2010 Gilder Lehrman Summer Institute at Mount Vernon

Hello. This week I will be attending the 2010 Gilder Lehrman Summer Institute at Mount Vernon. I will be spending the week touring the grounds, listening to presentations about Washington and learning as much as possible about the life of our first president.

I will be Tweeting, writing some blog posts and sharing lots of pictures (the one above is the mansion this morning as I took my morning walk). I hope to share this experience through the blog.

Video Chat with Author Pat Hughes

Today my 8th grade American history classes in Liberty, Missouri participated in a live video chat with Pat Hughes, author of Guerrilla Season. Guerrilla Season is a book with a focus on Clay County (the county in which we live) in the years just before the Civil War. We used G-mail video chat - free - to visit with Pat from her home in Philadelphia.

I also used a Flip cam to record the conversation for students who missed it and wanted to watch it. Pat spoke with us from her sun room and then took us upstairs to show us her office and shared some of the resources she uses to write books about Civil War era Missouri.

Pretty amazing that this all took place today with no technical glitches at all and we were able to have a great conversation with an author 1,200 miles away! Why aren't classrooms doing more of this?

Podcast #210 - Update on 365 Photo Project

Hello. Today's podcast is an update on my 365 Photo Project for 2010. I am taking a picture each day this year and posting it on Flickr. You can check out my photos so far this year below on the slideshow.

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

Direct link to Podcast #210 - Update on 365 Photo Project

Press PLAY button below to listen to podcast on this page.

Podcast #209 - Review of "The Monuments Men" by Robert M Edsel

Hello. For the past couple of weeks I have been reading "The Monuments Men" by Robert M Edsel. This books tells the fascinating story of American troops racing across Europe to find and save the priceless art work taken by Hitler and the Nazi war machine.

This podcast is my quick review of this novel and how it could be implemented into an interdisciplinary lesson in the classroom.

"The Monuments Men" by Robert M Edsel

Official Monuments Men Foundation Site

The Greatest Theft - Lesson Plans and DVD Set

Robert M Edsel's Blog

Follow Robert M Edsel on Twitter (RobertEdsel)

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

Direct link to Podcast #209 - Review of The Momuments Men by Robert M Edsel

Hit Play button below to listen to Podcast

Podcast #208 - Ask the Experts Donner Party Project

Hello. I am a big fan of the American Experience series from PBS and WGBH. This series has produced some of the most fascinating and engaging historical documentaries I have ever seen. One episode that I have used repeatedly in my class over the years is "The Donner Party" by Ric Burns. This documentary is both haunting and descriptive in telling the tale of this group's fateful journey west.

For the past several years I have had my students participate in a debate after finishing the video. The debate is centered on the role of Lansford Hastings - the person who told the Donner Party to take the shortcut that cost them valuable time on the attempt to reach California. The Donner Party becomes trapped in the mountains and some resort to cannibalism. The class is divided into two groups and debates whether the blame should be placed upon Hastings or the Donner Party themselves. While watching the film students have been recording events and information which could be used to defend both sides of the debate.

Two years ago I started recording the debate in audio format. I then contacted several Donner Party experts - authors and writers who have experience with the Donner Party - and asked if they could critique the debate and provide feedback for my students. I sent the audio file as an attachment with the e-mail. This was very successful and my students loved the feedback.

This year we used a Flip camera to record the debate in video format and I then posted it to YouTube. I contacted a variety of Donner Party experts through web searches and found five individuals who were willing to take the time to comment on the student debates. I then gathered the responses from all the experts and created a handout for my students. I am always amazed at the amount of detail these experts provide.





The technology used in this project is pretty simple - posting a video on YouTube and then sending an e-mail but the ability to find experts in the field and then have them comment directly to students is extremely powerful.

Special thanks to my experts who were willing to share their time and respond to my students :

Dr. Julie M. Schablitsky, Archaeologist with University of Oregon

Daniel James Brown, author of The Indifferent Stars Above : The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride

Kristin Johnson - Historian for Donner Party Archaeology Project and author of The Donner Party Blog

Chelsea Walerscheid - Truckee Lake Historical Society

Katie Holley - Truckee Lake Historical Society


To learn more about this project please listen to the podcast. I have also included the links to the student debates and included one video as a portion of this blog post. I am also posting the feeback from the experts as a PDF if you would like to see the comments the experts returned to my class.

If you have any comments on this project please feel free to leave a comment on this blog post.

Period 2 Class Debate

Period 3 Class Debate

Period 4 Class Debate

Period 5 Class Debate

Period 7 Class Debate

Period 8 Class Debate


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

Direct link to Podcast #208 - Ask the Experts Donner Party Project

Mount Vernon Summer Institute

I recently learned that I've been selected to attend the 2010 Gilder Lehrman Summer Institute on George Washington at Mount Vernon this summer. I'm very excited for this opportunity. I visited Mount Vernon a couple of years ago with my wife and we spent the entire day in awe of this location. I'm looking forward to visiting and of course will be blogging as well as posting pictures and recording some podcasts from Mr. Washington's house.

Request a Free DVD Set of "America The Story of Us" from the History Channel

Attention history teachers : The History Channel is offering a FREE set of DVDs from their upcoming (April 2010) new series "AMERICA The Story of US". Each school in the country can request a free DVD set if their principal fills out the information on this site.

This series will be amazing and I'm sure each school would benefit from having it in their collection.

Here is some more information about the upcoming series from History:

Video Trailer for "America The Story of Us"

Press Release on the Educational Connections to "America The Story of Us"

History Channel page for "America The Story of US"

Winner of "The Presidents" DVD Set from American Experience

The winner of "The Presidents" DVD set from PBS and the American Experience is CONNIE SITTERLEY of Spartansburg, Pennsylvania. Congratulations to Connie! Please e-mail me your address (or leave it as a comment to this blog, it will get to me and I will not post it) and I will be sending you the DVD set soon.

My daughter drew Connie's name out of a hat. Thanks to all of the 28 people who left a comment on the president they would most like to meet over coffee and which question you would ask. I plan to do a podcast on the responses in the near future.

St Louis - Morning Walk to the Arch

I spent part of last week in St. Louis at the MCSS (Missouri Council for the Social Studies) Conference. Our conference was held at the Hyatt about a block away from The Arch. On Saturday morning I walked over at around 8:00 AM and took some great pictures. The clouds were just right and the winter sun was shining. You can check out my Flickr set of The Arch here.

2010 MCSS Presentation - Bringing the Novel to Life - Creating Historical Book Clubs

Bringing the Novel to Life - Creating a Historical Book Club

View more presentations from South Valley Jr. High School / Park University.