Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day!  We have just finished with our women's history unit of study and I just came across this great article featuring women who have served in our armed services throughout American history. Here is a link to this very interesting, and topical, slideshow.

T. Paine...not just a rapper!

This is too funny....gotta love YouTube!

Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day?

As a Social Studies teacher, I try to maintain a fair balance when presenting any issue I am discussing with my students. This history of Christopher Columbus and his famous 'discovery' are no different. Here is an interesting article that discusses how this topic is taught throughout our country.

The History of Labor Day

Why do we celebrate Labor Day? Honestly, I hadn't really thought about it. I naively thought it must have something to do with the armed services (as many of our holidays do) or pregnancy?? Ha ha ha...just kidding on that last one. But, it turns out it has to do with taking a day off from the hectic American work life. Here is a great video from the History Channel about Labor Day!

The Kennedy Family

With the recent passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, there have been lots of stories, articles, shows, and media coverage about the Kennedy family and their impact on American politics and society. Very interesting and fascinating stuff!!

Here is a link to a really cool interactive Kennedy family tree....click on the pictures and it will tell you about each person!

See, Politics CAN be fun!!

Our own Congresswoman, Chellie Pingree, who represents District 1 in Maine, was recently on Comedy Central's Colbert Report. This was on the local 6 o'clock news channels so I searched for the segment online...it was pretty funny stuff!

I thought I would use this opportunity to post a map of Maine's two congressional districts so you could see where they are located:

-Congresswoman Chellie Pingree was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the November, 2008 election. She is a Democrat, and as mentioned above, represents Maine's Congressional District#1.
-Congressman Mike Michaud, also a Democrat, represents Maine's Congressional District #2.

Summer in Maine

I am lucky to be hosting an exchange student from Guadeloupe for three weeks this summer. I started thinking about all the fun activities we could do all around Maine and New England and I came up with quite the list so I thought I'd share them with links to each activity:

-Maine Wildlife Park
-Songo River Queen Boat Cruise
-Freeport/LL Bean shopping trip
-Hike Bradbury Mountain
-Funtown
-Boston (Duck Tour/Trolley Tour, shopping) take Amtrak Downeaster
-Portland (dinner, shopping)
-Portland Museum of Art
-Old Orchard Beach
-Blueberry Picking
-Walk Baxter Boulevard
-Casco Days (fireworks, parade, games)
-Sea Dogs game
-Picnic at Ft. Williams/Portland Head Light
-Catch a Drive-In movie (or two)
-Manicures!! (always in season!!)

Is there anything better than summer in Maine??

History Teacher Always and Forever!

I just made new address labels and I think they are really funny so I thought I'd share! Of course, I changed the address on the picture below!

Happy Birthday America!!

The 4th of July is a day on which you will see lots of patriotic displays including many, many flags. Here is a website that lists proper flag etiquette so we can all make sure we are treating the Star Spangled Banner, as she is known thanks to Francis Scott Key, with respect!

Time for some Independence Day Facts & Trivia!

*Did you know that the men at the Continental Congress actually voted to become independent on July 2, 1776 but approved the official wording of the Declaration of Independence (penned by Thomas Jefferson) on July 4, hence our holiday? Congress signed this document a month later on August 2nd. So what we are actually celebrating on the July 4th is our forefathers approving the Declaration of Independence (we would have to then fight a long and arduous war with England in order to officially become independent).


*Although John Hancock's signature is the largest on the Declaration of Independence, it is not because he wanted to "make the King see it without his glasses on" as many stories have been told. Most likely his signature was so big simply because he was the first to sign it and had the most room on the document to do so and he was also the President of Congress at the time and could have been the first and only person to sign this very first copy before it went to print. Furthermore, the myth doesn't really work because the D of I was actually intended to inform the American colonists, and others around the globe, of the many reasons why the Congress had voted to become independent from England. It wasn't specifically created to be sent to King George III but rather to gain support for independence here in America.

Here I am in Independence Hall (Philadelphia) where the Continental Congress met

*Paul Revere was not the only one to take the famous "midnight ride" to warn his fellow Patriots that the "British were coming". There were actually two other men, Samuel Prescott and William Dawson, who were with him and as many as 40 other riders who were on similar missions. On a side note, it is actually very unlikely that Revere ever said "The British are coming" because the hillsides were filled with British loyalists and this was a secret mission, so yelling probably wouldn't have been a good tactic. Also, technically, all of the colonists were legally British citizens so yelling this phrase wouldn't make sense.
Revere was actually captured by the British and wasn't able to complete his ride. The reason why we hear about Revere and not the other men is because years later, in an attempt to "woo" a relative of Paul Revere, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem that recounted Revere's "famous midnight ride". The poem (and subsequently a painting) became well known thus shoving Revere into the spotlight of American history legends.

*Want to test your Independence Day IQ? Take this trivia quiz and impress all your friends at the cookout your are going to!

Gray Catbird

I've been home on summer vacation for a little over a week now and for several days I have heard this weird sound outside my window. It sounds as if a cat was in the bushes crying! Every time I looked outside, however, I didn't see much. Well, actually that is not true because several times my neighbors cat was outside near where I was hearing the sound but his mouth wasn't moving so I knew it wasn't coming from him! This sound was so loud that I couldn't help but notice it for several days.

Finally, yesterday I heard the sound and looked out again and saw it was coming from a gray bird. With a little searching on the net I was able to successfully identify the bird as a Gray Catbird (fitting name). Here is a link to some interesting info. about this bird as well as a sample of the call I keep hearing (it is the 4th sample down).