Social Studies Currents

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

2009-10-01T14:47:00.001-04:00

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?

2009-10-01T14:30:00.004-04:00

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

2009-10-01T12:37:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-01T12:28:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-01T12:15:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-01T11:54:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-10-01T11:48:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-18T09:27:00.002-04:00

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

2009-09-04T09:12:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-03T15:37:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-03T14:30:00.008-04:00

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:

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

Lake Champlain History Comes Alive! Workshop

2009-09-03T10:27:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-03T10:02:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-03T09:54:00.002-04:00

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

2009-08-28T14:30:00.004-04:00

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

2009-08-28T14:11:00.004-04:00

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

2009-08-28T14:02:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-21T10:00:00.011-04:00

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

2009-05-21T09:46:00.005-04:00

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?

2009-05-21T09:06:00.012-04:00

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

2009-05-21T08:49:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-07T12:00:00.006-04:00

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

2009-05-06T11:42:00.006-04:00

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

2009-04-23T15:27:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-23T14:40:00.025-04:00

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

2009-04-23T13:47:00.012-04:00

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

2009-04-22T14:10:00.013-04:00

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

2009-04-06T11:43:00.007-04:00

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?

2009-04-03T11:11:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-03T10:22:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-03T10:05:00.004-04:00

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

2009-03-26T13:36:00.007-04:00

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

2009-03-02T14:24:00.006-05:00

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

2009-03-02T13:18:00.006-05:00

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.)

Women's History through a Current Lens: The Status of Girls and Women in Vermont

2009-03-02T09:58:00.006-05:00

March is Women’s History Month. One fascinating way to bridge women’s history to what is happening today is by looking at the newly released report “The Status of Girls and Women in Vermont” by the Vermont Commission on Women. You can find the full report at http://www.women.state.vt.us/pdfs/VCW%20Status%20Rpt%2009.pdf.

Would any of the following statistics change if women’s contributions to our country - both historic and current - were fully understood by today’s students?

Politics and Government:
In her book, Pearls Politics & Power: How Women Can Win and Lead, Governor Madeleine Kunin lists a number of reasons why women are reluctant to run for public office: lack of confidence, enduring public criticism, raising money, taking the risk of losing, and giving up their privacy. However, in Vermont, when women decide to run for the legislature they are much more likely then men to win.

Colorado has the largest percentage of women in the legislature at 39%; New Hampshire is in second place with 37.3% and Vermont is a close third with 37.2%.

In 2008 there were 283 select boards with a total of 1,010 members. However, only 19% were women. Overall, 88% of select boards had no women members or were male-dominated.

Jobs and the Economy:
The wage gap is real in Vermont. In 2006 the median wage for a man was $16.08/hour while the median wage for a woman was $13.82/hour resulting in almost $5,000 less a year for the typical Vermont family to take care of basic needs. Vermont’s wage gap is smaller than some other states because Vermont has fewer manufacturing jobs and fewer minority women who historically have been paid only 50-60% of what men make.

What Vermont Teen Girls Say About Health and Wellness:
Body Image
• 95% felt appearance was somewhat to very important
• 39% were concerned about being overweight
• 40% reported thinking negatively about their body one to three times a week
• 60% compare their bodies to celebrities

Habits and Behaviors
• 1 in 20 reported considering suicide every day
• 1 in 8 struggles with feeling sad and hopeless every day
• 1 in 33 binge and purge to lose weight
• 21% skip breakfast
• 67% of respondents spend 1‐3 hours on the phone, computer, playing video games, text messaging or watching TV
• 60% indicated they had ridden in a car with a driver who was talking or text messaging on a cell phone

Over twice as many girls as boys in grades 9-12 reported depression in 2005.

Education
More women have a bachelor’s degree or higher than men in Vermont for every age group under 65. Having a college degree pays off in future earnings for both men and women. However a woman with a college degree only earns a few hundred dollars more than a man with a high school diploma; a woman with a graduate or professional degree earns less than a man with a bachelor’s degree.

Education does not erase or mitigate the wage gap.

Poverty is highly correlated with educational attainment. However, at almost every level of educational attainment, women are almost twice as likely to live in poverty.

Go go http://delicious.com/sigridlumbra and click on the tag "womenshistory" to find many women's history resources you can use in your classroom.

Women's History Month Events in Vermont

2009-03-01T11:26:00.000-05:00

For more information about women's history in Vermont, visit the Vermont Women's History Project web site at http://www.womenshistory.vermont.gov/.

March 3
7pm. Madeleine Kunin at Johnson State College. Former three-term Vermont Governor Madeleine Kunin will give a talk entitled Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin: What Impact Have They Had on Women in Leadership?. Stearns Student Center Stage Space, Johnson State College. Info: www.jsc.edu/

7pm. Women, War, and Displacement Series Film Showing: The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo. Hoehl Welcome Center, St. Michael's College. Info:www.smcvt.edu/admission/events/events.asp

March 4
7pm. The History of Herbal Medicine in America. Presented by prominent herbalist Rosemary Gladstar. Part of First Wednesdays Lecture Series presented by the Vermont Humanities Council. The Atheneum, St. Johnsbury. Info: #(802)748-8291

7pm. Women, War, and Displacement series discussion: Rape as a Weapon of War: Violence against Women in Eastern Congo. Jocelyn Kelly, research coordinator at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiatives, will speak about sexual violence against women in Eastern Congo, the Panzi Hospital, and the importance of advocacy for rape victims. Hoehl Welcome Center, St. Michael's College. Info:www.smcvt.edu/admission/events/events.asp

March 5
7pm. Women, War, and Displacement Series: Stories of Local Women. A panel of local refugees share their stories. St. Edmund's Hall Farrell Room (3rd floor), St. Michael's College. Info:http://www.smcvt.edu/admission/events/events.asp

March 6
7pm. Women, War, and Displacement series film. Taxi to the Darkside: the story of Dilawar, a taxi driver who was detained in Afghanistan in 2002 and who died in American custody at the prison in Bagram a few months later. Center for Women and Gender Studies, St. Michael's College. Info: www.smcvt.edu/admission/events/events.asp

March 14
10-5pm. Vermont Women's Expo 2009. Vendors, Sponsors, Charity Auctions, and more. $5 admission at door. Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center. Info: http://www.celebratevermontwomen.com/

March 23
Time and Place TBA. Being the Change You Wish to See: Women of Color & Social Justice Advocacy A panel discussion with women of color on their work in social justice. Panelists are Jacqui Patterson of Action Aid and Health GAP, Mercedes Mack of Jubilee USA, and Siham Elhamoumi of Vermont Global Health Coalition. St. Michael's College.

