History on Tap

There’s an interesting story on CNN today about this famous Depression era photograph.  The article discusses the hardships faced by migrant workers during the Great Depression, and is told from the viewpoint of one of the children in the photograph.  (She is now 77 and lives in California.)

I think this would be an interesting article for students to read, especially in conjunction with the photograph.

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

  iCue is a new website created by NBC News.  It is a free resource for students and teachers.  There are short, easy to digest news reports and mini documentaries on both current and historic events.  The site also includes primary sources, charts, graphs, and cartoons.  The site is designed around AP courses, specifically Ap US History and US Government. 

iCue allows students to set up profiles and store and organize videos.  They can add notes or vocab words to the videos.  There are also games (such as Concentration, a timeline game, and several others) that students may play for points. 

The homepage has a tour of the website, which I encourage you to watch.  While the site is designed primarily for AP students, you may find videos that would be useful for other subjects. 

For those of you that teach AP, the Student Center section of the site breaks down the courses according to the College Board standards.  Students can not access all of the sites components at school (the discussion forums are blocked for example) but it may help them in studying at home.  It looks like a great site and I’ve only gotten started in exploring it.  I hope you do the same.

And the best part?  No advertisements!

Here’s another interesting election resource.  A participant in the workshop that Sarah and I presented at the Virginia Council for the Social Studies state conference this past weekend shared it with us. 

http://www.270towin.com/

It’s an electoral college map.  It shows the US and the number each state has in the electoral college.  Students can change states from undecided, to red or blue, and come up with different scenarios for the election outcome. 

The site also has historical maps for every election since 1789.  The maps show who ran for President, and how each state voted. 

It’s an interesting site, and students might enjoy creating their own maps for the election outcome.  A big thanks to the workshop participant who pointed this out!

A friend of mine brought these to my attention:

http://www.mibazaar.com/obama_igoogle.html

http://www.mibazaar.com/mccain_igoogle.html

http://www.mibazaar.com/biden_igoogle.html

http://www.mibazaar.com/palin_igoogle.html

They are maps (using Google Earth) of the presidential and vice presidential candidates lives.  Each map begins where the candidate was born and takes you through key points in their life.  (Where they attended school, when they took office, etc.)  Each stop on the map has a blurb with information about that point in time.  They are really interesting!

I also have a few more good sites if you’re looking for election resources:

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/election08/  (Time for Kids:  includes meet the candidates, kid reporters, inside the issues, path to the presidency, contact your Congressman, and an electionary to define unfamiliar election terms.)

http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/election2008.htm  (Scholastic:  includes student vote, ask the candidates, issues, campaign news, games and quizzes.)

http://www.weeklyreader.com/election/index.asp (Weekly Reader:  includes hot topics, meet the candidates, how it works, election issues, games, and ask us anything.)

All of these sites have great information and resources on the election.  Deinitely check out the Google Map site!  Hope they help!

The Education Podcast Network has about 11 podcasts that discuss Jim Crow laws.  They are interviews with people who experienced the laws.  They are relatively short and would be a great way to incorporate some technology into your SS plans and allow your students to hear about Jim Crow laws from a primary source. 

The website also has a subject specific podcast list on the left sidebar.  There are many for SS that you may find interesting.  There are podcasts on the First Amendment, immigration, great speeches in American history, ancient civilizations, Williamsburg, economics, and many more.  Just make sure you listen to them once before playing them for your students…

Here’s an interesting article published last week by National Geographic.  It discusses plans to build an underwater museum in Egypt, where visitors can veiw artifacts from Cleopatra’s palace.  It would be the world’s first underwater museum.  The article also includes a few pictures of artifacts as well as the proposed museum. 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080916-underwater-museum.html

Here’s an article from CNN.com today that discusses the execution of the Rosenbergs in 1953 for espionage.  Their sons have proclaimed their innocence until recently, when they admitted their father was a spy for the Soviet Union. 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/09/18/rosenberg.sons.ap/index.html

I know USII isn’t up to USII.7 yet, but you might want to favorite this article or print a copy so that you can use it later during class.  I won’t post it on the USII page because I think that CNN articles are only good for a certain amount of time, then the link goes dead.  So print a copy and save it for later this semester!

Here’s an interesting website for WWII. 

http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dspolitic/

It’s all the political cartoons Dr. Suess drew when he was the chief editorial cartoonist for PM, a New York newspaper.  He held this position from 1941-1943 and drew over 400 cartoons, some of which were never published but are on the website. 

I think this could be turned into an interesting lesson, and if anything it is another source for discussions on propoganda.

Congratulations to LaShawn Merritt for winning the gold in the men’s 400m!  Merritt graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 2004.  He’ll also take part in the 1600m relay, and I hope he wins another gold!

Photo:  Wally Skalij, LA Times