clair057

I find it appropriate that this post is my 800th posting for History Is Elementary . Memorial Day is one of my favorite holidays, so it makes sense I’m writing about it again for post number 800. I knew the milestone post was coming up. I had thought about what I would write. I had even asked friends on Facebook what I should write about, and they came up with several interesting ideas. Then I realized Memorial Day was rapidly approaching…..and I couldn’t go without saying something. What does Memorial Day mean to you? Cookouts, picnics, trips to the beach, perhaps a sale at the mall, time off from work, a cold beer or two, the Indianapolis 500, a slab of ribs on the grill…… Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have a problem with any of those things, but I wouldn’t be the ElementaryHistoryTeacher that I am if I didn’t point out what the original intent behind Memorial Day is. Yes! These sweet young ladies, two of which I have the pleasure of knowing, have the right idea. Hannah and Claire...

I found out this morning in a roundabout way the high school I graduated from will be hiring an art teacher for grades 4, 5, and 6 for the fall. The teacher will be employed full-time and will teach darkroom photography and printmaking to elementary classes. Yes, you read that right. Students in upper elementary grades will be learning darkroom photography and printmaking. First of all, I don’t have to tell you the economic climate of the United States over the last couple of years hasn’t exactly been agreeable to many in the teaching profession. Education has experienced delays with contracts, budge cutbacks, and programs have been pared down or cut out all together. Teachers have been required to take furlough days and in many instances positions have been deleted totally. Art and music have been hit especially hard in public school systems. Unfortunately, they always seem to be the first programs to go when there are money issues. I doubt there are very few public schools today teac...

Without a question…..without a doubt history and time are inexplicably intertwined. You can’t have one without the other. During my 49 years riding around on this planet there have been events that serve as turning points in my life – meetings, births, marriages, deaths, reunions, actions that show strength and truthfulness and those that scream weakness and betrayal. Yes, we all have those moments in life….during our time here……embedded in each of our personal histories. Collectively, historical events have their impact as well. We all have those, “Where were you?” moments such as JFK’s assassination, the Apollo Moon Landing, the Challenger Explosion, the Oklahoma Bombing, and of course…….the tragedy of September 11th, a date that needs no year to identify it because it was that terrible, that horrible, that defining in the psyche of each and every American who experienced it. Last night was another one of those defining moments in our collective history. While it can be argued the de...

Well, the Royal Wedding is almost upon us. Many of us wish we could be on the guest list to have one of the treasured seats in the congregation, but unfortunately, we don’t have the right kind of name – one containing a royal title. Since it is the time for all the wedding hoopla to take place I decided to have some fun with my Facebook status by posting the following – “What is the name of your Royal Wedding Guest name? Start with Lord or Lady…Your first name is the first name of your grandparents….Surname is the name of your first pet….The name of the street you grew up on with “of”.” Who knew I had such important friends? They came up with names like Lord Everett Pretzel of Viceroy, Lady Lilby Piper of Preakness, Lord Wilbur Smokey of Welcome Hill, Lady Elizabeth Pepe of Pullen, Lady Annie Bucky of Chapel Hill, Lady Sarah Tinkerbell of Valencia and last but not least Lord Charlie Hotdog of Windridge. The made up names are rather comical, aren’t they? However, real royal titles can b...

Occasionally a former student or a young friend will contact me and want to interview me about my writing. Recently a young friend had an assignment to complete and during the process of answering his questions I decided I would share the answers here. 1. What stirred your ambition to be a writer, specifically non-fiction? I always enjoyed writing essays, research reports, and term papers in school. I know that is very unusual, but the truth is the truth. I don’t write non-fiction the way most folks do. I have to infuse something of myself – my thoughts, my feelings, my emotions – into the piece. Many of my postings and articles contain bits and pieces from my personal life or real situations that have happened in the classroom. Relating a bunch of facts to people can be boring. Using facts and making a parallel to something personal seems to draw others in because the process enables them to open their own doors and make connections to the content. I was fortunate to have a wonderful ...

You reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your office--six clerks are within call. Summon any one and make this request: "Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Correggio." Will the clerk say, "Yes, sir," and go do the task? On your life he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye and ask one or more of the following questions: Who was he? Which encyclopedia? Where is the encyclopedia? I was hired for that? Don't you mean Bismarck? What's the matter with Charlie doing it? Is he dead? Is there any hurry? Sha'n't I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself? What do you want to know for? And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the other clerks to help him to try to find [Correggio]--and then come back and tell you there is no such man....

I walk over to my laptop and make a quick “click”. The sounds of Aretha Franklin fill the classroom…. Chain, chain, chain, chain, chain, chian Chain, chain, chain, chain of fools Five long years I thought you were my man But I found out I'm just a link in your chain....  found out I’m just a link in your chain…. Go ahead – click on the video and listen. I’ll wait. I’m certain you are thinking I’ve lost it. Why is ElementaryHistoryTeacher playing this particular song for nine and ten year olds as the opening salvo to a lesson regarding an aspect of the American Revolution? Don’t click off just yet. I have a connection. Teaching history isn’t all about reading a lesson in a book or having a teacher tell a fascinating story for kids to take notes from. Teaching history is all about making connections and visualizing the links – links in a chain of events that ebb and flow through history to the present day. In this particular exercise where I play the Queen of Soul’s famous song for m...