Holocaust Survivor Meets Savior

When possible I enjoy using primary documents as they bring history alive, but it is even better when one gets a short video like the great one above.  It shows two elderly gentlemen, one who was hidden by the other during WWII for being Jewish.  Perhaps since my own grandfather saved 200 Jews in Czechoslovakia from the Germans, I feel somewhat moved by the end of the video.  It would make a nice addition to your teaching WWII.  

Oracle Bone

My students were supposed to find out about the oracle bone, but a lot missed the boat so we will look at this simple site on Monday which does a nice job of explaining its purpose. 

World's Most Typical Human

We just finished our India unit and now are into China so I showed the bottom video to our students.  It is a great clip from National Geographic showing that the most typical person in the world is a Han Chinese man.  There is more to it and it is captivating to the kids.

The top video looks at what having seven billion people on the earth means and why are numbers keep going up.  It too will be enjoyed by your students. 

Da Vinci: The Lost Treasure

WETA will broadcast Tuesday and Wednesday a special about Leonardo Da Vinci. Hosted by Fiona Bruce, the BBC program will trace the story of the famous artist and help us to understand how he became so famous with so few paintings to his name.

Sailing the Seas of Global Trade

Follow Harvard historian Maya Jasanof as she explores global trade aboard an 1100 foot cargo ship as it sails along some of the same trade routes ships have traveled for centuries.  In a story for Aljazeera America Jasanof says that she is interested in the "links between the globalized past and present."

Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" provides Professor Jasanof with what she calls "a rich if unconventional historical source." Conrad, she says, "described the beginnings of globalization as we know it today: a world in motion and increasingly financially, politically and culturally intertwined; a world in flux, shaken by new powers, technology and ideas; a world whose dynamics strikingly resemble those of our own."

Here's the ship she on which she will be traveling for four weeks.Check Aljazeera for updates and photographs from Professor Jasanof as she begins her travels.

NCSS Breakfast Talk

This morning I am going to be helping my son's troop with their popcorn delivery.  Somewhere in the middle of that I am supposed to talk to the NCSS World History teachers' breakfast and hopefully call in for questions.  Since I can't be on my computer, I made this five minute video showing some of the cool things world history teachers can do.  

QR Generator for Google Drive

You can use a QR code generator for any of your Google Drive documents to use in your classroom, but if you want to keep a list of them, then you need to go to the Google site that will shrink your link and give you a QR code which it will keep for you as long as you want. 

Photos of Brazil's History With Slavery

Brazil was the last place in the America's to abolish slavery in 1888, so there are lots of photographs of the practice as you can see in the clip above. Indeed, according to NPR, Brazil has the "world's largest archive of photography of slavery."

Now, you can see many of those photographs  at a new exhibition in Sao Paulo (the museum web site is in Portuguese). You can also read the excellent  NPR story which includes some background about the history of Brazilian slavery.

We are covering sugar and silver in Brazil in AP World now so these photographs should offer students some interesting insights.

Here's the NPR story about the exhibit.

Kahn Academy's Smart History

I just found the Kahn Academy's "Smart History," which was started in 2005 and has now been quite well populated with both history and videos.  It started as an art history website, but has grown to be a nice history book or sorts with summaries, video and images.  It is broken into the major categories that you are teaching, be it ancient or modern world history.  

Amazing Summary Video of Major Religions

This is an eleven minute Ted Talk overview of each of the world's five major religions.  I would show each part to your students as a summary as it does a great job of giving your students the main points you are teaching.  But it adds in maps and ties the facts of each religion together very nicely. 

75 Google Play Apps for Your Classroom

A few years ago I met Jaime Casap whose job it is to promote Google's Chromebooks.   I found this PowerPoint from his Google+ account.  I will be mining it over the next few months, but wanted to share it right away as it has too many amazing apps for those of you who like to jump into these things right away.   All of the apps can be used on Chromebooks and with Google Driveand are found in Google Play. 

