When Cross Curriculum Intentions Go Wrong

So....little Johnny or Susie brings home a teacher prepared worksheet filled with several math problems for homework.  At some point a parent decides to check the answers or at least review  the sheet to see what type of assignment had been given.

Some of the problems are troubling:

1. "Each tree had 56 oranges.  If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?"

2. "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?"

Yes, I'm serious.   This actually happened recently in a Georgia classroom per  this link.

I hope you have a problem with these questions.  I certainly do, and I applaud the parents in this situation for complaining.

Why would teachers include such insensitive questions within a math assignment?

The spokesperson for Gwinnett County Schools advised the teachers were trying to provide students with a cross-curricular activity by incorporating social studies lessons into the math problems.

The school system agreed the questions were inappropriate.  The assignments were gathered and shredded so they wouldn't resurface.  The spokesperson was quoted as saying, "The problem with the question is there is no historical context."

True...there is NO context.

An article from the Atlanta Journal provides another quote from the system spokesperson..."It was just a poorly written question."

Poorly written?   Seriously?

Teaching across the curriculum is a little more involved than taking one aspect of a historical event and throwing a question into a worksheet.These questions are more serious in my view than having no historical context and being poorly written.   

They are without question insensitive and indicate the teachers involved have no clue regarding what “teaching across the curriculum” means.

Instead of focusing on the slavery issue the math questions could have taken a look at the large numbers of soldiers killed on both sides of the war where students could work on determining the differences between battles or averaging the numbers across a few battles similar to this lesson plan.   This would open up discussion regarding the cost and benefits of war.

Here's a lesson plan involving symmetry and the Civil War.  

Another idea that would bring in the slavery issue but would be more sensitive than the worksheet questions I mentioned above involves freedom quilts to teach geometry.   A great book to introduce freedom quilts to students is….Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (Reading Rainbow Books (Pb))

There are lots of great resources out there to help teachers get on track with cross curriculum  thinking....which is one of the reasons why I’m going to be shaking my head over this situation for a long time.

What's Your Royal Title?

Well, the Royal Wedding is almost upon us. Many of us wish we could be on the guest list to have one of the treasured seats in the congregation, but unfortunately, we don’t have the right kind of name – one containing a royal title.

Since it is the time for all the wedding hoopla to take place I decided to have some fun with my Facebook status by posting the following – “What is the name of your Royal Wedding Guest name? Start with Lord or Lady…Your first name is the first name of your grandparents….Surname is the name of your first pet….The name of the street you grew up on with “of”.”

Who knew I had such important friends? They came up with names like Lord Everett Pretzel of Viceroy, Lady Lilby Piper of Preakness, Lord Wilbur Smokey of Welcome Hill, Lady Elizabeth Pepe of Pullen, Lady Annie Bucky of Chapel Hill, Lady Sarah Tinkerbell of Valencia and last but not least Lord Charlie Hotdog of Windridge.

The made up names are rather comical, aren’t they?

However, real royal titles can be a little strange also and some are downright funny.

Take King Niall of the Nine Hostages, for example. You don’t know about him? He’s the one who kidnapped Saint Patrick.

Sir William Douglas the Hardy at Scone also known as Black Douglas fought alongside William Wallace.

The Marquess of Bute was create in 1796 and the title is still in use today by a British racecar driver. Dumfries House serves as their family seat.

Then , of course, we have the more familiar Earl of Sandwich. While he didn’t invent the sandwich the food is attributed to him. Seems he liked the gaming tables so much he would have servants bring him some meat between two slices of bread to eat. Hmmmm…..I wonder if he hung out with the Earl of Mayo or the Earl of Munster.

….and what about Baron Strange? Hmmm…..that’s just strange.

The Earl of Inchcape is a title that was created in 1929 for a shipping magnate, and one of the Earls of Jellico commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland.

Earl Nugent brings to mind Wango Tango Cat Scratchin' Ted.... and The Earl of Rocksavage sounds like a wrestler with the WWF, but it’s actually the courtesy title for the heir of the Marchess of Cholmondeley which is pronounced “Chumley”. Doesn’t that name make you think of Chumlee from the History Channel’s Pawn Stars.

What about the Earl of Camperdown as in “Did you take the camper down after our NASCAR weekend at Rockingham?”

The Duke of Atholl makes me think of “The Focker’s” series of movies for some reason.

Thankfully the title Earl of Wigtown was surrendered in 1372 because……well, seriously…..Wigtown????

