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Chris Harmon

American Popular Song: A Brief History - 0 views

  • During the colonial, revolutionary, and federal periods (1607-1820) most American songs were strongly tied to the musical traditions of the British isles. Hymn tunes, ballads, theater songs, and drinking songs were imported from England or based closely on English models.
  • he first uniquely American popular song tradition arose with the minstrel show, beginning in the 1840
  • Initially, sheet music and pocket songsters were the primary means of circulating songs, since many Americans played and sang music in their own homes.
India Robertson

Recitatif Study Guide - Toni Morrison - eNotes.com - 0 views

    • India Robertson
       
      basic Ideas of approach
  • Rather than delving into the distinctive culture of African Americans, she illustrates how the divide between the races in American culture at large is dependent on blacks and whites defining themselves in opposition to one another.
  • ‘Recitatif’’ is the only published short story by luminary African-American novelist Toni Morrison. It appeared in a 1983 anthology of writing by African-American women entitled Confirmation, edited by Amiri and Amina Baraka. ‘‘Recitatif’’ tells the story of the conflicted friendship between two girls—one black and one white—from the time they meet and bond at age eight while staying at an orphanage through their re-acquaintance as mothers on different sides of economic, political, and racial divides in a recently gentrified town in upstate New York.
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  • te—from the time they meet and bond at age eight while staying at an orphanage through their re-acquaintance as mothers on different sides of economic, political, and racial divides in a recently gentrified town in upstate New York
  • The story explores how the relationship between the two main characters is shaped by their racial difference. Morrison does not, however, disclose which character is white and which is black.
  • ‘St. Bonny’s’’ or St. Bonaventure, the shelter where Twyla, the narrator, meets Roberta, the story’s other main character, when they are both eight years old. Twyla recalls that her mother once told her that people of Roberta’s race smell funny, and she objects to being placed in a room with Roberta on the grounds that her mother wouldn’t approve. Twyla, however, soon finds Roberta understanding and sympathetic to her situation. While most children at the shelter are orphans, Twyla is there because her mother ‘‘dances all night’’ and Roberta is there because her mother is sick. Roberta and Twyla are isolated from the other children at St. Bonny’s and are scared of the older girls, so they stick together.
Michael O'Connor

As Children's Freedom Has Declined, So Has Their Creativity | Psychology Today - 0 views

  • In Kim’s words, the data indicate that “children have become less emotionally expressive, less energetic, less talkative and verbally expressive, less humorous, less imaginative, less unconventional, less lively and passionate, less perceptive, less apt to connect seemingly irrelevant things, less synthesizing, and less likely to see things from a different angle.”
  • During the immediate post-Sputnik period, the U.S. government was concerned with identifying and fostering giftedness among American schoolchildren, so as to catch up with the Russians (whom we mistakenly thought were ahead of us in scientific innovation). 
  • creativity is the central variable underlying personal achievement and ability to adapt to unusual conditions.
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  • The Torrance Tests were developed by E. Paul Torrance in the late 1950s, when he was an education professor at the University of Minnesota.
  • Well, surprise, surprise.  For several decades we as a society have been suppressing children’s freedom to ever-greater extents, and now we find that their creativity is declining.
  • Creativity is nurtured by freedom and stifled by the continuous monitoring, evaluation, adult-direction, and pressure to conform that restrict children’s lives today.  In the real world few questions have one right answer, few problems have one right solution; that’s why creativity is crucial to success in the real world.  But more and more we are subjecting children to an educational system that assumes one right answer to every question and one correct solution to every problem, a system that punishes children (and their teachers too) for daring to try different routes.  We are also, as I documented in a previous essay, increasingly depriving children of free time outside of school to play, explore, be bored, overcome boredom, fail, overcome failure—that is, to do all that they must do in order to develop their full creative potential.
    • Michael O'Connor
       
