The pencils are sharpened, the white boards are - well, white - and the junior high students will be lost and romaing the halls looking for their classes. It must be the first day of school! Tomorrow - August 16th - will be the first day of classes for us in the Liberty Public School District. Here are a couple pictures of my room as it awaits eager students. Hope everyone out there has a great start to the 2007/2008 school year.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Podcast #115 - I've Been Tagged - 8 Random Things About Me

Hello. I've been tagged - in an edublogger sense - by two fellow bloggers : Charlene Chausis in Illinois and Kenneth Y T Lim in Singapore. Thanks for the tag and I'll try to meet the challenge. If you listen to the podcast it has some additional information about the list not included in the blog post. It's not really about education, technology or history but is was fun to create. First, I have to post the rules.
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This is another meme experiment:
1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts
2. Players start with eight random facts / habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write in their own blog about their eight things and include these rules in the post.
4. At the end of your post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.
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Here are the eight facts / habits about me:
1. I was in 4-H as a boy growing up in Nebraska and my entomology project (bug collection) made it to the state fair several years in a row.
2. My three favorite movies of all time are Hoosiers, Shawshank Redemption, and Fletch (on the podcast I forgot about Shawshank and instead listed School of Rock, which would be my #4).
3. My first computer was a Commodore 64 with a cassette tape drive that I bought as a 6th grader with money I earned "walking beans" that summer.

4. For the past 17 years I have had a chocolate malt on my birthday.
5. While in high school and college I had my own lawn mowing business - including taking care of the two cemeteries in my hometown.
6. My first concert was Bon Jovi in Omaha, Nebraska - Skid Row opened up for them - gotta love the Big Hair Bands of the 80's!
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7. In my younger days as a high school basketball coach I loved to work at basketball camps across the country - North Carolina (Dean Smith), Kansas (Roy Williams), Michigan (Steve Fisher) and Kentucky (Rick Pitino).
8. My favorite place in the world to go on vacation is Glacier National Park in Montana where I proposed to wife at sunset on the shore of Lake McDonald.
Here are the bloggers that I'm going to tag (sorry if you have been tagged already):
1. Dan Schmidt
2. Wesley Fryer
3. Dan McDowell
5. Jim Beeghley
6. Steve Dembo
8. Marty Kelsey
If you have any comments or comments please e-mail me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Podcast #114 - Book Winners and Must See Teacher Travel Blogs
Hello. Today's podcast has two topics - the winners of the Listener Appreciation Book Give Away and the blogs of two Liberty teachers who have chronicled their summer adventures.
First the winners of the book drawing. To help celebrate the 100th podcast in July and the two year anniversary of the podcast. I had listeners from around the country enter and my daughter picked two names out of the hat. The winner of the author autographed copy of Guerrilla Season by Pat Hughes is Sanjay from Flower Mound, Texas. The winner of the copy of Manhunt - The 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson is Nancy from Chillicothe, Ohio. Congratulations to both winners and thanks to everyone who entered. I plan to do another book give away during the holidays.
The podcast also gives some background information on two teacher blogs that I urge you to check out. I work with and admire both of these Liberty Public School teachers and think they have done an awesome job of sharing their summer adventures.

Lance Huebner is a special education teacher at South Valley Jr High and recently traveled to China and spent 11 days taking a ton of pictures and blogging about his experiences. His My China Trip blog allows to you to visit China through his eyes. Lance also has a blog named Changing the Label in which he focuses on the use of technology in the special education classroom.