March 26
Time and Place TBA. Samantha 'Rastles' the Woman Question: a one-woman show about Samantha, a late 19th century rustic philosopher, with humor planted squarely on the side of sensible women's rights. Solo performer Jane Curry has a knack for provoking thought and laughter with her shows, and has performed since 1983, all over the U.S. St. Michael's College. Info: #(802)654-2667.

Union Elementary Teacher Wins Civics Award

2009-02-20T13:51:00.009-05:00

Kristie Bush was presented the National Association of Secretaries of State Medallion Award from Secretary of State Deb Markowitz last week at the State House. Following are the Secretary's remarks from the ceremony:

Kristie Bush began teaching in the Montpelier School district over two decades ago. She started her career as a social studies teacher at Main Street Middle School, but has spent most of her time as a 5th grade teacher for Union Elementary. Every student Mrs. Bush ever had would tell you that she stresses the importance of civic engagement, and honoring those who have served our country.

Kristie was chosen as a recipient of this year’s award because of her leadership and longstanding commitment to promoting civics education in her classroom, her school and her state. She was a founder member of “Kids Voting,” which has evolved into Vermont Votes for Kids. She was instrumental in developing and promoting our mock election program.

She has incorporated initiatives such as the student mock election into her classroom every year to teach her students the importance of being active citizens in this great country. Mrs. Bush’s class also writes birthday cards to kids turning 18 to remind them to register to vote after their birthday. Kristie Bush works hard to instill democratic values in her elementary students, encouraging them to partake in their civic duties and helping them to encourage high school students to do the same!

Kristie also takes the time to honor veterans each year with her class in a unique and engaging way. They recognize the relatives of students who have served our country with a VIP (Very important Person) project, and her class also attends the annual VFW Veteran’s Day Luncheon.

The National Association of Secretaries of State Medallion Award was established by the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) in 2001 to honor individuals, groups, or organizations with a record of promoting the goals of NASS in one or more of the following areas: improving elections, with special emphasis on voter education and increasing voter participation; civic education, including the teaching, promotion, and study of this subject; and service to state government--specifically, as it relates to improving democracy in the state.

photo: Kristie Bush and Secretary of State Deb Markowitz

Industrial Revolution in Northern New England: A New Traveling Kit

2009-02-20T11:22:00.007-05:00

The American Precision Museum in Windsor Vermont has launched a traveling education kit about the Industrial Revolution in northern New England. Designed for grades 7-12, the kit is keyed to NH and VT standards and includes artifacts, photos, primary source documents, activities, books, CD’s a video, and lesson plans. The four modules each contain a teachers guide and focus on an essential question. The modules are I – Background: 1750 – 1850; II - Invention and Technology; III - Life and Labor, and IV - Legacy & Impact (for advanced students & high school).

The kit will help challenge your students to study the world around them, to discover how innovation and hard work transformed a farm and forest-based economy into a world of factories, machines, and mass-produced consumer goods. Much of this transformation originated in New England, in towns and villages where you can still see the evidence of early factories and mills, and where you can study local community records to find out what life was like during early years of industrialization.

The kit is available for a three-week rental period and costs $40.00, which includes shipment to your school. Your school is responsible for return shipping costs. The rental fee is $30.00 if you pick the kit up in person from the museum.

The kit is a great way to prepare for a visit to the museum, where they offer three activities your students can do in small groups: The Windsor in the 1860s Quest, a walk around the museum’s historic neighborhood; guided exploration of the exhibit Muskets to Motorcars; Yankee Ingenuity and the Road to Mass Production; and demonstrations at their working machine shop, seasonally staffed by high school interns.

The museum exhibits are open to the public May 23 through October 31, 2009. If there is sufficient interest, the museum may open during May for school groups. Please contact them for more information (see link at beginning of article).

National Museum of American History Online Exhibits

2009-02-20T10:55:00.005-05:00

Last week, NPR featured a story about the reopening of the National Museum of American History after an $85 million renovation. My first thought was how I'd love to hope a flight to D.C. and experience it first hand, but then the reality of the current economic crisis (and personal and professional budget limits) prompted me to do the next best thing: check out their online exhibits.

Of the 53 exhibits, the following seem like they might be the most relevant to your local curriculum. These also appear to all have linked educational materials and resources. See the entire list of exhibits here or at the individual links below:

A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution

Abraham Lincoln: An Extraordinary Life

America on the Move (transportation)

The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden

America's New Birth of Freedom: Documents from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops, 1820–Present

Edison Invents: All About Thomas Edison and His Inventions

The Gettysburg Address

Jamestown, Québec, Santa Fe: Three North American Beginnings

Photographing History: Fred J. Maroon and the Nixon Years, 1970–1974

Produce for Victory: Posters on the Home Front, 1941–1945

Separate is Not Equal: Brown v. Board of Education

The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag That Inspired the National Anthem

The Price of Freedom: Americans at War

Within These Walls . . . (historic home in Mass.)

Social Studies and Web 2.0 - The Perfect Match!

2009-02-20T10:28:00.003-05:00

Curious about how to use Web 2.0 tools in a meaningful way in your social studies classes? Want to possibly win an iPod Nano or iPod Touch? Then please think about attending the spring social studies network meetings. We've partnered with VITA-Learn, VTCite and your local ESA to further explore social studies in the 21st century.

You’ll leave these workshops—conducted by fellow teachers—able to start using Web 2.0 tools with your students.