World History Teachers at NCSS

I recently have been in touch with Joe Ballou, the current chair of the world history community within the NCSS. Starting this year, NCSS is placing a greater emphasis on developing its support of world history teachers than it had in the past. If you're going to St. Louis next week, their world history community is hosting a talk and a breakfast (which I will call into to talk about technology) and I'd encourage you to check out both if you can. The community is also looking for NCSS members who would have an interest in leadership, as there are a number of volunteer leadership positions available. 

Joe is a former world history teacher who has spent the past 2 years creating world history games and technology with his company Civic Games, and currently works as a coach and curriculum developer at the Democracy Prep Public Schools. You should look out for him in St. Louis to talk about this work, or you can contact him directly via the contact form at www.joeballou.com. 

Cheat Sheets for Ancient World History

This is a great visual way to review for an ancient world history exam.  It has a visual summary for every major category you will teach.  Above is the one for China. 

Using Rubrics in Google Drive

So have you ever wanted to use a rubric with student work in Google Drive?  Sure you have.  You can create a rubric and then link it into Google Drive and have it connect to a Google Drive spreadsheet so that you can have the grades recorded and the students can see their rubric.  Above is the how to tutorial.  You can find more easy scripting on youpd

Doctopus to Manage Student Work Flow in Google Drive

One of the problem with Google Drive is that while you may want to keep all of your students' work, it becomes almost unmanageable in the shared column.  BUT Doctopus is a script that will allow you to create folders to put your students' work inside AND you will not have anything to show in your shared list.  Think about it.  You can then keep all assignments all year and check on cheating between different teachers (copy the curious language and then send a snippet to your fellow teachers and you can have them use their Google Drive search box to see if kids have copied between classes.

To use Doctopus, open up a Google Drive speadsheet and to to "Tools" and then "Script gallery"

and then use the search box to type "Doctopus' ." (steps are here). 

Next watch the video below to see how to use it. 

If you like this, there are many other items found here. 

The Origins of Civilization: China The Mandate of Heaven

Here's a great Michael Wood documentary about China. The first 15 minutes, which I plan to show tomorrow, cover Shang and Zhou China, Confucianism and Daoism. Michael Wood also produced the The Story of India, from which the clip in the post below came.

Flipping the Classroom Presentation

I helped organize a technology 1/2 day at our school today.  I am doing a presentation on Flipping the Classroom.  Here is what we are going over today:

1. What will be taught:  We will learn how to record lectures for students to watch at home, how students can be accountable for that information and how to flip one’s classroom to do the “problem sets” in the classroom.
2. Tutorial steps that will be finished in the class (each underlined item is linked to a tutorial)
1. will learn  how to use Screencastomatic to learn how to record a ten minute lecture
2. will discuss what can be done in the classroom
3. will learn how class activities can be put on a Google Drive document and linked into Blackboard
4. learn how to split the laptop screen so students can see the video and their notes or you could use VideoNot.es (tutorial)
5. If you accumulate lots of videos, here is how you create a youTube Playlist 

Gupta Empire Achievements

Here's a clip from The Story of India about the Gupta achievements. I showed it today after students completed a History Alive station activity that reviews many of the achievements.

I helped organize a technology 1/2 day at our school today.  I am doing a presentation on Flipping the Classroom.  Here is what we are going over today:

1. What will be taught:  We will learn how to record lectures for students to watch at home, how students can be accountable for that information and how to flip one’s classroom to do the “problem sets” in the classroom.
2. Tutorial steps that will be finished in the class (each underlined item is linked to a tutorial)
1. will learn  how to use Screencastomatic to learn how to record a ten minute lecture
2. will discuss what can be done in the classroom
3. will learn how class activities can be put on a Google Drive document and linked into Blackboard
4. learn how to split the laptop screen so students can see the video and their notes or you could use VideoNot.es (tutorial)
5. If you accumulate lots of videos, here is how you create a youTube Playlist 

Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor

Here's a great overview of Qin's terra cotta warriors. The clip was for the 2009 exhibit of some of the warriors at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Confucianism and Daiosm: Great Podcast

Here's a great podcast explaining the basic beliefs of Confucianism and Daoism. I put it on Blackboard so my students could use it to review the two philosophies.

