clair057

At first glance the song Cult of Personality by the band Living Color seems like a wonderful addition to lessons for Black History Month or a Civil Rights unit. The song begins with quotation from Malcom X…..a snippet from his Message to the Grass Roots ….a speech that was given to unify African Americans on November 10, 1963. The quotation inserted in the lyrics is: “and during the few moments we have left…we want to talk right down to earth in a language that everybody here can easily understand.” The quotation is a little altered from the actual speech, but it’s easy to see how Malcom X was trying to point out the differences in Black culture and how unification was needed to move civil rights along. But is this song really speaking in a language we can all understand or is there more to the message? Take a look at the lyrics: Look into my eyes, what do you see? Cult of Personality I know your anger, I know your dreams I've been everything you want to be I'm the Cult of Per...

At some point during your high school government class or college Political Science course you had to read The Federalist . Jacob Cooke in the forward section for the collection of essays writes…. the authoritative exposition of the Constitution [and] occupies an unrivaled place in our national political literature. 1. There are actually 85 articles regarding the ratification of the United States Constitution. They were originally published with the titles "The Federalist, No. 1”, The Federalist, No. 2”, etc. 2. Originally only 84 essays were written – not 85. The extra essay came about when the 31st essay was split. The 29th essay was also moved to follow the 34th to make the sequence logical. 3. The set of essays are the go-to source when interpreting the Constitution. By 1788, two volumes containing the essays were published with the title “The Federalist”. While many collections of the papers now carry the title The Federalist Papers , it is a misnomer. 4. The articles capture...

I have this pair of magnets on my fridge. They don’t really belong to me. I confiscated them years ago from a student. He was throwing them up in the air, and as they whizzed past each other they bumped against each other making clicking and zinging noises as they fell back towards his outstretched hands. Over and over he threw them up in the air. The young man throwing them was a very intelligent student. It was possible for him to comprehend every word I said during those few precious minutes of instructional time, BUT there were students around him that weren’t as fortunate. They were being distracted. So was I for that matter. I confiscated them because they were disturbing a lesson….I confiscated them because I was protecting the general welfare of my classroom. I simply grabbed them and kept on going with my lesson without missing a beat. While I continued to talk I took the few steps to the back of them to place them on my desk. To find out what happened to those magnets and how...

While most of my students learn history in a school setting from educators like myself, we cannot emphasize family history enough. It IS important. Family history helps students to realize their place within their families as well as how they fit in with historical events. Learning family history can answer questions regarding when relatives first arrived in North America and where they settled. Details regarding everyday life can be internalized, and the effects of certain events can help us connect to events we didn’t live through such as the Great Depression or World War II. While there are many ways to go about learning family history one of the best ways to go about it is merely to listen……listen to those older members of your family. I don’t mean merely nodding your head at them, smile, and wonder when you can escape them. I mean really listen….and that means to listen with a purpose so that real communication takes place. StoryCorps provides a fantastic opportunity for gen...

1. Like many such proclamations and treaties the title…..Laws of Burgos…is based on a location. The document was formerly published in Burgos, Spain in 1512. 2. The laws were the first code of conduct governing how Native Americans should be treated in the Americas by Spanish foreigners in America. 3. At first the laws only included the island of Hispanola, but later Puerto Rico and Jamaica was included. 4. The laws addressed the mistreatment of natives and called for their conversion to Catholicism. 5. The laws were rarely enforced making the Laws of Burgos of little value. 6. The laws called for encomiendas…..a labor system where a Spanish citizen was granted a certain number of natives they became responsible for. Basically in exchange for religious instruction the receiver of the encomienda could exact tribute from the Natives including labor, gold or other products. 7. The laws were written due to the reports of Domingo de Mendoza, the cardinal archbishop of Seville regarding abus...

Ask students today to brainstorm a few adjectives to describe politicians and the words honest, trustworthy, and true will rarely come up. Descriptors that are provided over and over are crook, shady, and liar. I have to wonder….is it the politician who is dishonest or does the dishonesty stem from such a convoluted and corrupt system that has been allowed to flourish? In 1975, following President Nixon’s resignation from the White House, Americans were longing for a simpler time….a time when they felt they had a more honest relationship with the man inhabiting the White House. Follow this link over to American Presidents for my post 1975: Nostalgic for Give ‘em Hell, Harry . If I still haven’t gotten your attention then follow the link to discover what the band Chicago and Harry Truman have in common

What you see here is a little booklet a group of students created in my classroom once we completed our study of World War I. It’s very simple…just a ring binder and unlined index cards. The activity begins by asking groups of students to review the notes in their notebook. Working with group members they should create a series of factual statements tracing the events of World War I. Statements should be fairly simple and straightforward. The number of statements created should correspond to the number of students in the classroom. For this particular activity we needed 18 statements. Class size determines how many statements should be assigned. Now…..before you tell me how lucky I am that in this particular group I only had 18 students let me remind you that the actual class size was larger, but a few of my special needs students had been pulled out for the review and were working with the special needs teacher. Usually this activity would require 24 or 25 statements. Once students wo...