British Isles Trip 2010

I was just looking through pictures and video from the British Isles trip I led this past summer and thought I would share with you.  I, along with 2 other chaperones, took 18 students on a 10 day trip to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England.  It was pretty amazing! This video is mostly of my journey, not the students, but I hope you like it nonetheless!

Toto, We're Not in Kansas Anymore...

 

This week we did a lesson on Populism, a social and political movement of western farmers and laborers in the late 1800s.  One way to hook the students into the ideas and concepts surrounding this topic is to explain the popular theory that Frank L. Baum wrote The Wizard of Oz as a parable on Populism. Supposedly, many of the characters in the story represent ideas and concepts of this movement.  This connection to The Wizard of Oz was first introduced by an American high school teacher named Henry Littlefield in the 1960s.  You can read his original essay here.

I put up pictures of various characters from the book/film on our bulletin board as visuals. I love this lesson because as the students make connections between our discussion of the Populist movement and various characters in the film, I can see little 'light bulbs' going off in their minds via the expressions on their faces.  It's really fun and engaging!

Erin go Braugh!

Family History

The students are busy working on one of my (and usually their) favorite research projects of the year...Family History & Immigration!  The basic components of the project include:

-a family tree traced to great-grandparents
-a 50 question interview of one family member, preferably an older relative
-their surname meaning
-a family story with photographs
-a detailed write up with charts of immigration to the U.S. by one ethnic group (Irish, Italians, Germans, etc.)

Although each requirement of the project is the same, the students do have the option of creating either a museum-style tri-fold poster, an iMovie documentary, or a scrapbook, based on personal preference.  I created a tri-fold project of my family to use as an exemplar for the students.  Creating my own project was also helpful for me to 'iron out' any kinks in the project before I asked the students to create their own.

 The culmination of this project will be an evening for the students to showcase their research to their families...

Having an authentic audience with whom to share their projects gives the students more incentive to create quality projects.  Once they are complete, I will put together a video montage with pictures of the projects and from this event!  Can't wait!!