Teaching the Civil War with Technology

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

Hi.  As you know I have a project called Civil War Sallie and she recently visited Fords Theater in Washington DC so I thought I would share her post here on my dad’s blog.

I just came back from a busy few days at the National Education Computing Conference in Washington D.C.


While there, me, my friend Sarah, and her family went t0 Ford’s Theatre and we listened to Liz Hogan a volunteer who talked about the theater and President Lincoln.
Here is what I learned during Ms. Hogan’s speech.

I learned that a lot of the buildings in Washington D.C. were used as hospitals during the war. There were times when Washington D.C. looked like it was on fire because of all the candles in the windows. John Wilkes Booth, who was from Maryland, attended President Lincoln’s 2nd Inauguration speech and decided that he was going to capture President Lincoln and exchange him for Confederate prisoners of war.

On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln’s son Tad did not go to the play with his parents because he was at a different play called “Aladdin” or “His Wonderful Lamp” at Grover’s Theatre. On that night, President Lincoln arrived at Ford’s Theatre around 8:30 and the play had already started. When President Lincoln arrived, the play stopped and band played Hail to the Chief and the people in the theater gave him a standing ovation.

President and Mrs. Lincoln were accompanied that night by Major Rathbone and Miss Clara Harris. Booth arrived at Ford’s Theatre around 9pm but then left to get a few drinks of whiskey. Booth then returned to the theater and walked toward the Presidential Box. Booth did not need a ticket to get in because he was a actor at the theater and according to Ms. Hogan he was the most handsome man on the stag. Booth snuck into the box where the President sat and waited till the funniest line in the play to shoot him. He chose that line because the laughing, hooting, and hollering would cover up a gun shot.

It was 10:15pm when Booth shot the President. After shooting the president, Booth jumped 12 feet to the stage and raised bloody knife (from stabbing Major Rathbone) and shouted Sic Semper Tyrannis (which means Thus Ever to Tyrants). When Booth jumped from the box to the stage, Major Rathbone shouted “Stop that man”.

Mrs. Lincoln was screaming that her husband was dead. Miss. Laura Keene rushed up to the box with a pitcher of water and she held the the President Lincoln’s head and her sleeve became stained with the blood from the Presidents wounded head. Soldiers that were in the theatre carried Lincoln across the street to the Petersen House. President Lincoln arrived at the Peterson House around 10:30 and he lived 9 hours in that house.

Booth had rented a horse and kept it outside the back stage door. This was not his personal “one eyed horse” from Dr. Mudd but another one. From there he rode out of town and was finally captured and shot at Garrett farm in Virginia and was paralized from the neck down. He lived for two hours his last words were “Useless” referring to his hands.

As part of my visit, I got go up in the booth that Lincoln sat in and get my picture taken. My friend, Sarah came up with me and got to look in the booth too.

Here I am with Miss Allison walking toward the famous box.

What a great view of the stage. I have chills from being in this historic spot.

Be sure to follow Ford’s Theater on Twitter they are @fordstheatre

Posted under Famous Locations, Famous People

Here is another cool use of VoiceThread for your classroom. Melanie Lewis is an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher in Virgina and has created a webpage called Lincoln Loved Learning.

Mrs. Lewis has taken several images from the life of Abraham Lincoln and combined them together with a narrative text using VoiceThread. These photographs depict various parts of Lincoln’s life growing up including his family and how he loved to read. What is especially interesting about this project is that throughout the slideshow, several students provide additional insights and comments about the life of our 16th President. Finally, Mrs. Lewis has listed several additional resources for you to explore about the President.

I have discussed the use of this type of technology before, so here is just another example of how you and your students can create and share information. These types of activities are cross-curricular and promote student engagement and creativity.

Here are some ideas for other VoiceThread projects:

• Research a Battle and discussion the important facts
• Research a particular unit and show photos and provide information
• Research a specific figure from the Civil War (lots of possibilities here)
• Research a particular aspect such as medicine and show photos of wounded soldiers

So many possibilities…Let me know what you think and if you create any in your classrooms.

Posted under Famous People

Clara Barton is one of the most famous women in American history. So while in 4th grade, it came time for my daughter to do a report on a famous person from history, she chose Clara. What was even more fun was that she wanted to do a slide show of pictures about Clara as she gave her oral report. So, she searched the web for pictures and information about Clara and then I showed her how to load them into iPhoto and how to make a slide show. It was a lot of fun working on this with her and we both learned a good bit about Clara and iPhoto, Garageband and iTunes.

So, I thought I would take her oral report and share some of it in a blog post, along with some of the photos, information and links about Clara that Sarah found.

Clara was born in 1821 in New Oxford, Massachusetts. My parents are Sarah Stone Barton and Capt. Stephen Barton. I have two brothers named David and Stephen and two sisters named Sarah and Dorothy (or Dolly).

This is a picture of the home where Clara was born.

Growing up Clara was a shy girl and enjoyed riding her horse. One day when David was out working on the barn roof he fell and broke his arm. The doctor told Clara that he may die, but she made a wish that he would not and cared for him for several weeks and her wish came true.

Clara’s brother and sister grew up to become teachers. In 1850, Clara became a teacher in this one-room schoolhouse. She earned praise when she refused to physically punish students. Clara liked to think that she left a mark on each school in which she taught, organizing the classroom and drafting lesson plans.

In 1861 when the civil war began I followed the troops taking care of the wounded soldiers. Clara and other women would care for the wounded soldiers by giving them food, bandaging their injuries and writing letters for them to their families.

During the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, Clara saw many wounded and dying soldiers everywhere she walked. They were in barns, in cornfields and even in the Dunker Church. These pictures show some of the wounded soldiers from the Battle of Antietam that she nursed back to health.

Although it is widely believed that Clara was set up on the Joseph Poffenberger farm on the north end of the battlefield, according to Ranger Mannie Clara was actually at the Samuel Poffenberger farm, a little more to the east. This is a modern photograph of the Samuel Poffenberger farmhouse, which is where she stayed for a week or so.

There is a monument at the Antietam National Battlefield to Clara that says:

Beginning in 1870, Clara spent 10 years organizing the American National Red Cross, which was officially incorporated in 1882. Under my leadership the Red Cross assisted with relief efforts following disasters like floods, forest fires, and earthquakes.

Thanks to Ranger Mannie from Antietam National Battlefield, Ranger Smith from Gettysburg Battlefield and Mr. Joe Korber of the 119th New York Field Music and The Sykes Regulars for information on Clara, photos and music for this presentation.

So, that was the bulk of her report. A few points to consider: 1) Sarah’s school has very little in terms of technology so it was great for her to show the other kids, 2) This provided me a change to help Sarah learn how to research a topic on the Internet, 3) I made sure that she asked permission to use photos and music for her presentation that were not in the public domain and 4) her class got to see a great presentation using technology.

A few more quick photos.
This is Sarah at the Clara Barton monument

and

Here is Sarah, holding her Junior Ranger certificate and badge, with Ranger Mannie.

Additional photos and information about Clara are available on the web at these sites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Barton
http://www.civilwarhome.com/bartonbio.htm
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm072.html
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/27barton/27barton.htm
http://www.clarabarton.org/

Updated from the old blog:  Check out Sarah’s new project Civil War Sallie who recently visited the Clara Barton home and wrote a two-part blog post on her visit.  Check out Part 1 and Part 2

Posted under Famous People, Primary Sources