And finally…..the Earl of Lovelace….when I mentioned this title to my husband he asked, “Is he kin to ‘Duke’ Throat?”

After this I doubt I will ever be invited to any royal parties.

Oh well…..

Many congrats to the Happy Couple!

Out and About Sunday

The History Carnival posted this past week over at Diapsalmata. Once I finish this post I’m putting my feet up and heading over there to click through all the great reads. Yes, I’m a little late getting around to it, but in case you are unaware I had surgery again a couple of weeks ago, and s-l-o-w is the word I live by these days. :)

A few months ago the folks over at OpenSalon.com contacted me and asked me to set up a blog over at their hub. It took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do over there, but after copying my efforts here a few times I finally decided to focus on current events.

Sounds appropriate for a social studies teacher, doesn’t it?

At any rate my offering over there this week is titled A Real Apology and it focuses on my thoughts regarding a formal apology for slavery and an apology made just this past week from a former member of the KKK to U.S. Rep. John Lewis this past week. You can find the post here.

Finally, this past week Jennie, over at American Presidents Blog posted a picture for readers to identify. When she went to gather up her information to write a post to identify the man she discovered I had already written a post about him….former White House Chief Usher Ike Hoover… and published it here at History Is Elementary. Jennie’s a smart lady, a busy educator, and an even busier wife and mom…rather than reinvent the wheel she asked me to republish my post at American Presidents. I was happy to do so.

Ike Hoover is an example of great Americans that are behind the scenes…in Ike’s case he was behind the scenes for eight different presidents. In case you missed it on its first run you can read more about him over at American Presidents Blog.

Finally, I was sad to learn last week the folks who have run the Thursday Thirteen blog meme for the last several months have had to take the site down leaving many die-hard fans saddened. A few fans are continuing on with their regular Thirteen list, and I plan to do so as well. Even though I try to present an academic offering here I liked the idea of participating in Thursday Thirteen because the concept fit well with historical topics where I could relate thirteen facts in a very basic cut and dry fashion. Plus I liked the idea of reaching out to the non-history, non-educator crowd in an effort to show them history can be interesting and can be……should I really say it? FUN!!!!!!! Look for a Thirteen list later this week involving weather and war.

Have a great week!

Absolutely NO to Absolut

This image has appeared in Absolut vodka ads south of the border. This article from the LA Times states:

The billboard and press campaign, created by advertising agency Teran\TBWA and now running in Mexico, is a colorful map depicting what the Americas might look like in an "Absolut" -- i.e., perfect -- world.

The U.S.-Mexico border lies where it was before the Mexican-American war of 1848 when California, as we now know it, was Mexican territory and known as Alta California.

Following the war, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo saw the Mexican territories of Alta California and Santa Fé de Nuevo México ceded to the United States to become modern-day California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona. (Texas actually split from Mexico several years earlier to form a breakaway republic, and was voluntarily annexed by the United States in 1846.)

The campaign taps into the national pride of Mexicans, according to Favio Ucedo, creative director of leading Latino advertising agency Grupo Gallegos in the U.S., which was not involved in the Absolut campaign.

Ucedo, who is from Argentina, said: “Mexicans talk about how the Americans stole their land, so this is their way of reclaiming it. It’s very relevant and the Mexicans will love the idea.”
But he said that were the campaign to run in the United States, it might fall flat.

Hmmmmmm…really? I wonder why?

Ucedo’s reasons why the campaign would fall flat, however, twists my bloomers a bit…..He says, “Many people aren’t going to understand it here. Americans in the East and the North or in the center of the county -- I don’t know if they know much about the history. “Probably Americans in Texas and California understand perfectly and I don’t know how they’d take it.”

While I agree that many Americans don’t know ALL of the details regarding their history…which I find sad, one thing most adults do know is the basic shape of our country on a map.

Absolut had to know this is more than just a cute little ad.

The ad's message has more than one intention, and I don’t really care if Absolut has apologized or not. The small caption published along with the map says that the ad was created for the Mexican audience only and was intended to recall “a time which the population of Mexico might feel was more ideal.”

What’s next? Will we soon be seeing ads intended for German citizens showing maps with concentration camps highlighted? Will Italians see ads showing the gradeur that was Rome by depicting Christians being torn apart by lions? What about an ad targeting Native Americans depicting North America in its natural state? In this type of context we can see how these types of things can be offensive to some.

