2009 VASS Conference - Calls for Proposals Due October 6th!

Mark your calendars! The 2009 Vermont Alliance for the Social Studies Annual Conference will be held on Friday, December 4th at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in Burlington, Vermont. VASS is currently accepting calls for proposals for conference presentations, but not for much longer...they are due October 6th!

To submit your proposal online, go to http://creator.zoho.com/sigridlumbra/copy-1-of-registration-form/, or to receive an application via email contact Sigrid Lumbra.

Students Praise Obama in Song: Civics Lesson or Indoctrination?

From the Christian Science Monitor, September 30, 2009

A video of New Jersey elementary schoolchildren singing a song praising President Obama has sparked an uproar in conservative circles, with critics charging indoctrination – an echo of similar charges earlier this month when Mr. Obama spoke to schoolchildren in a nationally broadcast address.

In the song, originally written by a second-grade teacher and her class in recognition of Black History Month in February, students rap and pay tribute to Obama’s accomplishments.

The video has stirred up the conservative blogosphere, and people across the political spectrum agree that the song may be an error of judgment on the teacher’s part. But more broadly, it raises questions about the place of politics in the classroom and how schools and teachers can discuss Obama’s presidency – and perhaps recognize its historic nature – in appropriate ways.

“The biggest thing that worries me is that we’ll make our schools into politics-free zones where you can’t talk about anything that might offend anyone,” says Peter Levine, director of the Center for Information & Research on Civil Learning & Engagement at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

Already, notes Professor Levine, far fewer kids take courses devoted to current events than did several decades ago. “I think we’ve squeezed most of the controversy out, which is bad for kids’ civic development.”

Click here to read the rest of the article, or click here to watch the video.

• Is this a "teachable moment" in social studies? If so, what is the lesson?

World Digital Library Now Online

The World Digital Library has made available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials.

The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research.

Use the timeline at the bottom to search documents from around the world in similar time periods.

Shipwrecks! Live Webcast

The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM) is expanding their popular Shipwrecks! program with a live webcast of the shipwrecked schooner Sarah Ellen on November 5, 2009 at 10:00am (EST). This FREE hour-long broadcast will take you deep under the cold dark waters of Lake Champlain where you'll hear the tragic story of the schooner's sinking in the winter of 1860. Then meet their nautical archaeologists who will tell of her underwater discovery in 1989. You will also see footage captured by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), over 300 feet below the surface. And, since this will be broadcast live, they'll be able to take your questions via email!

How does the webcast work? Simply visit their website (http://www.lcmm.org/) shortly before 10:00am on November 5th where you'll find a link to register for the program and watch the hour-long broadcast that begins at 10am. A high-speed Internet connection is necessary.

Going to miss the live broadcast? Don't worry, they'll be posting the recorded program on their website shortly after the initial broadcast.

For more information, contact LCMM at (802) 475-2022; info@lcmm.org

Conference at Calvin's

On October 23rd the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic site will hold a conference, "The Citizen in the Community: Roles, Responsibility, and Action." The conference includes a program, materials, an exploration of the site, and lunch at the historic Wilder House. Other highlights include:

• The keynote address will be by Secretary of State Deb Markowitz: "Citizenship in Vermont: Lessons Across Time." Secretary Markowitz will discuss her findings about how student experiences can influence future civic involvement.
• Bill Jenney, Site Director of the site, will introduce the influences of this community on the development of the young Calvin Coolidge.
• VPR commentator Cyndy Bittinger will describe her research on the history of African Americans in Vermont.
• Participants will have the opportunity to explore primary resources such as letters, town reports, diaries, and account books.

For more information email education@calvin-coolidge.org, or call 802.672.3289.

C-SPAN's Student Cam National Video Competition

C-SPAN's "StudentCam" is a national video documentary competition. This year C-SPAN asks students to create a 5 to 8 minute video documentary that addresses an issue of national significance. Students must present more than one point of view and include C-SPAN video in their documentary.

Students for this year’s competition will have the opportunity to produce a documentary on either of the following topics:
A) One of the country’s greatest strengths;
-OR-
B) A challenge the country is facing.

The competition’s deadline is January 20, 2010. C-SPAN is awarding a total of $50,000 in cash prizes. The top winning videos will air on C-SPAN, and can be viewed at http://www.studentcam.org/.

Vermont Archeology Virtual Museum Opens!

The following is from an email from Giovanna Peebles, Vermont State Archeologist:

We’re excited to announce that the prototype Vermont Archeology Virtual Museum, funded with a Digital Start-Up Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, is launched, warts and all! Play with it, kick the tires, have fun with it, hopefully you’ll register to experience it’s full functionality. Please complete the Survey Monkey at some point!

Go to: http://emergentmediacenter.com/vtarch/ Bookmark this!

The web museum site will serve as Vermont’s archeology portal. Of course it’s only a prototype, developed over 4 months this summer, so there’s only a few exhibits thus far but enough to give you the lay of the land. There’s also slow loading, funny spacing, too much on exhibit’s main page, just a few photos, etc… A WORK IN PROGRESS!

There are 3 types of visitors:
1) Visitors who don’t register and just poke around for information and to see what’s happening
2) Visitors who register - - they will have the full functionality of the social-networking features, are part of the museum community, can contribute comments, articles, links, save favorites, etc.
3) “Curators,” who will register as such - - this group includes mainly archeology professionals working in VT who will populate the web site with “exhibits” as they discover sites, write reports, etc. as well as special guest curators, for example, Abenakis and other Indigenous community members, perhaps historians, geologists, avocational archeologists, and others as appropriate.

We are very excited about this initiative and look forward to your feed-back. Many thanks!!

Please distribute to other who may enjoy seeing this, testing it, and starting to take advantage of the resources it offers

Grant: NYSE Financial Future Challenge

The NYSE Financial Future Challenge asks kids to create a new product/idea or process that will excite and educate friends and classmates about investing and the financial marketplace. Ideas can be activities, games, books, websites, videos, etc. that illuminate the fundamentals of the stock market and financial literacy. Maximum award: $2,500. Eligibility: kids ages 6-19. Deadline: September 30, 2009.

Image courtesy of Time Magazine.

National Humanities Center Online Courses

The following is a list of live, online professional development opportunities in U.S. History and American Literature from the National Humanities Center. They sound great, and they're only $35!!

