Art, American History, and the Apotheosis of Washington: How Cool!!!

I love it when I can integrate two subjects. In this case American History and Art.

American History is LOADED with iconic paintings.  Such as Emanuel Leutze's painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware, commanding American troops in the Christmas surprise attack upon the Hessians.  The painting shows our first president standing tall as the boat makes it way across the icy river.   Many people know this painting is full of historical inaccuracies, but it is from this point we begin to build our students understanding of this historical event.  If General Washington is commanding an army, why are all the people in boat wearing different clothes?  Different hats?  Is Washington the only future president in this painting?  No.  Look closely at the man holding the flag; he would become President Monroe.  What role did Monroe play in the War?  Are there any African-Americans in the painting? What role did African-Americans play in the War?  These questions provide students the scaffold needed to analysis the historical aspects of this beautiful painting.  Finally, one of the last questions I ask my students is how big or small is this painting?  They are shocked to learn is over 12 feet high and over 21 feet long!  Nearly life size! 

So this being the case, I am happy to share with you another AWESOME resource that combines art and American History:  The Capital Architect and the Paintings webpage.  Students can view these beautifully created painting while learning about the historical details the images represent.  One such example includes the mural known as the  Apotheosis of Washington. This beautiful painting spreads over the interior of the U.S. capital rotunda of the U.S. Capital.  Yes, the painting clearly is centered upon Washington, but there are other important historical players in this painting.  Check out the six historical images near the edge of the mural in the Apotheosis of Washington.  This websites shares with the students the background information for these figures.  The URL is http://www.aoc.gov/capitol-hill/other-paintings-and-murals/apotheosis-washington.
When I share this painting with my students I have replace the 19th century figures with modern day people.  I also ask them if would they change the categories to include other groups.  Might they add a category for athletes or movie stars?


As always, I hope you can use these resources in your class-hoping to make your job easier and better!

JM

Virtual Tour: Ford's Theatre

Since I was little kid, I always wanted to visit Ford's Theatre; the place were President Lincoln was assassinated.   But growing up in rural Washington State, the opportunity of Mr. Wall's American History class taking a school field trip to Washington D.C. was out of the question.

However, students today can take virtual field trips, anywhere in the world, thanks to the Internet!  As a social studies teacher this has opened the world to my students.   Here are a few virtual field trips I have used in my classroom.

For example, my middle school students love to visit the birth home of Martin Luther King Jr. While the students visit this webpage I have them complete a web quest.  As students move from room to room, they learn about the childhood of Dr. King.   They learn that as a young boy, Dr. King's bedroom "was always in great disarray. Clothing, shoes, games, and toys filled the room".  The middle school students can identify with this situation...

The URL for the MLK birth home virtual website is  http://www.nps.gov/features/malu/feat0001/BirthHomeTour/.  Also, if you would like to have students complete the web quest the URL for this, it can be found at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Middle-School-Martin-Luther-King-Web-Quest-1616393.

So, in honor of 150th death of President Lincoln, I have for you the virtual field trip to Ford's Theatre.  Students can not only see the view from the theatre box where President Lincoln was assassinated, but they can learn about what happened when Booth's spur caught a flag when he jumped from the box.  Click on another screen and students can view the hand gun Booth used in the assassination.  This same website has many primary source materials for students to exam.  The website allows students to maneuver their view up, down, right, and left so they can "look" around the Ford's Theatre from the perspectives of the stage.

All in all, this is a pretty interesting and helpful website for you to share with your students.  The URL for the virtual website is http://www.fords.org/sites/default/files/virtualTour/index.html.

Finally, if you know of any virtural website you use in your classroom, please feel free to share.

See ya!

JM

Preamble Pictures

I am a huge supporter of alternative methods of assessment.  So, when I have my students act out an idea, preform vocabulary words, or create a drawing, I LOVE it.

Here is a new assessment I created for my middle school students dealing with the Preamble of the Constitution; I call it "Preamble Pictures".

After we have learned about the Preamble and the meaning of the words, I have my students draw pictures representing the main ideas of the Preamble.  For this assignment, I broke the Preamble into four sections and randomly assigned the sections to students.

Then, based upon the handout and rubric, students created a drawing.

