The Post Where I Send You Off in All Directions

I’ve taken enough time from my project today to get the 26th edition of the Georgia Carnival up and running for viewing pleasure. This edition marks the one year anniversary for one of the few state-focused carnivals in the blogosphere. You can find it over at Georgia on My Mind. You’ll find lots of views regarding the results of the Iowa caucus, a primary calendar, and a great post on making resolutions among many other great submissions. Do you know what a Brasstown Baldbuster is? Well, head on over to Georgia’s carnival and find out!

During the week between Christmas and New Year’s there was quite a discussion going on regarding my post about the painting of Washington's prayer at Valley Forge. One of the participants in the discussion, Hercules Mulligan, decided his most recent thoughts on the matter were too long to post as a comment so he was inspired to create his own posting. You can read it here. Let the discussion continue….

Those darn educators (I’m one of them) are at it again with a recipe swap. You can find them over at Meeyauw’s spot at the Teacher Pot Luck Carnival

Polski3 wants to know what’s on your bulletin boards.

Finally, Miss Profe is wondering about student motivation. The education guru who solves this problem will make millions, won’t they? I found Miss Profe’s take on the matter interesting and the example she used was Frederick Douglass. So what creates intrinsic motivation? Miss Profe wants to know is it your circumstances or are you already wired for it at birth? For some reason I couldn’t post a comment there but what I would have said involved Mr. Douglass. I’m not sure it was just his circumstances that prompted him to be so driven though he did have some horrific circumstances to overcome. The reason why I question the circumstance reason is there were plenty of others who came out of slavery who did not make their mark on the world in any particular way. I think when we finally hit on a perfect formula we will discover there is no perfect formula but a very mixed basis for intrinsic motivation that involves parenting, culture, environment, and even DNA. I think Miss Profe brings up a very valid question…..head on over and enter the discussion.

Historians Observe Their Surroundings

The school where I teach is separated into four different buildings that form a large square. In the center is a large grassy area with a tree. I like to gather up my students during the first week of school and we have class sitting in the grassy area. Once we are all settled I begin our discussion. I ask students to look around and notice where they are. I ask them to look at the tree, the grass, and the spots where there isn’t any grass. I ask them to notice if the ground is completely flat or do they notice it rising or falling in certain areas. I tell them that as historians they need to be aware of the lay of the land. They need to be able to make observations for anything that can be used as a frame of reference or a landmark of sorts when exploring a historical site. Anything can be a clue regarding how the land was once used or who lived there.

I show students a picture of a pile of rocks. “What could this be trying to tell us?”



I get all sorts of crazy answers. Sometimes a student will mention that the pile of rocks could be a grave. We discuss that possibility for a moment and then I tell them that sometimes it just takes standing back a bit to get a better view of what we are looking at.

I then show them a picture taken from the air. I hear several ohs and ahs.



I quickly tell students they are looking at Rock Eagle----an Indian rock formation located in Georgia. I let them know we will be discussing this more in depth in a couple of days.

I show students a picture of a deep gully. I pass it around for them to observe. We discuss possible causes for the gully…erosion, earthquake, mother nature, God….



”How about man?” I ask as I show them the next picture. What if hundreds of these wagons made their way up a trail over fifty years or so? I identify the gully as part of the Natchez Trace that runs between Nashville and Natchez.



Finally I show students a picture of a trench. What happened here? Some try to be cute and guess that more wagons caused the trench. Someone thinks we’re looking at a creek bank or an early Grand Canyon.



We discuss it at length and then I show students this…..



I explain that trenches are sometimes man-made. The first picture tells us this as we observe rocks and wood placed on the sides of the trench. I give them a quick explanation of the trench warfare that took place during World War I.

I end our discussion by telling students that history is everywhere around them if they will take the time to examine, to wonder, to question what they see. A pile of rocks could be just that, but if I know a little history I might guess that the pile of rocks might be a burial spot if I already know that Native Americans in my area were doing that hundreds of years ago. If I knew a little history I might realize the pile of rocks could be part of a much larger design that could be seen from the air.

Knowing my location and the history of the area might help me identify what I am looking at. I tell students that later in the year we will discuss the settlement of the frontier and I’ll be telling them about the Natchez Trace. If I know this from my studies of history when I see a location with a gully like this it might help me to identify it. If I’m in Belgium and come across a maze of trenches in the ground I could arrive at the idea that they must be World War I trenches because I know from my history class that the war was fought in trenches.

