Teaching the Civil War with Technology

Just a quick list of items that I’ll be adding to the wiki.  I hope to be doing these more frequently so stay tuned.

Harriet Tubman Interact Map from Harcourt School — A cute little interactive that allows students to learn more about Harriet Tubman.

Harriet Tubman Webhunt from Scholastic — A great resource that includes tons of links and resources related to Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad

Unraveling the Underground Railroad Webquest — Nice webquest where students  become individuals involved in the Underground Railroad (slaves, slave owners, conductors, Northerners) and will come together and discuss this important historical event.

Across Five Aprils Resources , Study Guide for Across Five Aprils and the Across Five Aprils Webquest — provides some good resources for those who use this book in their classroom

Free at Last: Slavery in Pittsburgh, Pa – The exhibit documents early slavery in Pennsylvania including slaves’ journeys from Africa, through the abolition movement and the aftermath of the Civil War. The website is divided into sections: the Middle Passage to Early America, The Freedom Papers, Fugitive Slave Laws and Escapes, Abolition, Civil War and Aftermath, and a Photo Gallery.

Lincoln:  Booth’s Last Days — great collection of videos and links to resources from the History channel on John Wilkes Booth

Posted under Miscellaneous, Websites

As you know, my daughter has her Civil War Sallie project that is traveling around teaching and learning about the Civil War.  Well, my son CJ has created his own project named Patriot Pete.  As the newest member of the Follow Me Project family, Patriot Pete was created to get kids to learn more about how we as Americans show our patriotism and support our armed forces while teaching about using technology.

Pete is traveling around  looking for classrooms, famous American landmarks, military bases, and other places around the country that are important to our history.  He would love to come visit you in order to learn more about patriotism while sharing his experiences on his blog and Flickr page.

Please go and check out Pete’s home page and if you teach about some aspect of patriotism, live or work on or near a famous American landmark, military base or museum I hope you can sign up to have Pete come visit you.

Posted under Lesson Ideas, Miscellaneous, Websites

Discovering the Civil War Online – Live Webcast from American Public University
Best practices and tips from the experts for researching original Civil War documents online

Have you ever handled a document over 150 years old? The American Civil War left behind a vast paper trail of soldiers’ letters and diaries, as well as newspapers and periodicals; all of these documents provide accounts of crucial events of the era, enabling historians to piece together the events that shaped America’s past during this defining time.

Join American Public University on March 3^rd from 11am-12pm as two authors, Dr. Steven E. Woodworth and Tom Daccord, will discuss researching and handling original Civil War documents through the Internet and how they apply it to their own projects.

Learn More (URL: http://www.studyatapu.com/web-cast/history/civil-war/)

Posted under Miscellaneous

The National Civil War Museum here in Harrisburg is a great place to visit to see all of the wonderful artifacts and exhibits.  Well, from February 6th to the 20th, it will also be a great time to visit and talk to a living historian who will be experiencing life as a Civil War soldier.

In order to raise money and awareness for the education department of the museum Brett Kelly, the museum’s curator, will be  spending two weeks of his vacation time living the life of a Civil War picket soldier.  He will be living on the grounds of the museum, living on rations, wearing the clothes, eating the hardtack and basically living the life of a soldier.  All the money raised from this initiative will go directly to the Museum’s education department to purchase reproduction equipment for school and public group presentations, develop the summer speaking program and also to develop a distance learning system to reach school groups unable to visit the Museum.

While on duty, Brett will be performing some of the duties that a typical soldier would have done including spending time on picket duty, building some winter quarters and wooden defenses.  In addition to this, Brett will also be carrying out several ten mile marches to raise awareness of the Museum.

Thanks to the help of local history teacher Jeff Mummert (check out his blog) and his students, Brett will be able to share his experience with the world via the Internet.  Brett’s daily journal, photographs and videos by museum staff, will be posed to various social networking sites like a blog, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.  If your school blocks these types of services, this is a great way for you to show how they can be used for educational purposes to benefit your students.

Brett’s blog,  Civil War Soldier 24/7, will allow teachers and students to follow his experiences from day to day.  Also, be sure to follow @cwsoldier24_7 on Twitter.  If you have a Facebook account, you can become a fan of The National Civil War Museum page.  Finally, be sure to subscribe to their YouTube channel.  Thanks to all the hard work by Jeff’s students!

Finally, I’m working with the museum to see if Civil War Sallie can visit and to possibly have Brett do a follow up webinar for students in order to describe his experiences.  Stay tuned for more information.  Here are links to read about Civil War Sallie’s visits to the museum:  Part 1 and Part 2

Please spread the word about this exciting event and if you are in Harrisburg during that time, stop by and say hello to Brett.

Until next time, stay warm.

Posted under Miscellaneous

The Edublog Awards 2009 are open for nomination!

This is a chance for educators to nominate and celebrate the achievements of edubloggers, twitterers, podcasters, video makers, online communities, wiki hosts and other web based users of educational technology.

Here are the categories, I would like to nominate the following individuals:

• Best individual blog — Speaking of History by Eric Langhorst
• Best new blog — Civil War Sallie by Sarah Beeghley
• Best student blog — Civil War Sallie by Sarah Beeghley
• Best resource sharing blog — A Blog Divided by Dickinson College
• Best educational wiki – Web 2.0 Guru by Cheryl Capozzoli

Best sure to The Edublog Awards 2009 website to see all of the nominees and winners!

Posted under Miscellaneous