Marty Kelsey is a 5th grade teacher at Manor Hill Elementary. Marty has had a busy summer including his marriage, two trips to Florida, grad classes in Colorado and visits to a Civil War battlefield. This past week Marty blogged about his incredible experience in Florida as a guest of NASA to see the Space Shuttle launch. His blog Room 42 Daily has some great first hand accounts of a behind the scene look at a shuttle launch and great pictures.
You can also check out the other online content from both Lance and Marty on the show notes including videos, podcasts, classroom sites, etc.
Direct link to Podcast #114 - Book Winners and Must See Teacher Travel Blogs - MP3 Format -14:07 minutes
You can subscribe directly to the Speaking of History podcast on i-Tunes here
Podcast #113 Show Notes:
- Lance Huebner's My China Trip blog
- Lance's 9th grade Broadcast class at SVJH with video archive of 2006/2007 shows
- Lance's classroom site
- Marty's Room 42 Daily blog
- Dear Mr. Kelsey autograph blog
- Marty's classroom site
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Podcast #113 - Bits and Bytes for July 2007 - Reality TV, Standing in Line for 2 Hours for $50 and Books I'm Reading
Hello. I enjoy having a podcast and I often see things or encounter things that have enough material that I can do an entire podcast about it. Many times though I come across something interesting or cool that simply isn't enough for a podcast. This month I'm starting a monthly podcast named "Bits and Bytes". These podcasts will be a variety of ideas or experiences in no particular order and some might not even have much of a tie to education, technology or history.
Please feel free to leave a comment to this blog if you have any addition information or thoughts. You can also email me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com
Show Notes and Links:
Reality show addiction - Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers
Hotel Wireless - Super 8 rates 5 Stars!
Circuit City Grand Opening - Is 2 hours of standing in line worth $50 to you?
Zune - Potential for a classroom MP3 device. Do you have a Zune story?
Ratatouille - Good family movie - my 3 year old gives it two thumbs up
Kansas City Royals - Enjoying some lazy days at the ol' ballpark
The War - Sign up for e-mail notifications about the Fall 2007 PBS special, watch video previews, listen to an interview with Ken Burns
Books that I'm currently reading:
Speaking of History 2 Year Anniversary Book Give Away - just a couple more days until I give away 2 books to listeners
Don’t forget to sign up for the July 2007 book giveaway. I’m giving away copies of two books – Manhunt by James Swanson and Guerrilla Season by Pat Hughes. See Speaking of History Podcast #100 for more details. Just send me your name and the city in which you live before August 1, 2007. The first week of August my three year old daughter will draw two names and I will send them each the book they won.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Podcast #112 - News Station Feature on Studycasts
Hello. This past June a local news station ran a story about students using i-Pods to cheat. I told them about how MP3 players are also being used in classrooms to help students. They did a quick story on our use of studycasts in the 8th grade American history classroom. A studycast is an audio review for an upcoming test that I record and then post on the Internet for students to listen to at home or with their own personal MP3 players.
The podcast today is the audio from the news story. There is also a shorter online text version of the news story here.Don’t forget to sign up for the July 2007 book giveaway. I’m giving away copies of two books – Manhunt by James Swanson and Guerrilla Season by Pat Hughes. See Speaking of History Podcast #100 for more details. Just send me your name and the city in which you live before August 1, 2007. The first week of August my three year old daughter will draw two names and I will send them each the book they won.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Podcast #111 - U.S. News and World Report Special Edition on Secrets of the Civil War
Hello. Today's podcast is about a recent special edition of U.S. News and World Report magazine from July 2-9, 2007 which featured "Secrets of the Civil War" . I picked it up in the Atlanta airport on my way back from NECC. It is loaded with great features and would be an excellent classroom resource. In the podcast I discuss the variety of articles as a preview.
I would encourage American history teachers to pick up a copy or check out the online edition of the special which includes many of the same articles and illustrations.

Don’t forget to sign up for the July 2007 book giveaway. I’m giving away copies of two books – Manhunt by James Swanson and Guerrilla Season by Pat Hughes. See Speaking of History Podcast #100 for more details. Just send me your name and the city in which you live before August 1, 2007. The first week of August my three year old daughter will draw two names and I will send them each the book they won.
Podcast #111 Show Notes:
Monday, July 23, 2007
Podcast #110 - Breakfast with Ben and Christ Church Burial Ground
Hello. A couple of weeks ago while in Philadelphia at the Constitution Center workshop I spend my last morning in the city eating breakfast with Ben Franklin. OK, maybe it wasn't the real Ben Franklin but this was a great experience. I would encourage anyone taking a trip to Philadelphia to check out the "Breakfast With Ben" offered at the Independence Visitor Center on the mall in between the National Constitution Center and Independence Hall. You are treated to a great breakfast, eat with "Ben Franklin" while he tells stories about his life and then can take a picture with Ben in the shadows of Independence Hall. You can call 1 800 537 7676 for more information.
After eating breakfast with Ben, I walked across the street to Christ Church Burial Ground to the site of Ben Franklin's grave. It is a very interesting and historic place where 5 signers of the Declaration of Independence rest.
If you have any comments please leave a comment on the blog or email me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com Also, don't forget you have until July 31, 2007 to e-mail me your name and city to be eligible to win a copy of Manhunt or Guerrilla Season - check out episode #100 for more details.
Show Notes for Podcast #110:
Labels:
Ben Franklin,
cemetery,
Philadelphia,
workshop
Online Laundry Alerts at Gettysburg College
Hello. My fascination with the topic of today's picture clearly demonstrates either: 1) I've been away from college dorm life for too long, 2) I'm very easily impressed, or 3) all of the above.

