Tables Turned: Lessons from an 8th Grader

Yes, I will admit it, I absolutely love summer break and the time off that it affords me.  Well, time off is a bit misstated. The time off allows me to pursue other ventures, most namely my work in developing One if by Land Adventures and giving tours of our nations capital.

A few years ago, Worldstrides asked me to come on board and be one of their Course Leaders which is really a more glamorized term for tour guide.  The month I am able to spend in DC is incredibly rewarding and allows me to educate on site which is one of my true passions.

Touring in June can present its own challenges, most namely the heat and humidity which at times can feel as if Satan himself is taking one large fart on you.  Despite that we walk, and I do mean WALK, the sites in DC.  One of my personal favorite places to go while touring is Arlington National Cemetery.

There are some places that simply hold a certain power to them as if walking on the ground is an almost sacred experience.  Upon entering the gates of Arlington, I challenge each group to treat the walk as almost a walking meditation.  We are so surrounded by "noise" and each other, that I ask them to gaze around and really take in the cemetery.  What graves stand out?  Do you notice a particular item left on a grave?  How are others experiencing the cemetery?  These are all things I try to challenge them to do.

A few weeks ago, on a particularly hot and humid day, I took a group up on the road less traveled.  Typically, we usually visit the Kennedy gravesites and then walk up to the Tomb of the Unknowns and back down. On this day, I took them on a route where they would also see the graves of slain civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, Robert Todd Lincoln, and William Howard Taft.  The route does require some pretty heft climbing up oddly shaped stairs but eventually you reach Arlington House which has one of the best views of the entire city.

After the rather brutal climb, we were sweating bullets and I was making full use of my sweat towel and spraying down the kids with my trusty misting fan.  There was the usual grumbling about the heat and I was definitely feeling their pain.  It was then that one of the students came up to me and stated something that I will share with each tour group from now on.  She gazed out over the landscape, lined with endless rows of gravestones and said "You know it's really hot and miserable out here, but just when I want to complain, I think about what each of these people did for our country and then I realize a couple hours of heat don't mean a thing."  I stopped dabbing myself with the sweat towel and looked at her in stunned amazement.  She was so genuine in her statement that I almost teared up a bit.  A couple of her friends agreed and we ended up having a very nice conversation about it as we marched toward the Tomb of the Unknowns.

There are many times when we are told or observe people in general being extremely self centered in todays society.  Yes, that is the case in certain situations, but this young lady taught me a very valuable lesson that day and one that I will continue to share.

There's something about Thinglink

This has been a monumental year at our school.  We made the move to 1:1 iPad and like everyone else we have experienced wonderful successes, and yes, spectacular failures.  As I began the process of reevaluating pretty much everything in my curriculum, I made one vow to myself and my students, which was not to inundate them with thousands of apps.

Just one single visit to the app store can cause all kinds of app fatigue and there is always something new and powerful to try.  Throughout the year, I have tried many and put them through the test, even getting a focus group of students involved to determine which ones were most useful.

One that came sprang to my attention at the beginning of the year was Thinglink.  It allows the user to upload an image and make it interactive.  The old saying of "a picture can tell a thousand words" becomes a reality with this site and app.  Thinglink allows users to generate a variety of tags composed of video, music, links or simply text to make the image interactive.

My classes recently completed a semester long memorial project in which they researched a person or event from American history that they wanted to learn more about.  In the end they produced a research paper and they designed a memorial representing their subject.  Through the years, there have been mind blowing projects turned in and I have always longed to keep more than just a picture of them to show future classes.

This year, each student created a digital copy of their project using Thinglink.  Rather than just a picture, students have now been able to tag all the symbolic elements of their projects, providing the viewer a virtual tour.  Not only that, they were also able to provide extra information relevant to their topic such as site links and videos of themselves and short documentaries.  It has been a great success and students have also enjoyed showing off their work.

Unlike many apps, Thinglink is also computer based too.  There are definite advantages to both.  I actually prefer the functionality of the actual website, because there are more editing options such as different  buttons and such.  Regardless, it is a great tool and one that is not just flashy, but one that also gets those creative and educational juices flowing.

