easy to maneuver, it could only sail in trade winds and drift with the current. The adventure took 101 days, covering 4,300 miles, and ended when the Kon-Tiki made landfall on a coral reef near the uninhabited Polynesian island of Raroia.

An Academy Award winning documentary was made of the voyage, and can be viewed on YouTube here. The crew was made up of Norwegians Thor Heyerdahl, Herman Watzinger, Torstein Raby, Knut Haugland, Erik Esselberg, and Swede Bengt Danielsson. Knut Haugland was the last of the original crew of the Kon-Tiki to pass away – on December 25, 2009, at the age of 92.

Heyerdahl also authored Kon Tiki: Across the Pacific By Raft, a best selling story of the journey.

As we celebrate the sixty-third anniversary of the beginning of the journey of the Kon-Tiki, we realize that we have new adventures taking place now. With the advent of these new adventures, such as the journey of the Jewel of Muscat (a replica of a 9th century Arab merchant) or of the Talisker Bounty (recreating the voyage of Captain Bligh after he was set adrift through the mutiny on the Bounty), it does well to remind ourselves of the brave sailors who expand the horizons of human knowledge and endurance through their efforts.

All to often we might look at an event, such as the journey of the Kon-Tiki, and say something like "men like that don't exist any more" - but we find in the news today that they do.

The potential of engaging the students in discussions of these voyages in the classroom is enormous, bringing in math, science, geography, history, sociology, psychology – and much more. These are things our kids need to be exposed to in order to have a better appreciation of the historiography that surrounds us all, and it’s interrelatedness with other academic endeavors.

PHOTO SOURCES:

Kon Tiki at sea: Wikipedia
Photo of Thor Heyerdahl: Great Dreams
The Kon Tiki on the open waters: Yachtpals
Crew of the Kon Tiki: Kon Tiki Museum
Map of the route of the Kon Tiki : Kon Tiki Museum
-

The Bounty and the Jewel

2010-04-23T10:14:00.008-04:00

In trying to keep you up-to-date in the continuing voyage of the Jewel of Muscat: She reached the second port in her trip after a nine-day voyage. On April 19 she docked at Galle, Sri Lanka – and planned on a five-day stay to re-provision and replace a mast that was damaged in storms encountered on the voyage from India. If all goes well, she will set sail on her longest stretch of the open-water voyage this weekend. Be sure to check the daily voyage log entries for updates.

Her next port of call will be at Georgetown, on Pinang Island, Malaysia – a trip of over 1500 miles.

BBC news put up some pictures from the trip. More can be found on the Jewel’s website, where they also have an educator’s link, allowing you or your class to ask a question… and much more.

The BBC also announced an upcoming attempt by some adventurers to replicate the epic journey of Captain Bligh and his loyal crewmembers, who were put adrift after the famed Mutiny on the Bounty in 1789. A crew of four will be sailing in an open boat from Tonga to West Timor without using modern navigational aids, hoping to make the trip in seven weeks. A replica of the Bounty is based in Florida.

Often castigated for creating the conditions that caused the infamous mutiny, Bligh’s navigational skills and capabilities are often overlooked. He, and eighteen loyal crewmen, were put adrift in the South Pacific in a 45-foot open longboat – and through his skill as a navigator guided the open boat to a British outpost in then Timor (now West Timor) on a 47-day, 4400-mile voyage. They survived by catching fish from the sea and rainwater from the sky.

The voyage recreating Bligh’s incredible journey will have far less members than the original – 4 to Bligh’s 18. The boat (the Talisker Bounty) they are using is also smaller – at 25 feet it is almost half the size of Bligh’s vessel. However, to add to the authenticity of the voyage, the crew is planning on taking approximately the same amount of provisions that Bligh had.

Their supplies include 150 pounds of ship biscuits, 16 pounds of pork, six quarts of rum, six bottles of wine and 28 gallons of water.

The crew – originator of the idea Don McIntyre, David Bryce, David Wilkinson, and Chris Wilde - hope to start the voyage from near the site of the mutiny around April 28th – commemorating the 221st anniversary of the mutiny.

While the journey has been done twice before by other adventurers, the avowed purpose of this trip is, according to the Times Online, to “recreate the hardships suffered by Bligh and his crew of 18 to the letter.”

Hopefully they wont encounter the hostile natives that killed one of Bligh’s crew, or prevented their landing on other islands for provisions.

Both of these adventures are ones that our Social Studies teachers, no matter which discipline they teach – might want to follow during class. It should certainly open up the opportunity for some discussion and thoughts among the students, no matter what their ages - as well as provide opportunities to study geography, human nature, history... and much more.

PHOTO SOURCES:

Jewel in Sri Lanka
The Multinational Crew of the Jewel
The Taliskar Bounty
Captain Bligh
1790 illustration of Bligh and loyal crewmembers being set adrift
Map of Bligh’s voyage

-

Viking deaths

2010-04-21T05:55:00.003-04:00

In June 2009, a group of 51 decapitated skulls were found in Dorset, U.K., suring the construction of a new road.

No, this is not a modern serial killer mystery… but it is a mystery none-the-less.

The skulls were of young men, and originally believed to have been buried there almost two millennia ago. Who were they? Why the mass burial – of skulls?

A U.K. news article from the Guardian stated:

“Archaeologists have called the discovery extraordinary, saying it could be evidence of a disaster, a mass execution, a battle or possibly an epidemic.”

Now, nine months later, more information is in – giving us a look at what happened, who was involved, and when the event occurred.

In March 2010, a BBC article provided many, but not all of the answers. The article stated that:

"Analysis of teeth from 10 of the men revealed they had grown up in countries with a colder climate than Britain's.”

After doing a number of scientific studies, the final thought is that the men were from Scandinavia. Based on their ages – most were in their teens and twenties, with a few in their thirties – they were very likely part of Viking raiding parties who were terrorizing the Anglo-Saxons in England. The final conclusion:

“Archaeologists from Oxford believe the men were probably executed by local Anglo Saxons in front of an audience sometime between AD 910 and AD 1030.”

While the scientific investigation is not yet complete, at least there is now a reasonable explanation as to the who, how, when, and why of the skeletal remains.

The site will have notoriety for an additional reason: According to the BBC,

“The mass grave is one of the largest examples of executed foreigners buried in one spot."

Jewel of Muscat Sets Sail for Sri Lanka

2010-04-11T19:20:00.001-04:00

As those of you who read this blog know, I’m very excited about the journey of the Jewel of Muscat. Their website is well-organized and has a special educator’s page. I

The Jewel of Muscat came out of dry-dock and set sail for Sri Lanka on Saturday, April 10. That means that you have the opportunity to follow the adventures of this 9th century Arab merchant ship replica as it sails for its next port. The site has many photos, a daily log, and more – and would be useful in practically any Social Studies classroom. The photo is from the Jewel of Muscat website.

From today's log:

"Jewel of Muscat is making excellent progress on her second leg to Sri Lanka
with strong winds helping her make good speeds of up to 6 knots and more."

This is a seldom-experienced event – similar to the Kon Tiki journey fifty years ago – and if you get your students involved, it is a journey that could create memories that will last their entire lives.

Go to the website – check it out daily – and use your LCD projectors to keep the students posted on the journey.

War of 1812 Website

2010-04-11T19:12:00.001-04:00

I don’t think you can fully realize the scope of history that New York has until you read the New York History Blog. It is an excellent source for updates on the status of history in New York, history related events, and much more.

A short time ago it had an entry on a War of 1812 website. I would encourage our Social Studies teachers to look at the site and see what is there that they might use to enhance their studies of this era of history. The site has a virtual digital collection of items to show the students (the picture is from that site); resources for teachers; and much more.

Again – a good site to incorporate into your studies. Thank you, New York History blog.
-

AMERICA: The Story of US!

2010-03-20T13:20:00.004-04:00

Thanks to an alert from Eric Langhorst from the Speaking of History blog for the following:

The HISTORY Channel is providing a free DVD of its show, “AMERICA: The Story of US!” to schools whose principal fills out the form located here. The form is an online form. One DVD per school.

The HISTORY Channel provides the following summary of the show:

America The Story of Us is an epic 12-hour television event that tells the extraordinary story of how America was invented. With highly realistic CGI animation, dramatic recreations and thoughtful insights from some of America's most respected artists, business leaders, academics and intellectuals, it is the first television event in nearly 40 years to present a comprehensive telling of America's history. Elaborate, ambitious and cinematic, America The Story of Us will take you into the moments when Americans harnessed technology to advance human progress, from the rigors of linking the continent by transcontinental railroad--theinternet of its day--to triumphing over vertical space through the construction of steel structured buildings to putting a man on the moon. It is an intensive look at the people, places and things that have shaped our nation, and the tough and thrilling adventure that is America's 400-year history.
Also from the HISTORY CHANNEL site:

School principals, register for your school's free AMERICA The Story of US DVD!* America The Story of US — premiering on HISTORY™ April 25 at 9pm/8c — is a six week event that provides a fascinating look at the stories of the people, events, and innovations that forged our nation. It will provide you with an unprecedented opportunity to bring our nation’s;s history to life for your students. This 12-hour series will be supported by educational materials tied to curriculum standards and is copyright cleared for Fair Use in the classroom by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities.

* HISTORY is offering America The Story of US on DVD to every school in the United States. School must be an accredited public, private or home school, for grades K-12 and college. In order to receive your school's DVD, your school principal (grades K-12) or Dean of Students (college) should fill out the request form below. HISTORY strictly limits one request per school. DVD requests must be made prior to July 1, 2010. DVD's will be mailed around August 2010 and free shipping is included in this offer.

I would encourage you to share this information (and link) with your principal and get be eligible to receive the free DVD this fall.
-

Journey of the Jewel of Muscat

2010-03-13T12:44:00.004-05:00

Thanks to the heads up from the Medieval News blog, I got all excited about a historic cruise that is taking place now – and is accessible on the Internet!

The Jewel of Muscat is a replica of a 9th century Arab trading vessel. The crew is sailing from Port Sultan Qaboos into the Oman Sea, down through the Arabian Sea, along the western coast of India, around Sri Lanka, across the Bay of Bengal, and through the Straits of Malacca to Singapore. It is currently off of the coast of India.

The Jewel of Muscat website is FASCINATING!!!!! It contains a log of the journey, pictures, maps, the story of the ship, a 3D image of the ship, and much more. I’d encourage our teachers to check out the Jewel of Muscat website, and follow the journey with their students.

A sample of the information shared on the site: today’s journal entry….

13th March 2010
The winds have picked up but are now blowing in the wrong direction forcing Jewel down to a crawl as she approaches Cochin.

The ship design is based on a number of resources, including the Belitung Wreck – which was discovered in 1998.

Using this website in the classroom on a regular basis could lead to increased knowledge of geography, history, economics, and the adventurist human spirit.

YouTube has an interesting summary here.

Sort of reminds me of the voyages of the Kon Tiki, the Ra, and the Icelander.

PHOTO SOURCE:

Medieval News blog

-

Women's History Month

2010-03-01T19:36:00.002-05:00

March 1 marks the beginning of Women’s History Month, an annual celebration and recognition of the contributions of women to civilization and history – and pointing to the needs of the future.

The theme for this year’s Women’s History Month is “Writing Women Back Into History”, a theme designed to recognize the diverse accomplishment of women throughout history.

Women’s History Month is a time to celebrate how far women have come – and what contributions have been made that were overlooked in generations of history texts and teachings.

