Anyway – here is a project about using Twitter to record historical events. Even though we can’t get to Twitter in school – it might be a fun project to create our own Twitter experience. Kids could create twitter conversations between historical figures, or perhaps authors or literary characters.

Our web pages have a blog function that would probably work for such a project. If not – we can create another collaborative space for students to contribute their “tweets”.

From David Warlick - Tweeple in History:

Starting last Wednesday, the Massachusetts Historical Society began posting Adams’ updates from two centuries ago onto Twitter. His Twitter name is JQAdams_MHS and you can follow his daily tweets here. So far, Adams has:

8/5/1809: Saturday. Diary Vol. 3. begins: Sailed in Ship Horace, Benjamin Beckford, from Charlestown to St. Petersburg.

8/6/1809: Thick fog. Scanty Wind – On George’s Bank. Lat: 42-34. Read Massillon’s Carême Sermons 2 & 3. Ladies &c. Sick.

8/7/1809: Fog. No Observation. Spoke a fishing Schooner from Grand Bank, bound to Plymouth. Read Chantreau’s travels.

Shmoop Study Guides for Spanish, Civics, Biographies, History and Literature

From one of my favorite education blogs:  Free Technology for Teachers

1. Air the speech as well as the speeches to students given by Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Ask students to compare and contrast rhetorical styles, the setting for the speech, response of students in the audience, etc.

2. Use Wordle.net to have students create Wordle visuals of presidential speeches to examine their emphasis and content so they can compare and contrast.

3. Examine the media frenzy over the recent speech. Help students filter out fact/fiction in print reporting /internet reporting over the speech. Have students look at the reporting before the speech (by checking newspaper archives, databases for last couple of weeks, letters to the editor, etc.) and then have them check out the post-speech reporting in the next day or two in those same sources.

4. Have them analyze the speech for examples of good rhetorical techniques (using a personal story, word choice, call to action, etc.) Compare these used to other motivational speeches.

5. Use the Newseum website to examine headlines around the country for their reporting on the speech and compare/contrast the reporting. (But quick, before the headlines disappear!)

If you want to explore options yourself, I can unblock a library computer for you, or you can explore at home.  Perhaps if enough of us express our discontent with the extreme filtering that goes on, something can be done about it.

Talks Pete Alcorn on the world in 2200

Tiananmen Square – Lesson Plans and Videos

The site is blocked by BESS – but you can check it in the library or at home.  Some of the content is definitely PG-13. 10 Most Suggestive Cacti On Earth for example =)  Still – there are many interesting articles/phot essays such as:

• 5 Deadliest Effects of Global Warming
• 8 Incredible Green Roofs
• Remarkable Images of Activism from the Last Fifty Years
• Fibonacci Sequence Illustrated by Nature
• The Birth of Stars

Little Rock Nine History Project Documentary

Black or White (recreation of a classic experiment where black children were asked to pick which doll they prefer – the black or the white)

I know, I know.  You can’t get there from here.  “I have a dream, that some day, all teachers will be able to access YouTube, free of censure from the barking dog…..”

Chris – there is a HILARIOUS YouTube video called “Duck and Cover”.  It would be great for your baby boomer researchers to look at.