History on Tap

Here are a couple of interesting news items from the past few days.

First, archaeologists have discovered a new pyramid in Saqqara, which is an ancient burial site in Egypt.  The pyramid is estimated to be 4,300 years old.  For more info, check out http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/11/11/egypt.pyramid.discovery.ap/index.html.

Second, here is some information from WHRO on the re-broadcast of a special on the Monacan nation of Virginia.  Fourth grade teachers, this may be something you want to consider downloading and saving for future use in the classroom. 

WHRV 89.5FM TO re-AIR SPECIAL ON THE MONACAN NATION OF VIRGINIA

NORFOLK:  With the 400year anniversary of the birth of America just behind us, many people are still unaware of the history of the Virginia tribes and the true stories regarding first contact at Jamestown in 1607.  WHRV 89.5FM will air a one-hour program featuring Monacan Chief Kenneth Branham and tribal members Karenne Wood and Sue Elliott, who sit down with Chickahominy tribal representative Powhatan Owen to share the history and culture of the invisible people; past present and future.

Bear Mountain in Amherst County has been the home of the Monacan people for more than 10,000 years. The earliest written histories of Virginia record that in 1607, the James River Monacan, along with their Mannahoac allies on the Rappahannock River, controlled the area between the Fall Line in Richmond and the Blue Ridge Mountains. The most western of Virginia’s eight tribes, the Monacan Nation - over 1,400 strong.

This a rare opportunity to learn the true history of the founding of this country from the direct descendants of the Virginia Tribes.

WHRO Chief Enterprise Officer John Heimerl served as Executive Producer for Monacan Voices.  “WHRV is pleased to be able to share this under reported perspective of the Jamestown experience with our listeners,” said Heimerl.  “Our region’s Native American stories and voices have been too long unheard, and we’re proud to bring these to our airwaves.”

Subjects covered are: First contact, Racial Integrity Act [also known as the paper Genocide of Virginia Indians]  Federal Recognition, culture and history of the Virginia tribes, healing for Native and Non Native People. Conversation, poetry and storytelling.

The program will be aired on the NAPTV/AIROS livestream http://airos.org/audio/en/monacanvoices.html at the following times:

11/22/08: 10am, 4pm, 10pm ET
11/23/08: 10am, 4pm, 10pm ET
11/24/08: 11am, 5pm, 11pm ET

The audio from Monacan Voices is also available for podcast and free MP3 download at the following sites

http://whro.org/home/publicradio/nativeAmerican
http://airos.org/audio/en/monacanvoices.html

The VA Pilot began their six part series on Massive Resistance yesterday.  The series includes a quiz, podcasts, video, an interactive timeline, editorials, and transcripts of letters and speeches.  It is a very interesting series with a wealth of useful information.  Save your newspapers, add the links to your favorites-I think this information will come in handy when teaching about Massive Resistance. 

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/09/special-report-fighting-massive-resistance

There’s also an article about the events Norfolk has planned to commemorate school integration.  They have quite a few events planned, but the one I want to mention is on February 1, 2009.  On that date the Chrysler Museum will waive it’s admission fee and have an open house for the exhibit “50 years Later:  The Lessons of Massive Resistance.”

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/09/norfolk-officials-announce-events-commemorate-school-integration

There is an on-line quiz (ten questions) in today’s Pilot about Massive Resistance in Virginia.  This year marks the 50th anniversary of Virginia’s response to court ordered desegregation of public schools.  The Pilot will start a series on Massive Resistance on Sunday, September 28th, so be sure to check that out.  It will probably be a good resource to save and use later this year. 

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/09/how-much-do-you-know-about-massive-resistance

I have added the link to the 4th grade refrigerator cards to the blog (under the VA Studies page) as well as to the portaportal.  On the portaportal, there is a link to the cards under “Student Links” as well as “Teacher Links.”

http://www.richmond.k12.va.us/schools/munford/teachers/vassar/VirginiaStudiesGuide.pdf

This will be added to the portaportal shortly…

I found a link for powerpoints for all 4th grade SOL’s created by a teacher in Salem. 

http://www.salem.k12.va.us/staff/jcox/powerpoints/socialstudies.htm

I’ve also added the link to the 4th grade page, as well as to the Portaportal.  Since they are not my powerpoints though, I will not upload them onto the 4th grade page and will only provide the link.

If you save the powerpoints to your computer, you are able to alter them!

Congratulations to the John Tyler for winning the 5th Annual History Bowl! They did a great job.

All of the teams did an awesome job and were well prepared. Thanks to the coaches for working so hard with the students!

Good luck to all of the fourth grade teams who are participating in the History Bowl tomorrow!

I’ve just uploaded a Who Am I? review for all the key figures in VA Studies.  Check out the VA Studies page.  I know there isn’t much up there now, but I’ll get things organized and uploaded after SOL’s!

The fourth grade year in review workshop will be held Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 4:15. It is at IRC in Conference Room 1. Please RSVP to Mrs. West!