clair057

There’s a little restaurant not too far from my home that we frequent for the great steaks and great service.    I usually order an adult beverage before dinner….a little something served up in a martini glass called a Cosmic Grape.   The drink reminds me of a frozen Fanta Grape soda…..not as sweet as a Fanta, but similar.   The last time we were there I ordered my Cosmic Grape and then wondered aloud what might be in the drink so we could recreate it at home.   I assumed it contained one of the new flavored vodkas….seems like every flavor under the sun is offered up these days. I picked up my hand-dandy smart phone and went online to look up the recipe.   I entered the words “cosmic grape” in the search box. Guess what I found? Yes, I found recipes that seemed like they could be my beloved Cosmic Grape, but I found something much more interesting. My recipe quest was soon forgotten because I found a bit of history involving grade soda a...

Happy President's Day!!! When I was younger we didn’t have a day to celebrate all U.S. Presidents.  Instead we split the day in two and recognized Abraham Lincoln and George Washington since their birthdays were both in February…..so, I’m linking to two past articles.  The first involves Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation.  This article originally appeared at History Is Elementary as well as American Presidents Blog in 2008.  You can view it here. This post appeared at History Is Elementary in 2007 and detailed a famous image we have of George Washington at Valley Forge.   I discuss how I used the image in the classroom and how controversy should not be avoided…but embraced to help students discover for themselves those areas that are white or black…but most of the time controversial areas are really just…. gray.

I met up with a teacher the other day that has the privilege of introducing the Civil War to her fourth graders each year.  The word “introducing” is a little misleading, however.  I live in Georgia where natives, no matter the ethnicity, are born with “The War” ingrained in our souls.   We can’t escape it, we can’t deny it – it’s always there.   Some of our earliest collective memories are filled with the statues around the town square, old family photographs; we hear the stories and see the preserved battlefields that dot our landscape. I haven’t met a fourth grade student yet who doesn’t know something about the Civil War, but the fourth school year is designated by the Georgia Social Studies curriculum to formally learn about the war in an academic setting.   My own personal experience indicates students are eager to begin the process.   A formal study helps them connect to family stories still lingering around the Sunday dinner tabl...

Many months ago I set up a Facebook page for this blog where folks could like the page and could have yet another way to keep up with updates.     Last week I was surprised to see someone had placed something on my wall that really made me smile.  HighBeam.com had stopped by my Facebook home to advise the following: To thank you for all your hard work and dedication we would like to acknowledge you by including History Is Elementary in our Top 10 Favorite Blogs for educational research. Now, isn’t that nice?!?  Notice my little badge is over in the sidebar. HighBeam's blog shared a link to this blog along with the other nine.  Here they are: Homeroom : The Official Blog of the U.S. Department of Education Honors College Admission Blog : The Honors College Admission Blog for Western Kentucky University with valuable commentary and tips The College Solution : The Blog of Lynn O’Shaughnessy, a nationally recognized college expert, higher-ed jo...

A good friend sent me this article the other night written by Rob Boston and published in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette.  My friend wanted to know my thoughts about the article.    He also wanted to know if the article was factual.   After reading the entire piece I advised my friend the article was indeed factual even though it was contrary to those who happen to think certain members of the Founding Fathers were Christians in the same sense the Religious Right profess to be. For the most part while I tend to be a Conservative in political matters, I also tend to part ways with the Religious Right in this county who follow a hard-line stance regarding their view concerning our nation was founded on Christian beliefs.      It really comes down to understanding what the Religious Right believes a Christian to be and how the majority of our Founding Fathers actually viewed Christianity when you place them under a microscope. I advised my friend, “ We ...

So....little Johnny or Susie brings home a teacher prepared worksheet filled with several math problems for homework.  At some point a parent decides to check the answers or at least review  the sheet to see what type of assignment had been given. Some of the problems are troubling: 1. "Each tree had 56 oranges.  If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?" 2. "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?" Yes, I'm serious.   This actually happened recently in a Georgia classroom per    this link . I hope you have a problem with these questions.  I certainly do, and I applaud the parents in this situation for complaining. Why would teachers include such insensitive questions within a math assignment? The spokesperson for Gwinnett County Schools advised the teachers were trying to provide students with a cross-curricular activity by incorporating social studies lessons into the math problem...

Christmas Day I sat in a very full movie theater and experienced a crowd so moved by what they had watched they cheered and clapped at the end of the movie.    It’s such a rare occurrence.   I think I can count on one hand the times in my life where I’ve witnessed clapping after a movie, but the particular movie I saw deserved it.  I just have to wonder how many of those people realized they enjoyed a story that was originally published as juvenile fiction. Yes!   The movie War Horse was originally published as a book for young adults in 1982 by Michael Morpungo. The movie could be summed up by five words – a boy and his horse – but it’s so much more than that.   While the main storyline involves a very special horse and a young man who owns him there are other story lines as well involving duty, responsibility, patriotism, etc.  Morpungo expertly weaves a tale about the horse and various people he meets before and during the course of W...