Seen Here, There and Everywhere

I guess one of the advantages of being at home for awhile is that I can finally get caught up with emails and visiting my favorite blogs. I’ve found some interesting things:

Over at the AHA Blog (American Historical Association) reading list was published that included some interesting things—a link to a dicussion regarding the argument comparing academic resources and Wikipedia, a link to a site where you can compare the topography of Washington D.C. from 1791 to today, and for a little chuckle you can read how The Book of Secrets has made it home again to the Library of Congress

Mark Grimsley over at Blog Them Out of the Stone Age has reviewed the book
The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat by Earl J. Hess. Grimsley states, “No kidding. If you think of yourself as a serious student of military history, this is one book you need to read—sooner rather than later.”

Via Chris Wehner at Blog 4 History I found this cool site called (formMy Year of Living Rangerously formally Volunteer in the Park). Mannie, the Ranger, works at the Antietam Battlefield site and he has posted The Sunken Road in 55mm….a recreation of The Bloody Lane, September 17, 1862.

JL Bell from Boston, 1775 is doing some great research on Declaration of Independence signer Richard Stockton comparing and contrast primary and secondary sources.

Kevin Levin over at Civil War Memory is once again writing about myth and memory and how they relate to actual events in Southern Heritage and Me. Kevin states, “No doubt, I am often perceived as an outsider whose purpose is to denigrate the people of the South and Southern Heritage. The outright attacks and/or suspicion, however, have only added to my curiosity about the blurred relationship between history and memory as well as the importance that people and certain organizations place on maintaining and defending certain views of the past.”….. “The interesting question, however, is when those modes of remembrance distort the past and serve to fuel our own contemporary values, interests, and insecurities. In other words, at what point do we leave the realm of history and enter the world of mythology and story-telling, and is it possible to achieve a healthy balance between the two? “……”It's not that I am challenging or questioning Southern heritage, it's that I am looking into or questioning one among any number of ways of remembering the past.”

As a Southerner myself I find it often difficult to write about my ancestors or other historical figures and relate their Confederate beliefs without coming myself as as supporter or making it into some romantic mythological tale. It is a fine tightrope I walk in that instance.

Finally, I posted a new entry over at The American Presidents Blog concerning Jimmy Carter and some of the challenges he had to overcome during the 1976 Presidential Campaign.

Professional Development at Its Best

Not too long ago I posted my response to a meme that was basically a self survey regarding priviledge. The post received a few comments and some bloggers linked to it with their own postings including Byrningbunny and Rebecca over at Freaky Frugalite.

In the post I mentioned Dr. Ruby K. Payne…..I said---

One of the best resources (books and tapes) that I have ever used to help me get my head around the implications of poverty and its effects on education is Dr. Ruby K. Payne’s A Framework for Understanding Poverty . Not only is she a very entertaining speaker the exercises in her book and workbook gave me a totally different mindset regarding some of my students.

A few days later I was alerted by by a friend that Dr. Payne and her associates have a blog, and I was mentioned over there. The blog is called Aha! Process, Inc. It is a great resource for Payne’s materials and even videos. Patti Albright, a contributing author at the site happened to see my post regarding priviledge and posted her own article titled Privilege and the Paper World over at Aha! She states:

The game intrigued me because of my training with and subsequent passion for Ruby Payne’s work. Dr. Payne’s research reveals, among many other ideas that most schools in America operate from middle class norms. Students, starting in kindergarten, are immersed in the middle class “paper world” – they are inundated with field trip notes, report cards, test results, textbooks, library books, PTA notices, fundraiser catalogs, etc. Many of our students from generational poverty do not come from homes where books, magazines, and bank statements, abound. The paper world to which middle class America has become so accustomed does not exist for many children from poverty, and just this one aspect of not coming from a “privileged” background can be a huge stumbling block to success in today’s educational system.

I just love this whole blogging “thing” and the implications it has for education. I am constantly amazed at how things are passed along, linked to, refined and adopted. A blog post often begins through a conversation with self that quickly becomes a conversation with a few, and then side bar conversations begin at other sites.

Someone once asked me why I would want to spend my free time writing, reading, commenting, and linking…….I told them that it’s really very simple. Blogging in education is the ultimate in vertical teaming or a small group conducting collaborative research. You find a group of blogs that basically fit your niche and hang on with all your might because the conversation is constant, and the most important outcome is professional growth of the highest caliber.