How much do you know about women’s history? Try the quiz on Biography – or better yet, project it in class onto the screen and have your class take the quiz.

Some other resources:

Library of Congress has a site with a number of specific topics, as well as lesson plans for use in the classroom.

The history of Women’s History Month can be found here.

The National Women’s History Project provides information and resources.

Time Magazine has a Time for Kids special section for Women’s History Month, including games, a quiz, and information.

There are many, many other resources. The above is just a sampling. Google ‘Women’s History Month” and you’ll see 26 million links.

Death of a Quiet Hero: Miep Gies

2010-02-16T18:36:00.004-05:00

Miep Gies passed away last month. Who was Miep Gies? Perhaps an exceptional lesson for our students to learn from.

Imagine….

Time: the early 1940s.
Place: Holland
Situation: Conquered by Nazi Germany in 1940, Holland was an occupied land. An order came down from the military: arrest and deport the Jews and other undesirables.

Your decision: You know of a Jewish family. Do you turn them in? Or do you try to help them avoid the order – and risk imprisonment and/or death if you are discovered?

That was a decision a young Dutch girl named Miep Gies had to make. Her decision affected not only the family she chose to support, but also revealed to the world the courage of individuals in the face of adversity and the horrors of the Nazi regime.

Gies was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1909, under her maiden name of Hermine Santruschitz. Following World War I, she was one of many malnourished children from Austria and Hungary that were invited to spend several months in the Netherlands to recuperate from the effects of the Great War. Her Dutch foster parents offered her a permanent home, and Gies was able to move to Amsterdam, where she grew to adulthood.

She was hired as an office assistant by a man named Otto Frank in 1933. As another war moved closer, Gies saw Austria annexed by the Germans, Poland invaded, and finally, on May 10, 1940, Holland occupied by the Nazis. She felt first-hand the bias of the Nazis when she applied for a marriage certificate – and had to prove her Aryan, non-Jewish heritage. She was able to do this with the help of family members, and on July 16, 1941, married Jan Gies.

Jan Gies became a member of the resistance, and became active in hiding those individuals wanted by the Nazi invaders. Miep Gies helped him, which provided her the experience to agree to provide supplies and support for Otto Franks, his family, and four of his friends when they went into hiding in the Annex.

After the Annex was discovered and the Franks were arrested, Gies visited the Annex one more time – and picked up the papers that had been the diary of the young Anne Frank. She preserved the diary until after the war, and upon learning of the death of Otto Frank’s wife and two daughters, sought him out to return the diary to him.

The impact of that diary kept by a teenage girl has resonated around the world during the last 60 plus years. Millions of people around the world are aware of who Anne Frank was – and have read her diary. Over 25 million copies of the diary have been published since 1947, in 54 languages. Few are aware of the role that Miep Gies had in trying to provide and protect Anne and her family, and then preserving the Diary of Anne Frank so that posterity would know what happened at the Annex from July 5, 1942 to August 4, 1944.

Miep Gies passed away January 11, 2010, at the age of one hundred. As Gies said repeatedly over the years, “I just did what I could to help.” It would be a worthwhile effort of Social Studies teachers to bring the acts of this courageous and compassionate woman to the attention of their students and to discuss the choices each person makes when tyranny threatens civilization.

Sources:

Anne Frank Museum
Auschwitz
BBC News
Jewish Virtual Library
Miep Gies: Her Own Story
New York Daily News
Times Online

Photos:

Miep Gies in early 1930s, Miep Gies: Her Own Story
Miep and Jan Gies, wedding day, 1941, Anne Frank Museum
The Diary of Anne Frank, Jeff Werner
-

Teaching American History Grant at the Old Courthouse

2010-02-07T08:38:00.004-05:00

Our Teaching American History grant crew had the distinct pleasure of having their second colloquium at the old Citrus County Courthouse, which was built in 1912 and is a National Historic Preservation Site.

The 35 members of the TAH grant spent February 4 & 5 learning teaching strategies specific to the social studies, and excellent in-depth historical presentations on the American Revolution and it's European connections, as well as the influence of the Revolution on France and England.

The group, along with Kathy Thompson, our Old Courthouse resource officer and our three presenters - Robby Brown, Anthony Fitzpatrick, and Dr. Patricia Behre - enlighened, educated, and motivated our teachers on this era of history, expanding their horizons, and encouraging them to carry the knowledge and strategies back to the classroom.

This Federal grant provides funding to provide in-depth knowledge on American history and additional instructional strategies to K-12 teachers throughout the nation.

Where in the United States

2010-01-17T20:52:00.002-05:00

My wife pointed me toward a site that allows you (or your students) to populate a map of the United States with information showing the states an individual has visited. The site is called Douwe Osinga's Projects, and the process is really simple - point and click. I filled out mine - not quite sure how I missed travelling to North Dakota - maybe next year. Hummm - perhaps I'll send my daughter to college there - that ought to create a visit!

visited 43 states (86%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

You can also do the same with a map of the world, or of India. A pretty cool site with potential for both personal and classroom use.

Exodus Captain Dies

2009-12-24T07:37:00.008-05:00

Can one man make a difference?

Captain Yitzhak (Ike) Ahronovitch died yesterday (12/23/2009). That is a name not recognized by many of us today – but was known world-wide 62 years ago.

Ahronovitch was the captain of the Exodus 1947, a cargo ship that took Jewish holocaust survivors and displaced persons from Europe and attempted to land them in what was then British controlled Palestine – today’s Israel.

The story was epic. A German/Polish-born Jewish captain; a cargo ship that had been sold for scrap to a paramilitary political group called the Haganah; a stand-off at sea – followed by a boarding and firefight in which three passengers were killed. A hunger strike by the passengers after they were taken to their point of disembarkation in France; re-interment of the passengers in camps in the British-controlled portion of Germany; a world firestorm of protest; and finally the gathering of the passengers by the British for transportation to and interment in Crete – then moved to Israel when Israel came into existence in 1948.

The British – responsible for maintaining order in Palestine – tried to block illegal immigration to that territory. A new policy created in 1947 was to send the immigrants back to the nation they had come from. The first ship to fall under this policy was the Exodus.

The Exodus was the former President Warfield, built in 1928. The 320 x 56 foot ship was given to the British under the World War II Lend Lease program, and had served as a troop carrier – housing 400 troops – during the Normandy invasion of 1944. It was sold for scrap in 1946 to a company that was controlled by the Haganah, refitted, and set sail for France to pick up Holocaust survivors for relocation to Palestine.

The Exodus left the port of Sete, France, on July 11, 1947 with more than 4500 passengers – most of them men, women, and 655 children who had survived the Holocaust. A week later, as the ship neared the coast of Palestine, it was ordered to stop by three British destroyers.

Ahronovitch attempted to run the blockade, but was stopped when rammed by two of the destroyers. The Jewish passengers fought the British, throwing smoke bombs, life rafts, and other items that came to hand on the British as they tried to board the Exodus. The British retaliated by opening fire, during which two passengers and one crewman were killed, with many more injured.

The passengers were placed on more seaworthy transports to be returned to France – where they were refused entry. The British then decided the only place large enough to house the emigrants was in their portion of Germany. The scene became violent after the ship docked in Hamburg, and had to be forcibly removed by British soldiers. They were placed in camps near the site of a former concentration camp at Lubeck.

The world outcry was tremendous, and they were relocated to camps in Crete until Israeli statehood in 1948.

The story was so compelling that it was later turned into a book (Exodus by Leon Uris, 1958) and a movie of the same title starring Paul Neuman (1960)

Captain Ahronovitch was born in Danzig, Poland in 1923, and moved to Palestine in 1932 when his family relocated there. Danzig was under quasi-Polish control as a result of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), and its population was 98% German. As a young man, he joined the Palmach, which was the para-military arm of the Haganah. During World War II he learned his sea craft trade by sailing on British and Norwegian merchant vessels. Ahronovitch was only 23 when he took the helm of the Exodus in 1947. On July 11, 1947, he picked up the holocaust refugees at the port of Sete and would sail into history.

Ahronovitch would avoid the limelight after the incident, ultimately studying and receivingn a master’s degree in business administration at Columbia University. He leaves behind two daughters, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren – and a nation that came into being partially because of the attention given to the story of the Exodus.

A tribute to Ahronovitch came from Israeli President Shimon Peres, who stated: "Exodus was also his creation, he was not only its captain but a leader that gave the voyage character and determination." Peres also described Ahronovitch as “one of a kind ... a combination of pioneering, courage and love of his people."

What happened to the Exodus? The Exodus lay as a derelict, moored off of the port of Haifa. It burned to the waterline in 1952, and was sold for scrap in 1963.

WEB RESOURCES:

Wikipedia
Jewish Virtual Library
Hagshama

PHOTO RESOURCES:

Captain Ahronovitch, New York Times
Exodus 1947, Wikipedia
Refugees on board the Exodus, Jewish Virtual Museum
British escort wounded off of the Exodus at Haifa, Jewish Virtual Museum
-

A Fun Fact for Each State

2009-12-23T08:15:00.003-05:00

Providing interesting tidbits of information is one way of engaging and challenging students. What better way than to look at our the states of the United States (and Washington, D.C.). By the way.... how many states can you accurately located on a blank map of the United States???

A Fun Fact for Each State

ALABAMA ... Was the first place to have 9-1-1; it started in 1968.

ALASKA ... One out of every 64 people has a pilot's license.

ARIZONA ... Is the only entire state in the continental U.S. that doesn't follow Daylight Savings Time.

ARKANSAS ... Has the only active diamond mine in the U.S.

CALIFORNIA ... Its economy is so large that if it were a country, it would rank seventh in the entire world.

COLORADO ... It became the only state to turn down the Olympics (In 1976).

CONNECTICUT ... The Frisbee was invented here at Yale University.

DELAWARE ... Has more scientists and engineers than any other state.

FLORIDA ... At 759 square miles, Jacksonville is the U.S.'s largest city.

GEORGIA ... It was here, in 1886, that pharmacist John Pemberton made the first vat of Coca-Cola.

HAWAII .. Hawaiians live, on average, five years longer than residents in any other state.

IDAHO ... TV was invented in Rigby, Idaho, in 1922.

ILLINOIS ... The Chicago River is dyed green every St.Patrick's Day

INDIANA .... Home to Santa Claus, Indiana, which get a half million letters to Santa every year.

IOWA ... "Winnebago" vehicles get their name from Winnebago County. Also, it is the only state that begins with two vowels.

KANSAS ... Liberal, Kansas, has an exact replica of the house in The Wizard of Oz.

KENTUCKY ... Has more than $6 billion in gold underneath Fort Knox.

LOUISIANA ... Has parishes instead of counties, because they were originally Spanish church units.

MAINE ... It's so big, it covers as many square miles as the other five New England states combined.

MARYLAND ... The Ouija board was created in Baltimore in 1892.

MASSACHUSETTS ... The Fig Newton is named after Newton, Massachusetts.

MICHIGAN ... Fremont, home to Gerber, is the baby food capital of the world.

MINNESOTA ... Bloomington's Mall of America is so big, if you spent 10 minutes in each store, you'd be there nearly four days.

MISSISSIPPI ... President Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear here ... that's how the teddy bear got its name.

MISSOURI ... Is the birthplace of the ice cream cone.

MONTANA ... A sapphire from Montana is in the Crown Jewels of England.

NEBRASKA ... More triplets are born here than in any other state.

NEW HAMPSHIRE ... Birthplace of Tupperware, invented in 1938 by Earl Tupper.