While I agree that the examples I set out above are extreme compared to a mere image showing a map of past boundaries even a map that seems innocent enough can portray mixed messages in society. For example, think of the mixed messages if the Absolut company decided to run an ad campaign depicting a map showing the United States as it appeared in 1866 or 1867…..What types of reactions would that map garner?

Bad form, Absolut….bad form indeed.

Native American Atrocities: Then and Now

It cannot be emphasized enough that Native American people were subjected to horrific treatment upon the arrival of European explorers and conquistadors in the 1500s. The Spanish instituted the encomienda system where conquistadors controlled large sections of the land and took on the roles of feudal lords. Natives were forced to work the land or in the mines.

While we have primary sources detailing massacres, instances of natives being worked to death, and other atrocities the number one killer of natives during the exploration and early colonization period was disease. It is the number one cause of the severe population decrease of natives during those years.

And just when we thought it was over it would seem there are new conquistadors in the guise of reality television producers.

If I didn’t already have a good reason not to watch their crap, I have one now.

Fridays Aren't So Wonderful Lately

Don’t we all simply live to get to Friday? Fridays just have a different sort of feeling to them. They are normally that little bend in the racetrack where you can catch your breath for moment, look back on a week accomplished, and begin to plan for the week ahead.

Around here though, the last two Fridays have been knee deep in tornado terror. As a native Georgian tornados and stories of tornados have been a part of my life since birth, but lately……

Last Friday night I was posting something over at my Georgia site while there was a nice little rain coming down. It was already dark and I was waiting on my husband to get home. News reports had mentioned rain and had mentioned the possibility of wind but no mention of tornados. As I was working with my laptop the lights suddenly went out…..pitchblack except for the light of the laptop which had switched over to battery.

I kept working as the power went on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off, several times in succession. The rain had stopped, and it was very quite and still. Five minutes later the storm sirens went off. I didn’t get scared until the sirens went off. I think that sound is more scary than the wind and the rain, quite frankly. It was so confusing to hear the siren because there was nothing going on outside.

There I was computer in hand, no warnings from my television, no warnings when I checked the local tv sites…..nothing but quiet. I thought maybe I should go to the basement, but there I was in the dark with no flashlight, and I’d probably kill myself just trying to get down there navigating the maze I’ve created with “important stuff” I keep telling myself I need to store.

Come to find out while it was so quiet and the power kept going on and off a tornado was overhead and was traveling to its dismise just a few miles away. In fact the storm had hit a grocery store and some houses about 5 miles away from me and had done quite a bit of damage.

Witnesses there said the sirens didn’t go off until ten minutes after the storm had hit. What’s the point? Later in the week the National Weather Service confirmed a touchdown of an EF1 tornado with winds of 110 mph. The track of the storm was seven miles long and approximately 100 yards wide. The touchdown was at Hampton Mill Road, and the track continued northeast through the grocery store across Chapel Hill Road through Brookmont, and finally disappating at Vulcan Drive near Groover Lake in Lithia Springs. Since I’m near Vulcan Drive I know that all of that time it was so quiet the storm was moving overhead.

Scary.

That brings me to last night when the city of Atlanta made history. A tornado hit the city for the first time that we know of. The damage pictures are absolutely amazing. Fellow Georgia blogger Spacey G from Mostly Media shares her own video from last night.

Details from Atlanta’s oldest local news channel, WSB-TV, can be found here along with a slideshow of images taken by media types, and a slideshow of images uploaded by everyday folks. A paper from Kentucky has a few daytime images of highrises as well as the many condo buildings (converted factories) that dot the downtown area.

It is amazing to see Atlanta landmarks like the Equitable Building and the Peachtree Plaza with windows blown out. Also, as much as many Georgians complain about the craziness that can go on with Atlanta government and politics it seems the city did a great job last night handling a situation that could have resulted in utter chaos. I’m sure we’ll hear somebody complaining in the days to come though.

As I am writing this today another wave of storms are racing across the state and fatalities are reported in Polk County, Georgia. For a time they were mentioning my father’s community of Macedonia near Canton, so I have been in prayer for folks I know and love as well as folks I don’t know.

Springtime in Georgia….it appears it will be a bumpy ride this year.

….note for you grammar-type folks--- tornadoes and tornados are both accepted as proper plural forms….just in case you wondered. :)

UPDATE: A little while after I posted this we had another storm come through with hail the size of golf balls. The storm went over us, but as it moved on towards Atlanta a local television tower camera got an image of it. It's rare to get an image of a tornado in Georgia. See my update over at Georgia on My Mind titled Well, Hail!

