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The Valley of the Shadow (also called the Valley Project) website is a part of the Virginia Center for Digital History at the University of Virginia. The material in the site documents the lives of two communities during the Civil War period; one community from the South and one community from the North. The site is an online library or an archive filled with primary resources such as letter, diaries, census records, government records, newspapers, speeches, maps, images and other materials. The site contains thousands of documents. The archive is divided into three sections: The Eve of War (Fall 1859-Spring 1861), The War Years (Spring 1861-Spring 1865), and The Aftermath (Spring 1865-Fall 1870). An example of one such document is a letter written in August, 1864 by a young militiaman to his parents telling them that he is well and that he will be sending home his pay. I have added a few lines because I find it so interesting and compelling. The letter comes from a camp near Petersburg. Dear Parents it is with the Greatest of Pleashure that I seat My self to inform you and My Brothers and Sisters that I like it well and am well feal Hartey like ite beter now than Ever I did I hope that youens Ar all well and all the Rest about [unclear: tomstorm] ile now state to you that I Received your Letter last Knight And was Glad to here from youens And was glad to here that Youenes wasened yet dissturbed By The Johneys Rebes you Stated in your letter that tha Wes moveing every thing out Of Town now if tha wold be men tha wold take In the same document but another page, the young man writes about his pay. Read this letter we ar getting Paid off to day I draw 1.20.10 that is one hundrad 20 dollars 10 cts Ile ex press 1 hundrade 10 dollars and mebbey fifteen dollars I dont want to ceep so mutch money here I cend it to you and if you want to make youse of it whi you may get the Chirldren wat ever tha want that is in the eating line And Close but you must be A littl

I ran out of room in the box above.....anyway, I am not certain what the citation rules are regarding this but I found the letter on the website that I have bookmarked, The Valley of the Shadow. Anyway, it is a great site….there is soooo much more.

The National Postal Museum provides several curriculum guides for teachers to use to teach about the history of the postal service, stamps, letter writing, and other historical events relating to the history of communication.

Online debate forum and social network community built around ideas, discussion and democracy

This is an article on the challenges that can occur in teachings classrooms of diverse children.

This exhibit from the Smithsonian Museum of American History looks at the American Presidents from how they got elected, life in the White House, and how they communicated with the public. There are primary source artifacts that can be seen for each president.

FREE is a website pool of teaching and learning resources from various branches of the federal government. From the website: "More than 1,500 federally supported teaching and learning resources are included from dozens of federal agencies. New sites are added regularly. . . . FREE is maintained by Peter Kickbush and Kirk Winters, Office of Communications and Outreach, with support from the Development Services Team in the Office of the Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of Education."

This site is amazing, I was just playing around with it and I am definitely using some of the resources for my unit. :)

This curriculum provides various lesson plans, activities, graphic organizers, resources, and a video to have students connect world events to their own lives and others in their community, in relation to understanding global terrorism.

History of 1989 and the fall of communism

An article that summarizes some incredibly important findings on race and racism. Specifically, if you don't talk about racism with kids, you support the status quo. Even very young kids.

"The United Nations Cyberschoolbus was created in 1996 as the online education component of the Global Teaching and Learning Project, whose mission is to promote education about international issues and the United Nations. The Global Teaching and Learning Project produces high quality teaching materials and activities designed for educational use (at primary, intermediate and secondary school levels) and for training teachers. The vision of this Project is to provide exceptional educational resources (both online and in print) to students growing up in a world undergoing increased globalization." \n\n "Within the Cyberschoolbus site there are a number of activities and projects that teach students about global issues in an interactive, engaging and fun way."

The best part about this website, which makes it different from most of the Social Justice education websites I've encountered, is the section specifically for parents. Most sites are geared for the classroom specifically through teachers and students but a fundamental and important component of building communities is parent involvement. It is D.C. based and it also has a great list of resource materials for teachers.

So I got this link from a friend of mine and I had no idea what he was sending me. It didn't make any sense until he told me that the artist is an Italian singer who sang this song in an American accent and so the song is basically what English sounds like to people who don't speak it. And then I had a light bulb moment-- what a FANTASTIC way to illustrate cross cultural differences. Show this video and ask the students to comment on it and then tell them that this is what songs sound like to people who don't speak the same language as us. That's just ONE possibility...there are so many more!

I have no idea either! Which I guess is what it sounds like to Italian people when they listen to like Britney Spears or something like that. I think it would be a cool thing to use to teach about cross cultural communications or something like that.

So, it's not for the dance moves...

The Harvard University South Asia Institute (SAI) engages faculty and students through interdisciplinary programs to advance and deepen the teaching and research on global issues relevant to South Asia. With offices in Delhi, Dhaka, Karachi and Mumbai, SAI aims to be a catalyst and bridge between Harvard faculty and students and the region. The South Asia Institute's goals are to: Facilitate scholarly exchanges among Harvard faculty and students, international South Asia specialists, visiting academics, and public figures from South Asia. Sponsor lectures and conferences at Harvard and in the region by distinguished academic, governmental, and business leaders whose work contributes to a better understanding of the challenges facing South Asia. Support Harvard students with grants for language study, research, and internships in-region. Bring knowledge from South Asia to Harvard by supporting faculty and students with grants for research, study, and service learning. Build a community of stakeholders committed to building scholarship on South Asia at Harvard and in-region.

PBS site with links to articles covering nearly all aspects of social studies for of all ages

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This website provides students with historical and contemporary information about 266 countries in the world as well as a variety of maps to help with building geography skills.

I absolutely LOVE the National Geographic Website as a social studies tool. I've specifically used it in civics classes or geography classes for students to study current events, but the options are endless. They have videos, pictures and great information.

Books, research papers, and genealogy emphasizing land and water issues of Hispanic and Native American communities in New Mexico and the Southwest. Most books available below list prices.

So this article from the Washington Post talks about a report that examines college graduation rates. The findings are illustrative of the situation Lindsay and I encountered at McKinley this semester and I found it interesting that there's data that supports this. The advice I'd give people who want to decrease the gap (and I'm sure Lindsay would agree): schools need to be preparing these students for rigorous college work loads instead of coddling them and focusing on just getting them into college.