I helped organize a technology 1/2 day at our school today.  I am doing a presentation on Flipping the Classroom.  Here is what we are going over today:

1. What will be taught:  We will learn how to record lectures for students to watch at home, how students can be accountable for that information and how to flip one’s classroom to do the “problem sets” in the classroom.
2. Tutorial steps that will be finished in the class (each underlined item is linked to a tutorial)
1. will learn  how to use Screencastomatic to learn how to record a ten minute lecture
2. will discuss what can be done in the classroom
3. will learn how class activities can be put on a Google Drive document and linked into Blackboard
4. learn how to split the laptop screen so students can see the video and their notes or you could use VideoNot.es (tutorial)
5. If you accumulate lots of videos, here is how you create a youTube Playlist 

Visualizing empires decline

Fascinating clip that's interesting not just for what it shows but what it doesn't show. Thanks to @CaseyMMeier for tweeting the link.

Another Chinese Dynasties' Song

Kudos to Jeff and George for finding Harvard professors singing the Chinese dynasties' song.  I like this one above best, especially the kid on the left whom my students get a kick out of seeing. 

Voice Comments in Google Drive documents

First off a clarification.  Google documents are one item in the Google Drive suite that includes things like Google forms and Google presentations, but now allow a lot of apps.  A new app is Kaizena allows you to add links (which you can already do), but also voice comments to a document so you don't even have to write anything anymore.  Above is the tutorial which I found from a Tweet from Rhonda Roysden.

French Revolution Web Quest

Here's a great site that has links to short summaries of all the major events of the French Revolution from the Enlightenment to the fall of Robespierre. Each summary has a sidebar with supplemental information including images, documents, and some multimedia.  My colleague, Keri O'Brien developed a web quest that can serve as a great introduction or review of the big events of the revolution.

China's Dynasties: How to Teach Them

Two Harvard professors show us how to memorize the Chinese dynasties to the tune of Frère Jacques, a trick most of us high school history teachers also know.  It's just a little amusing to watch two older Harvard professors sing it. Thanks to my colleague, Jeff Feinstein,  who sent me the link to this video and New York Times story.

Buddhism Web Quest: Pacific Asia Museum

Here's a web quest based on the Pacific Asia Museum which has a great interactive website.  It works best with flash player. And here's the worksheet that goes with it. Thanks to my colleague,  Frances Coffee, who designed the web quest and sent me the link.

Attila the Hun: Here Comes the Rain Again.

Bookmark this clip for the Middle Ages. Here the Eurythmics sing "Attila the Hun: Here Comes the Rain Again." And below is the 1954 movie, "Sign of the Pagan," with Jack Palance as Attila. Read more about the movie from the Medievalists.net 

 

Salt: A Brief Big History on TV

Program your VCR for what looks like a great series. The H2 channel will premiere a 16 part series on salt this Saturday at 10 PM. The H2 channel is an extension of the History Channel. Here's how AP New summarizes the series: "The series uses science and history to show how various things that we take for granted these days had their origins thousands of years ago." Search "Big History" on the H2 channel to find the program.

undead decor

I have made my thoughts on Annie Sloan Chalk Paint clear - or so I thought.  But the Holocaust continues.  I have not done enough. 

The other day, I saw this fine specimen on craigslist:

It was $20.  I expect low prices for very-70s furniture, with or without a (very necessary) coat of paint slapped on.  So, $50 would be the cap for a reasonable price for this sort of thing, I think.  $20 is therefore a bargain.  It was posted yesterday, and I contacted the seller yesterday.  (I need something to sit under the antique cabinet in my laundry room...I think I've explained.  Anyway.)  Someone had already claimed it.  Hey, fair is fair - it's a great price, and that's a piece you can do a lot with.  I'm not complaining. 

Unless. 

Unless it was purchased by some idiot who thinks that if only it were duck egg blue, and then finished with dark wax, then it would be a precious heirloom worth $300. 