      I know of several local school districts that believe that their students cannot fail. How does this prepare a student for his/her real life? It does them great harm to continue to pass them on. They will never learn to overcome the impediments that occurs in life. You will also have an apathetic student on your hands! It is necessary to allow students to fail. Not to make them feel bad about themselves...but to allow them to understand there are second chances in life (sometimes) and that they are not beyond redemption.
  • In the next essay in this series, I will present research evidence that creativity really does bloom in the soil of freedom and die in the hands of overdirective, overprotective, ov
  • If anything makes Americans stand tall internationally it is creativity.  “American ingenuity” is admired everywhere. We are not the richest country (at least not as measured by smallest percentage in poverty), nor the healthiest (far from it), nor the country whose kids score highest on standardized tests (despite our politicians’ misguided intentions to get us there), but we are the most inventive country.  We are the great innovators, specialists in figuring out new ways of doing things and new things to do. Perhaps this derives from our frontier beginnings, or from our unique form of democracy with its emphasis on individual freedom and respect for nonconformity.  In the business world as well as in academia and the arts and elsewhere, creativity is our number one asset.  In a recent IBM poll, 1,500 CEOs acknowledged this when they identified creativity as the best predictor of future success.[1] 
  • judgmental teachers and parents.
Garth Holman

The Americas to 1620 | The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - 1 views

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    American History timeline 
Krystal Reno

French Revolution (1787-99) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia - 1 views

  • (1) the increasingly prosperous elite of wealthy commoners—merchants, manufacturers, and professionals, often called the bourgeoisie—produced by the 18th century’s economic growth resented its exclusion from political power and positions of honour; (2) the peasants were acutely aware of their situation and were less and less willing to support the anachronistic and burdensome feudal system; (3) the philosophes, who advocated social and political reform, had been read more widely in France than anywhere else; (4) French participation in the American Revolution had driven the government to the brink of bankruptcy; and (5) crop failures in much of the country in 1788, coming on top of a long period of economic difficulties, made the population particularly restless.
    • Krystal Reno
       
      Commonly accepted reasons for the French Revolution 
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    Britannica-French Revolution 
Cory Hewit

Judge Rules Americans Can Be Forced to Decrypt Personal Data - What Does That Mean For ... - 0 views

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    Keep an eye on your personal freedom when it comes to the internet. The government is really trying to invade our privacy.
Jonathan McClure

American Experience | PBS | Vietnam Online - 0 views

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    Here is the PBS website about the Vietnam War.  There is a map along with a timeline with events.  It also provides a teacher guide for lesson in American History. 
Jonathan McClure

Brown v. Board of Education: A Civil Rights Milestone and Its Troubled Legacy - James T... - 0 views

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    This book is a great read for any educator.  It explains the integration of African Americans is schools.
Miss Schlegel

Smithsonian Education - Lesson Plans - History and Culture - 0 views

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    Resources for teaching American History grades K-12.
Alexis Jackson

Mind Games : Article : Scientific American - 0 views

  • New research shows that video games have great educational potential.
  • Ninety-seven percent of American teenagers regularly play video games.
    • Alexis Jackson
       
      Need to find this study from M.I.T. Education Arcade.
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  • They found that students who went straight to the lecture did not know what to listen for, whereas students who played the game first had better context and greater motivation.
  • M.I.T. Media Lab developed a programming language, Scratch, that enables kids as young as kindergartners to build games. Microsoft has developed a similar tool called Kodu.
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    Incorporating video games into education
Garth Holman

Go Social Studies Go! | the-silk-road - 0 views

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    Great little History resource books. 
anonymous

Special Coverage: The 2012 Presidential Election - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • President Obama was re-elected, relying on a coalition of voters that was broader than it was deep.
  • President Obama was re-elected, relying on a coalition of voters that was broader than it was deep.
  • President Obama was re-elected, relying on a coalition of voters that was broader than it was deep.
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  • President Obama was re-elected, relying on a coalition of voters that was broader than it was deep.
  • Democrats maintained an edge in party identification
  • Forty-five percent of those who voted for Mr. Obama were racial minorities, a record number, and he made gains among Hispanic and Asian-American voters.
  • Mr. Obama is also likely to win the popular vote, perhaps by two to three percentage points, once votes from California, Oregon and Washington are fully counted.
  • While the House of Representatives was called early in the night for Republicans, Democrats performed well in races for the United States Senate.
  • Tammy Baldwin, the Democratic candidate in Wisconsin, won her race and became the first openly gay or lesbian person elected to the United States Senate.
  • The votes counted so far in Ohio show an extraordinarily close race, with President Obama only about 1,000 ballots ahead of Mitt Romney as of 11:50 p.m.
  • But the vast bulk of precincts that have yet to report their results in Ohio are in counties that have gone for Mr. Obama.
  • The differences between national polls, which often showed a very tight race for the popular vote, and polls of swing states, where President Obama usually maintained an advantage,
  • Mr. Romney currently leads by 27 points in Tennessee, by 22 points in Kentucky, by 16 points in South Carolina and by almost 40 points in Oklahoma.
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    Great analysis of the 2012 campaign
anonymous

