Group items tagged

In light of all the recent discussions about DC schools and dropout rates, I found this article to be particularly relevant and upsetting. According to the study, about 1 in 10 male high school dropouts is in jail or juvenile detention (compared with 1 in 35 high school graduates).

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.

I linked up the Virginia Military Institutes archive home page because it provides easy access to primary resources. Not only that, but they have a page dedicated to the real life subject of a Young Adult Historical Fiction Novel called The Ghost Cadet (which I have read and enjoyed.) You can find this page by clicking on the side bar "Civil War & New Market" and it's about the second or third option down. I think that in teaching a young audience about the Civil War, it could be useful to connect it back to a book about a boy nearly their age who fought in it. This web site could help wiht that.

Articles on what kids in the US have done politically, with pictures! Collected by a journalist and an educator.

This is the organization run by the author of "Fires in the High School Bathroom." As the only permanent staff are journalists and web designers (and the staff is tiny!). I believe they just collect and make available student stories (as well as apparently offering grants!) rather than actually participating or spearheading any projects themselves. They do publish works every so often - I believe collections of the things students have done.

"Upcoming Professional Development Opportunities Teaching History Through Art Date: Saturday, October 16, 2010 Time: 10:00a.m.-1:00p.m. Cost: $10 (more information) Learn how to use artworks as primary sources to teach American history and critical thinking. This workshop brings together the highlights of the collection used in American Art's history tours, including Young America, Lure of the West, and A House Divided. Come and get activity ideas to use in preparation for a tour or as stand-alone classroom lessons. This workshop will be offered again on February 12, 2011 and is available, by request, for groups of fifteen or more teachers. E-mail AmericanArtEducation@si.edu for more information."

I can't make this event, but it could be really interesting!

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.

This article is about a speech Arne Duncan gave about the reevaluation of teacher programs in the country. Every time I read something else he's said or written, I like Arne Duncan more. He knows his stuff from a practical standpoint and goes where it matters to get his information: right to teachers and students. This article is small but pretty interesting.

In looking for primary sources and documents for lesson plans, I have noticed that most of the search results center on U.S. history and its related documents. I wanted to find a website that might provide links to a broader collection of documents on world history. This website has links to European historical documents, broken down by country as well as time period. Each link leads to a collection of other links where one can search for primary documents. It's admittedly a bit curious that this website is the product of an employee of Brigham Young University; I cannot tell if this bears any reflection on websites that are linked here, but the collection is extensive.

The Red Badge of Courage is a war novel by American author Stephen Crane. Taking place during the American Civil War, the story is about a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle. - Wikipedia

In which John Green teaches you about the Mexican-American War in the late 1840s, and the expansion of the United States into the western end of North America. In this episode of Crash Course, US territory finally reaches from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Ocean. After Oregon was secured from the UK and the southwest was ceded by Mexico, that is. Famous Americans abound in this episode, including James K Polk (Young Hickory, Napoleon of the Stump), Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, and Winfield Scott. You'll also learn about the California Gold Rush of 1848, and California's admission as a state, which necessitated the Compromise of 1850. Once more slavery is a crucial issue. Something is going to have to be done about slavery, I think. Maybe it will come to a head next week.

The History Place is a privately-run website that provides content to educators on a wide variety of historical subject. I have included this section on the Irish Potato Famine, as it was one of the more compelling narratives I found on the internet.

Lists of best sellers, publisher book-sale data, and online booksellers can tell you which books are purchased most often, but they do not know, like we do, which books students actually open and read, cover to cover. It is never a bad idea to know what kids are reading in order to connect in the classroom.

This is a bit of a comical website but I think it could be a fun way to seem cool to the students, while actually teaching them, covert learning. If your kids are into twitter, you can post these on the board or pass out copies in the beginning of class for a warm-up. I wouldn't have them view the actual site because the comments get a little inappropriate. You would certainly need to use discretion. Sometimes teachers need to seem like real people and if I was in high school, I would think a teacher that used this was cool.

This is the National Governors Association, education policy website, specifically, I have selected the policy position on High School Reform, as it is most pertinent to us, the end goes into higher education but that is for another time. The NGA is one of the best education policy sites. As we know, the states are the primary forces in setting education agendas and it is important to see what bi-partisan work they are doing. Governors are usually very influential in education politics.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's speech at the Monthly Stakeholders meeting this past week. It's a part of a series of town hall style meetings that the secretary is holding with those who have a stake in the policy they will be shaping: teachers, parents and others. The speech is interesting mostly because, what he's calling for sounds great to me, but I wonder if there's any possibility of anything this reasonable ever happening. Secretary Duncan seems like an ok guy (didn't know he is a former superintendent) but I still wonder what the next big thing is going to turn out to be and how/if it's going to help.

The Duncan speech we were talking about in class

This is the second part of my Angel Island posting. I find this document fascinating; it is a complete reproduction of a 1917 pamphlet produced by The Women's American Baptist Home Missionary Society, and includes interesting - and sometimes offensive - first hand accounts of immigrants coming through Angel Island at the time. The non-secular language cannot be denied as well, but it still makes for a fascinating glimpse into the perceptions of asian immigrants during this period of our history.