I comfort myself with the knowledge that these people cannot possibly be selling all of their wares at their ludicrous prices; but even the fact that they are trying is enough to irk me greatly.  And if that's what happened to this buffet (a bargain that I would have appreciated, and used in my home - rather than as the basis for a preposterous profit margin), then I am cranky indeed. 

And remember when I went on about how they tell you in their craigslist ad exactly what colors they used, and what type of wax, and that they specifically used the Annie Sloan brand of chalk paint, because surely your assessment of its beauty and usefulness is not dependent on how it looks or works, but on the materials they used to get it to that stage - remember that?  Of course you do. 

So, just to show you that you should never doubt me - this was advertised on October 26:

For $295.  Of course I'm not kidding.  Don't take my word for it - see for yourself. 

But then, on October 31, it was advertised again.  Here it is, five days later:

And the seller explains...

It's "[h]and-painted in linen and off-white colors then finished with dark wax for an aged look." 

What did I tell you about the dark wax???? 

Oh, by the way.  With a second color (and the dark wax!), it's $350.  I wouldn't believe me, either - you really need to see for yourself. 

This thing has to die out before it takes over all the furniture.  But it seems really difficult to kill.  Maybe it's one of those white-ash-stake-through-the-heart, skull-stuffed-with-garlic, buried-in-a-spot-where-the-moon-never-shines sorts of things.  I'm willing to do whatever it takes. 

The Biggestl Halloween Post in the History of the World

Let me start by saying that I am exhausted and more than a little happy that Halloween is finally over. It was fun, but seemed to drag on forever. It all started 3 weeks ago when Harley and her preschool friends attended a Fall Festival in Rockville, MD. (not pictured)  Last week all the kids went to a super fun Halloween party at a friends house. Yes, Nash is shooting icing directly into his mouth, completely bypassing the cupcake.

 

The next day our neighborhood had their costume parade.  By the way, Harley insisted on being Minnie Mouse, Nash a Jawa from Star Wars and Atley a fly. 

 

 

Pumpkin carving came as it always does the Monday before Halloween.

 

These little chocolate pies are one of my kids favorite treats because they can make them all by themselves with the mini-premade pie crusts, a box of chocolate pudding and whipped cream.

 

The next day we had a Trunk or Treat activity at our church.

 

Wednesday was Harley's preschool party at our house. Unfortunately, I didn't snap any pictures because I was too busy teaching but after school Harley taught the boys to play some of the games like Don't Eat Pete and Pumpkin Bowling.

 

 

As most activities in our house, even Pumpkin Bowling ended in a wrestling match.  I love the picture of Harley above when I caught her sneaking even more candy.

 

Thursday Halloween finally arrived.  Nash had a Halloween parade at his school, that I watched with Harley and Atley's class.  In the afternoon Atley and Nash both had class parties and of course Harley was right in the middle of it all.  Halloween evening we had some neighborhood families over for dinner. I served soup, bread, cider and some other fun things pictured below.  You will also notice that Harley tired of her Minnie Mouse costume and opted for a cowgirl costume instead.

 

Finally, ready for Trick or Treating!

 

Guardian's Guide to Treasure Hunting

Mona Chalabi, 'Gold rush: how much hidden treasure is found each year?', The Guardian Thursday 31 October 2013.

this post will explain all and tell you how much is found where" [...]
Metal detecting beats archaeology
92.7% of treasure was uncovered using a metal detector, compared to a mere 3.4% from archeological digs. Whatever you do, don't leave it to chance though - only 1.7% of finds were stumbled upon by chance. Another inaccurate romanticism is about woods and water - just 0.3% of treasure is found in woodland and 1.1% in open waters. You're best bet is to head to some good old cultivated land where 82.5% of treasure is found.

["You're"? Metal detectorese in the Grauniad?]. I think if "serious" papers like the Guardian can publish such things, the British archaeological establishment and heritage professionals have got their message entirely wrong, and there is certainly a case for claiming that the interests of the public - both preset and future generations - are being ill-served by those responsible for outreach on "portable antiquity issues".