Saturday, January 23, 2010

2010 State of the Union Bingo Lesson Plan

Hello. President Obama will be giving his first State of the Union on Wednesday, January 27th. If you are looking for a great classroom activity for your students please check out the 2010 State of the Union Bingo lesson plan from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

This is a fun and engaging way to have your students watch the State of the Union. Check it out.


Podcast #206 - 365 Project, Barringer Fellowship and School Lunch Blog


Hello. It has been almost a month since my last podcast. Today I dive back into the podcasting pool with some reflections on a wide variety of topics.

I start by discussing the start of my 365 Project in which I take a picture each day during the year and post it on Flickr.

The next topic is the Barringer Research Fellowship - a great opportunity this summer for any teacher who wants to learn more about Jefferson at Monticello.

The last topic is a great new blog that I have started following : Fed Up With School Lunch Follow along as a teacher eats school lunch each day in 2010 and then describes it and takes a photograph of the meal. You can also follow this project on Twitter : @fedupwithlunch

If you have any comments please feel free to leave a comment on this blog entry. If you are spammer who just wants to leave a link with some totally generic comment, please move along. Thanks.

Click to subscribe to the Speaking of History Podcast at the Zune Social

Click to subscribe to the Speaking of History Podcast at i-Tunes here

Direct link to Podcast #206 - 365 Project, Barringer Fellowship and School Lunch Blog



Wednesday, January 20, 2010

1/19/2010 - Journal


1/19/2010 - Journal
Originally uploaded by eric.langhorst
This is part of my 2010 365 Project in which I take a picture each day during the year.

I love having a smoething with me so that I can write down notes and ideas. Last spring I found a great little journal that is the perfect size - about 3" x 5". I have since filled up several of them and my wife gave me two new ones for Christmas. They are made by PaperBlanks and I highly suggest them to anyone who loves to jot down notes and ideas.

Photo taken with my camera.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

1/7/2010 - My Desk


1/7/2010 - My Desk
Originally uploaded by eric.langhorst
Today's picture is a shot of my home desk. We remodeled our basement and this is where I work and create at home on the web - most of the time. This is also my podcast studio for most of my "Speaking of History" episodes. I enjoy my set up and have decorated it with all pictures of family, memories and the things I love. We are at home today for the third snow day in a row so I picture of snow or ice would have worked today as well but I'm getting tired of snow. We have also already canceled school for Friday as well so instead of a "snow day" it has truly been a "snow week".

Photo taken with my camera.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

1/6/2010 - Let It Snow, Again

This afternoon it started to snow again and we had our second straight snow day from school in a row. This is our third snow day of the year so far after having none last year. They are predicting a couple more inches of snow tonight and then a wind chill of around 30 degrees below zero for tomorrow. It looks like we might not have school for the rest of the week. The picture today is from the front of our house as the snow falls this afternoon. Photo taken with my camera.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

1/5/2010 - Snow Day Breakfast

Today we were supposed to start back with students after Christmas break but we have a snow day instead (roads are still not cleared from the last couple snowfalls and we have bitter cold). The rest of the week may actually be worse so we'll see how many days we get in this week. I chose today to take a picture of my snow day breakfast - a piping hot bowl of chocolate Malt-O-Meal - the good kind made on the stovetop with milk. It takes a little longer than the microwave version but it's worth it.

We have a birdfeeder that sits at at window level just outside of our kitchen. (You just can't see it in the picture because of the glare off the window.) We love sitting at breakfast and watching the Cardinals, Blue Jays and various woodpeckers. With the forecast for the next couple of days we'll need to be sure to keep it filled for our friends.

Photo taken with my camera.

Monday, January 04, 2010

My 2010 365 Photo Set

The past couple of years I have wanted to start a 365 photo project but for various reasons never started. This year I decided I should take on this project. Each day during 2010 I will be taking a picture of something during the day and adding it to my collection. Some days it might be a scenic shot (as my first photo is) or it might just be something on my desk or a view outside my window.

I will be posting each of these images to my 365 Flickr photo set. I like the Flickr option for collecting my 365 photos because I can also add notes to parts of the photo which anyone can view by mousing over that portion of the photo and people can also leave comments directly to the photo. I also plan to create a photo book at the end of the year using all the images and having them on Flickr and using Lulu will make this a snap.

I love taking pictures and think this project will be a lot of fun. Most of the photos will probably be taken with my camera - a Canon PowerShot A1000 which I really enjoy. Some of the photos will also be taken with my BlackBerry, which I think takes pretty good shots for a phone.

If you are attempting a 365 project, or just want to comment on mine, please leave a comment on this blog. Thanks.



My first photo of the 2010 365 project. This photo was taken with my camera on the drive down to Cheyenne from Torrington in Wyoming. I loved the way the windmill set up the picture with the clouds and the snow on the ground. If you look behind the windmill you can see a powerline in the distance - sort of a cool "past and future of power on the Plains" message. Photo taken with my camera.