NEW JERSEY ... Has the most shopping malls in one area in the world.

NEW MEXICO ... Smokey the Bear was rescued from a 1950 forest fire here.

NEW YORK ... Is home to the nation's oldest cattle ranch, started in 1747 in Montauk.

NORTH CAROLINA ..... Home of the first Krispy Kreme doughnut.

NORTH DAKOTA ... Rigby, North Dakota, is the exact geographic center of North America..

OHIO ... The hot dog was invented here in 1900.

OKLAHOMA ... The grounds of the state capital are covered by operating oil wells.

OREGON ..... Has the most ghost towns in the country.

PENNSYLVANIA ... The smiley :) was first used in 1980 by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University.

RHODE ISLAND ... The nation's oldest bar, the White Horse Tavern, opened here in 1673

SOUTH CAROLINA ... Sumter County is home to the world's largest gingko farm.

SOUTH DAKOTA ... Is the only state that's never had an earthquake.

TENNESSEE ... Nashville's Grand Ole Opry is the longest running live radio show in the world.

TEXAS ... Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco back in 1885.

UTAH ... The first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant opened here in 1952.

VERMONT ... Montpelier is the only state capital without a McDonald's.

VIRGINIA ... Home of the world's largest office building ... the Pentagon.

WASHINGTON ... Seattle has twice as many college graduates as any other state.

WASHINGTON D.C. .... Was the first planned capital in the world.

WEST VIRGINIA ... Had the world's first brick-paved street, Summers Street, laid in Charleston in 1870.

WISCONSIN ... The ice cream sundae was invented here in Two Rivers in 1881 to get around Blue Laws prohibiting plain ice cream from being sold on Sundays. (However Ithaca, NY, also claims to be the birthplace of the sundae.)

WYOMING ... Was the first state to allow women to vote--in 1869!

PHOTO RESOURCE:

USA Map, Alabama Maps

Happy 96th Birthday to the Crossword Puzzle

2009-12-21T10:06:00.005-05:00

It was on this date (12/21) in 1913 that the first crossword puzzle was published - an 'invention' of fifty-one year old Arthur Wynne, and appearing in the New York World newspaper in a Sunday edition.

Wynne was an Englishman who had emigrated to the United States, and was employed by the World. His creation was the result of his editor asking for something new to add to the Fun section of the Sunday edition. Wynne modified a game he had played as a child called Magic Squares and created the crossword puzzle.

What we today call a crossword puzzle was originally called a word-cross, then cross-word, and finally crossword. It would become a fad in America during the "Roaring Twenties", and is still a popular newspaper feature throughout the world today. Simon and Schuster would publish the first crossword puzzle book in 1924.

The first crossword puzzle was diamond shaped, with none of today's blacked-out spaces. It was created entirely by hand - compared to the computer generated puzzles that dominate the market today. A fun exercise is to have students try to find the answers to the original crossword puzzle. While their great grandparents would have had to use their heads, or perhaps a dictionary, they can search the Internet to find the answers.

It's not as easy to solve as one might think - a great challenge for the kids.

Wynne eventually retired, and passed away in Clearwater, FL, in 1945.

For those of you NOT able to solve the puzzle above on your own, the answer is here.

PHOTO RESOURCES:

Arthur Wynne, Findtarget

Crossword puzzle, A Brief History of Crossword Puzzles
Wynne obituary, Findtarget

'Thanks for the Memories' - Bob Hope

2009-12-20T17:52:00.004-05:00

One of my sources mentioned that today (December 20) in 1920 Leslie Townes Hope received American citizenship. Hope was born in 1903 in England. His father moved the family to America in 1907 - though Hope often quipped that:

"I left England at the age of four when I found out I couldn't be king."

The family settled in Ohio, and Leslie became a naturalized citizen at the age of seventeen.

He was better known to Americans as Bob Hope. As I began to think about him - especially his efforts to entertain American troops during World War II (an on through Desert Storm) - I searched and found some resources that might be of use to our teachers in the classroom.

Army-Navy Screen Magazine presents a line up of stars from the Armed Forces Radio Service program "Command Performance" to entertain the troops. Filmed at Camp Roberts, California, this episode featured Hope as the host, along with a galaxy of stars who donated their time and efforts. Remember as you watch this that this was a show taped for radio broadcast - though with a live audience.

Bob Hope on Command Performance, WW II Part 1 and Part 2.

Discussion on the steak and the concept of meat rationing could be especially instructive, as well as the concept of humor to relieve crisis and stress.

A short (6 minute) but interesting compilation of Hope's USO career from World War II to Desert Storm is found here.

Finally, the Library of Congress provides information and resources on Hope's USO tours through their On the Road LOC exhibit site.

Photo Resources:

Bob Hope, Wikipedia

Bob Hope during a 1943 radio broadcast, Library of Congress

American Treasures Exhibit

2009-12-18T15:03:00.004-05:00

Wow - the 100th blog entry! What better topic than one concerning our nation's history and heritage.

I was privileged to attend the Teaching American History Project Directors conference in Washington DC last week. The conference was enlightening, as was the opportunity (evenings and an afternoon) to visit various spots in our nation’s capital on our own.

Knowing the emphasis our teachers are placing on the use of primary resources, I visited the Library of Congress, Jefferson Building – which is the oldest of the three LOC sites in the capital. It was an absolutely splendid experience – one even more impressive as I realized that the LOC was working on digitizing many of its items for display on its internet website.

It was fascinating to see a selection of Jefferson’s books, which helped restart the Library after its destruction when the British burned many of the official buildings in Washington during the War of 1812 – and to be told that he actually collected (but had not read) many of those books.

I also was able to spend an inordinate amount of my time at the American Treasures exhibit titled “Creating the United States” - which chronicled the steps to American Independence and the writing of the Constitution over a decade later. The exhibit housed maps, letters, and documents – all primary resources that could be used to teach this concept in the classroom without resorting to the textbook. It would be an engaging and innovative method of instruction with our young people, showing them the very documents and thinking that led to the foundation of our nation. The Creating the United States link. That link also has a tab that leads to interactive activities for the students.

Many of the items in the exhibit are available online at the Library of Congress. A link from the aforementioned site takes you to the Top Treasures Gallery where digitized primary resources on the Declaration of Independence, Mason’s Declaration of Rights, Washington’s Commission as Commander-in-Chief, the Constitution, and more are available.

Of course, the first item I saw was a huge map of colonial America that would look really nice hanging in my office…..
-

Most Corrupt/Incorrupt Countries List

2009-12-10T05:08:00.005-05:00

Matt Rosenberg over at the About.com Geography blog posted a site that annually rates political corruption in the countries of the world.

The host site is Transparency International, which is a global coalition reporting on corruption world-wide.

180 countries are rated through a Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) that is based on 13 independent surveys.

The least corrupt (ranked from #5 to the most least corrupt #1) nations:
5 - Switzerland
4 - Sweden
3 - Singapore
2 - Denmark
1 - New Zealand (least corrupt)

The MOST corrupt (ranked from 5th most down to the most) nations:

5 - Iraq
4 - Sudan
3 - Myanmar
2 - Afghanistan
1 - Somalia (most corrupt)

Where does the United States rank in all of this???? We are ranked 19th least corrupt - right between the United Kingdom and Barbados.

The site also contains the CPI from 2001 - 2008 which can be used for comparison purposes.

This resource could be useful for engaging students in conversations and analysis as to reason for corruption (or lack of it) as well as examples of corruption at home and abroad.

Identifying a Pearl Harbor Picture and Using a Wordle

2009-12-06T22:03:00.008-05:00

December 7th - Pearl Harbor day. I have a photo that I got from the Internet of Pearl Harbor that gives a view from (I think) a Japanese plane on that fateful day.

Unfortunately, I was not then yet marking my photos with added information - such as where I got them and what the title was.

Your help is appreciated: Can any of the readers of this blog help to identify the time, the ships, and the (Internet) source of the picture? I think I see an aircraft flying by one of the ships.

Remember: Pictures like this are primary resources too, and can help to enhance student understanding of an event, as well as to develop critical analysis skills.

On a second note - the last blog entry was on Wordles - so I became curious on the emphasis of words used in President Franklin Roosevelt's famous "Day of Infamy" speech. The wordle is below.

There are some pretty potent key words in this speech by Roosevelt, and this type of an approach could be an excellent starter for classroom discussion on the topic of American involvement in World War II.

Using Wordles for Analysis in Social Studies

2009-12-05T13:32:00.011-05:00

I like to read other blogs - for information, ideas, and/or pure enjoyment - and the Speaking of History blog had an entry recently that started some ideas in my mind. Eric Landhorst's blog article was titled Wordle of Obama's Speech on Afghanistan. Eric uses quite a bit of technology in his middle school classroom, and its having an impact of the education of his students.

I ran across the concept of wordle's last year, thought they were nice, but put no real thought to applying them in Social Studies. What is a wordle??? From the Wordle website:

"Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends."

We talk about the Gettysburg Address, and in days past (and perhaps today in some areas) had the kids memorize either all or portions of that momenteous speech. But while we read what Lincoln was saying, what was he saying? What were points of emphasis that he continually brought to bear? How can you visualize what is being said? What are the major ideas expressed in the words from the Gettysburg Address (picture to the right). A wordle can help with that. It's a great tool for analysis and could encourage a conversation.

How difficult is it to create a wordle? Humm. With the examples above, I searched (for instance) for Gettysburg Address Text, copied the first one that came up, and dropped it into the box on Wordle. Then I decided how I wanted it to look (there are choices after you have the wordle that can be found under the Layout button). Also - do I want this for my own purposes, or to share on the Wordle site? All told - from search to final product - about one minute, two at the tops

Other ideas? What about a comparison of presidential inaugural addresses in similiar times, such as FDR in 1941 (Wordle on the left) and President Obama in 2009 (Wordle on the right)? Are there similiarities? Differences? How does their perspective tie into the reality of the times, or was the speech simply rhetoric designed to placate the audience and the nation? What was the emphasis of these men in their speech? Words just leap out that can be used in a class discussion, Venn diagram, or in a comparison of one historical era to another. Wordles can help.... and it's a free, easy to use program.

By the way - what were the major word points made in Washington's Farewell Address?

100 Great Moments in American History

2009-11-29T18:03:00.003-05:00

YouTube has some incredible video clips from history. The History is Elementary blog alerted readers to a fabulous site where 100 great moments in American History are on YouTube video clips.

I am working with Information Services to allow YouTube to be in our schools. However, you might look at the videos - you can download them into your computer and then play them to your class.
Click to go to the 100 Great Moments in American History.

George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

2009-11-26T08:08:00.004-05:00

Perhaps a meaningful piece of history still applicable in its sentiments today....

George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

Mussolini + Brain + EBay

2009-11-21T05:34:00.003-05:00

Glad to see that there is a continued interest in history.... (he says with tongue in cheek)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8371171.stm

Or, for those interested, Galileo's lost body parts returned to 'responsible' hands....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8371521.stm

“Separation of Church and State”, Part I

2009-09-03T05:00:00.001-04:00

I’ve been reading Original Intent, The Courts, The Constitution, & Religion, by David Barton. It is interesting reading.

Since this is Constitution Month (and September 17 is Constitution Day, followed by Freedom Week), I thought I’d share one aspect of the Constitution and Bill of Rights from the book.