Here are some examples of some student projects.

The Manhattan Project

The Secret Six

A lesson with the president

One of my main goals as a teacher is to provide my students with the opportunity to go beyond the traditional curriculum.  For the past several years, I have taken students on a variety of optional field trips to various locations.  We have traveled both near and far to tour special museum exhibits, participate in Civil War reenactments and even talked with an Abraham Lincoln impersonator on the 200 year anniversary of his birth.

One of the most interesting things that we have done through the years has been a special road trip up to Americus, Georgia to tour the site of the infamous Civil War prison camp of Andersonville.  What began each year as a fairly small group, has now blossomed into quite tradition that they look forward to all year.

As part of the weekend, we also attend a church service with President Jimmy Carter in his hometown of Plains, which is just a short distance from Americus.  For years, President Carter has been one of the primary Sunday School teachers at Maranatha Baptist Church and the public is always welcome to attend.  

The church itself is very small and unassuming.  It reminds me of my grandmothers old church with the unmistakeable "church smell" of old lady perfume hymnals.  Many times, our families and students who have attended, pass by the church thinking that there is no way a former president would be teaching there.  Oftentimes, everyone is looking for some sort of mega church. 

President Carter is still provided(or required) to have Secret Service protection and my students are usually a bit freaked out by them, but they are nothing compared to Miss Jan, who has been with the Carters for years.  She is highly protective of the Carter family and proceeds to tell everyone all of the many rules she expects you to abide by when President Carter comes out.  She tells you how to address him(President Carter is fine), she tells you not to stand up for him nor clap for him.  She explains that he is no longer the president, so rising for him is not required and that he is there as a teacher so clapping at the end is just silly.  She does all of this with a cantankerous zeal and you disobey her at your own risk.  

In between the subtle threats, Miss Jan also humanizes President Carter.  A gifted carpenter, Carter personally made the wooden collection plates and large wooden cross at the front of the church.  She loves to point out that President Carter inscribed his initials on the bottom of the wooden bowls and that JC was just a happy coincidence.  Since she has known the Carter's all of her life, she loves to dish about their marriage and how Rosalynn remarked that after their first date, she wasn't all that impressed with him.  Apparently he really grew on her because they have been married a whopping 68 years!

After roughly 30 minutes of going through "training" Miss Jan asks everyone to bow their heads for a prayer.  She blesses everyone in the church and the upcoming lesson.  When the prayer is over, President Carter is in front of the congregation.  This is one of my favorite parts of the entire service, because the look on my students faces are priceless.  Although, we have not really covered President Carter's presidency in class quite yet, they are still filled with awe at being so up close to a former president.  

President Carter typically begins each lesson with getting to know the audience a bit by asking some questions and then proceeds to relay what he and Rosalynn have been up to.  Despite being 89, he is still incredibly active in his role as a former president.  Last year he talked about he and Rosalynn had just gotten back from South America and had ridden to the top of a mountain on mules. I can only hope to be that active at his age.

The lesson itself often a blend of scripture combined with anecdotes from his world experience.  During our most recent trip he talked about peaceful resolutions and how Jesus surrounded himself with the wretches of society and offered them forgiveness when all others shunned them.  He made the point that the United States has much work to do if they are to live up to the ideals that Jesus espoused.  President Carter expressed concern about how we treat our poor and how in our current political environment, the poor and even immigrants are being cast as enemies and a bunch of freeloaders.  Yes, the system must be modified, but to deny access to many because of abuse by a few is unacceptable.  The entire lesson was quite compelling and eye opening.  

Although the subject matter is often quite heavy, President Carter injects humor into every lesson I have ever seen him teach, often at the expense of Rosalynn who is seated in one of the front pews.  To see them riff on each other is great fun to watch.  Seeing the various small town characters that attend is also what makes the whole experience special.  One little old man strolled in late and President Carter poked a little fun at him for being tardy which led to a whole exchange between the two lifelong neighbors.  

