Learning the Constitution

      The James Madison Constitution Center has just made available a searchable index on the notes on the debates of the Constitutional Convention.  It is called ConText.  There are many other great features to explore on the site including seminars, on-line courses and more.  Pay a visit!  Montpelier Constitution Center.

Happy Fourth!!!!

Today, The Revolution is playing all day on the History Channel and The Presidents is playing on History Channel HD.  RIght now they are lampooning Millard Filmore, Who?  Exactly.  Stay cool!  

Technology in the Classroom

There are two blogs that you should check out, The Nerdy Teacher and History Tech.  Both are good and have a few ideas and tricks that I have used.  If you have not been to Xtranormal or Prezi, I would suggest exploring these web 2.0 tools. One is presentation creator and the other is animation creator.  An app that I ran across recently......"The Road to Civil Rights".

Back!!!!

Yes it has been a while since posting.  Teaching takes a lot of time, energy and thought.  I was teaching not only at the junior high level, but also two community college survey courses at night.  I think that it just exhausted me and set off a colitis flare up that I am struggling with now.  In fact, in the two years that I taught at both schools, I had pneumonia twice and increasing colitis difficulty and side effects.  Well, no more,  I will devote my energy to publication, blogging and looking for great national history conventions to attend and hopefully one day, present at. I am checking out web 2.0 toolsand collaborative plns, will post anything groundbreaking.

Whew!! long time since posting

I am back to the long neglected blog. I was surprised to hear about the conclusion of a ten year study in the effectiveness of standardized testing in measuring a student's progress and a teacher's effectiveness. To me, standardized tests can measure basic knowledge, testing skills and is considered preferable by governments because it is relatively cheap. I am looking for Ravitch's public response but I have not found one yet. Off to the education blogs to see!!