The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

According to Barton,

“The current application of the “separation of church and state” metaphor actually represents a relatively recent concept rather than the enforcement of a long-standing constitutional principal. This is demonstrated by the fact that the separation idiom appeared in only two cases in the Supreme Court’s first 150 years; yet over the past 50 years, it has been cited in seemingly countless numbers of Court decisions.”

Many of our citizens think that the phrase “separation of church and state” appears in the Constitution.

It does not.

The 1947 Supreme Court 5-4 decision in Everson v. Board of Education established the contemporary standard for this phrase. In that decision the court announced:

“The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.”

After this declaration, the Supreme Court, as well as many lower courts, began striking down religious activities and expressions which had been constitutional for the previous 150 years.

The phrase “separation of church and state” actually first appeared in an exchange of letters between President Thomas Jefferson and the Baptist Association of Danbury, Connecticut.

Jefferson was the first Anti-Federalist President, who was also a champion of the rights of minority religions (in this case Baptists) in Virginia, and an advocate of clear limits on the centralization of government powers.

The Danbury Baptists wrote to Jefferson on October 7, 1801 – nearly seven months after his first inauguration as President. In their letter of congratulations to the new President, the Danbury Baptists also expressed their concern over the entire concept of the First Amendment. They wrote:

“Our sentiments are uniformly on the side of religious liberty: that religion is at all times and places a matter between God and individuals, that no man ought to suffer in name, person, or effects on account of his religious opinions, that the legitimate power of civil government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbor. But sir, our constitution of government is not specific…. Therefore what religious privileges we enjoy (as a minor part of the State) we enjoy as favors granted, and not as inalienable rights.”

Jefferson wrote a short reply to the Danbury Baptists on January 1, 1802, in which he assured them that the free exercise of religion would not be interfered with by the national government. He wrote:

“Gentlemen, - the affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me on behalf of the Danbury Baptist Association give me the highest satisfaction. Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to no other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties. I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of man, and tender you for yourselves and your religious associations assurances of my high respect and esteem.”

Jefferson believed that religious liberties were inalienable rights and that the issue of religious expression was above federal jurisdiction.

Basically, it turns out that the Supreme Court in the Everson case rested its decision not on the Constitution, but on an interpretation of a letter to a Baptist organization by a President – who was reaffirming religious liberties. The Supreme Court went on to continually use this phrase in its decisions since the landmark 1947 case. Part II of this blog entry will explore some of those decisions.

PHOTO SOURCES:

The US Supreme Court building
The Bill of Rights

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson

Quiz Answers

2009-08-27T06:41:00.000-04:00

Here are the quiz answers to Monday's questions. How did you do?

THE ANSWERS:

1851 Peru
1776 Scotland
1829 Mexico
1863 The Netherlands
1865 The United States
1861 Russia
1876 The Ottoman Empire
1848 Denmark
1962 Saudi Arabia1837 Spain

August 23: Ending Official Slavery

2009-08-23T09:05:00.003-04:00

On August 23, 1833, Great Britain became the first of Europe’s great empires to abolish slavery in all of its colonies. While not the first to abolish slavery, Britain was the most politically powerful nation to do so up to that time. This was the beginning action that would result in the abolishing of slavery by various countries around the world.

See how well you do…. Can you match the following nations with the year listed below in which they officially abolished slavery?

Peru
Scotland
Mexico
The Netherlands
The United States
Russia
The Ottoman Empire
Denmark
Saudi Arabia
Spain

The Years:
1776
1829
1837
1848
1851
1861
1863
1865
1876
1962

The answers will be posted on this blog on Thursday, August 27.

Teaching American History Grant

2009-08-17T08:32:00.004-04:00

The nearest 'big city' television station broadcast a blurb on Citrus County receiving the Teaching American History grant.

To view the video, go to http://www.baynews9.com/VideoPlayer/?Citrus_School_Grants_816

Our district will be working hard to identify the participants and to get the program rolling.

It's an exciting time. A special thanks to Mr. Klauder for the picture.

The Calf Path

2009-08-10T06:19:00.008-04:00

Welcome back, Citrus County Social Studies teachers! It's going to be an interesting and innovative year, with increased emphasis on Web 2.0 technology as well as offering professional development for American History teachers through our federal Teaching American History Grant.

“Well”, as my students use to say, “I didn’t know this was a literature class!”

Please read the following:

The Calf-Path by Sam Walter Foss
(NH 1858-1911)

I.

One day, through the primeval wood,
A calf walked home, as good calves should;

II.

But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail as all calves do.
Since then three hundred years have fled,
And, I infer, the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.
The trail was taken up next day,
By a lone dog that passed that way.
And then a wise bell-wether sheep,
Pursued the trail o'er vale and steep;
And drew the flock behind him too,
As good bell-wethers always do.
And from that day, o'er hill and glade.
Through those old woods a path was made.

III.

And many men wound in and out,
And dodged, and turned, and bent about;
And uttered words of righteous wrath,
Because 'twas such a crooked path.
But still they followed - do not laugh -
The first migrations of that calf.
And through this winding wood-way stalked,
Because he wobbled when he walked.

IV.

This forest path became a lane,
that bent, and turned, and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load,
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half,
They trod the footsteps of that calf.

V.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet,
The road became a village street;
And this, before men were aware,
A city's crowded thoroughfare;
And soon the central street was this,
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half,
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

VI.

Each day a hundred thousand rout,
Followed the zigzag calf about;
And o'er his crooked journey went,
The traffic of a continent.
A Hundred thousand men were led,
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way,
And lost one hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent,
To well established precedent.

VII.

A moral lesson this might teach,
Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind,
Along the calf-paths of the mind;
And work away from sun to sun,
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.
They keep the path a sacred groove,
Along which all their lives they move.
But how the wise old wood gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf!
Ah! many things this tale might teach -
But I am not ordained to preach.

What path do you follow? I’m for making a path more straight – right to the heart of reaching students based on the electronic world in which they live.

Essential Question: How can we change our mindset to do two things this year: eligible teachers participate in the Teaching American History grant trainings; and to accept and adapt the new Web 2.0 technologies available for instruction of our students in the classroom?

WEB RESOURCES:

The Calf Path

PHOTO SOURCES:

01. Sam Foss Portrait, Wikipedia
02. Windy Path
03. Windy Road
-

Update: Three World War I Survivors

2009-08-04T07:39:00.002-04:00

A brief update to the July 28th blog entry: According to the BBC, there are three survivors of World War I left alive today -

To read the article, click here.

I still stand by my published desire to not let the memories of other wars - and events - disappear. For more information and sites on saving the memories of veterans, see the July 28th blog entry.

The War That Defined A Century

2009-07-28T08:18:00.006-04:00

Today is the ninety-fifth anniversary of the war that defined the character of the 20th Century and – to an extent – the experiences we have had in the 21st Century.

The men and women who lived during that time, fought the battles in the mud and trenches of France and other places around the world – they have by and large passed on, and often their stories with them. Great Britain reported in the last month the passing of their oldest WW I veteran and their last survivor of the trenches from the war. The US has two WW I veterans still living.

We are also losing our World War II veterans. Once source indicated almost a thousand of these veterans are dying in America every day. Then we have our Korean War vets, who are most likely retired by now, and our Vietnam vets, who – if not retired – are in their mid- to late-fifties.

If you personally know any vets from any era, see if they won’t talk to you about their experiences – and video tape it if you can. If you videotape it, make several copies – one for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, one for your local historical society, and one for the home town historical society of the veteran – and one for the veteran to share with his/her family. We’re losing precious stories of history every day – perhaps we need to make one small act of trying to preserve what we teach.

And – we’re not only losing the stories of the veterans, but also of those who stayed at home during these wars. They all have their own story to tell – and those stories can be a revealing and fascinating look at the past.

All of this takes a little preparation in preparing questions, filming, etc., but is well worth the effort.

Essential Question: What is our responsibility as instructors for preserving the voices of the past?
-

Book Review: The Lions of Iwo Jima

2009-07-26T07:59:00.007-04:00

I just finished reading “The Lions of Iwo Jima: The story of Combat Team 28 and the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history” by MG Fred Haynes and James Warren. The book is in our county library system, and was published in 2008.

If you have an interest in World War II, the Pacific arena, this would be a good read for you.

Combat Team 28 was assigned to participate in the invasions of Iwo Jima, to capture Mount Suribachi, and after the capture went on to fight throughout the Iwo Jima campaign. It was captured the last of the island after a bloody, draining month-long battle.

Fred Haynes was a young Marine captain in the 28th Combat Team. His memories, combined with solid research by Warren, provide an excellent first-person account of the action. His descriptions bring forth the horror of war and the dedication of those who fight it.

From the destruction at the beach to the raising of the flag (twice) at Mount Suribachi and from the constant deadly battle with snipers to the final bloody, exhausting days at Bloody Gorge a month after the invasion took place, this book provides an insightful view of what happened, with extensive research of documents, survivor interviews, and an intricately woven story.

Especially interesting is the chapter titled “The Enemy” which investigates why the Japanese fought as doggedly and self-sacrificing as they did, preferring death to capture.

For additional reviews, check at Amazon, Large Print Reviews, and McMillan.

Essential Question: What would be the effect today - given increased communications availability - of a battle such as Iwo Jima?

Civics in Action - Local Constitutional Issue

2009-07-22T17:30:00.009-04:00

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

How valuable are our First Amendment rights to us? I saw both sides as I watched the progress of debate over a Constitutional issue that occurred right here in the county seat of Citrus County.

Background: On July 3rd the City of Inverness hosted an Independence Day celebration with entertainment and fireworks at the city-owned Liberty Park. It was designated as a public event, starting at 6:30 PM.

At least three local pastors with members of their congregation went to the park – arriving around 4 PM - to distribute tracts to those interested in taking them, with the intent of stopping when the formal activities began at 6:30. This was not a collaborative planned effort by the pastors – each went independently from the others.

A Sheriff’s deputy ordered one of the pastors - Pastor Sheppard, pastor of Citrus Baptist Missionary Church, to stop preaching and distributing tracts. Sheppard stated that it was a public event, public property, and that he was allowed by the Constitution of the United States to do so.

Contradictory advice was given by other deputies stationed in the park as to the legality of preaching and passing out tracts prior to the scheduled City activities, so Sheppard continued preaching and handing out tracts.

The deputy came by later and again ordered him to stop, threatening arrest for trespassing, and then ordered him out of the park. Later he ordered the pastor’s wife and 5 children (ages between 1 and 8) from the park for creating what he termed “a religious compound” (a child’s wagon with two Scripture verses on it) – perhaps a reference to the Branch Dividians?

Sheppard left, and began preaching and distributing tracts on the public right-of-way outside of the park. The deputy came again and ordered the pastor to stop. Sheppard refused, citing his Constitutional rights, pointing that he was outside of the park, on a public right-of-way. The deputy left, and later brought back the Park Director, who told the pastor that he could not preach or distribute tracts in the park – it was against a city ordinance. Pastor Sheppard pointed out again that he was no longer in the park, but on a public right-of-way, and that the park director’s stance was unconstitutional.

Another pastor – Pastor Stine of Bethel Baptist Church - arrived, and was informed that he could not preach or distribute tracts in the park either. Stine had been doing this at the Independence Day event for several years, and was surprised at the restriction. He also wound up distributing tracts outside of the park.

The tracts were simply offered to people and not forced upon them, and all preaching was done by voice only, without the assistance of any electronic amplifiers.

