Podcast #204 - The History Geeks Book Club

Hello. One of the ways we engage our students in history outside of the classroom is the History Geeks Book Club at South Valley Jr. High School. In this podcast I discuss the History Geeks Book Club - the books we are currently reading, how the book club is created, etc.

Book #1 - Guns for General Washington, A Story of the American Revolution by Seymour Reit

Book #2 - George Washington Spymaster by Thomas B. Allen

Book #3 - Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

If you have any suggestions for books that we might consider in the future please leave a comment on this blog. Thanks.

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Podcast #203 - History Geek Author Visit - Author, Historian and Illustrator Cheryl Harness

Last year I started a group at South Valley Jr. High called the "History Geeks". It is an extracurricular group to provide students opportunities to explore historical topics - a field trip to a historic site, a book club which reads an historical book and providing historically themed speakers. During the school year we try to have one historic speaker a month. Last week we started our historical speaker programs with Cheryl Harness sharing her experience as an author, historian and illustrator.

Cheryl is an incredible artist how also writes historical biographies. Her work is well known nationally and associated with National Geographic. Our students enjoyed listening to Cheryl discuss her start in art and how she researches her books. The podcast today is the audio from Cheryl's presentation and is about 50 minutes in length.

Be sure to check out Cheryl's site and one of her recent books, a graphic novel about the life of Harry Truman : "The Harry Book - A Life of President Truman in Words and Pictures" . You can check out more books from Cheryl Harness here.

If you have any thoughts you'd like to share please leave a comment on this blog. Thanks.

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Direct link to Podcast #203 - History Geeks Author Visit - Cheryl Harness

Podcast #192 - Making Smores over a Buffalo Chip Campfire

Hello. Sometimes you just have to experience something to understand it a little better. For the past 15 years I have taught about western expansion and the how the pioneers and early settlers on the plains used Bison (Buffalo) chips as fuel in the absence of timber. This year I decided to get my hands on some Bison chips and burn them at a cookout. I invited some students, some parents and my principal over for a good ol’ fashioned Bison chip fire where we roasted marshmallows for smores. Listen to the podcast to find out how everything went.

You can see more pictures from the Bison chip cookout by checking this Flickr set. If you have any personal experiences with burning Bison chips, or if you would just like share a general thought about the topic, please leave a comment on this blog post. Thanks.

Direct link to Podcast #192 - Making Smores over a Buffalo Chip Campfire