Teaching the Civil War with Technology

Here are a few more short videos related to the Battle of Gettysburg for you to view:

Three related to the story of Wesley Culp, Jack Skelley and Ginny Wade:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti2PcQR-SdU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBi_Vgt2MWs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5jaJyJKY3s

Story about Spangler’s Spring:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj-mWP_H8P8

Just another great way for you to bring subject matter experts into your classroom.

Enjoy

Posted under Videos

While the website is from 2006, here is an interesting idea on how to use a blog in the classroom.
http://dowell.typepad.com/harriet_tubman/

The students in this classroom have researched a historical figure and created a blog that reflects entries as that historical person. The famous person in this case is Harriet Tubman.

The students in this classroom have researched the life of Harriet Tubman, slavery and other aspects of the time period and are using technology to deliver the information in first person. Here are some of the great things the students are doing in addition to the blog entries:

Audio & Enhanced Audio Post
Listen to interviews as students role play people who lived at the same time as Harriet Tubman in order to describe life as a slave.

Fictional Stories of the Underground Railroad
After studying about Harriet Tubman and learning about the Underground Railroad, the students wrote stories of what it might have been like if their own family were to travel on the Underground Railroad.

Drawings:
I’m not sure what software they used but there are student created drawings of aspects of Harriet Tubman’s life.

Concept Maps:
Here’s another great idea, it looks like the students have used Inspiration to create some concept maps about Harriet Tubman.

Congratulations to Ms. Jenkins class at Dowell Elementary for a great way to use technology for teaching about the Civil War.

For more information on Harriet Tubman be sure to check out the following websites:

http://www.loc.gov/topics/africanamericans/featured/tubman.html

http://www.harriettubman.com/

Posted under Famous People, Lesson Ideas, Primary Sources

There is a very good book called Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails by Tom Wheeler that I encourage everyone to read. The book discusses how President Lincoln used technology, in this case the telegraph, to stay connected with his troops in the field. In today’s technological society, the President knows exactly what is going on with his armies and can communicate with them in real-time even when they are halfway around the world. President Lincoln did not have that luxury. Instead, he used the technology that was available to him in order to ensure that the war effort was being run properly.

While doing to searching the other evening, I came across a companion website for the book and thought I would share. The Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails website provides visitors with some great additional resources. In addition to information about the author, the book and reviews of the book, the website contains images of eight different “t-mails” that President Lincoln sent throughout the war.

The following is an image of a message send from Lincoln to General McClellan just over a month after the Battle of Antietam.

Following the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, General McClellan failed to go after the Confederates and came up with numerous excuses. Well, President Lincoln had heard enough excuses and sent this message to McClellan. Lincoln demanded to know “what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?”

Have your students think about that for a moment. How would you feel as President if your commanding General was not going after the enemy and is making up excuses? How do you think McClellan felt when he received the message? Can you do some research and find out if this “t-mail” caused McClellan to act in any way? What else can we learn about McClellan that may have caused Lincoln to respond in this manner?

Finally, the website contains some terrific links on Abraham Lincoln and Morse Code.

To listen to a great interview of Mr. Wheeler, check out Eric Langhorst’s Speaking of History Podcast Episode #79

Until next time…

Posted under Famous People, Primary Sources, Websites

Sykes Regulars, a Civil War reenacting group, have an excellent collection of resources and research in the School of Instruction section of their website. One such section shows one part of the School of the Battalion as a Flash animation and another has three animations on the School of the Company.

So, I was thinking that it is one thing for a teacher to talk about how soldiers would stand in line and turn to the right or left but to show them and then HAVE them actually try the maneuvers.

Check these out:

School of the Battalion – Animated

• Suggestion for getting the subalterns to in front during dress parade

School of the Company – Animated

• Forming the company
• Company Right-Face
• Company Left-Face

You can also view the complete manual for how soldiers would have been positioned and moved on the battlefield online. On the US Regulars website you can view manuals by Hardee, and Casey. You can also look up the manuals for how to clean a musket, Artillery Tactics and Cavalry Tactics.

Happy reading and researching.

Posted under Miscellaneous, Websites

I am sure that most of you are familiar with Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. Love it or hate it, Wikipedia is a part of our students’ world. But what is a wiki? A wiki is a web page or website that is setup to allow anyone to easily contribute to or modify the content. Wikis are often used to create different collaborative sites such as eduwiki.us

While doing some research, I came across this interesting wiki related to the Civil War. A quick scan of the table of contents for the wiki shows that it covers the major aspects of the war including Causes of the War, Secession, an Overview of the War, Slavery, the Outcomes and Aftermath. There is also an extensive Bibliography and References section.

How can you use a wiki like this in your classroom? You could use it as a resource for information or you could use it as a starting point for additional inquiry. For example, the wiki states that Senator Stephen Douglas was the most powerful Democrat in the 1850s. How can your students verify this information? What research and resources could they use to verify this statement? If your students find more information or something to refute the information on the Wiki, edit the page and add or change it. It is all about sharing and collaborating.

So, no matter how you use wikis, they are collaborative and are not ALL bad.

Just as an additional resource, here is Wikipedia’s page on The Civil War

Until next time…

Posted under Websites