Congress for Kids - Interactive, Fun-filled Experiences About the Federal Government - 0 views

    • anonymous
       
      This could be a great site to spark student interest in American Government.
Michael O'Connor

American Memory from the Library of Congress - Home Page - 0 views

  • Collections by Topic
    • Miss Schlegel
       
      Great place to find letters written by soldiers and many other primary source documents.
matt swango

Presidential Recordings Program-Miller Center - 0 views

  • Between 1940 and 1973, six American presidents from both political parties—Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Nixon—secretly recorded on tape just under 5,000 hours of their meetings and telephone conversations. The Miller Center’s Presidential Recordings Program is a unique effort aimed at making these remarkable historical sources accessible.
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    Coolest history website!
matt swango

How to Avoid an IRS Audit - Yahoo! Finance - 0 views

  • Tax season is upon us, with most Americans putting together the materials they need to file their returns, gathering receipts, and searching for other tax deductions to maximize the amount they get back from the federal government.
  • If the IRS begins to suspect that a tax return isn't entirely truthful, the filer might be in for an audit.
  • Only about 1.1 percent of people who file a 1040 [the most common tax return] for the 2010 tax year were audited ... [or] about 1.5 million," says Rozbruch. "However, the audit rate is 12.5 percent for people earning $1 million or more in 2010.
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  • audits are most often triggered by the kind and amount of deductions taken
  • a professional should be hired in all audit cases.
  • For example, after widespread fraud was discovered, the IRS audited most taxpayers who claimed the First-Time Homebuyer Credit," Reed says. "The Earned Income Credit and the Adoption Credit are also common audit targets, but these are also credits that are often abused, so it makes sense for the IRS to verify that taxpayers qualify for them."
  • Two common examples are receipts for contributions to charity and mileage logs. When taxpayers try to recreate these expenses, they discover it is hard to remember events that happened more than a year ago," Reed says. "In the absence of good records, the deductions are disallowed when audited."
  • According to Rozbruch, the best track to take when an audit begins is to attempt to make things right immediately.
  • Reed adds that if the taxpayer is not maliciously trying to cheat the government, the IRS can be lenient.
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    Tax season is upon us. Here's some tips to avoid an audit
Alexis Jackson

Why the Brain Prefers Paper : Article : Scientific American - 0 views

    • Alexis Jackson
       
      How does this change when we add technology such as diigo?
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    Paper books versus e-readers.
Jenny Sommers

Digital Natives Looking to Unplug, Connect | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network - 0 views

  • If you were creating a classroom, what would it look like? It would be interactive and have a lot of activities. It should be half and half activities and lecture. I do like when it’s more open, but it is important for us to know what lecture looks like because we might have to do that later. The tables should be set up in a circle so we are all facing each other and talking.
  • It turns out, however, that in this group of students, many talked as if they craved more human interaction, and wanted to unplug more during class
  • our students and these students we interviewed have been around technology so much, that when they were asked questions about technology, they had a hard time understanding the question (what do you mean, technology?). Technology isn’t technology for our students–it’s just part of their lives
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    • Jenny Sommers
       
      Interesting. I feel that some of our college courses tell us to use technology just so we can say we are using technology.
    • Jenny Sommers
       
      I never thought about it that these young people that have grown up with technology don't realize what technology really is.
  • Educators say not to incorporate technology for technology’s sake, but more often than not, it is assumed that a new tech tool will effectively engage students
  • As teachers, we shouldn’t be taking away real opportunities for students to engage with each other and simply replacing those opportunities of connection with technology
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    Interesting read about what some young people want from technology
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