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!!

Jamestown Resources

There are some excellent videos out there on YouTube and through PBS and other vendors. Ever since the 400th anniversary Jamestown resources have gotten a big boost. There is a Discovery Channel series "Moments in Time" episode available and is on Unitedstreaming for those that have a subscription. A National Geo, Nightmare at Jamestown and there are some great shorts on YouTube including the hilarious Lego Jamestown and then segments of a History of US, which is visually stunning.

Declaration Music Video

At the AVID Institute, a teacher shared this video with our group. It is great. I plan to show it to all of my classes, including my college sections. Of course, the more you know about Second Continental Congress and the players, the more enjoyable this clip really is. I am including the link for my readers. Just control left click on the title below! Enjoy!!!

Too Late to Apologize, Declaration

AVID Summer Institute, Dallas

I attended AVID Summer Institute I in Dallas and it was great. Particularly the strands where teachers explored AVID instructional activities and got the opportunities to share resources and advise on success and failures in the classroom implementing AVID activities. The Write Path AVID book for Social Studies is fantastic and has so many activities. Great!!!

Polk, Polk and more Polk

I am currently read the Polk biography from Walter Borneman and have decided to read Silbey,s annexation of Texas text and the book from Merry on Polk and the expansion of the United States. It will keep me busy for a few weeks.

Current Reads - Constitution

This is such a wonderful book that I am not even finished and I am making recommendations. It is not only accurate, historical and insightful, but just good plain reading. It has enough of a narrative to follow the author with enough insight to the reader interested. Great!

The Avalon Project - Primary Sources

If you are looking for a site that has primary sources....look no further. This site in maintained by Yale University and is the most comprehensive and accessible that I have used. I have used it extensively in the past when assigning primary sources to students for homework or projects.

If you are looking for a great site to link to your powerpoint or notes for use in class this is it. Many speeches include the audio or video, if available. The text of the speech is included with the audio or video file as well. I have used it with great effectiveness is my instruction of my first college courses. Highly recommended. Here is the link!!!

Calling Parents

If your school does not subscribe to teleparent, the next best thing is dialmycalls. It will call a bank of up to 25 numbers that you enter and you can have a thirty second recording. See the website dialmycalls.com for more info. It is a web 2.0 application and is currently free at the level that I described. Check it out!