Thurs., Oct. 8: The Consumer Revolution in Colonial America
Tues., Oct. 13: Why Some New World Colonies Succeeded and Others Failed
Tues., Oct. 20: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
Tues., Oct. 27: Civil War Art
Wed., Oct. 28: The Cult of Domesticity
Tues., Nov. 10: Emancipation
Thurs., Nov. 12: The Ashcan School
Thurs., Nov. 19: In Search of the Civil Rights Movement

Photo courtesy of the Friends of the Vermont State House

Faked Photographs: Look, and Then Look Again

The following article appeared in the Sunday, August 23, 2009 edition of the New York Times:

What a marvel the first photographic images must have been to their early-19th-century viewers — the crisp, unassailable reality of scenes and events, unfiltered by an artist’s paintbrush or point of view.

And what an opportunity for manipulation. It didn’t take long for schemers to discover that with a little skill and imagination, photographic realism could be used to create manufactured realities. “The very nature of photography was to record events,” said Hany Farid, a professor of computer science at Dartmouth College and a detective of photographic fakery. “You’d think there would have been a grace period of respect for this new technology.”

But the tampering began almost immediately: affixing Lincoln's head to another politician’s more regally posed body; re-arranging the grim detritus of Civil War battlefields to be better composed for the camera; erasing political enemies.

Sorting icons of truth from icons of propaganda is often a thorny business that can take decades to resolve, and that’s if it gets resolved. The long-argued case of Robert Capa's shocking “Falling Soldier” of 1936, taken during the Spanish Civil War, has recently flared again. Is this a loyalist soldier in his fatal moment, or is it staged? A Spanish researcher has scrutinized the terrain in the photo’s background and determined that it is not an area near Cerro Muriano, as Capa’s biographer had said, but another spot, about 35 miles away. Whether this forces the conclusion that the scene was acted out is being debated with fresh vigor. (Critics have raised doubts about the photo since the 1970s.)

Questions dogged Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning shot of Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima from the start — the result of a conversation overheard and misunderstood, according to Hal Buell, who wrote a book about the image.

Click here to read the rest of the article and to see the slide show "A Brief History of Photo Fakery."

Teaching About September 11th

What are you doing in your classroom to commemmorate the 8th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon? Or are you doing anything at all? Please feel free to use this blog to share your thoughts, ideas, and resources with the rest of us.

If you do teach about September 11th, below are just a few resources of the many available.

The National September 11th Memorial and Museum's web site education section offers the following:

• A History section with a webcast, timeline, and ongoing feature articles
• A discussion guide and activities
• 9/11: Stories of Survival and Loss - a short film featuring first-hand accounts of survivors, victims' familiy members, and first responders
• The Spirit of Volunteerism: 9/11 and Beyond - a short film highlighting the outpouring of compassion and volunteerism in the aftermath of September 11
• "History in the Making," a teaching guide with take-home pages
• A Scholastic Kid Reporter article from a kid who was there

NCSS also has a multi-resource page about September 11th:

• Dear Teacher’: Letters on the Eve of the Japanese American Imprisonment
• We are Living History: Reflections of a New York City Social Studies Teacher
• The Trauma of Terrorism: Helping Children Cope
• At Risk of Prejudice: Teaching Tolerance about Muslim Americans
• At Risk of Prejudice: The Arab American Community
• Debating War and Peace in Washington Square Park
• Media Literacy Skills: Interpreting TragedyFollowing a Tragic Event: A Necessary Challenge for Civic Educators
• In War, Is Law Silent? Security and Freedom After September 11
• Teaching about Terrorism, Islam, and Tolerance with the Internet
• Civil War in Afghanistan
• Letters to the Editor
• 2001 NCSS Presidential Address
• The Women of Afghanistan
• Restoring the Rights of Afghan Women: An Interview with Nasrine Abou-Bakre Gross
• A Thoughtful Patriotism
• Afghanistan In Focus
• My Name is Osama
• We Are Strong/We Are Vulnerable
• Both Sides of the Classroom Door: After 9-11, the Many Facets of Teaching
• Growing Up in the Aftermath of Terrorism
• World Religions and Personal Tolerance
• The Aftereffects of September 11 - What the Polls Tell Us

And finally, The September 11th Education Trust has just published a national, interdisciplinary curriculum for purchase.

Lake Champlain History Comes Alive! Workshop

For many years, Flynn teaching artists have collaborated with teachers through its signature Words Come Alive! program to develop techniques in drama and movement to strengthen student comprehension of various curricular topics. In this full-day workshop, participants will have the opportunity to experience these techniques as they are applied to primary sources and history texts of Lake Champlain, in support of the commemoration of Samuel de Champlain’s naming of the lake 400 years ago. These tried-and-true techniques deepen students’ personal connections with history and allow them to view the past from multiple perspectives of ethnicity, gender and loyalties. As a middle school student exclaimed, “It’s like learning history and being a part of history all at the same time.” Participants will receive the 2nd edition of the Words Come Alive! toolkit.

Date: Friday, September 25, 2009 9 am-3 pm

Location: Flynn Center

Leaders: Joan Robinson and Lida Winfield

Cost: Payable by check to Flynn Center on 9/25/

$25 CVEDC Members $35 Non-CVEDC Members

To register: http://cvedc.champlain.edu/

Registration deadline: 9/18/09

PBS Teacher Activity Packs

PBS has some great classroom resources, and now they've organized them by larger themes - called Teacher Activity Packs - in social studies, such as:

• American Identity
• Indigenous Cultures
• Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders
• Patriotism
• China
• Politics and Art
• Citizenship
• Religious Diversity in America
• Constitutional Controversies (NOTE: Constitution Day is September 17th)
• Studying Genocide
• Crime and Justice
• The Presidency
• Everyone's Business
• Unsung Heroes in African American History
• Global Population
• Women's Rights Then and Now
• Immigration
• World Religions
• In the News

International Travel Grant for U.S. Teachers

Here is a travel grant opportunity, the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA) reciprocal US teacher exchange, provided by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), US Department of State and implemented by IREX.

The grant provides for visa support, round-trip domestic airfare, lodging and meals to attend the TEA U.S. Conference, round-trip airfare from the U.S. to the assigned country, emergency medical evacuation plan, and lodging and a daily stipend in host country for a two week exchange to one of 27 countries. 80 awards will be made.

During the exchange, US teachers will work with their international hosts to conduct professional development workshops for the educational community and co-teach in their area of expertise. It is also a wonderful way to internationalize the US teacher's classroom by creating long-lasting ties to students and teachers on the other side of the globe.

For more information, please see our program flyer at http://eepurl.com/clfC. The program flyer website makes it easy for you to share the flyer via e-mail or through social networking tools. I have also attached a PDF version of the flyer for distribution. Applications are available at the TEA website, http://www.irex.org/programs/tea/tea_us.asp.