Montpelier, March 27th:
Create Your Own Country Using Google Earth (Lucie deLaBruere): Redesign a traditional social studies activity—creating your own country.
Pharaoh’s Wiki (Jody Emerson): Use Web 2.0 tools such as del.icio.us, wikis, blogs, and videos to analyze a Pharaoh’s governing decisions.
Revolution and Propaganda (Don Taylor & Lauren Chabot): Learn how to examine revolution and propaganda through the integration of 21st century skills and technology such as Moodle, Google Docs, Podcasting, Wikis, and Inspiration.
Getting to Know You...Through a Collaborative Social Studies Project (Lori Morse & Sarah Ibson): a World War I unit that allows the students from different schools to collaborate via a wiki after reading Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo.
To register go to: http://www.lapdavt.org/

Castleton, April 2nd:
Wikis Wow! (Lauren Kelley-Parren): Come see the wiki used by ALL 140 10th grade US History students at Mt. Abe.
Collaborating on Social Studies Projects Using Google Presentation (Maureen Dobart and/or Bjorn Behrendt): Using Google Presentation, multiple students can be working collaborativelyo n the same document at the same time using their own computers.
Looking at Ourselves—Google Earth and Google Maps (Dave Davidson): Explore many of the features of Google Earth and Google Maps.
To register go to: http://www.castleton.edu/centerforschools/courses.htm

How do you use Web 2.0 tools in a meaningful way in your classroom?

Celebrate Lincoln's 200th

2009-01-14T12:34:00.003-05:00

The Vermont Commission on the Lincoln Bicentennial has scheduled the following educational and entertaining offerings to celebrate this historic event. Please feel free to email me for more details or with any questions.

MUSIC – LINDA RADTKE, “VERMONT CIVIL WAR SONGBOOK”
Feb. 25, 2009: State House, Montpelier, 7 pm

MUSIC – COUNTERPOINT, “LINCOLN AND LIBERTY”
Apr. 26, 2009: McCarthy Arts Center, St. Michael’s College, 4pm

MUSIC – “A LINCOLN PORTRAIT”
Feb. 2009 (TBD): Middlebury College Orchestra, Middlebury Arts Center

FIRST WEDNESDAYS SERIES
Feb. 4, 2009: Brooks Memorial Library, 7pm, Manisha Sinha, author of The Counter-Revolution Of Slavery
Feb. 4, 2009: Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, author of Mr. and Mrs. Prince, St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 7pm
Mar. 4, 2009: Rutland Free Library, Rutland, 7pm, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina
Apr. 1, 2009: Goodrich Memorial Library, 7pm, Newport, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina

PUBLIC LECTURES
Mar. 12, 2009: Blake Memorial Library, East Corinth, 7 pm

HILDENE
Jan. 31, 2009: Lincoln Birthday Luncheon, Award Presentation for Lincoln Essay Contest,
Keynote Speaker Ronald White, author of Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural, Equinox, Manchester
Jan. 22, 2009: Seth Bongartz- Lincoln the Politician
Feb. 7, 2009: Abe Lincoln's Hat -Interactive reading of the book and cupcakes to celebrate Mr. Lincoln's birthday!
Feb. 26, 2009: Craig Symonds- Lincoln as Commander in Chief
Mar. 26, 2009: Brian Dirck- Lincoln the Lawyer
Apr. 23, 2009: Michael Burlingame, Influence on, and Development of Lincoln’s Character

HUMANITIES COUNCIL READING & DISCUSSION OFFERINGS
“Lincoln: The Bicentennial of his Birth” (3 sessions)
“Our Civil War Legacy” (5 sessions)
“Influential First Ladies” (5 sessions)
“Seminal Statements of American Values” (5 sessions)

OTHER EVENTS
Feb. 12, 2009: State House, Montpelier, Friends of the State House Lincoln celebration
Workshops with Vermont teachers, dates and locations TBD

Changing Views of History, Changing Views of Race Webinar

2009-01-14T12:26:00.002-05:00

PBS Teachers is introducing a series of free monthly webinars for pre-K-12 educators beginning this month called “PBS Teachers Live!” The series features leading education experts, authors, or producers of PBS programs who will discuss timely and relevant curriculum-related topics, and demonstrate specific, tangible ways in which educators can integrate digital media and technology into the classroom. The first webinar is scheduled for Jan. 28, at 8 p.m. and is titled "Changing Views of History, Changing Views of Race" with guest speaker Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Click here to register and find out more.

Telling the Holocaust Like It Wasn’t

2009-01-14T12:02:00.002-05:00

I was made aware of this article in the New York Times by Tom White from the Cohen Center for Holocaust studies in Keene (who also presented at this year's VASS conference). If your students investigate the Holocaust (and are old enough), analyzing these films might result in some interesting inquiry.

Telling the Holocaust Like It Wasn't

Cool Economics Stuff

2009-01-14T10:17:00.006-05:00

One of my new favorite things to check out is the Freakonomics blog on the New York Times web site. By the guys who wrote the book of the same name, it covers things as overwhelming as the current financial crisis and as seemingly mundane as trayless college cafeterias, the Twilight book series, and Guitar Hero. Another NYT blog, Economix, bills itself as "explaining the science of everyday life." This blog appears to cover some of the more traditional economics topics you might be addressing in your class, such as migration patterns, the changing demographics of women in the workforce, and historical comparisons of banking crises over the years.

Speaking of the current financial crisis, according to The Foundation for Teaching Economics, "The financial meltdown of 2008 will challenge economists for explanations for a long time to come. However, the facts that have emerged thus far point strongly to policy actions by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world as creators of the conditions that led to financial chaos." They have published a primer to the meltdown on their web site. Click here to access that information.

What other interesting economics resources do you use that spark interest in your students?

Immigration: New YA Fiction by Julia Alvarez

2009-01-14T10:07:00.003-05:00

The following are excerpts from Nancy Price Graff's review of Julia Alvarez's new novel Return to Sender taken from the Times Argus on January 11, 2009. To read the full article click here.

"Julia Alvarez's new children's novel, "Return to Sender," is so full of heartache that it almost weeps. Eleven-year-old Mari Cruz is Mexican, an illegal immigrant living on a dairy farm in Vermont, where her father and two uncles provide the labor that keeps the farm running. Her mother has been missing for many months after returning to Mexico to attend her father's funeral.

Mari's story is plot-driven, reflecting the poignant, helpless situation in which she and her family find themselves. For them, this rural Vermont farm is an oasis that offers temporary shelter but no sanctuary.Although the girls attend school, they are virtually imprisoned on the farm, along with their father and uncles, for fear of tipping off the authorities. Mari cannot even mail the many long, heartbreaking letters she writes to her mother and to her grandparents in Mexico because the letters might be traced back to the farm.