Despite what one might think of Carter's presidency, it is impossible not to be moved by hearing him and witnessing him teach.  It is such a unique experience and one that I treasure each year with my students.  Although historians will always point out his mistakes as president, it is my hope that he will also be remembered for his kind spirit and generosity that he has truly made his life's mission.  

Will this make you a SuperTeacher?

In every teachers lounge across the country, the same scene plays out every morning.  The tired and weary teachers line up at the coffee machine for that first cup of coffee to provide that first necessary jolt in the morning.  I remember that our coffee machine at school broke down on the first day of school one year and you would have thought the entire was going to become one unending disaster. 

I am a self confessed recovering coffee addict.  As a young kid I would whine and complain until my mom finally relented and gave me a morning cup filled with enough sugar to make it more like pancake syrup than coffee.  I made the switch to green tea a couple of years ago and saw major improvement in my mood and energy.  My students appreciated the change because there was no more hideous coffee breath to deal with.  Sorry, no Altoid can cover up that rank smell.

Like many, at the beginning of the new year I did make some resolutions.  One of which was to eat better and make healthier choices.  Admittedly, I am not the picture of health.  I would love to say that you could bounce a silver dollar off my rippling abs, but that is simply not the case.  I did, however, do 20 push ups before beginning this article, so I guess that is a start.

With all the craze about "green drinks" recently, I decided to give it a try and went through a variety of green based drinks.  I discovered that a majority of them taste like total crap.  I would be better off running out into the front yard every morning and grazing like cattle.  Finally, I have discovered one that tastes decent AND has the added benefit of truly revitalizing me throughout the day.  Amazing Grass, when mixed in with Welch's Lite White Grape Juice is the perfect and more healthy substitute for coffee and even green tea. Do not under any circumstances mix it it with just water.  It's pretty darn revolting that way.

After having been drinking it consistently for a month, I have noticed I simply feel better and have more energy throughout the day.  I have also noticed my skin is even better.  What I usually do is mix up a few batches in a large Mason jar and keep it handy at school.  Yes, it looks like swamp water in the fridge but you are guaranteed that no one will be stealing from you.  I drink an 8 oz glass in the morning before heading to school and then have a a glass in the afternoon.  Students are pretty grossed out by me drinking it, but it has led to some nice discussions about healthy eating.  Some are even drinking it themselves now.

Amazing Grass comes in a variety of sizes and flavors, but my favorite is the ENERGY one.  They also make individual packets for those on the go.  

So much is written about student health these days, but we as teachers also need to take care of ourselves too.  By doing so, we are benefitting our students in a way that is often overlooked.  Alright, time to do more push ups.  

Andersonville Road Trip

When given the opportunity to take students on the road, I never pass it up.  Teaching on-site is a true passion of mine because I often feel constrained by the four walls of my classroom.  Getting students out there to walk where history happened allows them to have a much more personal connection to the subject.

Several years ago I began taking students up to the Andersonville National Historic Site in southwestern Georgia.  We do a mock trial beforehand in which students recreate the war crimes trial against Captain Henry Wirz who was the commander of the infamous prison camp.  We cap it off with the six hour road trip to visit the site for the weekend.  It is an optional trip for students and their families.

Rather than giving just your standard run of the mill tour, I always have both the students and parents actively engaged in activities while we are there.

While at the site, I give each student their own bag of items which represents the items that they would be bringing into Andersonville if they had actually been a prisoner.  Items include things like beef jerky, an orange, scissors, money, canteen of water, candles, peanuts and various other items.  When we enter the reconstructed front gate, students are then allowed to look at their items to determine how or why the particular items would be valuable to survival.  What is usually interesting is that students often begin to exchange items with each other.  Since we have already studied Andersonville, students usually pick up on the fact that their items would probably not have lasted very long since "fresh fish" were often attacked and robbed.  This is an activity that could easily be done in the classroom as well.

At designated sites on the tour we also read diary entries from survivors describing the conditions of the camp.  Some describe the horrors of the prison while others show aspects of daily life.  This year my creativity was inspired by a trip to Michaels and I bought each student a small bottle to gather up a sample from Providence Spring.  In August 1864, an intense storm approached the stockade and a single bolt of lightning slammed into the ground just inside of the prison, opening up a natural spring which provided some much needed fresh drinking water. The sudden appearance of this spring most likely saved hundreds if not thousands of lives. For years after the war ended, survivors would go to Providence Spring and drink from it saying it provided good health and good luck. Students were excited to have their own sample to take home.