The Process:

The issue was brought before the Inverness City Council at their regularly scheduled meeting July 21st. Their agenda provided time for Sheppard to speak, and contains letters between Sheppard and the Inverness city manager, Frank DiGiovanni, requesting time to address the City Council, as well as a letter from a law firm reiterating the legal protections found under the First Amendment.

Over seventy people attended the meeting – the majority to provide support for the pastor’s cause. Pastor Sheppard presented his case, including a listing of some city ordinances that were in conflict with county, state, and federal law. He also pointed out that the Sheriff’s Department had never harassed him before, but that his concern was that there was inconsistency in the laws of the city affecting public speaking, as well as a lack of training to so officers could provide a consistent answer to question relating to citizen rights.

Sheppard pointed out the incongruousness of the issue: the restriction of his rights occurred at Liberty Park, celebrating Independence Day.

The city attorney commented that some of the ordinances were of ‘dubious constitutionality’ and that he and the city manager planned to rewrite the city code. The Council was attentive and supportive in its statements – but deferred any decisions until the codes are rewritten.

The Concern:

They are two-fold:

One: What is the concern of the citizenry for maintaining their rights? The quote by Martin Niemoller, the pastor of a Protestant congregation in Germany who was imprisoned in a concentration camp during the reign of Adolf Hitler, comes to mind:

They came after the Jews,
But I was not a Jew, so I did not object.
Then they came after the Catholics,
But I was not a Catholic, so I did not object.
Then they came after the Trade Unionists,
But I was not a Trade Unionist, so I did not object.
Then they came after me,
And there was no one left to object.

While the clear majority of those at the City Council meeting were concerned and supportive, two thoughts come to mind:

-One lady – after Pastor Sheppard finished speaking and another gentleman asked if he could address the Council on the issue – whispered to her husband ‘Isn’t this ever going to end’, then proceeded to focus her attention on a grocery sales receipt for the next ten minutes. She was attending the City Council meeting for another agenda item.

-Where were the other pastors, deacons, church members of the area? Is this not a concern of theirs as well? Yet only two or three pastors came, and perhaps forty church members.

Two: Unlimited and unregulated power for any agency will result in the loss of rights and legal protection. I’m a strong supporter of law-enforcement and the work our officers do – but they are not always right, and some of them need to recognize that fact. Stubbornness, prejudice, and rash action took place over consideration of the rights and intent of the law – by those who should be enforcing it. My hat is off to the City Council for their attention and thoughts on the matter, and to the city attorney for his honest evaluation of the pertinent city ordinances and code, and to pastors Sheppard and Stine - as well as the other speakers - who were willing to defend their rights.

The story isn’t finished yet, and a final resolution hasn’t been reached. Only time will tell the final direction that this Civics in Action lesson will take.

Hopefully everyone will learn about the Constitution a little better than the person in this video clip.

As John Adams stated:

"But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

Essential Question: How can a local incident like this be used to teach civic rights and responsibilities to our students?

PHOTO RESOURCE:

Bill of Rights

Morphing Presidents

2009-07-21T05:00:00.002-04:00

I was reading the Presidents Blog this weekend titled ‘Mighty Morphing Presidents’, and saw an article based on a video created by ‘poldivideo’ for YouTube. It’s rather neat, and could be used as an introduction to a unit on the Presidents. The YouTube title is “From George Washington To Barack Obama - A Long Way - Original Video”. Turn on your speakers and enjoy – it’s only four minutes long.

PHOTO RESOURCE:

Mount Rushmore, on Wikipedia

Man Steps on the Moon - 40 Years Ago

2009-07-20T05:00:00.008-04:00

We don’t seem to like to celebrate the fourth year, or eighth, or ninety-first anniversary of something. It seems as though if there is not a “0” as the last digit, it’s not worth celebrating.

Monday, July 20, is the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. It is a historic occasion – the record of which was almost lost to posterity. NASA released information in 2006 that the original data disks recording the event of man’s first steps on the moon had been erased years ago in order to reuse the disks.

Fortunately, history was preserved. Copies were found in the Johnson Space Center, a tracking station in Australia, and the archives of CBS News. Lowry Digital, a recording company in California, is in the process of digitizing the copies.

A sample of the digitized videos is on the NASA webpage – and the complete set of which will be released in September. There will eventually be about two and a half hours of video available.

A couple of other tidbits: The Daily Telegraph (UK) had an article on trivia about the landing that is interesting, as well two BBC News articles - one titled Weaving the Way To The Moon and the other titled Audio slideshow: Man on the Moon.

I remember watching on television (live) as Neil Armstrong decending the ladder from the Eagle to the surface of the moon. It was almost 10 PM Central time.

History has been preserved… but what lessons have been learned?

Essential question: What value can be placed on preserving documentation of the historic moon landing?

PHOTO RESOURCES:

BBC News

Apollo Moonwalk: NASA

Landing Module Eagle: Wikipedia

Citrus County TEA Party

2009-07-18T12:17:00.005-04:00

On April 18, 2009, Citrus County joined with numerous other sites across the United States and held a TEA Party at the old Courthouse. Over 1,000 citizens came to voice their protest on what they perceive as reckless spending and the cost of increasing taxes - local, state, and Federal - as well as a more drastic move toward creating a socialist state.

Here is a YouTube summary of the event. Civics in Action!

Essential Question: What rights listed under the Bill of Rights were the citizens exercising during the TEA Party?

National Day on Writing: October 20, 2009

2009-07-16T11:28:00.004-04:00

In order to show competency, understanding, and the thinking process of any of the various areas that fall under the concept of Social Studies, one must be able to write, and write effectively, in a variety of formats.

Often writing is an overlooked aspect of our work, or one of a continue debate of “that’s the English department’s job”.

The NCTE (the National Council of Teachers of English) is emphasizing the need for effective writing in all formats through the National Day on Writing, which is on October 20, 2009 this year. Their website contains a wealth of information concerning the National Day of Writing.

From their site:

Why a National Day on Writing?
In light of the significance of writing in our national life, to draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing we engage in, and to help writers from all walks of life recognize how important writing is to their lives, October 20, 2009, will be celebrated as The National Day on Writing. The National Day on Writing will
-celebrate the foundational place of writing in Americans' personal, professional, and civic lives.
-point to the importance of writing instruction and practice at every grade level, for every student and in every subject area from preschool through university. (See The Genteel Unteaching of America’s Poor.)
-emphasize the lifelong process of learning to write and composing for different audiences, purposes, and occasions.
-recognize the scope and range of writing done by the American people and others.
-honor the use of the full range of media for composing.
-encourage Americans to write and enjoy and learn from the writing of others.

I would encourage our teachers to think about implementing a special writing activity on October 20th in order to help emphasize the importance of writing in our lives.

Essential Question: What place does writing hold in the Social Studies classroom?

PHOTO RESOURCE:

Hephaestus Audio

-

Lessons Life Taught Me

2009-07-14T20:16:00.001-04:00

Regina Britt wrote the following in the Plain Dealer in 2006, and on Britt's blog in 2007. It's being presented here just for something to think about as a new school year starts.

To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.

It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here's an update:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.

17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.

18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone everything.

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

35. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

36. Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.

38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.

39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

41. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

42. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

45. The best is yet to come.

46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

48. If you don't ask, you don't get.

49. Yield.

50. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Essential Question: How might these lessons on life be used in the classroom?
-

From BBC News: Nine Reasons to Celebrate America

2009-07-14T04:30:00.002-04:00

In celebration of our 233rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, BBC News correspondent Kevin Connolly provides his lighthearted list of reasons why America should be celebrated. This is one man’s view, focusing on technological, industrial, and social facets of America rather than political ideals.

Still, it’s rather interesting to see the view of our cousins across the pond.

To read the article, go here.

Essential Question: What type of list of reasons to celebrate America would our students compile?

Book Review: Visions from a Foxhole

2009-07-12T09:04:00.005-04:00

I just finished reading a book written by a World War II veteran, and found it fascinating enough to share and encourage others to check it out and read it.

I always like the ‘grunts’ view of war – not the huge strategic plans moving armies and tens of thousands of men hither and yon. I like to read and share somewhat the experiences of the man in the trenches (World War I) or the foxhole (World War II) or the trenches again (Korea) or the fortified hamlets and firebases (Vietnam). These are men who did not know the whole scope of the war – their focus was on surviving day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.

Visions from a Foxhole: A Rifleman in Patton’s Ghost Corps was written by 94th Infantry Division veteran William A. Foley Jr. – who was eighteen years old when he joined with the division in January 1945.

In his book Foley graphically describes the infantryman’s view of war – the shelling, the mines, the snipers, and the intense combat that, even in the last stages of World War II in Europe, was up close and personal.

What really stirred me with this book was the artistry of the author. He drew during the war, fleshed out the images, and now presents a selection of them in his book.

The author readily admits a lack of ability to remember names – I can relate to that – and some of the flow of events (though not the experiences) have faded over the years since the war ended. Combining his experiences with research on the 94th Division, Foley has created a credible story of survival during his five months ‘over there’.

Foley is was interviewed for the Library of Congress Veteran’s Project, and four of his drawings are posted there. It might be helpful to read the Amazon reviews as well.

Our local Citrus County library has this book available.

Essential Question: How could a resource like this book be used in a Social Studies classroom?

PHOTO SOURCES:

Library of Congress Veteran’s Project
Amazon

The 45 Goals of Communism in America: 1963... and Today?

2009-07-10T04:00:00.001-04:00

After posting an earlier blog on a Russian’s view of America’s path, I remembered something I heard when I was at a conference in May. There I heard one speaker refer to ‘the 45 Goals of Communism’ and how they were being fulfilled. Curious about this, I looked them up.

Florida Congressman Albert S. Herlong, Jr read the now-famous ‘45 Goals of Communism’ into the Congressional Record on January 10, 1963. Herlong served in Congress from 1949 to 1969.

This list was derived from a book titled “The Naked Communist”, by Willard Cleon Skousen.

The list is interesting both historically, and as application to events that have occurred during the last forty-six years. To read all of them, go here.

Below are just two or three highlights from the list that are particular to our discipline:

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

I find of particular interest how many of these are either fulfilled or in the process of being fulfilled. I’d encourage readers to look at these claims for themselves, and see what they think. I know there are a few claims I’d like to find out more about, and how it will influence my country.

Essential Question: In a world where the term ‘Communism’ is not really known nor frequently studied in American classrooms, what use would a document like the one above have for applying the concept of history and historical trends to our students?

PHOTO SOURCES:

Albert S. Herlong portrait, Florida Memory
Albert S. Herlong talking, Florida Memory
-

Cross of Gold

2009-07-09T04:00:00.006-04:00

One hundred thirteen years ago, on July 9, 1896, William Jennings Bryan stepped to the podium at the Democratic National Convention and made what was to become one of the most famous speeches in American History.

The Democratic National Convention was debating the issue of bimetallism – the keeping of silver and gold as backing for the economic system versus following the trend of many European countries and use only a gold standard. The idea of bimetallism was popular with the common man – and was a standard for the Populist Party – but it was unpopular with big business and banking interests. The issues centered on helping those who were in debt by making money more available or protecting those who loaned money – the business and banking interests. A similar argument seems to be going on today – as well as the trend toward following others versus leading others on the international scene.

There was a reason for the debate: The People’s Party (popularly known as the Populists Party) was a popular third party. Traditionally in America when the issues backed by third parties become too popular, one of the two major parties adopt them, thus taking the steam from the upstart newcomer. Hence we’ve remained primarily a two-party system. The Populists had several popular issues that the Democrats were addressing in their platform in 1896.