For the same reason, the family cannot stay in touch with relatives by phone or use it to help find Mari's mother. As Mari makes abundantly clear, their physical, social and cultural isolation and constant fear create a unique kind of hell that leaves them little to do except work hard and hope one day life will be better."

Have you read this novel yet? If so, what are your impressions? Will you use it with your students?

Immigration from a Social Justice Perspective

2008-12-11T08:45:00.010-05:00

Drawing on a curriculum by Rethinking Schools, The Line Between Us, Teaching about the Border and Mexican Immigration, central Vermont educators Carolyn Shapiro and Jean Lathrop designed a curriculum that includes looking at the phenomenon of Mexican workers living shadow lives here in Vermont. They co-taught with two teachers of sophomore social studies classes, one for two weeks and the other for five weeks. They arranged to have guests visit the classes including a Mexican immigrant, an American born Mexican-American who is now a PhD but was a migrant worker as a child, a Vermont farmer using Mexican labor, and the co-director of Vermont Refugee Assistance. One teacher used his classroom budget to buy each student a copy of a short book, Crossing the Wire, about a teenage Mexican boy who in desperation decides he has to go to the US to earn money to send back to his family and the ensuing dangers he faces crossing the border. Students were very involved and wrote insightful evaluations. “I think this unit was really great and made me think of things that are going on now that we can potentially fix instead of like history which we can’t change.” (image courtesy of Vermont Folklife Center)

Carolyn and Jean compiled this resource list from the work mentioned above and also from their association with The Golden Cage exhibit at the Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury (http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/):

Web-based Resources:

The American Friends Service Committee has a section of their Web site at http://tamejavi.com/immigrants-rights/ devoted to immigrants’ right in the United States, which includes
· AFSC blog on immigration policy
· Project Voice E-Newsletter: Real Immigration Stories
· numerous articles and reports
· resources such as Echando Raices/Taking Root, a bilingual DVD documentary on immigrant realities and immigrant rights

The Web site of the National Immigration Forum at http://www.blogger.com/ww.immigrationforum.org/ includes:
· Press releases
· Facts on immigration
· Backgrounders, issue briefs, and legislative analysis
· Immigration reform resources

A 15-page fact sheet on migration from Mexico through March 2007 prepared by the Pew Hispanic Center can be found at http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/33.pdf.

Teachable Moment Web site presents free, timely topical activities and lesson plans for the K - 12 classroom offered by the nonprofit Educators for Social Responsibility. These include lessons on social responsibility, critical thinking, etc. and can be found at http://www.teachablemoment.org/.

Witness for Peace seeks to educate the U.S. public and policymakers about the root causes of immigration, and to change U.S. trade and economic policy that contributes to migration. Online resources at http://www.witnessforpeace.org/article.php?list=type&type=121 include reports, news, and publications.

Teaching for Change online catalog at http://www9.mailordercentral.com/teachingforchange/ offers hundreds of carefully selected books, films, and posters for teaching from a social justice perspective.

Books:

Will Hobbs, Crossing the Wire (published by Harper Collins) is a story for young adults about a Mexican boy who crosses the border to find work to help his family in Mexico. Also an online teacher’s guide for Crossing the Wire at http://www.harperchildrens.com/

Bill Bigelow, The Line Between Us: Teaching About the Border and Mexican Immigration is available from Rethinking Schools Online. The Line Between Us explores the history of U.S-Mexican relations and the roots of Mexican immigration, all in the context of the global economy. It shows how teachers can help students understand the immigrant experience and the drama of border life. It's also about imaginative and creative teaching that gets students to care about the world.

Ann Jaramillo, La Linea (published by Roaring Brook Press) is a moving story about the Herculean efforts of two Mexican teenagers to reach the Promised Land, the United States, to be reunited with their parents.

Films:

El Norte, directed by Gregory Nava, 1984, available on DVD.
A teenage brother and sister escaping violence in Guatemala flee to "El Norte" (the USA) by truck, bus and other means to reach Los Angeles, where they try to make a new life as young, uneducated, and illegal immigrants.

El Imigrante, written, produced, and directed by John Sheedy, David Eckenrode, and John Ekenrode, 2005.
This is a documentary film that examines the Mexican and American border crisis by telling the true story of Eusebio de Haro, a young Mexican migrant who was shot and killed during one of his journeys north.

From what other perspectives do you teach about immigration?
Do you teach about current immigration and/or migrant labor issues in Vermont? If so, what resources do you have to share with us?
Do you have any concerns or advice about teaching about current immigration issues?

2008 VASS Conference - A Success!

2008-12-10T13:19:00.005-05:00

Last Friday's VASS conference at the Equinox in Manchester was a great success. It was fun to see so many familiar faces, attend some really great presentations, and listen to our thought-provoking keynote speakers.

Richard Long from Kurn Hattin School in Westminster sums it up best when he says, "I believe the VASS conference was the best I have ever attended and I have been attending for several years. The variety of breakout sessions and topics covered were excellent. Everything seemed to go off without a hitch. The materials I received I was able to put to use right away in my classes. Thanks for a great professional experience."

To see some photos from the conference go to http://www.tahvt.org/VASS2008Photos.htm (thanks to the Teaching American History program at Castleton for these photos).

Ndakinna Cultural Center in East Calais

2008-11-21T15:05:00.004-05:00

From Charlene McManis at the Ndakinna Cultural Center:

Sitting Bull once said, "Let us put our minds together and see what life will make for our children." For many generations, his words served our native community.

Here at NDAKINNA CULTURAL CENTER, we endeavor to continue his goal of offering Native American Heritage for Vermont’s children. Programs like the drumming circle and beadwork classes merge artistic training with native teachings. Our web site (http://www.ndakinna.org/) provides a Wabanaki directory with valuable resources for education, research, and so much more.