An Evening with Holocaust Survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein

The Cohen Center announces that Gerda Weismann Klein - survivor, author, and scholar - will present the 12th Annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture on Monday, September 121, 2009.

Gerda Weissmann's life changed forever in 1939 when, during her fifteenth year, German troops invaded her home in Beilsko, Poland. Both Gerda and her brother Arthur were separated from their parents and sent to slave-labor camps. The horror of that day remained forever ingrained in Gerda's memory - it was the last time she would ever see her family. Never losing hope, Gerda's resilience supported her through three successive years in slave-labor camps and a 350-mile forced death-march in which 2,000 women were subjected to exposure, starvation, and arbitrary execution. Throughout, Gerda never lost the will to survive.

In 1945, she is rescued at the point of starvation by her future husband, Kurt Kelin, and American intelligence officer. Gerda Weissmann's account of living through the Holocaust is documented in her autobiography, All But My Life and in the film, One Survivor Remembers (available from the Cohen Center).

12th Holocaust Memorial Lecture
Monday, September 21, 2009
7:30 p.m.
Mabel Brown Room, Young Student Center, Keene State College

For more information contact:

Tom White
Coordinator of Educational Outreach
CCHS
www.keene.edu/cchs

Image courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Great Social Studies Speakers from the Vermont Humanities Council

From Peter Gilbert, Executive Director of the Vermont Humanities Council:

Professor Woden Teachout will be speaking as part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays program -- about how the American flag has been used by diverse groups through American history to promote support for their cause – including, for example, nativist and segregation groups on the one hand, and the civil rights movement on the other. She will be speaking at 7 pm on December 2nd at the library in Newport.

NOTE Also the other social studies/history distinguished speakers that will be part of First Wednesdays, a monthly series of free public talks offered on the first Wednesday of every month from October through May – in NINE Vermont towns – Brattleboro, Burlington, Manchester, Middlebury, Montpelier, Newport, Norwich, Rutland, and St. Johnsbury. (click on the link to get a complete listing of events) Other speakers include:

• Ken Burns on National Parks, an American idea;
• Pre-eminent civic engagement scholar, Harvard’s Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone) examines disconcerting new evidence showing that community bonds can be weakened by ethnic diversity and considers how we can overcome those challenges to realize diversity’s benefits.
• Middebury College President Emeritus and historian John McCardell on Lincoln and the Causes of the Civil War
• NY Times’s Chief Washington correspondent David Sanger on the world Obama confronts and the Challenges to American power
• “Don’t Know Much about History” author Kenneth Davis on hidden history.
• Alistair Cooke’s daughter Susan Cooke Kittredge talks about the Unseen Alistair Cooke
• George Dennis O’Brien, former president of Bucknell and U. of Rochester, on the legendary grunge band Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, which offers insight into the world of rock, its promise, and its dangers.
• Retired NBC correspondent Robert Hager talks about 40 years of covering disasters, including the Munich Olympics massacre, the Islamic revolution in Iran, OK City, space shuttle disasters, 9/11, and more.
• Historian Allen Koop on NH’s only WWII POW camp and the inspiring story of how ordinary people in Stark, NH turned bitter division into camaraderie
• Former Iranian Ambassador to the UN Mansour Farhang on Iran
• Pulitzer-Prize winner Thomas Powers on “It’s all Uphill in Afghanistan”
• Retired CIA Chief of Counterterrorism considers problem-resolving in the Middle East and South Asia
• Middle East expert Gordon Robison considers whether Obama’s policies toward the Middle East differ from his predecessor’s
• VT Folklife Center founder Jane Beck on Vermont oral history gems
• Dartmouth art historian Jane Carroll on how images of leaders in art can be used to create myths more powerful than reality
• UVM Professor Frank Bryan compares New England Town Meetings with Congress
  Bryan will also consider why no president since 1952 has been ranked as great by presidential scholars.
• VT State Curator David Schutz on Vt’s State House at 150 years old
• Pre-eminent Native American history scholar Colin Calloway on 1763 and how a war of independence waged by Indian people set America on course for a second, more famous war of independence.
• Bill “Spaceman” Lee recounts his adventures in major league baseball
• Banned literature, Professor Elaine Razzano considers the reasons why books are banned, and more
• Dartmouth’s Annelise Orleck reflects on the 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Greenwich Village, which killed 146 workers, mostly young immigrant Jewish and Italian women.
• Dartmouth English professor Tom Luxon explores how John Milton’s redefinition of marriage unintentionally charted a path toward making same-sex marriages imaginable.
  Historian Allen Koop explores the history, traditions of the Appalachian Mt Club’s Hut System in NH
• Middlebury’s Susan Watson explores the nearly mythical influence of Einstein on the twentieth century.
• Amherst College professor Ilan Stavans on the impact that immigrants have had on American culture and language and the role immigrant writers have played in your national consciousness.
• Dartmouth professor Irene Kacandes on the enduring appeal of Anne Frank and her diary.
  Author and illustrator David Macaulay traces the development of his books.

2010 Census: It's About Us

From Thomas L. Mesenbourg, Acting Census Director:

Preparations for the 2010 Decennial Census are accelerating. The census counts everyone residing in the United States – in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. These counts determine the reapportionment of Congressional seats and the allocation of significant resources, including over $300 billion per year in federal and state funding allocated to communities for schools, Title 1 programs, special education, neighborhood improvements, public health, and other programs and services.

The U.S. Census has developed a program of lessons and resources titled the 2010 Census: It’s About Us. The materials explain the operation and importance of an accurate census, showing students that the census is integral to many fundamental concepts of our democracy, including the Constitution, history, congress, our government, and public service.

Resources Spotlight

Peace Corps World Wise Schools - Classroom resources based on Peace Corps volunteer experiences:

• Connect with a volunteer
• Find a speaker
• Curriculum materials sortable by grade, geographic area, or subject area
• Service learning lesson plans and ideas
• Language lessons and audio (listen to languages from around the world)
• Videos, podcasts, etc.

National History Education Clearinghouse - builds on and disseminates the valuable lessons learned by more than 800 TAH projects designed to raise student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge and understanding of traditional U.S. history.

• Web site reviews
• Ask a historian
• Examples of historical thinking
• Using primary sources
• Teaching with textbooks
• Teaching guides
• Lesson plan reviews

The Genographic Project - The Genographic Project is seeking to chart new knowledge about the migratory history of the human species by using sophisticated laboratory and computer analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people from around the world.