Last month while staying at the dorms on the campus of Gettysburg College while attending a Gilder Lehrman Institute on Lincoln, I came across this sign in the laundry room. This is way too cool - you can log in and check on the status of your washing machine or how much time is left on the dryers? Wow. This would have saved me some considerable time in college as I would run down the steps of my dorm to see if I could use the person who was using the dryer had finished. The other cool thing about this laundry room, which I'm sure many campuses now have, is the ability to pay for the washing machine and the dryer using a campus credit card.
Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Podcast #109 - Interview with Eli Lesser - Director of Education for the National Constitution Center
Hello. It has been an awesome week of attending the NEH Landmarks Teacher Workshop in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center. Today I interviewed Eli Lesser, Director of Education for the National Constitution Center. The NCC is a great please to visit and take your students but you can also find a wide variety of resources on their web site. I would also suggest checking out the teacher workshops available - you could be here next year enjoying the workshop I am currently attending.
Please feel free to comment on the podcast. You can leave a comment on this blog post or e-mail me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com
Don’t forget to sign up for the July 2007 book giveaway. I’m giving away copies of two books – Manhunt by James Swanson and Guerrilla Season by Pat Hughes. See Speaking of History Podcast #100 for more details. Just send me your name and the city in which you live before August 1, 2007. On August 1st my three year old daughter will draw two names and I will send them each the book they won.
Labels:
Constitution,
interview,
Philadelphia,
workshop
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Podcast #108 - Independence Hall, Causes of the Revolution and A Great Cuban Restaurant
Hello. Today was the second full day of the NEH Landmark Workshop “A Revolution in Government” at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. It was a full day that started with a great lecture from Richard R. Beeman of the University of Pennsylvania. He discussed the start of the American Revolution through a different lens for me. The American colonists were already enjoyed many freedoms and yet they decided to fight a war with the most powerful nation in the world at the time to gain even more freedom. This is a topic that I would like to expand upon in later podcast. We also did a tour of Carpenter’s Hall, Independence Hall and the Graff House.
Standing in the room where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed was an incredible feeling. I can remember reading about the chair with either the “setting sun” or the “rising sun” since I was in grade school so seeing it in person was a thrill. One of the great surprised for me today was a stroll through Washington Square and seeing the tomb of the Unknown Soldier for the American Revolutionary War and a statue of George Washington.
In the evening some of us ventured over to Cuba Libre – an excellent restaurant that features Cuban food. It was excellent, music was festive and the ambiance was second to none. I would definitely suggest a visit to Cuba Libre on your trip to Philadelphia. I had the “Plato Cuba Libre” which is basically a sampling of featured Cuban foods. The workshop continues to be an excellent opportunity to learn more about the Revolutionary War and the Constitution.
Please feel free to comment on the podcast. You can leave a comment on this blog post or e-mail me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com
Don’t forget to sign up for the July 2007 book giveaway. I’m giving away copies of two books – Manhunt by James Swanson and Guerrilla Season by Pat Hughes. Just send me your name and the city in which you live before August 1, 2007. On August 1st my three year old daughter will draw two names and I will send them each the book they won.
Direct link to Podcast #107 – Independence Hall, Causes of the American Revolution and Eating Cuban – MP3 Format - 9:43 Minutes
Podcast #107 Show Notes :
- National Constitution Center
- Richard R Beeman – University of Pennsylvania
- Independence Hall
- Cuba Libre Restuarant - Philadelphia
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