Bryan – thirty-six years old – stepped to the podium and gave a speech that rocked the convention and rocketed him into the limelight.

His speech was so well received that he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for President the next day. He would lose the election, and gold would become the monetary standard for the United States from 1900 until 1975, when the dollar became our ‘fiat’ money (money with no intrinsic value other than the faith and credit placed on it).

You can here Jennings recreation of the speech for a recording twenty-five years after his original speech here. YouTube has an interesting 3-minute presentation here. You can read the entire speech here. Finally, a lesson plan on bimetallism can be found here. This lesson includes an excellent video explaining the issue of bimetallism - click here to see it.

While the Cross of Gold speech is not often studied today, perhaps it is one we should take a look at again – with 113 years of perspective.

Essential Question: What relationship do the famous historic speeches of the past have on the world we live in today?

PHOTO SOURCES:

William Jennings Bryan portrait, Library of Congress ID cph 3a00786
William Jennings Bryan at the Convention, Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
Opposing cartoon, Wikipedia
-

“American Capitalism Gone With A Whimper”

2009-07-08T08:20:00.001-04:00

An article appeared in the April 27, 2009 online issue of Pravda that could engender some conversation in the classroom – teaching the students to move from thoughts based on opinion to thoughts based on facts.

I like to look at news articles from a variety of national sources when I have the time (the only one I regularly peruse is the BBC Minute News online, but I have a couple of other sites that I check on occasion) as it gives an interesting and sometimes disturbing perspective that is not presented in the American news media for a variety of reasons. Sometimes I find articles on other blogs I read. This article came via The Examiner.

The title of the article is “American Capitalism Gone With A Whimper”, and is attributed to Stanislav Mishin. While the article is in the opinion section of Pravda, it must be remembered that Pravda is the newspaper representing the State. Hence, is it incorrect to assume that articles published represent the view of the State, or at least of the individuals of influence in the State?

While his article is not something most American’s want to hear or think about, it does have some interesting points. It’s basic premise is that the United States is rapidly and inexplicably moving toward Marxism – and he presents his evidence. I’d encourage you to read it and see what you think.

Essential Question: What is the value of using the perspective from other nations – so readily available on the Web today – in the classroom?

PHOTO RESOURCE: Pravda

Library of Congress: Teacher Site

2009-07-06T18:45:00.003-04:00

I was reading through the Library of Congress blog last week and came across an entry of interest.

We have been emphasizing the use of primary resources in the classroom recently, and the Library of Congress is one of the primary resources that we used in our trainings. This LOC offering is an excellent tool for teachers – and students – to use in learning how to utilize the LOC as a powerful resource for the classroom.

The article was titled “New Teachers Site Is All Class”, and is one that is worth reading. If you click here you will go to a LOC page called “Resources for Teachers”, which lists classroom materials the teacher can access and use, as well as the professional development available. If you click on TPS Direct you will link to the first of six self-paced professional development modules: Introduction to the Library of Congress. The other modules will be added

As you go through the module, take your time – even if you ‘know’ what it’s talking about. First, it’s a good refresher and second, it doesn’t take all that long. I went through the “Getting Started” portion of the module prior to beginning the program.

I’ve started the initial course – am on Chapter 4 of 7 chapters - and am finding the material engaging, informative, and useful. I believe at the end the participant receives a certificate – which you can use to get inservice hours in our District’s Professional Development plan.

Just heed this bit of advice… don’t skip anything as you go through.

Essential question: How could the use of Primary Resources be used to enhance a student’s reading and analytical skills?

How the FBI Broke Saddam: The Whole Series

2009-07-04T11:45:00.002-04:00

James Gordon Meek has completed his series on How the FBI Broke Saddam in the New York Daily News “Mouth of the Potomac” blog.

If you have a chance, it would be worthwhile to read this engaging and interesting story which provides insight into Saddam, the war, and the FBI. The links are:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

There are also links to the FBI interrogation reports.

These articles could be a powerful tool in teaching this era of our history.

Essential Question: What type of classroom discussions could you foresee based on this (and the future 'to be published') articles?

Photo Resource:Saddam Hussein, Wikipedia

A Civics Question from the Past Still Relevant Today

2009-07-02T09:43:00.005-04:00

My hobby is collecting old time radio shows (OTR). Recently I was listening to the March 18, 1939 broadcast of Information Please, hosted by Clifton Fadiman. The show has a panel of four noted and wise individuals, and the premise of the show is that it gives the public a chance to stump the experts.

These experts, including regulars such as writer, actor, pianist Oscar Levant as well as newspaper editor, columnist and intellectual Franklin P. Adams and sports columnist and intellectual John Kieran, along with guests such as playwright Moss Hart and mystery author Rex Stout (who created the fictional crime fighter Nero Wolfe) who would field an amazing array of questions, and – in the midst of fun and entertainment – answer a significant number of them correctly. After all, they were the experts.

One that stumped three of the four of the very intelligent members in the March 18th episode was one that every American should know.

Having said that, I need to come down off of my high horse and admit that I did not know the complete answer either.

Can you, without using outside resources, answer this question from the show?

From Information Please, 3/28/1939: This question has three parts.

1. Name of your Congressman.

2. Name the Congressional District you live in.

3. Name your Congressman’s political party.

What is yours?

If you are stumped on the complete answer, as I was, check here.

Essential Question: Why is political awareness a valuable and essential attibute for American citizens to have?

PHOTO RESOURCE:

Information Please Panel, from Old Time Radio Catalog.

July 1, 1943: Pay-As-You-Go Income Tax Begins

2009-06-30T18:55:00.008-04:00

1943: Tops songs like “Comin’ in on a Wing and a Prayer” by the Song Spinners and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” by Bing Crosby filled the airwaves. World War II was beginning to turn in America’s favor as the Japanese and German expansion in the Pacific and Africa were stopped, then thrown back through such costly victories at Tarawa in the Pacific and defeat of the Afrika Corps in North Africa, followed by the Allied invasion of Sicily - then Italy - in Europe. Millions were eligible for the draft in the United States, women were holding traditionally men’s jobs, and we were committed that the men and women in the military were to be supported in any way possible.

It was the year of the steel penny (copper was to valuable to put in pennies – it was needed for the war industries), rent control, and rationing – which now included canned goods, meat, fat, cheese, and shoes. Bread had to be sliced at home, meat was rationed at 28 ounces per person per week, and the government ordered minimum forty-eight hour work weeks at key defense industry plants.

And it was the year that the pay-as-you-go income tax was incorporated into the American scene.

While it had been tried before – during the Civil War and after – Income Tax achieved constitutional legality with the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913. March 15th became the traditional due date for the last of yearly tax payments made quarterly by corporations and upper income groups. The lower income groups did not have to pay income tax at this time. However, the tremendous expenditures of monies by the United States at home and abroad during World War II created a fiscal nightmare. Henry Morgenthau, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, advocated a pay-as-you-go format on an increased base of income levels so that there would be a constant flow of monies into the government coffers to meet the emergency expenses of war as well as to combat inflation.

On July 1, 1943 – after much debate and compromise - Congress passed the Current Tax Payment Act, placing a withholding tax on wages and salaries in order to allow workers to stay current with their tax liabilities, and to provide continuous and regular funding for the war effort. It was the result of efforts by Beardsley Ruml, Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and treasures of Macy and Company, who was championing the new form of collecting taxes. He asked in his pamphlet what would happen if American “just started paying income tax, but on this year instead of last year?” He proposed to “forgive” the 1942 tax bill in order to avoid double taxing. The end result of compromise and the wording of the new law forgave taxes on lower incomes, maintained them on high incomes, and began collecting through withholding on all incomes. The withholding rate during this financial crisis caused by the huge expenditures of World War II: 19% on an annual income of $2000, with up to 80% on incomes over $200,000.

A strong advertising campaign was organized in print and radio. Walt Disney was recruited to create a film showing that paying ‘taxes to beat the Axis’ was patriotic – a task that cartoon character Donald Duck did in The Spirit of '43. Noted composer Irving Berlin included lyrics in a song titled “I Paid My Taxes Today” that supported the income tax: "You see those bombers in the sky, Rockefeller helped to build them, so did I, I paid my income tax today."

The American public liked the idea, and by year’s end 74% of Americans were paying income tax – through withholding – financing the war effort. The idea of pay-as-you-go through withholding is still with us 64 years after war’s end.

Essential Question: How could students best investigate and analyze the advocacy used by the Federal Government to promote the concept of pay-as-you-go taxation?

WEB RESOURCES:

Income Taxes are Cartoon Images of the Law
Kilroy was Here
Income Taxes, War, and the Mennonites
Randolph Paul Address, 1943
Revenue Objectives of the 1943 bill
Sixteenth Amendment
The Dirty Truth About Income Taxes
The Plan That Slogans Built
YouTube

PHOTO RESOURCES:

01. 1943 Tax Form

02. Steel Penny

03. Donald Duck

How the FBI Broke Saddam

2009-06-28T19:41:00.006-04:00

An interesting article in the New York Daily News "Mouth of the Potomac" blog by James Gordon Meek on the FBI's tactics in getting Saddam Hussein's confessions and comments over a period of several months. It makes interesting reading, and provides insight to the events of late 2003 and 2004.

If you have the chance, read How the FBI Broke Saddam - Part 1. I'll post the other articles as they come available.

These articles could be a powerful tool in teaching this period of time.

Essential Question: What type of classroom discussions could you foresee based on this (and the future 'to be published') articles?

Photo Resource:
Saddam Hussein, Wikipedia

-

World Drugs in Graphics

2009-06-26T12:40:00.003-04:00

I really like my online BBC News. It presents a view of the world, events, and issues in a manner that is often different from our home-grown talking heads.

A June 24th 'Special Report' focused on World Drugs in Graphics and presented a good summary of the current drug-usage nation-states that has a number of excellent graphs showing the data. This could be a good source for use in current events in the social studies classroom.

It is of no surprise that the US is #1 in both use of cocaine among young people and use of cannabis among young people.

A companion article titled UN shows scale of UK cocaine use took a look at the use of cocaine - and the increasing dilution of the products being illegally sold. Again, good information for a conversation with the students.

Essential Question: How can the data provided by articles be effectively used in the classroom?

60 Second Civics

2009-06-25T08:00:00.001-04:00

A great tool for all Social Studies classes just came into my work-email. From the Center for Civics Education ’60-Second Civics” webpage:

“60-Second Civics is a daily podcast that provides a quick and convenient way for listeners to learn about our nation’s government, the Constitution, and our history. The podcast explores themes related to civics and government, the constitutional issues behind the headlines, and the people and ideas that formed our nation’s history and government.

60-Second Civics is produced by the Center for Civic Education. The show's content is primarily derived from the Center’s education for democracy curricula, including We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution, Project Citizen, Foundations of Democracy, and Elements of Democracy.”

The site also provides a short daily quiz, dealing with a topic discussed in the daily podcast. There are also links to past podcasts, as well as downloading capability so you can utilize the podcasts in the classroom – or if you are really dedicated, on your iPod! The first episode, “What is 60-Second Civics? [Play] In this episode, host Kaci Patterson introduces 60-Second Civics, the Center for Civic Education's new daily podcast about civics and government” is located here.

So, plug in the speakers, turn up the volume, and listen to this daily.

Essential Question: How could a daily podcast be best utilized on a regular basis in the Social Studies Classroom.