For more information, you may phone 802-456-8884 or visit us at 34 Moscow Woods Road in East Calais. Gici oliwni (Many thanks)

21st Century Skills and Social Studies

2008-11-21T10:48:00.005-05:00

I received the following email from a social studies teacher here in Vermont. I'm interested in your reactions, comments, and feedback:

Hi Sigrid,

I just read over the DOE Transformation document and the 21st Century Skills document again and here's my thought. I'd like social studies to take the lead in creating and implementing plans for these goals to be obtained. The integrated nature of the content with emphasis on packaged skills is right up our alley.

The last time DOE began an initiative, (Standards), we were dragged kicking, screaming and late to the meeting. The fallout has been that we have been marginalized and made adjunct English teachers. We can do better.

Let's embrace this stuff and move forward with it. Form a committee of people around the state that can look at these documents through the lense of classroom teachers who consistently synthesize relevant topics, pursue inquiry and cause students to create meaningful, integrated presentations.

On our best days that's what social studies does.

Your thoughts?
Click on the link to the VT DOE Transformation document for more info: http://education.vermont.gov/new/html/dept/transformation.html

Obama Inspired by, Compared to Lincoln

2008-11-21T10:34:00.004-05:00

By Philip Rucker, Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

He was a boy with a distant father, raised in a family of modest means. He had a curious intellect, devouring history and memorizing passages from Shakespeare. He became a lawyer and settled in Illinois, where he was elected to the state legislature. With relatively little political experience, he decided to run for president. Few believed he stood a chance of winning a primary campaign against the party's heir apparent, a senator from New York.

But the gangly, bookish Illinoisan galvanized millions across a country in crisis with his soaring rhetoric, speaking in big strokes about transcending partisan politics and creating America as it ought to be. He rose from obscurity to clinch his party's nomination and the presidency. The New York senator returned home deeply disappointed and bitter, having fallen to a shrewd political tactician.

Sound familiar?
Read the rest at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/18/AR2008111803854.html

Watch Doris Kearns Goodwin talk about these connections at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/doris_kearns_goodwin_on_learning_from_past_presidents.html

What do you think about this premise (the connections between Obama and Lincoln)?
How can you use this information in your classroom?

International Education Week

2008-10-30T08:32:00.005-04:00

November 17-21 is International Education Week.

Like any other commemorative week or month (or year, for that matter) of some merit, the question arises "why just one week (or month or year)?" Today, international/global education is so essential that it should be incorporated into all subject areas spanning many if not all grades.

We all know this, but according to a recent report from the Committee for Economic Development our students, upon graduation, will be: selling to other countries, buying from other countries, working for international companies, managing employees from other cultures and countries, collaborating with people around the world in joint ventures, competing with people around the world for jobs and markets, and tackling international problems such as climate change, diseases, and disaster recovery.

For some good online resources, go to http://delicious.com/sigridlumbra and click on the tag "Global Studies" in the right hand tool bar.

How do you address global education in your classroom?
Is your school and/or district supportive?
What resources, methods, or advice to you have for your colleagues who want to expand global education within their schools?

Online Election Resources

2008-10-07T11:57:00.005-04:00

The following web sites are good resources for integrating 21st century skills and the election:

• The Living Room Candidate: Web site sponsored by the Museum for the Moving Image that provides clips of presidential-campaign commercials from 1952 through today, as well as background and historical information about campaign advertising.
• National Association for Media Literacy Education: The national membership organization promotes media-literacy efforts. It offers suggestions for teaching about the election.
• Glassbooth: An online quiz that analyzes a user’s position on social, political, and economic issues to see which candidate’s views he or she is most aligned with.
• Mouse: A New York City-based nonprofit organization that supports research, policy initiatives, classroom resources, and training programs for teachers and students that promote the use of technology to enhance instruction.
• Presidential Election Wiki: A wikispace, or collaborative Web site, that includes resources and Web links for teaching about the election process. The site is administered by Joyce Valenza, a library information specialist at Springfield Township High School in Pennsylvania.
• YouTube: The video-sharing Web site has a channel dedicated to the election hosted by YouTube that includes clips of the candidates on the campaign trail and in debate, as well as video commentary by both prominent and unknown pundits.
• Media Construction of Presidential Campaigns: Curriculum materials from Project Look Sharp, the media-literacy program at Ithaca College. It includes a detailed teacher’s guide and downloads for units covering media issues in presidential campaigns since 1800.
• Access, Analyze, Act—A Blueprint for 21st Century Civic Engagement: The Public Broadcasting Service’s resources include a teacher’s guide for developing lessons that tap social media to teach media-literacy, critical-thinking, communication, and technology skills. The site, created by the Media Education Lab at Temple University in Philadelphia, also includes podcasts and interactive simulations on campaign issues.
• Factcheck.org: The searchable Web site from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania monitors the factual accuracy of statements, advertisements, interviews, and debates related to the presidential campaign.
• Get My Vote: A Web site sponsored by National Public Radio that allows citizens to write, record, or videotape their views about issues they deem important to the election.
• The Internet Archive: The site contains historical collections in digital format. It includes video, audio, and print documents, as well as software and Web page archives.
• eLECTIONS: An online, multimedia game offered by Cable in the Classroom in which players are candidates and choose their party affiliation and positions on key issues, then analyze polling maps and choose campaign strategies.
Source: Education Week

What other good online resources are you using in your classroom?

Presidential Election TV Ads: Past and Present

2008-10-07T11:04:00.003-04:00

The Living Room Candidate contains more than 300 commercials, from every presidential election since 1952, when Madison Avenue advertising executive Rosser Reeves convinced Dwight Eisenhower that short ads played during such popular TV programs as I Love Lucy would reach more voters than any other form of advertising. This innovation had a permanent effect on the way presidential campaigns are run.

In a media-saturated environment in which news, opinions, and entertainment surround us all day on our television sets, computers, and cell phones, the television commercial remains the one area where presidential candidates have complete control over their images. Television commercials use all the tools of fiction filmmaking, including script, visuals, editing, and performance, to distill a candidate's major campaign themes into a few powerful images. Ads elicit emotional reactions, inspiring support for a candidate or raising doubts about his opponent. While commercials reflect the styles and techniques of the times in which they were made, the fundamental strategies and messages have tended to remain the same over the years.

For more information go to http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/.

Are you a technophobe?

