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!

Chat Time!

As part of our new unit on the Gilded Age and Progressive Eras, we just started watching the film Gangs of New York.  Instead of pausing the film every time I want to point something out or every time a student has a question, I create a private chatroom at TodaysMeet.com.

TodaysMeet is a really cool (and free) resource for teachers and presenters who want to encourage a backchannel chat amongst their students or audience.  Backchanneling allows conversations to go on while something is being presented.  In this case, we watch the film while having an online conversation.  I can also print out a transcript of our conversation to give to the students as notes.  How cool is that?  Most students seem to really like this activity because it takes something they love to do (chat online) and allows them to do it with a purpose!  This type of 21st Century activity would not be possible if it weren't for the 1-to-1 laptop initiative, so I am very thankful for that!  Check it out in action:

I'd also like to give a shout out to Mr. Richard Byrnes, whose blog I follow to get lots of cool ideas on how to integrate technology in my classroom.

Civil War Speed Dating

Today we did a quick warm-up activity that allowed the students to share some of the more interesting information they learned from researching their Civil War papers.  We lined up a row of desks, each facing one another, then I rang a bell and the students shared information about their paper with their partner.  After a minute or two, I rang the bell and one side of the pair had to switch to a new partner, speed dating style!  Check out a little clip from the activity:

Carbetbaggers and Scalawags

Last week we did an activity to help review the major ideas and people involved in the Reconstruction period in US History.  The students put themselves into pairs and sat together at various 'stations' around the room.  At each station was a document that they had to analyze to figure out which phrase or term on their worksheet the document best represented and why. The documents were mostly primary sources that were political cartoons, pictures, letters, and even a poem (Walt Whitman's O Captain My Captain).

Every 5 minutes or so, I said 'switch' and they had to move to another document station.  This activity appeals to kinesthetic learners because it allows the students to get up and move around the room very often. It also appeals to the interpersonal intelligence because the students are working with others to figure out the meaning of the documents. They get to do a fair amount of socializing during this activity, which appeals to many students.

Above all, this activity challenges the students to think, interpret, and analyze when trying to figure out the meaning of the documents.  I had to tell them to exhaust all options and spend a good deal of time analyzing the documents BEFORE asking me for help.  They can sometimes be quick to ask for help before really spending time trying to figure it out on their own, which is something we are working on.

"The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher."
                                                                                     ~Eliot Woodward

Here is a little video of the activity:

MLK Day

 Today we are given a day off from school in remembrance of a great American who tirelessly worked to make our nation better.  Did you know that today is actually a national day of service?  Instead of sitting around, get out and help your community and your neighbors by volunteering!

Here are a few inspirational quotes from Dr. King:
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him."

Holiday Break

We are now officially on holiday break!  The class before break, however, we took an exam for the first half of class then we made American flag ornaments...my gift to the students!  Here is a video of our little craft session:

Hero or Lunatic?

This week we are learning about sectionalism and the various events leading up to the American Civil War.  We've discussed how the geographical features and climate of an area can often determine what the economy of  the region is based on, both in the past and in modern day.  To illustrate this point, I told the students that I was planning on creating a citrus grove here in Maine and wondered if any of them would like to invest in my new business...

Needles to say, I had no takers!  But in all seriousness it did open up a discussion about geography, climate, and the economy which led us to examine how the North and the South were growing apart before the Civil War.

Another assignment that the students are completing this week involves reading about abolitionist John Brown and his actions at both Pottawatomie, Kansas and Harpers Ferry, Virginia and then formulating an opinion about whether he should be considered a hero for his actions or simply a lunatic.  I'll spare you the details about what he did at both of the places mentioned above and instead you can have that conversation with your student!  

 After reading the background essay about Brown, they have to analyze the primary source pictured below and use this to support their opinions. They were given a series of questions about the drawing to help them learn about point of view, bias, etc.

We will follow up by having a mini debate in class where they can each share their reasons for categorizing Brown as a hero or a lunatic.

Oregon Trail Simulation

This week we are finishing up a unit on westward expansion.  As part of one homework assignment, I had the students read an excerpt from the journal of Amelia Stewart Knight, a mother of 7 who gave birth to her eighth child while traveling west on the Oregon Trail. You can read this excerpt by clicking on the link (you may have to click on it twice) here.   Primary source documents such as this one are a really great way to get students interested in the topics we are studying.  Instead of just reading facts about settlers going west in the 1800s, they can read the experiences from a first-hand perspective, which is always more interesting!  

After the readings, we did an Oregon Trail simulation as a warm-up activity in class.  The class was divided into two 'wagon trains', each with a mother, father, wagon hands, and lots of children.  I told the students to bring 'western wear' to get in the spirit of the activity!

Before class, I used string to mark the Oregon Trail on the classroom map of the US.  Each of the two teams had a marker on the map to show where their wagon train was on the trail.  The object of the game was to get further along than the other wagon trail, with the most survivors and supplies, while getting through the 'obstacles' I threw at them along the way.

I printed up 18 slips of paper, each with a real obstacle or success that pioneers faced along the way in the 1800s.  Each team took turns picking slips of paper and then, based on what the paper said, they moved up or back on the trail, lost a family member or supplies, etc.

The twist was that I had taken several excerpts from the primary source journal mentioned above and printed them on the slips of paper.  If the student could tell me whether or not what I had read was in the journal, they could move up on the trail.  This was a great way to see if they had in fact done their homework and comprehended what they read!  Here are a few more pictures of the wagon trains:

YEE HAW!