Please feel free to download this lesson from my store.  The URL is  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Middle-School-Preamble-Pictures-1813105

Here are some examples of these pictures:

Teaching the Holocaust

This post is for those who teach the Holocaust or interested in it.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a one day teacher workshop about the Holocaust.  The workshop was presented with the help of the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights located in Boise, Idaho.

As far as workshops go, this was one of the best I have every attended.

It was loaded with tons of resources and we were very fortunate to have met Ela Weissberger.  She is a Holocaust survivor who spent time in the Terezin concentration camp.  This was the camp the Nazis used as a "showcase" for the International Red Cross inspectors.  Many artists, musicians, children, and elderly were sent to Terezin.  When the Red Cross inspectors entered the camp, the prisoners were forced to perform concerts or plays.  All as a ploy by the Nazis to demonstrate how the prisoners were being treated humanly. 

Ms. Weissberger participated in one of the concerts performed by the children.  It was a children's opera entitled "Brundibar".  It was a thinly disguised fable in which powerless animals and children are able to get the town bully.  Guess what the bully was to represent?  Yes, the Nazis.  Weissberger played the part of the "Cat" in the opera.

I was lucky enough to have my picture taken with this wonderful lady.  She had a very positive attitude and full of love.  An incredible lady!

Also, here are some execellent resources I picked up from the workshop.  Please feel free to check them out.

http://sfi.usc.edu/watch/exhibits/70-stories-auschwitz.  This link includes 70 testimonies from survivors from Auschwitz.  This is truely AMAZING!

http://sfi.usc.edu/watch/exhibits/remembering-kristallnacht.  This link includes peoples' testimonies as it relates to Kristallnacht.  Again, pretty amazing!

http://sfi.usc.edu/video-topics?nid=236.  These clips include survivors speaking about love in the work/death camps.  These clips would really get students' attentions since these folks were teenagers while in the camps. 

I hope you can use these resources!  Enjoy.

70 Days of Testimony: Leading up to the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz - See more at: http://sfi.usc.edu/watch/exhibits/70-stories-auschwitz#sthash.pWWtjdWW.dpuf

70 Days of Testimony: Leading up to the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz - See more at: http://sfi.usc.edu/watch/exhibits/70-stories-auschwitz#sthash.pWWtjdWW.dpuf

70 Days of Testimony: Leading up to the 70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz - See more at: http://sfi.usc.edu/watch/exhibits/70-stories-auschwitz#sthash.pWWtjdWW.dpuf

Job One: To help Social Studies Teachers!

Let's not mess around.  The entire purpose of this blog is to assist social studies teachers in their quest to make our content meaningful, down right cool, and make your job easier.

I have taught social studies for seventeen years at all levels; elementary, middle school,  high school, and college.  Subjects ranged from U.S. History, to geography, to government, and the odd classes like History of Rock and Roll and History of Sports.

So, with this range and background I hope to share my experience and knowledge to help you.

Let's get going!

AREA OF CONTENT: World Geography 

GRADE: Upper elementary or middle school

SUBJECT:  Eating food - well, eating food Americans normally do not eat.

DETAILS:  What better way to get those kids in the upper elementary or middle school levels to become engaged in another nation's culture than show an American eating Bats in Cambodia or pieces of octopus in South Korea.  Yes, I am talking about Andrew Zimmern: Bizarre Foods.

Andrew Zimmern is a chief, writer, and producer who travels around the world trying different foods and introducing the viewers to the worlds different cultures.  Zimmern does an excellent job of keeping the program clean and classroom appropriate for the kids.

How to view these videos?  Thanks to a teachers best friend:  YouTube.  I have included some links to a few I have used.  They are as follow:

SOUTH KOREA:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBYrG0daiHs

MOROCCO:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTSfVR37MZk

CHILE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4OUq7MRqg0


Finally, to make it meaningful for the students, I have created helpful video guides.  Each video guide contains 17 or more fill-in the blank or short answer questions.  Also, each video guide includes an extended lesson or extended resources.  Finally, the key not only includes the answers, but a helpful timing guide.  So, you know when questions will occur.

Please visit the Social Studies Super Store website and check out these and many other video/movie guides at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Social-Studies-Super-Store.


Remember, these are suggestions to help make your teaching better AND easier!