2008-10-07T10:40:00.002-04:00

Are you irritated that your students know (way) more than you do? If so, there's a great web site that could help. It features simple "how to" videos made just for teachers that cover the following types of technology:

Second Life L1
Second Life L2
Mind Mapping Tools
Make Online Surveys
RSS Feeds
All About YouTube
How to Use Blackboard
How to Use iTunes to Get PodCasts
24 Tips for PowerPoint
How to Create Blogs
How to Use and Make Wikis
How to Use Del.icio.us
Tips and Tricks for Word
Drawing and Recording

To view these videos go to http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/.

How do you use technology in your class?

What resources do you suggest for people to learn more about integrating technology into their classrooms?

Banned Books Week

2008-10-02T15:05:00.007-04:00

From the ALA:
BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.

The 10 most challenged books of 2007 reflect a range of themes, and are:
1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell [Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group]
2. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier [Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence]
3. Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes [Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language]
4. The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman [Reasons: Religious Viewpoint]
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain [Reasons: Racism]
6. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker [Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language]
7. TTYL, by Lauren Myracle [Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group]
8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou [Reasons: Sexually Explicit]
9. It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris [Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit]
10. The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky [Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group]

For a lot of interesting information about banned books, including a Resource Guide, breakdown by year(s), graphs of data including Challenges by Initiator, Institution, Type, and Year, go to the ALA's web site at http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/challengedbanned/frequentlychallengedbooks.cfm.

Have you ever used any banned or challenged books in your classroom?

What should social studies students know about banned books or the process of banning books?

Social Studies Network Meeting: Vermont in the Civil War

2008-09-24T14:06:00.006-04:00

Social studies teachers from the southeastern part of the state came together on September 17th for an exciting day of investigation around the Civil War's impact on Vermont. We heard from historian Howard Coffin about his efforts to uncover how Vermonters lives were touched by the war and from reenactor (and teacher) John Swanson about Springfield's first 10 days of the war. We learned about individual soldiers and the people they left behind by examining primary source documents and how to create a Quest from questing "guru" Steve Glazer. The highlight of the day, though, was our trip to the Dummerston Center Cemetery. There we collected data from the graves of soldiers as well as learned how to "read" cemeteries in general.

The feedback about the day was positive and informative:

"Howard Coffin was very inspiring. I want to look for Civil War history in my own town."

"Great cemetery work. It motivates me to do the same in my school community."

"Great mix of speakers, workshops, and field trip to the cemetery."

"The presentations, trip to the cemetery, and activities were 10 on a scale of 10."

Participant feedback also suggested some changes that will be made to the next inservice date (October 22nd at the Danville School). Specifically, we will have a breakout room geared toward elementary teachers.

Thanks very much to Sarah Rooker from the Flow of History project, Julia Lewandoski from the Vermont Humanities Council, Larry Coffin, former teacher at Oxbow and member of the Vermont Old Cemetery Association, and Christine Smith, women's history teacher at Spaulding High School who were all instrumental in making this day happen!

What would you like to see at the next social studies network meeting?

Vietnam Field Study Summer 2009

2008-09-15T12:36:00.006-04:00

Would you like an opportunity for teachers to enhance instruction of the legacy of the Vietnam War Era? An opportunity for staff to travel to the Republic of Vietnam during the summer of 2009 for academic credit? An opportunity for staff & students to participate in a fund raising campaign to eliminate the risk of unexploded ordnance left behind during the Vietnam War?

Keene State College and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund have authorized a field study for 6 academic graduate credits in the Republic of Vietnam during the summer of 2009. Bill Holiday, teacher at Brattleboro Union High School, will be the instructor. Costs and Dates are being worked out, but dates are likely to be from June 30, 2009 through July 12, 2009.

For more information please contact Bill at Bill_Holiday@wsesu.org.

If the World Were 100 People

2008-09-15T10:32:00.009-04:00

If the World were 100 PEOPLE:

50 would be female
50 would be male
20 would be children
There would be 80 adults,
14 of whom would be 65 and older
There would be:
61 Asians
12 Europeans
13 Africans
14 people from the Western Hemisphere
There would be:
31 Christians
21 Muslims
14 Hindus
6 Buddhists
12 people who believe in other religions
16 people who would not be aligned with a religion
17 would speak Chinese
8 would speak Hindustani
8 would speak English
7 would speak Spanish
4 would speak Arabic
4 would speak Russian
52 would speak other languages
82 would be able to read and write; 18 would not
1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer
75 people would have some supply of food and a place to
shelter them from the wind and rain, but 25 would not
1 would be dying of starvation
17 would be undernourished
15 would be overweight
83 would have access to safe drinking water
17 people would have no clean, safe water to drink

Have you seen this information before? Have you used it in your classroom?
How can we verify this data....or better yet, how can you have your students verify this data or create their own demograhic snapshot?
In addition to working with data, what is the bigger understanding here for your students and the world they will and do inhabit? Here are some web-based resources that might be of help answer some of these questions:

U.S. Census Bureau International Database http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/

GeoHive http://www.geohive.com/default1.aspx

Population Reference Bureau http://www.prb.org/

Population Reference Bureau Datafinder http://www.prb.org/datafinder.aspx

The Media, Politics, and American Society at the State House

2008-09-15T10:14:00.005-04:00

SAVE THE DATE!

The Bill of Rights Institute is pleased to invite you to apply for a FREE one-day seminar entitled Seeking the Truth: Media, Politics, and American Society. This seminar is for social studies teachers, grades 8-12, and will be held on Thursday, November 6, 2008 at the Vermont State House in Montpelier from 7:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. Complimentary breakfast and lunch will be provided at the seminar.

The evolution of the First Amendment press protections in American history and the use of media in political campaigns is a complex area of study. This seminar provides teachers with tools to address protections afforded to political speech, analyzing sources as varied as Thomas Jefferson and the Federal Communications Act of 1934. The protections afforded political speech and its impact in the media are addressed through the analysis of political images and advertising from previous elections.

At the seminar, you will receive a complimentary copy of our new curriculum, Media and American Democracy , with lesson plans, classroom activities, a glossary of journalism terms, and Landmark Supreme Court Case activities. Participants will also receive a professional development certificate.

Registrations must be completed online by October 16, 2008. You will be notified of your acceptance via email no later than October 21, 2008. To register, please visit: http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/ApplyOnline. For more information, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page, linked to our registration page.