PHOTO RESOURCE:

George Washington: Father of Our Country

-

Failed States: 2009 Report Released

2009-06-24T18:51:00.003-04:00

I was reading one of the blogs I subscribe to - Matt Rosenberg's ABOUT.Geography blog - and saw this article of interest. Foreign Policy Magazine has released its fifth annual Failed States Index.

I'd recommend that all interested parties take the time to read through the report. Some interesting - and perhaps unexpected - information is presented in the report

The number 1 failed state? Somalia. Pakistan is number 10. The United States is rated as 'stable' in a ranking system that goes up to 'most stable' - the latter rank includes countries like New Zealand and Norway.

Be sure to check out the interactive map and the criteria for the rankings.

Interpreting Operation Barbarossa

2009-06-21T07:05:00.007-04:00

Politics makes strange bedfellows – and what can be classified as perhaps the strangest international bedfellow mix was that of Nazi Germany and the communist Soviet Union.

Hitler, a rabid anti-Communist, agreed with the Soviet Union to partition Poland in 1939. He had planned all along to destroy the country, but needed to secure one border while he waged war in the West against France, Britain, Belgium, and the Low Countries.

Hitler had the plans for attacking the Soviet Union drawn up in in the fall of 1940, but the stubbornness of Great Britain in withstanding the attacks of the German air force and naval units at home and abroad, postponed the plans for a year. In 1941 – despite the continued resistance of Britain at home and in North Africa, Hitler decided he had to destroy his ideological enemy, the Soviet Union. Actually, Josef Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union, had foreseen an upcoming war with Germany – but on his terms and his plans, which involved plans for an attack against Germany in July of 1941.

While Operation Barbarossa was scheduled to start on May 15, 1941, but difficulties in the Balkans – where German forces rushed in to assist the Italians in Greece and Crete – and the sending of the Afrika Corps to North Africa temporarily drained some of the troops and equipment needed

At 3:15 a.m. on Sunday, June 22, 1941, the largest invasion in history began – some 3.9 million German and allied soldiers, 3580 tanks, 7184 artillery guns, 1830 planes and 750,000 horses. The delay in launching the attack was costly – Hitler made the same mistakes as Napoleon did in 1812, seeking to conquer territory and cities and placing a priority on complete destruction of the enemy’s military machine. His troops were stopped at the gates of Moscow, and the next four years would be long, bloody, and epic in their suffering and destruction.

While arguably Hitler made many blunders during World War II, this was perhaps the biggest one, setting up a two-front war, leaving a defiant England behind, draining troops and equipment that was needed on other fronts (most specifically North Africa), and repeating the mistakes of Napoleon from almost a hundred and thirty years before.

Overextended supply lines, underestimating the resiliency of their opponents, faulty intelligence, overextension of German forces involved in a two (actually three, including North Africa at the time) front war would cause a catastrophic failure that in the end would result in the destruction of Germany.

I can’t help but wonder if historians will look back and lay an ‘Operation Barbarossa’ at America’s feet – and what that act will be. Is such an event in our near or distant future – or has it already occurred and we don’t realize it.

Essential Question: How can we best utilize events of the past in an engaging and interactive way to create an understanding of the wider scope of history to our students?

Photo Resources:

01. German infantry: Discovery Channel
02. Invasion map: Century of Flight
03. Soviet poster during WW II: Soviet Library

Library of Congress, Flicker, and Historic Newspapers

2009-06-14T05:00:00.004-04:00

I was doing my (apparently) weekly catch-up on blogs when I read the one from the folks at the Library of Congress. They have set up a new series – which will be growing continually – on Flickr which deals with historic newspapers. From their blog:

“Today the Library launched a new photostream on our Flickr page to celebrate this visual heritage. It is a series of 52 weekly supplements in the New-York Tribune, beginning 100 years ago in 1909. About 50 new pages will be added to the stream every month.”

TIP: Be sure to click on the ‘all sizes’ button on the Flickr site in order to enlarge the picture – all of the way to ‘original’ size.

Earlier this year in my blog I had written about some statistics from a hundred years ago. I know when I was in the classroom one could build an entire unit around the ‘hundred years ago’ concept – of course, when I started teaching was the hundredth year since Grant defeated Greeley – and the kids always enjoyed ‘looking back’.

I’d encourage teachers to take a look at the new Library of Congress initiative and see (and share) how they could use this in the classroom!

Essential Question: What classroom strategies could be used for teaching by using this Library of Congress material?

Historic Vacations?

2009-06-11T08:10:00.008-04:00

Summer vacations are here, and I have to admit that I am curious if my vacation time with the family is the same or different from other Social Studies teachers.

My children didn’t really know what a theme park was as far as the ‘vacation concept’ was involved. We would – when we could travel – visit battlefields, President’s homes, museums, historic sites. Places like Williamsburg, Kings Mountain, Plymouth Plantation, Gettysburg, Washington DC, Smithsonian, Antietam, the Natchez Trace, National Air Museum, etc., fill our log book of places seen. Fortunately, I married a woman of similar interests....

That process continues today. In my current position, I have a five-day ‘vacation’ during the summer. I’ve already had mine, although I have to admit I’ve gotten a little more flexible in my old age – we actually visited a theme park of sorts - Rock City.

Of course, the kids add their own twists to the visits. We are now (and have been for several years) accompanied by Rebecca the pet rock. She's in the pictures... see if you can find her.

Rock City, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Point Park, atop Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee
The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home, Nashville, Tennessee.

What kind of vacation are you planning?

Essential Question: How does visiting historic sites enhance the ability of the teacher to better understand and present the historicity of the locale/event?

The Longest Day

2009-06-02T22:37:00.009-04:00

This Saturday is June 6th – the 65th anniversary of the Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy, perhaps the greatest invasion landing force ever launched. Precious few of those who were there survive today to tell their story to this generation.

Do we encourage our students to commemorate this event? Or realize its significance? There are a variety of ways to learn more about D-Day. For instance, the students could be directed to websites with veteran interviews:

-Veterans History Project
-National D-Day Memorial
-American Experience

Or, some interesting and readable books that would pique the interest of the students. While many books on this subject are available, some of my favorites are:

-D-Day June 6, 1944: The Climatic Battle of World War II, by Stephen Ambrose
-True Stories of D-Day, by Henry Brook
-D-Day Survivor, by Harold Baumgarten
and my personal favorite:
-The Longest Day, by Cornelius Ryan

There are also a lot of films available concerning D-Day. The History Channel will undoubtedly be running some shows, and some of the many movies available are:

-Saving Private Ryan
-Band of Brothers

and, The Longest Day DVD

I usually listen to segments of the 24-hour radio broadcast to get the idea of the excitement over the invasion caused by the news releases of the day. The collection is located through a link near the bottom of the page on our Social Studies website.

For primary resources on D-Day, visit NARA where they have lessons and materials on the invasion, including Eisenhower’s letter that he wrote ‘in case of failure’.

What does my June 6th look like? Some radio, and watching The Longest Day with my family – pretty much an annual event in our household.

Essential Question: What could our teachers and students do to personally recognize D-Day?

Photo Resources:

Dday 01. Landing Craft: NARA
Dday 01. The Longest Day book by Cornelius Ryan
Dday 03. Eisenhower Note: NARA

The 29th Anniversary of 24/7 Cable News

2009-05-29T04:00:00.004-04:00

CNN. Those initials have become the by-word representing an innovative concept – now imitated by other agencies around the world – of making the news available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

CNN (Cable Network News) was launched on June 1, 1980. The brainchild of Ted Turner, CNN has revolutionized the world of news, affected American policy, and influenced the way Americans – and the world - think. Can students today even conceive of the 15-minute (later expanded to half-an-hour) news brought to us by ABC, CBS, and NBC back in the 1950s and 1960s? The news with Walter Cronkite was ‘family television time’ in our household when I was growing up. Now that half hour has expanded into twenty-four hours – and no longer ‘family discussion’ time.

CNN – and other 24/7 news stations – have backed a number of causes and politicians – although very subtly – and has had an influence on what we think and believe, hence continuing the traditional role of the press in America. It is also causing the decline – along with the spread of the Internet – of the printed newspaper, which has always provided a chance for the reader to study and reflect on the news.

Talk about the power of the press – or electrons!

What a discussion point for our students as the school year nears an end: perhaps a question such as ‘what is the effect of CNN on our perception of the President’?

And some people thought the idea of news being available 24/7 was silly and would never work It is admittedly fascinating the see images from around the world beamed into our living room whenever we want to turn to the news channel.

Essential Question: What long-range effects does the 24/7 news concept have on our perceptions of the world and our lifestyles?

PHOTO RESOURCES:

Allfreelogo

The Government on YouTube

2009-05-27T19:00:00.003-04:00

This past week was a busy week at work and home, and I didn’t have the opportunity to do my usual ‘perusal of the blogs’ routine until Saturday night. There are some advantages to a once-a-week review of my favorite blog sites, as well as some disadvantages.

As I was reviewing the new entries on the Library of Congress blog site I found a blog entry titled “Uncle Sam 2.0: U.S. Government Goes YouTube”. After spending a little time there reviewing the content, I felt it was a site worth sharing with our Social Studies folks.

The home page for the site is the U.S. Government Channel. To access it, you will have to use a home or public library computer, as our District filters block YouTube. More on that later.

Some of the entries were a little disappointing – such as the FDIC Channel’s collection of short PSA’s (Public Service Announcements) – while other entries have quite a bit of potential for judicious use in the classroom. However, some gems were found in the History, Arts, and Culture channel as well as The White House channel – which has weekly broadcasts from the President concerning policies, directions we are heading, as well as current issues the United States is facing.

These could be very valuable as instructional tools when appropriately used. They could be wonderful class discussion starters; for analysis of politics, propaganda, and viewpoints; as well further resources for each of the fields of Social Studies.

While our District filters out live YouTube viewing, the selections can be downloaded and played from a classroom computer. Thumb drives are great for moving the file from home to work.

I would encourage you to take a peek at the site, explore, and determine if there is any entries at the site that you feel would be appropriate in the classroom. I know that I did not take the time to look at all of the channels, but the site is on my 'go back and visit often' list.

I wonder if our Florida government will be doing the same thing?

Essential Question: Do you view the YouTube U.S. Government Channel as a valuable resource for education or a powerful tool of salesmanship and influence?

Picture Resource:
U.S. Capitol Building, about.com

Letters of the Delegates

2009-05-23T16:36:00.003-04:00

The Library of Congress has wonderful online resources for the Social Studies teacher. I came across one the other day while ‘surfing’ through the American Memory portal of the LOC webpage: Letters of the Delegates.

This site contains links to letters and diary entries of many of the delegates to the Continental Congress, and covers the years 1774 – 1788. It is easy to navigate through the letters, as the initial division is by date – usually covering a three to five month block. Once you link to that three-to-five month block, the names of the authors of these letters are show. If the document is a letter, it also shows whom the letter is to.

An example of some of the insight provided by perusing this collection: A letter from John Hancock to George Washington on May 16, 1776, inviting the General to Philadelphia to discuss matters with Congress – and offering to share his residence with General Washington and his wife.

Sir, Philadelphia May 16th. 1776. I do myself the Honour to enclose you several Resolutions passed by the Congress, to which I beg Leave to refer you. The Congress being of Opinion, that it is necessary, as well for your Health, as the public Service, that you should embrace the earliest opportunity of coming to Philadelphia, have directed me to write to you, and request, that you will repair to Philada. as soon as you can conveniently, in order to consult with Congress, upon such Measures as may be necessary for the carrying on the ensuing Campaign. I hope the Situation of the great Affairs with which you are entrusted, will admit your making this Excursion, which I apprehend may be serviceable to your Health. In which Case, I request the Favour that you will please to honour me with your and your Lady's Company at my House, where I have a Bed at your Service during your Continuance here, and where every Endeavour of mine and Mrs. Hancock, shall be exerted to make your Abode agreeable. I reside in an airy, open Part of the City in Arch Street and Fourth Street. If this should be agreeable to you, it will afford me much Pleasure.”