By this time I have several wiggle worms so we get up and walk down to the recess field. I gather everyone in a group and I tell them that historians never know what they are standing on unless they truly observe their surroundings. We identify together that we are standing on the recess field, and then I ask, “Is that all we’re standing on?”

I tell students to follow me and we go to the edge of the playground. We are standing on the edge of a hill. Down below us we see a flat overgrown area. Sticking out of the hill in various places we see all sorts of debris. Rocks, long pieces of rebar, broken signs, glass, wires, bricks, and assorted hunks of concrete litter the hillside. We regroup and I tell the class that the area where they play did not look like it did many years ago. I ask them to come up with some ideas about what happened. Some are silly, some are average, and some are pretty good guesses. Finally, I tell them the story. Many loads of dirt were hauled in to build up their playground, but before the dirt was dumped the town brought in remnants of a section of town. You see the town where our school is located experienced an explosion and some of the trash ended up as filler for our playground. Some of the kids nod their heads in agreement and state their grandmother or grandfather had told them about the explosion while other students are amazed.

So….before we trudge back to the classroom I summarize and close with, “What did we learn today?” I get several responses.

“Things aren’t always as they appear to be.”

“You never know what you are looking at.”

“Every piece of ground has a history if you’ll just look at it and listen.”

“Our recess field is a dump.” Yep, there’s always a true blue smartie in every group.

Pone Historiam In Manus Discipulorum Tuorum

This post comes by way of Darren over at Right on the Left Coast who so correctly stated:

There are two things that get kids in history’s grip----speakers with first hand knowledge and stuff.

I agree. Great history teachers use stuff. Everywhere I go I look for stuff I can use in my classroom. I can ruin any good vacation by looking for stuff. Recently I traveled to Nantahala Village in western North Carolina with members of my Sunday school class. Some of us went over to the tourist mecca of Cherokee to see what we could see.

In case you didn’t know……the ancestors of the Cherokees, who currently live in North Carolina, are parts of the tribe that split off during the round up of Native Americans during that dismal memory of history called the Trail of Tears. The American military tried to pursue the fleeing Cherokees, but the rugged terrain helped the natives escape.

While in Cherokee, I bought an honest-to-goodness Native American tomahawk-----not one of those colorful, feathered, made-in-Japan types either. This is a real tree limb and a real rock fashioned together as it would have been thousands of years ago. I’m excited about this because I always have a group of kids who ask, “Well how did they connect the rock and the stick?” Now I have some stuff to show them.

I also found some great postcards that are actual pictures of Native Americans taken back in the 1800s. I’ll laminate these and use them for display in some way. Of course, I also bought some obligatory arrowheads (probably fake), but I can still use them in the classroom.

I have a lot of stuff in my classroom. I have one of my great grandmother’s poke bonnets I pull out during our romp through the frontier. I have old bottles I found at one of the old home sites on my Dad’s property. I have copies of pictures taken of my family that show how folks dressed, and how serious they were back then when they had their pictures made. I have copies of letters written by real people throughout history that I have found and copied for kids to analyze not to mention a large collection of documents and maps.

Yes, the stuff of life is history, and as my post title suggests in Latin….put history into the hands of your students. Make sure they have stuff.

Darren also provided a link to a fantastic opportunity for stuff. Ancient Coins for Education can help you obtain Greek and Roman coins to use in the classroom. The website provides lesson ideas and tried and tested lesson plans. While these plans are for older students at the middle and high level there are some that can be adjusted.

In my curriculum I don’t teach about the Greek and Roman civilizations, however, I do teach about the formation of our government which is based on some of their ideals so I can see a reason why I might want to utilize these coins. Even at nine years old my junior historians need to see this kind of stuff. We can compare and contrast the old coins to our currency. We can tie in our coin examinations with the Articles of Confederation, our first plan of government before the current Constitution. One of the problems with the Articles was each state had the right to coin money. The current Constitution places the right to coin money directly with the Federal government. By simply tying in that one piece of content you are free then to discuss how our money is designed and how and why the different symbols were chosen. Another activity the young ones could do as an assessment after the end of the lesson is students could design their own currency based on certain parameters the teacher would formulate according to curriculum needs.

I’m excited! Another opportunity for more stuff! Thanks, Darren!

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Mentos and Coke

And now for something completely different. These two “scientists” know how to spend a summer.



This craze was featured on Good Morning America this morning. The explains why this occurs and goes on to state that folks should refrain from eating Mentos and then drinking Diet Coke. Seems the combo upsets your stomach and you throw up.

Now if this doesn't prompt you to comment I don't know what will.:)

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