Constitution Day: Opportunity or Irony?

2008-09-15T09:30:00.005-04:00

The idea of Constitution Day might seem paradoxical to many social studies educators: Does reserving a single day in honor of the Constitution actually mitigate its importance by encouraging single-shot, surface-level learning? Furthermore, how can we compel teaching about freedoms that are integral to the lives of every one of us, not just school children? How can (and should) the federal government drive state and/or local school curricula in this manner?

Reflecting on these questions is important when determining what we want our students to understand about the Constitution, their government, and their rights and freedoms as well as how we want to address Constitution Day in our schools. I've made a Constitution Day Planning Guide with the hopes that it can help you provide exciting and relevant educational opportunities to your students throughout the entire school year, not just on September 17th.

The Planning Guide includes the following:
* Programming Ideas: ideas for classroom or school-wide events celebrating the Constitution
* Primary Source Documents and Reading Informational Text Strategies: the U.S. Constitution, the Vermont Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence formatted for student interaction; a glossary for the U.S. Constitution; informational text reading strategies for teachers
* Classroom Resources: resources for teaching about the Constitution and the U.S. government. Grade levels, themes, and types of resources are highlighted.
* Current Events: recent events from the news that focus on student rights and responsibilities

Click here for the guide http://education.vermont.gov/new/html/pgm_curriculum/history.html, then click on Curriculum and Assessment Resources.

What do you think about the idea of a Constitution Day? Does it hurt or promote learning about the Constitution?

Cartoons for the Classroom

2008-09-15T08:33:00.008-04:00

You’ve got to love editorial cartoons and the critical thinking skills they can enhance in us and develop in our students, especially during this election season. The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists’ web site has a section called “Cartoons in the Classroom” that contains these useful amenities:
*A weekly lesson
*Blank cartoons
*Cartoon evaluation worksheet
*128 archived cartoon-related lessons
*Links to addition editorial cartoon web sites

Click here to check it out: http://nieonline.com/aaec/cftc.cfm

What suggestions do you have for using editorial cartoons in your classroom?
How do you assess the use and creation of editorial cartoons?
Do you have any good resources to share?

Image courtesy of UnionLeader.com

What Did You Do This Summer?

2008-09-14T12:08:00.007-04:00

It seems like summer is usually about two things that are potentially polar opposites: vacation and professional development. One relaxing and fun-filled, the other full of work and deadlines. Or so I thought...

I'm happy to say that I had the opportunity to participate in some really great professional development this summer. The Vermont Geographic Alliance's 2008 Summer Institute for Educators managed to combine intense and eye-opening content with collegiality and fun. On more than one occassion I thought to myself, "Every Vermont student should be learning about this." Current geographic issues are some of the most pressing our world is facing today. Learning about these, and learning to use up-to-date geographic technology are crucial ways to assure that our kids are ready to be citizens of the 21st century.

Some of the interesting things we learned about were:

*Google Maps
*Google Earth
*The Gap Minder (a very interesting web site that takes current geographic data and makes it visible for you and your students) http://www.gapminder.org/
*GPS
*Geocaching
*Geography-centered literature at the elementary level
*Geography lessons at the elementary level
*Vermont's topography
*Resources from the Fleming Museum
*New curriculum from National Geographic being piloted by Vermont teachers
*The America Over There: A Look at Contemporary American Colonies and Overseas Military
*Migration to the U.S.
*Illegal immigration in Vermont, the human conditions it creates, and its importance to Vermont's agricultural economy
*Arctic melting
*Historical geography of Vermont

Let me know if you would like any more information on the above topics. And please consider applying for VGA's summer institute next year!

Did you participate in any good professional development this summer that you would like to recommend to your colleagues? Use this blog as a forum for sharing this information.

Coping with Rising Gas Prices

2008-09-14T11:29:00.011-04:00

Got any field trips planned this year? If your answer is no, you're not alone.

In addition to a recent Times Argus article "Schools look at trimming extracurricular activities", other headlines ("Gas prices fuel rise in virtual field trips ," "School field trips in jeopardy as fuel prices rise") don't bode well for Vermont's students getting out of the classroom much in the coming year.

How are you planning on coping with these new economic realities?

Here are some tips and/or examples:
*CILC http://www.cilc.org/
*The Smithsonian Institution http://www.si.edu/
*The Louvre http://www.louvre.fr/llv/musee/visite_virtuelle.jsp?bmLocale=en
*The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/features.asp
*National Park Service http://www.nps.gov/learn/distance.htm
*The National Zoo http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/WorldTour/
*The Tomb of Tutankhamen http://www.nationalgeographic.com/egypt/index.html

There are thousands of other examples. You might find some of relevance on my del.icio.us page or under the Curriculum and Assessments section of my DOE web page (http://education.vermont.gov/new/html/pgm_curriculum/history.html).

What sites have you found that can be used to create a good virtual field trip?

"Your Shot" China Map from National Geographic

2008-07-17T13:57:00.004-04:00

With the Olympics on the way, see National Geographic readers' photos of Chinese life plotted on an interactive map—with tranquil rivers, frenetic cities, and more.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/china/your-shot/china-map-interactive?source=email_places_20080710&email=places_20080710.

You Tube video "Where the Hell is Matt?" - hurting or helping global education?

2008-07-17T08:48:00.020-04:00

Recently a New York Times article caught my eye. It began with this description:

"There are no weekend box office charts for online videos. But if there were, near or at the very top of the list right now might well be a four-and-a-half-minute video called 'Dancing,' which more than four million people have viewed on You Tube, and perhaps another million on other sites, in the just over two weeks since it appeared. It’s the online equivalent of a platinum hit, seeping from one computer to the next like a virus."

Almost the same day a global education listserve that I belong to alerted its readers to this video's existance. This started an interesting and spirited conversation about how we teach our students about other people and cultures around the world.

Some people were fully supportive of the video, posting comments such as, "There can be such difficulty in persuading our youth and our students to venture outside the U.S. and experience other countries and cultures, that it's great to find something that shows them all the places they can go and experience and that they can have fun doing it. And even make contact with local people."