Arguing the case to parents

Our trip also provided students with the opportunity to show off their debating skills to their parents.  When we got to the location where Wirz's office was, students were split into their prosecution/defense teams they had during the mock trial and were given a few minutes to argue their case for or against Captain Wirz in front of the parents who drove up.  This year, it was quite a lively debate with a majority of the parents saying Wirz was guilty.

At the end of our tour we visited the cemetery in which the 13,000 victims are buried.  The week before, I printed off a list of the victims and hung it up to give students a visual representation of what 13,000 actually looked like.  Each student then selected a name and wrote a remembrance card and put together a bouquet of flowers for the soldier.  When we visited the cemetery each student took their own tribute plus another classmates and placed it on the designated grave.  This is one of those things that could have been either a great success or an epic failure due to not being able to find the proper graves.  Luckily it was a huge success because my students said it made the whole experience much more personal since they felt more connected to the buried soldier.

In addition to visiting Andersonville, we also toured the Habitat for Humanity Global Village where they learned about the organization and visited mock ups of homes that they build throughout the world.  We ended the weekend by attending a Sunday school class taught by President Carter which  is a whole other blog post.  All in all this years trip was a huge success and students came in this morning still buzzing about what a good time they had.  I had a wonderful time too, but man am I exhausted.

President Carter post coming soon!

Pieces of History: Connecting Past to Present

 

 Oftentimes I get asked why I became so interested in history.  This, of course is usually after they tell me how much they hated history in school.  How boring it was.  How it was all just a bunch of useless facts and dead people.  Why should they care and why the heck would I devote my life to teaching it?  I try my best to not get offended but sometimes it is difficult, especially since I would never dream of telling another person that their job mad no sense.

I can understand their views because there were times during my youth that I had teachers who droned on fact after fact until not only our eyes glazed over, but theirs did as well.  I believe that the key to teaching history is to create a personal connection to it.  Offer up something that students can actually feel and touch.  Create some genuine emotion.

When I was a little 4th grade hell raiser, I could sense my teachers frustration.  I was the poster child for ADHD and very little could hold my interest very long, least of all history.  Actually, math would usually send me over the edge into a full blown manic wave of hysteria but that is another story.  I vividly recall Mrs. Wolf grabbing me by my shoulders multiple times and just yell "STOP!" when I was screwing around.

One day we went on a field trip of Civil War sites surrounding our town in northwest Arkansas.  At the beginning, I was much more concerned about whether my mom had packed a enough cookies in my lunchbox to really care about what we were actually going to see.  We were dropped off at a location known as the Headquarters House which served as headquarters for the Union commanders during a little skirmish that took place close to our downtown area. We were greeted by a little old man and I honestly assumed he had actually fought in the war.  He led us around and took us to a parlor area and pointed out a small hole that was in the door and told us that it was an actual bullet hole from the Civil War.  He passed around a bullet similar to what had gone through the door and we each handled it, absorbing its weight and carefully passed it to each other.

He then encouraged us to go up and touch the bullet hole.  This was especially shocking to me because every museum I had ever been to had barriers and huge signs everywhere saying "DO NOT TOUCH".  The fact that he encouraged us to touch it seemed so foreign and against the rules.  I glanced at Mrs. Wolf and she was scowling which was normal but did not voice her disapproval. As I touched the small bullet hole and felt its smooth edges covered by multiple layers of white paint I was transfixed.  I was actually touching history!  It was not something just in a book.  This was the real thing.  I often point out that this experience is what made me fall in love with the subject.  This was not just some random fact thrown out there or some battle maneuver droned on about.  This was a piece of history and I was allowed to touch it.

