Scrapbook Map

It's February Vacation!  Are you bored yet?  If so, I have a really great craft project for you!  Actually, credit for this project goes to Martha Stewart since I saw it on her website first, then made my own.  All you need is scrapbook paper, scissors, tape, glue, a frame, a printer, and a whole lot of patience to make your own unique piece of artwork!  It is a U.S. map using beautiful scrapbook papers...check out my finished project:

The full tutorial for this project can be found here.  If you make one, let me know and we can post pictures!  Happy vacation!

Monopoly & Lemonade

This week we did one of my favorite lessons of the year...one that I actually first created and used during my student teaching at Orono High School 8 years ago.  I always try to think of creative ways to engage my students in the topic we are discussing. Currently, we are learning about inventions, industrialization, and the rise of big business during the Gilded Age.  Some key concepts and vocab for this lesson involve...

-social Darwinism/ survival of the fittest
-laissez-faire capitalism
-monopoly
-trusts & corporations
-vertical & horizontal integration


The students were asked to do a background reading on these concepts and fill in a worksheet before coming to class.  To reinforce and engage the students in this topic we played this:

Yup...it's the classic game of real-estate adventures...Monopoly!  What better way to discuss the topic of monopolies then to play Monopoly?

The students get SOOO excited when they walk into the room and see these four board games set up at each group of desks!  Little do they know, there is a twist waiting for them...

At each group, I have placed 4 or 5 envelopes.  In each envelope there is a predetermined amount of money and property, representing different social classes in society.  The envelopes are placed face down before the students come to class and they say "Do Not Touch" so they  won't know what is in their envelope when choosing a seat.  When told to do so, they open their envelopes and find out whether they are a 'captain of industry', part of the middle class, or on the low end of the totem pole...

I have them play the game for about 15 minutes, just long enough to either amass more wealth or lose so much that they either forfeit or have to take out a personal loan from another player.  Playing the game in this fashion acts as a spring board for a great discussion about social class, survival of the fittest, luck and pluck, what it takes to be successful in business, and, of course, monopolies. Here are a few of the discussion questions after the game (click on the picture to enlarge):

Here are a few more pictures of the students playing the game:

To finish the lesson I also have the class create a fictitious lemonade stand...

We discuss various strategies that one would need to use to make their business profitable.  This leads into my explanation of how Andrew Carnegie used the strategy of vertical integration to dominate the steel industry and how John Rockefeller used horizontal integration to dominate (and create a monopoly of) the oil industry.  This is a fun and practical way to explain these somewhat complicated ideas in a friendly and relatable manner.  

As a side note, here is a really tasty and simple lemonade recipe!  My Period H class had fun making it... they were my last class before February vacation and thus they got to actually make the lemonade so that the lemons didn't go to waste!

How to Become a United States Citizen

We are currently learning about U.S. immigration, both historically and in contemporary times.  The students are also starting to work on their family history projects as an extension of this topic (more on that in a future post).  In order to provide a more meaningful context to the topic of immigration, I thought it would be valuable for the students to learn about the process that an immigrant currently living in Maine must take in order to become a naturalized citizen of the United States.  I asked the students to read  a guide for Maine immigrants  and fill out a worksheet that walks them through the naturalization process. 

They also had to answer a few questions that are on the US history and civics test, which all naturalized citizens must pass.  Some questions include:

1) Who said "Give me liberty or give me death"?

2) What are the first ten amendments to the Constitution called?

3) Who signs bills into laws?

4) In what month is the president inaugurated?

5) From whom did the United States gain independence?

It is an interesting and meaningful topic because it applies to modern times, which increases student engagement!