• Atlas of the human journey
• Globe of human history
• Educator guide with lesson plans, etc.
  
  
• Have you used any of these resources in your teaching? If so, what feedback do you have about them?

Cultural Diversity Day Returning to U-32

U-32 sophomore Simone Labbance has been busy this spring writing a concerto, choreographing a dance and organizing the school's second annual Cultural Diversity Day scheduled for Friday. This year's celebration will include not only a full day of activities representing different countries around the world for students and staff, but also an evening line-up of events open to the public.

Beginning at 8:15 a.m. with African Drums, there will be ethnic food, music, dancing, guest speakers, a mini fashion show and art exhibits until the end of the school day. At 6 p.m., the cultural festival is open to the public and kicks off with John Mullet playing the fiddle. Evening guests will be treated to African drumming and dance, a fashion show, a Bollywood dance, face painting, ethnic foods and the Burlington-based band Guagua. The evening is free and open to the public.

Adopted from Calcutta, India when she was an infant, Labbance has spent the last few years of her life getting in touch with her Asian heritage."I really wasn't into my culture at all for the longest time," said Labbance, until she attended a Bharat Natyam dance performance and fell in love. Shortly after that performance two years ago, Labbance began taking dance lessons with one of the Bharat Natyam dancers. At 7:15 p.m. on Friday, Labbance will show her skills in the spiritual dance as a prelude to the Bollywood dance she choreographed with 12 fellow dancers.

Cultural Diversity Day was initiated by Labbance after she consulted with Cultural Links creator Carolyn Shapiro. The first year was an experiment that turned into a huge success, according to both. This year a throng of students and staff have stepped up to help. "She's really drawn in other students," said Shapiro, who noted that a Rwandan play will be performed by students during the day. "It's going to be a really engaging evening with food and dance and face painting for kids."

Several classes are scheduled to have speakers from around the globe and others are slated to make international culinary treats. "People are definitely excited, I'm really excited about the music," said Labbance, who will be performing the concerto she wrote by playing her sitar with members of the orchestra. "I read a lot about Indian music and try to listen to as much as I can and try to observe what's going on."

While discovering her own background, Labbance has exposed her school community to other cultures. This year, that invitation is going out to the central Vermont community. "The evening is just this huge cultural festival," said Labbance about the event that is scheduled to take place outside on the U-32 campus, weather dependent. If there is rain, the event will take place inside the atrium of the school.

By Sarah Hinckley Times Argus Staff - Published: May 21, 2009

Photo courtesy of http://www.timesargus.org.

National Standards...What Do You Think?

I received the following email from Ana C. Post, Director of External Relations & Council Communications at the National Council for the Social Studies. Please use this blog and the attached survey to give your feedback:

Dear Affiliate Leaders,

We wanted to share with you the following key points regarding the attached WP Hearing Summary, as well as article links (below), to keep you informed of a state-led initiative towards a building a common, voluntary set of standards, and how this may affect states, local school districts, administrators, teachers, classrooms and students. We also would like ask you to think of, and share with us, implications this might have on social studies (at the local/state level) and on the direction of future advocacy efforts at the state and national levels. Please don’t hesitate to be in touch with any questions.

Sincerely,

Ana

Key Points (from NCSS staff):

The Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices, are anticipating that states will have a state-led set of common standards for k-12 math and English/Language Arts by the end of this summer. Standards for other core academic subjects would follow.

At the end of April, the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing to examine how states can better prepare their students to compete in a global economy by using internationally benchmarked common standards.

Key points expressed during the hearing were:

• Every state needs a well-educated workforce to compete in the global economy.
• Rigorous and relevant core standards – around what young people need to know and be able to do – need to be developed.
• Despite suggestions to contrary, teachers want this kind of reform and would like to be involved in process.
• High quality state assessments need to be designed based on the standards-- aligned tests, real accountability and high-quality instruction for all of our kids is needed for standards to work – developing assessments was cited as a potential area for federal involvement.
• Enlist teachers to design curriculum aligned with state standards

Please click here for an in-depth hearing summary.

I am also including the links to two articles that provide some more background on this topic:

“How to Raise the Standard in America’s Schools” by Walter Isaacson in the Electronic TIME issue of 4-15-09 http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1891468,00.html; and“Push is on for National Academic Standards,” by Cynthia Howell in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette http://www.nwarktimes.com/adg/News/258833/.

• Do rigorous and relevant core standards need to be developed in social studies?
• Do teachers want this type of reform?
• Do high quality state assessments, aligned with these standards, need to be developed?
• How would this initiative impact social studies in Vermont and around the country?

Stephen J. Johnson, So. Pomfret, VT Resident, Awarded National Fellowship

Stephen J. Johnson, a teacher at Rivendell Academy in Orford, NH has been awarded a James Madison Fellowship by the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation of Washington, D.C. in its eighteenth annual fellowship competition. A total of 55 fellowships were awarded in 2009. James Madison Fellowships support further study of American history by college graduates who aspire to become teachers of American history, American government, and social studies in the nation's secondary schools, as well as by experienced secondary school teachers of the same subjects.

Named in honor of the fourth president of the United States and acknowledged "Father of the Constitution and Bill of Rights," the fellowship will fund up to $24,000 of Mr. Johnson's course of study toward a master's degree. That program must include a concentration of courses on the history and principles of the United States Constitution.

Mr. Johnson was selected for a James Madison Fellowship in competition with applicants from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the nation's island and trust territories. The fellowship--funded by income from a trust fund in the Treasury of the United States and from additional private gifts, corporate contributions, and foundation grants--requires its recipient to teach American history or social studies in a secondary school for at least one year for each year of fellowship support. The award is intended to recognize promising and distinguished teachers, to strengthen their knowledge of the origins and development of American constitutional government, and thus to expose the nation's secondary school students to accurate knowledge of the nation's constitutional heritage.

Founded by an act of Congress in 1986, the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation is an independent establishment of the executive branch of the federal government. Additional information may be found at http://www.jamesmadison.gov/.

Bernie and Leahy Support Civic Education

To friends and colleagues in Vermont:

We are pleased to inform you that Senator Patrick Leahy and Bernard Sanders have cosigned a letter to the chair and to the ranking minority member of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations subcommittee requesting funding for the Civic Education Program (ESEA II-Part C3) in the Department of Education, which supports the domestic and international programs of the Center for Civic Education.