Others, though, were strongly against using this video in the classroom. One response focused on perceived superficiality by saying, "What I heard from a group of social studies teachers (some are from other countries) is that 'Matt' was just another superficial look at other cultures. Someone said it reduced people in his country to being the backdrop for a white American guy's video. One compared it to white actors using Kenyans as scenery in Out of Africa."

Another person brought up the topioc of deeper understanding with this comment: "Why not ask students to analyze the carbon footprint of that activity? And what does it really contribute to people's understandings of cultures that they can't get from M-TV? The two best scenes, in my opinion, are where he dances with the Indian women who are doing their own dance, and where the PNG folks are doing their own thing while Matt does his little dance. This is fun but I think there are better ways to contribute to students' understandings of world cultures. I think it feeds students' celebrity-itis and their desire to do gimmicky things to put on the internet rather than feeding a real desire to understand other cultures."

What do you think?

To view the video go to http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/?fbid=B_z_WU.

Does this video really contribute to students' understanding of the world around them?

Would you use this video in your classroom? If so, how? If not, why?

Bradford to celebrate bicentennial in 2010 of America's first globe

2008-07-16T16:24:00.007-04:00

By Tom Haley
Rutland Herald
July 5, 2008

The man who made the first globe in North America had a farm in Bradford, and it's not difficult to see the town is proud of that distinction. There are signs in town and a historic marker on Interstate 91. Years ago, the local bank had a drawing of a globe on the checks, according to Bradford Historical Society President Larry Coffin.

But the grandest proclamation will come in 2010 when Bradford celebrates the bicentennial of the Wilson Globe. James Wilson might well have made his first globe before 1810, but that is the date of the first recorded sale so the town is using that year to celebrate the event. The centerpiece of the celebration will be one of the first three globes made by Wilson.

The globe is in Williamstown, Mass., where it is being restored by the Williamstown Art Conservation Center to the tune of about $25,000."It was falling apart and fragile," Coffin said. He felt if they were ever going to be able to achieve its restoration, it would be for a bicentennial event. There will also be a stand for the globe and a booklet that Coffin estimates will be 20 pages or so with information on Wilson.

Appropriately, one of the events for raising the funds is a geography bee held at Oxbow Union High School in Bradford. The second bee will be Nov. 15. The first in 2007 was a success financially and in terms of the enthusiasm it generated. With its entry fees, sponsorship money and a matching sum from the Modern Woodmen of America, the geography bee raised about $3,800. But it was the excitement and fun it brought to the community that was its signature."Everyone had a great, great time. It was so successful, we are going to do it again," Nordham said. Who knows? The bee might have a life beyond the bicentennial."It will go at least through the bicentennial," Coffin said. "It might go for awhile."Personally, I love geography."

Evidently, so do many others. The competition of the first bee was spirited and the knowledge impressive by the three-person teams in the two categories: elementary school and high school/adult."Many of the adults were impressed that the kids knew as much as they did," Nordham said. The grand prize is a $300 16-inch Replogle Globe in a Queen Anne style cherry floor stand that was donated by the Replogle Globe Co. The winning team will select the area school or library that receives it. National Geographic Society atlases and other prizes will also be awarded.

Bradford's bicentennial of the Wilson Globe will be a celebration of its heritage, but as much as anything it will be an event honoring ingenuity and hard work.It is fascinating what this farmer/blacksmith went through to achieve his globe business after moving to Bradford in 1796 with little formal education."He was totally self-taught," Nordham said.Wilson sold cows from his farm to buy an encyclopedia and educated himself in cartography and map making. He sought out an expert in engraving, Amos Doolittle in Connecticut."He taught himself geography and astronomy," Nordham said. "He studied all the skills he needed to make his globes."

For the complete story go to http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080705/NEWS02/807050328.

It's high time to retire the Pledge of Allegiance

2008-07-11T11:21:00.012-04:00

By PAUL M. HOWEY
Times Argus

July 6, 2008

We say the Pledge of Allegiance a lot, mechanically mouthing the words without truly understanding them or their history. Are we deluding ourselves into believing this somehow renders us more patriotic?At the risk of sounding like Cliff from "Cheers," here are some little-known facts, Normie.

Conservatives are up in arms about presidential candidates wearing flag pins. I'll bet precious few of them, however, are aware the Pledge of Allegiance was written by a left winger, a socialist even, and that corporate profits were the sole motivating factor behind it.

Francis Bellamy penned the pledge in 1892. Bellamy was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist, and an extreme nationalist whose sermons ("Jesus the Socialist," for one) eventually got him booted from the church. He then landed a job with Youth's Companion, a magazine that also happened to be in the business of selling American flags. The magazine's owners decided they needed to boost flag sales. They came up with a marketing gimmick. They engineered a deal with the National Education Association to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus landing in the New World. By agreement, all the schools in the country were to have flag ceremonies, and naturally they would all need to have flags. To cement the deal, they had Bellamy write the following pledge that youngsters all over the country would be required to say:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

One nation indivisible" was a phrase Bellamy used to drive home the fact that states had no inherent right of secession. The Civil War was still fresh on the minds of Americans, and the Northerners wanted to be sure the Southerners understood the new rules. Socialist that he was, Francis had wanted to include "equality for all" in his pledge, but he knew the states' superintendents of education — who generally did not support equality for women or for African-Americans — would object.That could hurt flag sales (the pledge was, after all, just an advertising ploy meant to peddle more flags), and so he dropped the idea.

The last change to the pledge came in 1954. In response to the "Red Scare" of the McCarthy era, the words "under God" were added, supposedly to show that we rejected the godless precepts of communism. Otherwise patriotic atheists and agnostics were not consulted.

Sadly, the Pledge of Allegiance was but an ad campaign created to bolster a corporation's bottom line. Perhaps worse, it was worded to be politically expedient rather than politically correct. We're about the only nation to "pledge allegiance" to a flag, and we do it without even understanding why we do so.

Perhaps it's time to consider retiring this anachronistic practice, or at least finding a meaningful replacement.

Paul M. Howey is an author and photographer, and lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Do students in your school regularly recite the Pledge of Allegiance?
What is your opinion? Would you use this article with your students? If so, how? If not, why?
Have you ever used the Pledge of Allegiance as the basis for a lesson in your classroom? What did that look like?
Do you have any resources you would recommend for others about this topic?