History on Tap

CNN.com has a great article today about the role played by slaves during the Civil War.  They discuss William Jackson, a slave belonging to Jefferson Davis who spied for the Union.  They also mention Harriet Tubman and Robert Smalls.  This goes along particularly well with USI, but in general is great information to share with your students.

A couple of links have been added to the blogroll on the right sidebar.  They are “Encyclopedia Virginia” and “Virginia Memory.”  They each contain a wealth of information and would be very helpful in VA Studies.  They include photographs and lots of primary resources, a today in history, and many other features.  They are reliable sources in partnership with the Library of Virginia and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Sarah has some items to give away to a third grade Portsmouth teacher.  They include:

• Economics posters
• A United States desk map
• Reference guide to the Presidents of the United States (excluding Barack Obama)

First comment gets it!

The 6th grade What I Need to Know workshop will be held on Tuesday, February 24th, at 4:15pm in the John Tyler library.  Materials will be distributed at the workshop.  You must attend to receive materials.  RSVP to Mrs. West at mary.west@pps.k12.va.us or 393-8555.

Just wanted to remind everyone that the link for the SOL test blueprints (from the VDOE) is under the blogroll in the right sidebar.  When reviewing/remediating, it’s a good idea to check out the blueprint and see what information is weighed most heavily in the test.

I have uploaded new resources on the VA Studies page.  Sarah sent vocabulary reviews and review cards for each SOL (up through VS.9) and they have all been uploaded.  There is also a new powerpoint for VS.7.  Thanks Sarah!

Our February lead teacher meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 4:15pm.  We will meet at John Tyler Elementary in the large conference room.

The third nine weeks questions of the day for VA Studies have been posted.  You’ll find them under the VA Studies page.

Life and Google have partnered to archive all of Life Magazine’s photos. 

“Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.”

Photos are organized by decade, people, places, events, sports, and culture.  This is a great resource for teachers and students. 

Thanks to Sandra Grey for sharing this website with me.  It’s called Powerpoint Palooza and has over 200 social studies websites.  A lot of them are geared towards high school (AP Am and Euro History) but you can download and manipulate them to suit USI and USII.  There are also student projects as well as a Jeopardy template.  http://www.pptpalooza.net/