We hope that you will show your appreciation for Senator Leahy and Senator Sanders's action by faxing each a note of thanks. The senators' contact information is listed below my signature. Also, please let your Vermont friends and colleagues know about Senator senators' support for civic education in our nation's schools.

Thank you for considering this request and for continuing your efforts in encouraging your other members of Congress to cosign.

Charles N. Quigley, Executive Director

Center for Civic Education

5145 Douglas Fir Road

Calabasas, CA 91302

818-591-9321

818-591-9330

FAX Senator Patrick Leahy

United States Senate

Washington, DC

United States Phone: 202-224-4242

Phone: 802-863-2525FAX: 202-224-3479

Senator Bernard Sanders

United States Senate

Washington, DC

United States Phone: 202-224-5141

FAX: 202-228-0776

For many online resources that support civic education in the classroom, go to http://delicious.com/sigridlumbra.

Education Secretary Seeks Input on NCLB Reform

From a U.S. Department of Education press release:

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will travel to 15 or more states in the coming months to solicit feedback from a broad group of stakeholders around federal education policy in anticipation of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The tour will gather input on the Obama administration's education agenda, including early childhood, higher standards, teacher quality, workforce development, and higher education.

The tour, "Listening and Learning: A Conversation About Education Reform," officially began May 4th with three events in West Virginia.

Duncan said that the primary purpose of the Listening and Learning tour is to, "Have a national dialogue about how to best deliver a complete and competitive education to all children—from cradle through career. We want to hear directly from people in the classroom about how the federal government can support educators, school districts and states to drive education reform. Before crafting education law in Washington, we want to hear from people across America—parents, teachers and administrators—about the everyday issues and challenges in our schools that need our national attention and support."

Other states targeted for potential events include Michigan, Vermont, California, Montana, Wyoming, New Jersey, Tennessee, North Carolina, Washington D.C., Ohio, Indiana, Florida, Utah, and Alaska. Additional states and events may be added during the course of the tour.

• How do you think NCLB should be changed in the future?
• How has NCLB affected you as a social studies educator? How has it affected your students?

Peeps Get Around

Click here to see bunny peeps at the Hollywood sign, Motown, Versailles, the Kamehameha statue, the Alamo, London, Manhattan, Chicago, Yosemite, the Portland Head Light, the Eiffel Tower, the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, the Space Needle, and Central Park. What's the point you ask? I'm not sure there is one, except that National Geographic conducted a "Peeps in Places" contest and announced the winners last week.

Vermont History Day Results

Congratulations to the following teachers whose students were first place winners in this year's Vermont History Day competition:

Keither Harrington from Poultney Elementary School (Junior Group Documentary and National Archives Award - "Horace Greeley: Influencing America through Words"); (Junior Web Site - "Dorothea Dix: Reformer for the Treatment of the Mentally Ill") and the Shelburne Museum Award

Susan Pollender from Black River High School (Senior Group Documentary & Vermont History Award - "Calvin Coolidge: Vermont Born and Raised"); (Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences Award - "Samuel Morey: A Little Yankee Ingenuity Goes a Long Way")

Stacy Devino from Poultney High School (Junior Individual Documentary - "FDR: Hope for Millions of Americans")

Kelley Brennan from Green Mountain Union High School (Senior Individual Documentary - "A Vermonter's Legacy of Heroism: Dr. James Canfield Fisher and the Rescue at Cabanatuan"); (International Studies Award, Senior Division - "A Vermonter's Legacy of Heroism: Dr. James Canfield Fisher and the Rescue at Cabanatuan")

Bob Russell of Mount Abraham (Junior Individual Exhibit & Vermont History Award - "John Deere: Plowing His Way Into History"); (The Deborah Pickman Clifford Vermont Women's History Prize - "Emma Willard")

Cookie Steponaitis from Vergennes Union High School (Senior Individual Exhibit and National Archives Award - "J. Edgar Hoover: Controversies and Secrets"); (Senior Individual Performance - "A Window on the Unusual: The Films of Quentin Tarantino); (Senior Web Site - "Seeing America as 'Pop' - The Art of Andy Warhol"); (National Archives Award - "Amelia Earhart: Explorer of the Skies"); (National Archives Award - "The 'Lion of Vermont': The Personality and Politics of Matthew Lyon")

Shelley Townsend from Mt. Holly School (Junior Group Exhibit - "Dr. Seuss: Bringing Change to Children's Reading"); (International Studies Award Junior Division - "Wernher von Braun: Putting Man on the Moon")

Madeline Sherman from Proctor Jr/Sr High School (Senior Group Exhibit and National Archives Award - "Emily Proctor")

Jessical Wagener, home schooler (Junior Historical Paper - "Galileo Galilei, Father of Modern Science")

Jess Applegate from Brighton Elementary School (Labor History Prize - "How Did Island Pond Get Its Health Center?") and the VT-NEA History Day Teacher of the Year Award

The Census in the History Classroom

There is a ton of great information for social studies teachers and their students on the U.S. Census Bureau's web site. The site contains some "static" information as well as data pulled together under in order to be viewed through a topical lens. (For example, this month there is a feature called "Play Ball" in recognition of spring training.)

Here are a few features on the web site that could be useful for a history teacher:

The history of the census itself
"Fast Facts" through the decades (from 1790 to 2000)
Notable Maps (Population Distribution Over Time, Distribution of Slaves 1860, Centers of Population, etc.)
Selected Historical Census Data 1790 - 1990
Factfinder for the Nation (overview of how the census and its data have changed over the years) Historical Census Browser (from the University of Virginia)

• If you are a history teacher, how have you used census data in your classroom?
  

Using Demographic Data: Vermont's Digital Divide

The proportion of Vermont households with high-speed or broadband Internet connections has increased from 9% in 2001 to slightly more than 66% in 2009, according to the statewide Vermonter Poll conducted by the Center for Rural Studies at the University of Vermont. Of households that did not have Internet or broadband, nearly 46% said that they knew broadband was available to them, while 17% were not sure.

Despite the overall increase in household broadband, there is still evidence of a digital divide. According to this year’s poll, 44% of responding households making less than $25,000/year have computers, compared to 83% of all households and 91% of households making more than $25,000. “Citizens can’t be connected unless they have a computer,” says Center for Rural Studies Co-Director, Jane Kolodinsky. “While progress is being made with regard to access to personal computers and the internet, we can’t 'level the playing field’ for Vermont students and adults in terms of access to the information highway until the digital divide issues are solved.”

A majority of all Vermont households that have Internet have a high-speed connection, but lower income households in that group are slightly less likely to have broadband than others. According to the poll, 76% of households with Internet making less than $50,000 have broadband versus 85% of households making more.