This is is the sense of wonder I try to bring into my own classes.  I love using objects to tell the personal stories of past events.  One of my favorites is using a replica of Lt. George Dixon's gold coin from the Hunley.  For years it had been rumored that Lt. Dixon had carried this "lucky" gold coin with him.  It had been given to him by his sweetheart back home and had saved his life during the Battle of Shiloh when it had deflected a bullet.  Nice story, but like so many of these stories, many are embroiled in myth and legend.  When the wreck of the Hunley was discovered, the conservationists hoped that the gold coin would be found, but it was considered to be a shot in the dark, but remarkably in 2001 it was found on the remains of Dixon glinting golden like it was brand new.  It even had an inscription that had been etched into it which said

Shiloh
April 6, 1862
My life Preserver
G. E. D.

Another story that interests students are the names carved into the floor of Stone House at Manassas.  After the second battle that occurred there, Privates Eugene Geer(aged 18) and Charles Brehm(aged 21) were taken to one of the rooms on the second story of the house to await treatment for their wounds.  While there, they each carved their names into the floorboards.  When teaching about it we talk about why they possibly did it.  Perhaps it was just graffiti.  Perhaps it was simply a reminder that they existed and felt this was the one way they could be remembered.  Geer died almost a month later

of his wounds while Brehm lived until 1909.

Years ago, I set out on a quest to visit every site that I teach about so in addition to telling the stories about the actual event, I tell about the misadventures I had while on the site.  From having my appendix explode at Fort Sumter to spending the night alone at the Lizzie Borden house, students enjoy hearing the story behind the story.  To get the pictures of the carvings at Manassas I had to do some SERIOUS sweet talking and groveling to be allowed to go upstairs.  I explained I had been to Manassas several times(I really had) and each time I was denied access.  Being the only one in the house at the the time, the park ranger finally relented and allowed me to go upstairs as long as I was super quick before other people came into the house.  I'm not exactly sure why they never let people up there.  Perhaps safety?  Regardless, I was able to get my own pics.  Sure, I could have searched for them on Google, but there is just something much more authentic about seeing it with your own eyes and getting your own pics.   Then again, maybe I'm just nuts.

Stories like these and many others like it are personal reminders that history is not just about a bunch of dead people and endless facts.  They serve as a personal time machine to the past.  Often we can come to realize that we are all connected to the past in many different ways.  The emotion of history is so important to get across because it creates that deeper connection.  I just hope that by sharing these stories I can help create that same sense of wonder that my 4th grade hellion self had when I actually "experienced history for the first time.

Storehouse: Visual Storytelling

I have to admit that tapping on the App store gives me a bit of anxiety.  Each time there's a brand new arrival of new and wonderful apps that are going to revolutionize life as we know it, or at least claim to.  Then there's Flappy Bird but that's a whole new and frustrating blog post. 

At times I get a bit of app overload and just as soon as I get really used to one, then another new great one pops up.  Storehouse is one that has caught my eye and creativity recently.  Basically, it is a visual storytelling platform that allows user to create stories through text, pictures, and short videos. It has a very user friendly layout and allows users to upload directly from an iPad through the camera roll, Dropbox, and Instagram.  It is so easy that within minutes it is possible to create a beautiful and engaging presentation.

Over the past few weeks, I have become a bit of an addict to the app which is pretty rare.  My ADD self generally gets tired of apps very quickly and I delete them, looking at them again only when I peruse all my past purchases(amazing how they add up). I have had a wonderful time going through old pictures and videos to create my first stories.

I look forward to having students use Storehouse and envision that it will be very useful in creating projects that involve photography.  In the near future, my Civics classes will work on a project in which they take photos of the Constitution at work in our daily lives.  I plan on setting up a class account so that they may each submit their projects to one site.  I can imagine that by working with the app, many new opportunities will present themselves.

Being such a new app, I am excited to see how it will grow and improve.  I do hope that Storehouse will provide a good way to embed stories on outside websites.  I would like to be able to directly embed my stories on my own website without having to go to the app.  I look forward to new and improved updates.

With all that said, I simply encourage everyone to give Storehouse a try and begin to experiment with it.  Look to the stories that are already created.  Not only do they provide inspiration, they are also great entertainment.  Be sure to check out my own stories by searching for One if by Land Adventures.