Thursday, October 19, 2006

Famous Explorer Cortes Spends the Day in Elementaryhistoryteacher's Classroom

Would you be willing to wear short “pumpkin’ pants, tights, and knee high boot to motive kids? Mr. Schinella did, and the interest level regarding how people lived in the 1500s greatly increased.

Not only did he wear a period costume all day at school he taught the majority of the lesson and worked one-on-one with many of the kids. Here are some great pics of Mr. Schinella in his “tights”.

Cortest Visits Our Classroom

The focus of his lesson was the Renaissance period and how advances in technology gave birth to sailors having the ability to sail much further and for longer periods of time. Mr. Schinella is pointing to the powerpoint of mine he used throughout the lesson to show additional images to students. You can make out a portrain of Prince Henry there but not the text.

I like using various slides as we introduce material. Students saw real images of Prince Henry’s school of navigation in Portugal which trained many of the Portuguese sailors and enabled them to have the knowledge they needed in order to sail around Africa and later to reach the coast of India. These were the first real stand-out events in the Age of Exploration.

12 comments:

Dennis Fermoyle said...

No, EHT, I would not teach a lesson in tights, especially if someone like you was lurking with a camera to show the world. But it looks like what you and Mr. Shinella did worked. You can't knock success!

Dennis Fermoyle said...

No, EHT, I would not teach a lesson in tights, especially if someone like you was lurking with a camera to show the world. But it looks like what you and Mr. Shinella did worked. You can't knock success!

Dan Edwards said...

We *used* to have a couple of gentleman from a Civil War roundtable visit our school in Civil War uniforms and all the stuff a civil war soldier might have carried with him (including rifles, pistols, and knives.) One year, with permission from the local PD., they even brought along a small cannon. Our students were thrilled to hear the rifles cackle and the BOOM of the cannon. THEN, we got a principal who absolutely refused to let these gentlemen enter our school if they had any sort of "weapon".

EHT said...

Aw gee Dennis....I bet you'd look great in a pair of tights. :) Mr. S. has documented many of his activities with students for his classes at the college. He has been nice enough to provide emails and cd's with copies of his pics knowing I would probably be placing this on this site or my classroom site.

Polski, that's a real shame about your Civil War guys. We met up with some reinactors yesterday on a field trip we took complete with swords, guns, and small cannon to boot. We were at our agricultural center far, far away from our campus. Look for some pics in an upcoming post. I made about 40 and I'm still trying to upload them all from my camera phone.

HappyChyck said...

I make a fool of myself on a daily basis. It would totally be worth it to dress up to bring a new level of interest to a lesson. Too cool!

Anonymous said...

Those kids are very lucky to have a visit from such a dedicated teacher.

EHT said...

Yes, my students have been very fortunate to work with Mr. S. over the last few weeks.

He's not planning on teaching right away. Get this....he's planning on joining the Navy and wants to be a Seal. Am I ever impressed....

His last day is Tuesday. I'm really going to miss him.

Anonymous said...

He's a brave man indeed. Though I gotta say he looks kind of strange in front of that TV set.

Anonymous said...

It is really great when you can talk someone into doing a living history presentation...or do it yourself, but I think the students get more when you invite someone.

EHT said...

Yes, NYC, I agree....there are mixed messages there.

Kontan, I agree. This would not have had the same impact if I had dressed up.

Mr. S. shared this site with him Mom over the weekend. He had her google his name. The post comes up as the third entry on Google. When he told me that this morning I said, "Stay with me kid....I'll make ya famous." I was surprised the post was indexed that quick.

Anonymous said...

Mr. S's S.E.A.L. training should prepare him for the world of education. Insurgents and suicide bombers and Hezbollah don't compare! :-)

(P.S. Wearing tights during S.E.A.L. training might not be the best thing to do.)

EHT said...

I belive you are absolutely right Mr. Lawerence. I'll pass the info along to Mr. S.

Today was his last day. BOO Hoo! I'm going to miss that young man.