Traditionally there has also been a rural divide in high-speed Internet. According to the poll, 76% of rural households with Internet connections have broadband versus urban (88%) or suburban (93%) households. It should be noted however that urban households are less likely to have Internet overall (69% versus 84-85% for urban and suburban). This may be due to the fact that a higher proportion of urban households in Vermont are in lower income groups. Overall suburban households in Vermont are more likely to have Internet and broadband.

Overall nearly 82% of polled households have an Internet connection. Of connected households, 18% had dial-up, 24% had a cable modem, 42% had DSL, nearly 7% had satellite Internet, 6% had a wireless Internet service, and 3% had fiber-optic or some other service. Generally anything faster than dial-up is considered to be broadband, although speeds may vary.

Between those that have broadband and those that answered about the availability of high-speed Internet, at least 79% of households in this poll have broadband available to them. The State of Vermont has made 2010 a target for 100% broadband availability in the state. In the past, polled households have expressed varying support for State and community efforts to expand broadband service. The 2007 Vermonter Poll found a majority (58%) of respondents in support of the allocation of State funds toward universal broadband. However only a minority (36%) was in favor of the use of municipal funds for the development of broadband infrastructure.

For a detailed report on the information technology questions from the 2009 Vermonter Poll, please go to http://crs.uvm.edu/vtrpoll/2009.

Additional resources about the Digital Divide:
Bridging the Rural Digital Divide: FCC Starts Work on National Broadband Strategy from Democracy Now!
Digital Divide 2.0 from EdWeek
Study: 'Digital Divide' Affects School Success from E School News
Educators Wrestle with Digital-Equity Challenges from E School News
Worldwide Internet Usage Statistics
E Stats from the U.S. Census Bureau (measures the "electronic economy")

• What does the digital divide mean in your classroom and school?
• How can the digital divide be a important social studies topic for your students?

The Cuba/Vermont Connection

The following article by Bruce Harris and Peter Hirschfield appeared in the Times Argus on April 4, 2009:

In an attempt to grow Vermont's export market and liberate an oppressed population, Vermont House lawmakers may urge the federal government to lift a decades-old trade embargo with Cuba.

Vermont's relationship with the island nation, just 90 miles off the coast of Florida, has flourished in recent years as Vermont officials engage in diplomatic and commercial exchanges with the Communist country. The state's commissioner of education, Armando Vilaseca, a Cuban-American who has visited the Caribbean island eight times in the past decade, told legislators last week that this tiny state could help reshape the debate over whether to ease Cold War-era tensions with the Castro regime.

"A joint resolution from even a small state would provide a different perspective, and I think that would be helpful," Vilaseca said. Vilaseca was born in Cuba and immigrated to the United States when he was 8 years old. He returns often to visit friends and family, and said the plight of the Cuban people is exacerbated by their inability to sell domestic products to the U.S.Vilaseca said his views run counter to most Cuban-Americans, the majority of whom worry that open trade would legitimize Castro's totalitarian grip.

Vilaseca said as new ideas, new products and new money flow into the country, the Cuban population will find the wherewithal to challenge its government. "It's in our best interest to open up relations with Cuba, not only for trade for our own economy, but because it's a positive force that eventually will lead to the democratization of the island, which is ultimately what we all want," Vilaseca said. Vermont has reached out to Cuba over the past several years engaging in trade, education, cultural and humanitarian projects.

Four years ago the state sold 74 heifers to Cuba to help that country rebuild its dairy herd.Vermont also took the lead in the sale of several thousand metric tons of powdered milk to the island of 11 million people. The state also had a pending sale of 4,000 bushels of apples, but the sale never went through when the U.S. government failed to issue visas in a timely fashion for Cuban inspectors to visit Vermont. Supporters of the 48-year-old embargo argue that given its human rights record, the totalitarian regime in Cuba should not be rewarded with trade and tourists. But Roger Allbee, Vermont's agriculture secretary, said the United States trades with other countries with questionable human rights records.

"We're all saying the embargo doesn't make any sense," Allbee said. "We're trading with China and it doesn't make any sense not to be trading with Cuba as well."Without the embargo, Allbee said more trade with Cuba is possible, especially given its close proximity to the United States. In addition to dairy and food products, Allbee said Vermont could be in a position to export certain agricultural technologies including turning cow manure into methane gas to generate electricity. But Allbee also said trade is a two-way street."We might learn something from them in terms of medical science," he said. "They're very good on drugs and they have one of the best education systems in the world in terms of literacy rates as I understand it."

The first shipment of Vermont Holsteins and Jersey heifers was brokered by Florida rancher John Parke Wright IV, a frequent visitor to Cuba and a vocal supporter for lifting the embargo. In an e-mail to the House Commerce Committee, Wright noted the work of the Brattleboro-based Holstein Association USA in Cuba. "For Vermont's point of view and on behalf of the Holstein Association, we need two-way trade and travel with Cuba," Wright said. "I recommend that Vermont take leadership in this new trade opportunity." The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has called for ending the embargo – a position endorsed by the state organization.

"We have trading relationships with countries all over the world that have real or perceived problems as far as America is concerned," said Christopher Barbieri, interim president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. "Business is business and, frankly, business relationships tend to influence other aspects of the quality of life in countries." Barbieri also said it would be beneficial to Vermont to be out in front on the issue instead of waiting for political change to take place in Cuba.

In addition to trade, Burlington College has established a semester abroad program with the University of Havana. Last summer with the help of Sen. Patrick Leahy, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie and Wright, a group of Vermont and New Hampshire youth baseball players played a series of games outside of Havana. In the past, two nonprofit groups, Caribbean Medical Transport and Vermont Institute on the Caribbean, have done humanitarian work in Cuba.

Dubie has testified before the commerce committee as it considers the advisory resolution and said the measure is worth lawmakers' effort. Vermont's input, Dubie said, may embolden a new presidential administration that has already moved to relax travel to the island by Cuban-Americans. Obama has also indicated a willingness to further improve relations with the communist regime by relaxing travel for all U.S. citizens.

"World peace starts first in the family, next in the country and then next with your neighbors," Dubie said. "Cuba's a neighbor. And this is an opportunity." Rep. Warren Kitzmiller, a Montpelier Democrat and chairman of the House Committee on Commerce, said he's unsure yet whether the resolution will make it out of his committee for a full floor vote.