For Your Reading Pleasure

The history carnival is up over at The Victorian Peeper. Post are arranged chronologically and I can’t wait to become immersed in the submissions.

A new history carnival called Time Line is up over at Amor Valorem. Scroll down to the heading “A Trip Back in Time” to locate the history submissions. This will be a weekly event.

Here in Georgia it seems we can’t even go about our daily lives or explore the wonderful natural environments our state has to offer without some type of harm coming to us. Sadly it seems this young lady was murdered while this one is still missing.

Also topping the news in my section of Atlanta….students return to class tomorrow.

So much to do---so little time. Stress levels are on the rise!

Weekend Reading Assignment

The weather guy this morning said the temp today would reach up to at least 70 today. For those of you who don’t know it isn’t supposed to be 70 in Atlanta during December….far from it.

We are in the midst of home renovations…the kind that takes years instead of months for some crazy reason. At any rate new floors are down in the kitchen, dining and living rooms, new appliances have been installed in the kitchen, and I have too many decisions to make regarding lamps and window coverings. Yes, I know things could be worse.

We did manage to get our tree up this week. If you will remember we were painting last year, and for other reasons I simply didn’t feel like putting up a tree last year. It’s nice to reconnect to all of the different ornaments again.

Without further ado…..This week’s weekend reading assignment:

Lessons on how MySpace and Blogger should not be used are evident in this news story along with some of the fallout here and here. The supposed blog by the mother, Lori Drew, who tricked Megan Meier, is found here. The comments are lengthy but are interesting.

Carnivals abound this weekend…..one of the Christian Carnivals can be found over at Beyond the Rim. They were nice enough to include a post of mine regarding being dead or alive.

The Carnival of Education can be found over at So You Want to Teach? The postings I enjoyed the most from the carnival were Birthday Girl from Bluebird’s Classroom and Celeste Archer’s plea from the Schools For Tomorrow Blog. My own posting in the carnival regarding a dream teaching assignment hasn’t garnered anymore comments than what were already there. Could it be educators see a dream assignment as something so elusive they can’t even fathom one?

Once again I missed the Potluck Carnival over at Ms. Whatsit. It’s not to late to snag some holiday recipes and while you’re over there tune in to some of her other postings.

The Georgia Carnival is being hosted by Drifting Through the Grift. Head on over and see what Georgia bloggers have to offer. It’s hard for me to believe this carnival will celebrate its first birthday after the first of the year. Time does fly.

Under the category botched history…..There’s a reason why I don’t watch The View other than the fact I’m busy during that time…Sherri Shepard asserts Jesus Christ came before the Greek Civilization. Huh?

Finally, make sure you actually read all of Mitt Romney’s speech regarding religion and government given earlier this week before you form an opinion. Here's the Good Morning America page with links.

A Mixed Day

Putting together two major carnivals in one week has just about done me in. I’ve had the “walking” flu for two weeks now and can’t seem to feel better.

We had a a fairly easy day of it today, however. We celebrated the birthday of Dr. Suess ( a major requirement in any elementary school) today by declaring it a RAD day. RAD means “Read All Day”. Our fourth graders read in every class period except for exploratory. While I could have spent the day grading papers and completing the plethora of forms that pile up on my desk I elected for my students to witness me doing some research.

Student after student asked me, “Hey, Elementaryhistoryteacher….what ‘cha doin’?”

I responded, “Doin’ research.”

“Research? Why?”

“I’m looking for things I can write about on my website.”

Various students would respond, “Cool…” or some other similar utterance before sliding away to share with their friends. I’d hear whispers and titters, but soon like a box of dominos standing up on their ends and getting knocked over a wave of research hysteria swept the room. I looked up to find most of the room reading and taking down notes on subjects that ranged from the heart to India.

This same scene replayed each and every class period. Sometimes all they need is a model.

Cool.

It has been a sad day in my wonderful state of Georgia and our version of LA (lower Alabama). Yesterday afternoon we heard the sad news about the tornado hitting the highschool in Enterprise, Alabama. What teacher in tornado prone areas doesn’t fear getting hit during tornado season?

Parts of Georgia were hit as well later on in the day and my heart is heavy for everyone’s losses.

If the tornados weren't enough Atlantans were awakened this morning to the horrific scene of a college team bus having overturned close to downtown Atlanta. A parent’s worse nightmare…..a teacher’s worst nightmare.

What will tomorrow bring? I don’t think I want to know.