This site is one to be explored! If you decide to explore it, feel free to share any discoveries or interesting tidbits.

Essential Question: How can the personal views found in the Letters of the Delegates be effectively used in our history, government, and civics classes?

60th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift

2009-05-17T19:56:00.005-04:00

Occasionally anniversaries of events occur that can - and probably should be - utilized in a classroom experience for the students even if it is not the 'topic of the day'.

May 12th marked the 60th anniversary of the end of the Berlin Airlift, a monumental effort by the American, British, French, and other allied forces to resupply Berlin, Germany, after the Soviets made a power-play to gain the divided city by cutting off all access to supplies. Stalin miscalculated, as President Truman and America's allies came up with an alternative, heroic method of resuppling the city with food, coal, clothing, and the necessities of life.

For a 10 minute BBC documentary on the Berlin Airlift, click here.

For an excellent lesson plan, with primary resources (both print and visual), click here.

Our county library system has several books concerning the Berlin Airlift, including The Candy Bombers : The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour by Andrei Cherny.

Essential Question: How effective are the tools above in teaching students about the Berlin Airlift.

Social Studies DOE Telephone Conference Results

2009-05-13T14:46:00.002-04:00

Tuesday, 5/12/09, the new Program Specialist for Social Studies at the Florida DOE (Patty Ceci) hosted a telephone conference call with the Social Studies coordinators from our Florida school districts. I’m not sure how many ‘attended’, but it was a respectable number. Jennifer Hetland (Program Specialist for Elementary Curriculum) and I represented our District.

Here are a few highlights from the conference call:

1. The Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Social Studies:
As you know, the NGSSSS was passed by the State Board of Education in December 2008. You can download the NGSSSSS (or NGS5 was we decided in a blog entry last December) at http://www.floridastandards.org/. After you reach the home page, click Standards, then click Social Studies. Whether you download them or not, you do need to look at them, so be sure to bookmark the web page. Humm – I’ll have to come up with a nifty image for NG5 that can be used on the blog when it is the topic!

2. End of Course Exams:
The Florida DOE is pursuing an initiative in establishing and end of course exam for high school American History, based on the NG5. It will be field tested in 2012, and fully implemented in 2014.
The ultimate goal is to have end of course exams for all core courses. The timeline for this is dependent on the budget.

3. Required Instruction:
As you know, the State legislature has for a number of years mandated ‘required instruction – such as teaching about the Holocaust - (1003.42). The DOE recommends something our district is already doing: embedding required instruction in the standards, and to document that the required instruction took place.

4. Civics Legislation:
There was no new Civics legislation enacted this year. Our district will continue to embed Civics instruction in 8th Grade American History.

5. Professional Development on the New Standards:
The DOE is hopeful that it will be able to provide professional development on the new standards, depending on budget. Patty Ceci (our new contact at the DOE) will be providing as many resources in this area as possible. The DOE, however, will NOT at this time be providing a ‘crosswalk’ (a bridging between the old standards and new standards, providing insight into the standards that are being carried over and the ones that are mostly or entirely new) for the standards.

6. Standards Implementation Timeline:
Our Textbook Adoption (2011 – 2012) will provide the new materials – keyed to NG5 - we need in the classroom by the Fall, 2012. Adopt textbooks – 2011/2012; New texts – 2012-2013; full NG5 implementation – 2012-2013.

That was the highlights. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

-

FFQF: End of the Republic

2009-05-08T13:24:00.006-04:00

FFQF: Founding Fathers Quote Friday

I really can't make a comment on today's quote. It explains itself truthfully and simply.

Benjamin Franklin – capitalist, entrepreneur, scientist, philosopher, genius – stated:

“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

Essential Question: How can a quotation from one of the founding fathers be used to engender a conversation in the classroom on current events and the long-term effect of those events?

FFQF is inspired by Meet the Founding Fathers blog.

Teacher Tube in the Classroom

2009-05-05T17:14:00.003-04:00

Imagine you are teaching about Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address. What an advantage to show a short video clip which has a historical reenactment of this momentous event. Try here to see an example. Or you are teaching geography and reviewing for a test on the United States. What about a cartoon video naming all of the states and their capitals as part of that review? Or you are teaching world history, and want an overview of themes found in world history to lead off the unit.

Knowing that our kids are very visually and/or auditory oriented, the use of short, pertinent video clips that are readily available both in the classroom and for the child at home could provide a very positive learning experience for that child.

Teacher Tube provides that material. There is a huge amount of videos available - of varying quality - for the teacher to use in the classroom, to get ideas from by seeing what slant someone else has on how material is presented. When a teacher finds one that is appropriate, the video site can either be bookmarked, or copied onto a lesson plan for reference, or the video can be downloaded. Membership in Teacher Tube is free... just be sure to write down someplace your username, password, and Teacher Tube website address.

Teachers and students can even get motivated and challenged to produce their own material, either for in-class consumption or Web display - as a hands on project. Research does show that teaching something is the best way to learn it.

Teacher Tube in an innovative, creative, and applicable way to teach in the classroom in a manner that students can relate to, learn from, and retain.

I would encourage each of our Social Studies teacher to look at Teacher Tube, evaluate and reflect on the material there and its potential use in your classroom, and determine if this approach is one that would provide an appropriate learning activity for the students in your classroom.

There is just something about having Thomas Jefferson pop in to talk to your class over the Web and discuss the responsibility of vigilance. It can blow you - and your students - away.

Essential question: How effective is the use of a tool like Teacher Tube in our classrooms?

FFQF: "... in every house... "

2009-05-01T15:37:00.005-04:00

Founding Fathers Quote Friday

A lot of things can be said - and have been said - about Benjamin Franklin. Being a man of keen insight is one of those things.

He stated in a letter dated March 1778 to the Minister of France:

"A Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district - all studied and appreciated as they merit - are the principle support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty."

I wonder if - as we see the statistics of declining Christianity, the failing of print newspapers, the attacks on the educational system, the decline in virtue and morality in public and private circles, and the erosion of (and understanding of) the concept of civil liberty - there is a connection...

Essential question: How could students be engaged in a conversation enhancing their understanding of the concept of civil liberties as understood by the Founding Fathers and practiced and advocated today?

Photo Resource:

National Portrait Gallery, London. Painted by Joseph Siffred Duplessis.

Founding Fathers Quote Friday is hosted at Meet the Founders blog

More on Wikis

2009-04-27T11:11:00.003-04:00

THE Journal (April 2009) had a useful article on the use of wikis in the classroom as part of the Web 2.0 concept.

Why Wikis? by Dr. Ruth Reynard, provides an excellent overview of the rationale for the use of a wiki in the classroom. She concludes with:

"The wiki, then, is a great tool to help facilitate students collaboration and knowledge construction, however, teachers must be aware of what that process looks like so that is not shortened or diminished in any way for the students. Additionally, assignment must be designed in such a way that students can demonstrate the kinds of skills necessary for true collaboration and sharing of the learning space to occur. Once the learning process has room to take place and is truly valued and facilitated by the teacher, students will feel empowered and successful in their learning."

I would encourage all to read this article, which provides a foundational aspect to increased use of technology in - and outside of - the classroom.

Essential Question: Are our schools and personnel prepared for Web 2.0 technology in education?

Citation: Ruth Reynard, Ph.D., "Why Wikis?," T.H.E. Journal, 4/15/2009, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/24279

FFQF: Peter Brown

2009-04-24T06:54:00.004-04:00

FFQF: Founding Fathers Quote Friday

“But God in mercy to us fought our battle for us and altho’ we were but few and so were suffered to be defeated by them, we were preserved in a most wonderful manner far beyond expectation, to admiration, for out of our regiment there was about 37 killed, 4 or 5 taken captive, and about 47 wounded….
If we should be called into action again I hope to have courage and strength to act my part valiantly in defence of our liberties and our country, trusting in him who hath yet kept me and hath covered my head in the day of battle….”

The above quote was contained in a letter written by Peter Brown to his mother on June 28, 1775 from Cambridge, Massachusetts. The event described involved the battle of Breed’s Hill – better known as the Battle of Bunker Hill, outside of Boston on June 17, 1775. Outnumbered, ill-trained against the legendary British army, the colonials made their stand, lost the day, but were willing to go on. While I found the letter in a book titled The Spirit of Seventy-Six, edited by Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris, it’s also online at the Massachusetts Historical Society’s Bunker Hill Exhibit and is referenced many other places on the Internet.

Peter Brown would ‘fight valiantly’ throughout the Revolution, and would pass away in 1892, ‘honored among his countrymen’.

When I read the quote, I wondered if Brown could be considered as a ‘founding father’. He was, after all, not a political statesman, he didn’t sign the Declaration of Independence or Constitution… he wasn’t even an officer. He was a corporal in the loosely organized Massachusetts militia.

Founding fathers is a term this is often used, and it is assumed that everyone knows the meaning of it. The results of searching the Internet to find out exactly what the definition of a ‘founding father’ was?

The general consensus was that a Founding Father was: 1. A member of the convention that drafted the U.S. Constitution in 1787; 2. a man who founds or establishes something, such as George Washington was the father of his country. Wikipedia definition: The Founding Fathers of the United States were the political leaders who signed the Declaration of Independence or otherwise participated in the American Revolution as leaders of the Patriots, or who participated in drafting the United States Constitution eleven years later.

I think the Wikipedia explanation – while more comprehensive – is more accurate. Peter Brown was a common soldier who stood up for liberty and was willing to serve, suffer, and run the risk of injury or death for his service.

How willing are we today willing to stand for liberty?

Essential Question: How do we insure that students understand the terminology teachers are using?

Founding Fathers Quote Friday is hosted at Meet the Founders blog.

America 101 and Civics Education

2009-04-20T22:03:00.004-04:00

Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, in the Fall 2008 edition, had an article by Eric Lane titled "America 101". The header of the article states "How we let civic education slide—and why we need a crash course in the Constitution today."

The concept of Civics education is currently being touted as a high need for our students - a basic understanding of the Consntitution, the Amendments, the way government is structured, and the duty of the citizens under that government.

This is an interesting article, which you can read in its entirety here. I hope you take the opportunity to peruse it's eleven pages.

However, ALL of the Social Studies are in need of a revamping and a heightened interest. Yes, Civics is important, vital even. But so is the knowledge of American History and the history of the World we live in. So is the study of economics and personal finance. So is the study of geography and geographic awareness of nations and cultures. So is a myriad of other Social Studies content areas.

The state has focused on math, reading, and writing - and sort of science. Those are fine. But citizens cannot function in a nation-state with only intellectual knowledge unconnected to their past - a past presented in an unbiased manner, whether politically correct or not. Our legislators - both at the state and national levels - need to realize, accept, and support this.

Yes, we need to support increased interest - and funding - for the study and application of civics. But we need to do the same with the other areas of the Social Studies if we want to have a nation of citizens who understand where they came from historically, and how to survive economically.

Of course, maybe we have to start thinking of how we are teaching it as well.

Essential Question: What strategies can be used to enhance Social Studies education in our schools and our lives?