"I'm not sure my committee is unanimously anxious to deal with this," Kitzmiller said. "I'm certain I could pass it out on a split vote, but I'm not at all sure I want to do that." Still, he said he thinks it's appropriate for Vermont to insinuate itself into the national debate. "I'm of the opinion that the Cuba embargo has long since used up whatever original purpose or value it may have had. Now I think it's just punitive," Kitzmiller said. "Cuba could desperately use better relations with the United States, and I think Vermont stands to gain from that as well."

For Vilaseca, the issue hits literally close to home. The sooner the U.S. engages fully with Cuba, he told lawmakers, the sooner the Cuban people will realize economic prosperity and social justice."Everyone I know there is struggling in Cuba, and part of that struggle is not having a market for their products," Vilaseca said. "Everyone I speak to there, everyone asks 'Why are you doing this to us? Why are you hurting regular people?'"

Studying Vermont through Current Events: Should Hancock School Close?

As I was driving back from the Social Studies and Web 2.0 workshop yesterday in Castleton, I was listening to "The Story" on NPR. My ears pricked up when I heard that following the commercial, the story would be about the Hancock School in Vermont. A Two-Room School talks to teacher Amy Braun about the history of the school, it's special place in the community, and it's unique role in students' lives.

• How can we use this current issue to learn more about Vermont's past, present, and future?
• Would a story like this be of interest to your students?
• What is your opinion...should the Hancock School close?

photo courtesy of http://www.thestory.org/

March Madness at Essex High School

The following article written by Matt Ryan appeared in the Burlington Free Press on April 2, 2009:

Propaganda plastered in a hallway at Essex High School touted the much anticipated showdown between Lincoln and Tokugawa. A supporter of the Japanese shogun, stuck posters proclaiming “Tokugawa united Japan — Lincoln split the U.S.A.,” over the American president’s “Vote for Lincoln or your not thinkin’” posters.

Lincoln and Tokugawa, personified by students Ben Wistrom and Craig Pastel, respectively, jockeyed for votes Tuesday in teacher Grady Long’s AP history class. Their classmates would decide who advanced to the Sweet 16 in the school’s March Madness-style tournament of world rulers throughout the ages. The field of 82 student rulers, who hail from the school’s four AP history classes, will be narrowed to 16 by the end of today, assuming Swedish King Adolphus, who has been ill this week, is well enough to face off against British Queen Victoria for the round’s final spot.

Long and fellow teacher Jason Webster moderate the debates during the tournament, which began five years ago. The rulers who advanced to the Final Four last year, Attaturk, Babur, Sejong and champion Monkut, each lost in the first round this year.

Students research their roles and try to dig up dirt on their opponents. They field questions from their opponents, teachers and classmates. Many dress the part. Some charismatic leaders even recruit followers to smear the competition. Honest Abe, complete with beard and stove-pipe hat, came out swinging during the Lincoln-Tokugawa debate. He breezed through his accomplishments and dressed down his opponent for wearing dresses and “chopsticks in his hair.” He left the podium and waded into the audience, a la Clinton debating Bush and Perot in 1992, and slipped Tokugawa a few underhanded compliments. “He is kind of a bulldog,” Lincoln said of his opponent. “I had two bulldogs, myself. I called them Grant and Sherman.” Tokugawa played it clean, addressing Lincoln as his “good friend” and politely suggesting the president was merely a smooth talker. Lincoln, after all, ruled over only one civil war, whereas Tokugawa ruled over many.The class voted, and Lincoln advanced to the next round as the only American still alive in the tournament.

The Lincoln-Tokugawa debate was the headliner for three other matches in Long’s class Tuesday. Haitian rebel leader Toussaint L’Ouverture, played by Derek Neal, advanced to the next round after he admonished Chinese emperor Qi Huangdi, played by Molly Jaques, for wasting money on the Terracotta Army. The Babylonian King Hammurabi, played by Katrina Kunker in a T-shirt that read “Make love and war,” defeated Mansa Musa of the Mali Empire, played by Kevin Bednar. Hammurabi, who took credit for writing the first code of law, may have bought a few votes when he (she) tossed Mardi Gras beads — Babylonian treasure — into the crowd.

Before her debate with Augustus Caesar, Catherine the Great, played by Stephanie Schmidt, blew her nose and apologized for being “really sick and gross.” Despite her illness, the Russian empress pointed to her record of enlightening the “poor, backward peasants,” and defeated Augustus. Augustus, played by Nick Orr in a hoodie, fought the good fight. The Roman emperor took credit for ridding the calendar of the month Sextilis, and, to recap his many other feats, said “I did what I did, which I did well, by the way.”

FreeRice

What is FreeRice?

FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program and partnered with the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. FreeRice has two goals:
1) Provide education to everyone for free; and 2) Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

On the FreeRice Web site you can quiz yourself on a variety of topics at a variety of levels. For each correct answer you make, FreeRice will donate 10 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger.

Also on the site you can find links to the UN World Food Program, data about how the free rice has helped people around the world, and actions one can take to end world hunger.

• How could you use this Web site in your classroom?
• What interdisciplinary units of study can you see emerging from this web site and the information contained within?
• What other information can you share to help us teach about world hunger?
  

Saving Vermont Women's History

The following letter is from Christine Smith, History teacher at Spaulding High School

Dear Colleagues:

Ann Reynolds Story, Lucy Terry Prince, Clarina Howard Nichols, Emma Willard, Abby Hemenway, Electra Havemeyer Webb, Consuelo Northrop Bailey, Doris Morning Dove Minckler

These are all women who helped to shape our state, but many Vermonters, including educators, have never heard of them.

If you have, chances are it’s because of the Vermont Women’s History Project, sponsored by the Vermont Commission on Women, which has been working for the last five years to revive our awareness of Vermont women’s history.

Our work with the Vermont History Expo has inspired local historical societies to rediscover important women their own archives. Collaboration with the Vermont Humanities Council and the Champlain Quadricentennial Committee has enabled us to present lectures and produce research on other women of historical significance. Finally, we sponsor a conference for teachers and high school students in the Northeast Kingdom, called “My Story Matters.”

Through our newly created web site and data base, researchers, educators, students and the public now have easy access to information on Vermont women. The web site is also linked to the state’s tourism site so that people can find related events and attractions. It’s already become a model for other states: http://www.womenshistory.vermont.gov/.

A proposed merger with the Vermont Historical Society will ensure the continuation of projects like these. However, we must first demonstrate that there is strong community support for women’s history in Vermont by raising $12,000 by June 30. To that end, there are two ways you could help: 1) send a donation, or 2) look at the website/database and contact the VHS in order to show your support. You may contact the new director of the VHS Mark Hudson at Mark.Hudson@state.vt.us and send a copy to Jane Campbell at Jane.Campbell@state.vt.us.

For more information, please contact me, Christine Smith, or Judith Irving, Director of the Vermont Women’s History Project .

Christine Smith
Spaulding HS
155 Ayers Street
Barre, VT
History200@aol.com
Tel 802-476-4811 (ex 2217)
Cell 802-371-9439

Judith Irving
Vermont Women's History Project
Vermont Commission on Women
126 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05633-6801
judith.irving@state.vt.us
www.womenshistory.vermont.gov
Tel 802-828-5940
Cell 802-279-0098

Hanging Judges, Outlaws, and the Trail of Tears: Vermont Students Connect to the Old West with New Technology

Imagine touring a national park and soaking in its history — all without ever stepping foot on the property. That’s exactly what students in Vermont did, thanks to a virtual field trip project by several students from Howe Public Schools in Oklahoma.

Middle school and high school students in Tammy Parks’ broadcast journalism class at Howe presented an interactive presentation last week for fourth- and sixth-grade students in Irasburg, Vt., broadcasting live from the Fort Smith National Historic Site via video conferencing equipment and the Internet, according to Parks. The collaboration projects will be submitted as entries in the Kids Creating Community Content International Contest, a competition in which Tandberg and the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration challenge middle school and high school teams to develop and present a videoconferencing program about their community.

“It’s an opportunity to take something in your students’ back yard and share with another group of students in the United States, or this year it went international,” said Parks, who teaches broadcast journalism at Howe Public Schools. Armed with three video conferencing units, a mobile commander (which is basically a satellite, according to Parks) and some cameras, the two Howe teams — one made up of six eighth-grade students and the other of six ninth-graders — presented different programs for the Vermont students.

The high school project, “Indian Territory, Western Lawmen and Outlaws: Tales from the Courthouse of 'Hanging Judge' Parker,” took students on a virtual tour of the old and new jails and Parker’s courtroom, along with sharing the stories of Anna Dawes, Cherokee Bill and marshals and deputy marshals who rode for Parker. In “Trail of Tears, Frontier Forts and the Notorious ‘Hanging Judge’ of the Wild West: Tales from the Fort Smith National Historic Site,” the Howe middle-schoolers also conducted a virtual field trip of the old and new jails, the gallows and Parker’s courtroom, as well as shared information on the Trail of Tears, the first and second forts and Parker himself.

“They were live and interactive,” said Parks, who is also director of federal programs for Howe Public Schools. “They were in live chat ... during the presentation.” Parks said the middle-school presentation also included a hands-on activity, in which the students in Vermont were sent a haversack kit and the Howe students led them in the creation of the haversack during the live video presentation.“ And we threw a T-shirt from Howe to Vermont,” Parks said, explaining that a shirt had been mailed to teacher Sean Wallace in Vermont and as the Howe students pitched the shirt toward the camera, Wallace threw the shirt from around the monitor to the classroom in Vermont. “They just loved it. They thought that was great.”

Parks said the partnership with the Vermont school, which was arranged after she posted a collaboration request online, was good in that both schools were about the same size and are both in rural areas. Some of Wallace’s sixth-grade students were quite intrigued with the experience, he said. Irasburg sixth-grader Cody Cole thought the gallows were pretty neat and wished they provided more information about them; he was surprised that people were sent to jail for drinking whiskey. “He also wondered why the rest of the Daltons turned to a life of crime after their brother was shot,” Wallace said.

Kiana Badan was fascinated with the story of Cherokee Bill and the association with the unlucky number 13, he added. “We all thought it was interesting that they were reporting without coats and we were able to see grass at the historical site,” Wallace said. “That day was 5 degrees here and we had snow everywhere.”

Prior to the field trip, participating students had access to an online classroom module specifically designed for this venue and topic. Developed using Moodle, the learning community gave students knowledge about the topic through a variety of learning tools, including forums, glossaries, Wikis, chats and quizzes. Wallace said many of his students enjoyed visiting the Moodle online classroom and playing the games, particularly Hangman. The Howe students also spent a Saturday at the National Historic Site conducting research and visited the park the week before the live presentation for a practice run-through.

The above article by Pam Cloud was reprinted from the Times Record from Friday, February 20, 2009.

Online Partnerships Around Social Studies Content

One of the most exciting uses of Web 2.0 tools today in the classroom is for collaborating - either with a content provider through video conferencing or with another classroom in a different location around the U.S. or world. The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) is one nonprofit that you can use to do both (CILC is the site that Sean Wallace used to find his partners in the story above.)

Content

Educators can choose from more than 900 teacher-evaluated, national standards-based programs at www.cilc.org. CILC partners with over 150 national and international content providers to offer programs ranging from the sciences to math to history and more.

Collaboration
Through CILC’s Collaboration Center, you can post and search for collaborative learning
opportunities to engage students in active learning exchange. The following are some examples of requests that teachers are currently posting:

· I'd like my newly formed Debate Club (grades 7 & 8) to hold a live debate with another middle school. We meet after school 3-4:30. We're located in NJ.
· Are your 3rd graders studying a country in Africa? If so, a Long Island, NY, 3rd grade class would like to collaborate with you. The NY class has been studying Kenya and would like to share what they've learned with another class.
· Some students from our school are travelling to Japan in April 2009. We would like to meet up with Japanese school to learn more about the culture and share some of our Canadian culture.
· Our 2nd grade classes study rural, urban, and suburban communities. We would like very much to find rural and urban partners for an opportunity to compare and contrast our communities
· Looking for partnering classrooms who were originally a part of the Louisiana Purchase, which include AR, OK, MO, IA, MN, ND, SD, KS, CO, WY, and MT.
· We would love to have a school in Alaska collaborate with us on a year long building wide project as we explore Alaskan culture, history, education and the actual Iditarod race.
· I am looking for a partner school outside the U.S. that would be interested in using a Polycom video conferencing system. We would use it to discuss cultural similarities and differences as well as key topics such as global warming, childhood poverty, genocide, the new flat world.
· "I am a Citizen of the World" Media literacy course of High school students looking for same age group or college students who are interested in having dialogue on cultural and global issues of varying topics.
· Students in the grade levels 8, 9 are working with GPS Units; this has been great for our students and would like to collaborate with another school using GPS!

Visit CILC's website at http://www.cilc.org/ to find out about content or collaboration opportunities for your classroom (click on the "Content for Students" tab at the top of the page.)