Students always want to know how much something in the past would cost today. Here are some resources that I've used to help to take a cost of an item in the past and bring it to a dollar value of today. An important note to tell students that these are approximations. I've also included YouTube videos that do a good job explaining how money works.
Measuring Worth Website: This is a great website I used a lot to compare prices at different time periods. There is also a lot of background information on how the numbers are determined and several historical examples to look through. I've found this a very trustworthy and great website to use to help s
iOS App Inflation Calculator: This is an app that works as another great tool to adjust for inflation of currency. I've found myself using this app in class when students ask me during a lesson. It's pretty easy to pull out my phone and do a quick comparison.
If a man in the North paid $300 to avoid the Draft
during the Civil War, what would the cost be today?
YouTube Videos:
Here are some good YouTube Videos that talk about how money works.
What Gives A Dollar Bill Its Value? A TED-ED Video
Explaining Inflation by Wall Street Survivor
What is Money? by Economic Detective
That Film About Money by We The Economy
What are some resources you use to help students learn about money? I would love to hear about them in the comments section below.
Fallout Shelter Sign Washington DC Photo by Lance Mosier
In the final weeks of the semester my students and I explore the Cold War Era. An area that we look at is the fear of Nuclear Weapons and their impact on the Cold War. Below are some websites I have found beneficial in looking for resources to share with students or places for students to explore more about the fears of Nuclear War during the Cold War.
Strategic Air Command Museum Photo Lance Mosier
Nebraska Studies: Cold War Section
This is a very helpful website with lots of information about the Cold War and Nebraska's role in this era. Check out some of the resources on Living in an Atomic Age, TheCreation of SAC (Strategic Air Command), and Civil Defense.
Civil Defense Archives: There are lots of great primary source documents for you and/or your students to pull to learn more about what was done to protect Americans from the possibility of a Nuclear War.
Strategic Air Command Museum Website: If you visit Nebraska or live in Nebraska, you should check out this museum that hosts many planes from World War II and the Cold War. There are lots of great exhibits to learn more about The Cold War.
Animated Map of Every Nuclear Bomb Explosion: From Business Insider, this animated map shows the location of every known Nuclear Bomb explosion in history. This is a good way to see the proliferation of nuclear weapons as well as seeing when various arms treaties were signed throughout the Cold War.
Omaha.Com Article "Inside Bunker, SAC Crew feared WWIII was on its way" by Matthew Hansen
There were many times that the United States and the Soviet Union were on the verge of an all out Nuclear War. This is a very interesting article of a little known incident and the soldiers who experience the real possibility of Nuclear War.
NukeMap:
This website allows you to see the devastation of various nuclear weapons on targets of your choosing. The website shows areas of fall out and potential casualties of these weapons. This can be a very "morbid" exercise so I think it is important to walk students through discussions before, during, and after they explore this website.
Comic Books:
I have blogged about Comic Books in Up In The Sky It's A Bird. It's A Plane... these are some comics from ComicBook+ that are vintage comics that deal with Nuclear War. A very interesting collection of primary source of the Cold War Era on how to survive a Nuclear War.
PBS: Race for the Superbomb
This PBS Documentary has some great resources such as bomb test footage, tour of the Greenbier Government Bunker, and a 1950's test on how Panic-Proof you are.
Playlist of 8 Videos on YouTube:
1. Nuclear Detonation Timeline 1945-1998
2. Could You Survive a Fallout
3. How To Protect Yourself from Nuclear Fallout and Survive an Atomic Attack 1950s
4. Underground Nuclear Subsidence Creator
5. Why You Should Care About Nukes
6. Duck and Cover | 1951 | How to Survive a Nuclear Attack
7. Inside the Doomsday Plane
8. The Only Winning Move Is Not To Play (From WarGames)
What do you use to teach students about the Cold War? I would love to hear about it in the comments section below.
I have done this simulation in class the past two years. It is a great way to introduce the role that alliances had in turning a regional conflict between the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and Serbia into a larger global conflict World War I. I usually do this lesson after our Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand lesson.
This came from a website that was shared on Twitter a few years ago called "What if World War I was a Bar Fight." I really liked the analogy and thought this would be a great way for students to visually see the alliances, but I thought I needed to pick a different location to make it more acceptable for an 8th Grade US History class. So I "tweaked" it a little bit and this is what I came up with.
The Lesson:
I assign students into the following roles: The Narrator: They have the most lines and need to be a confident reader. The Central Powers: Germany, Austria, and Turkey The Allied Powers: Serbia, Russia, France, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, Australia, Japan, and the United States.
I made signs for each of the countries with their names and Coat of Arms to help tell countries apart. For students who are not assigned a role, they are to help keep track of which countries ally with each other and how the conflict first started.
I always pre-teach that students are to "act" and not actually throw people over chairs and punch other students. I would like to think that would be common sense, but I figure I should always be direct with my instructions.
Here is a working version of my script that I have students use.
World War I Cafeteria Fight - Dialog
Narrator: Germany is standing with Austria and Italy in the cafeteria when Serbia, walking by with Russia, bumps into Austria and spills its tray.
Narrator: Austria says,
Austria: “Serbia, you idiot you spilled marinara sauce on my shoes! They are ruined! You better buy me a new pair!”
Narrator: Germany says, “
Germany: Yeah Serbia and those are expensive shoes!
Narrator: Britain says,
Britain: “Everyone calm down, it’s okay. Things don’t need to get out of hand.”
Narrator: Serbia Says,
Serbia: “I can’t pay to buy you new shoes, but I can pay to have them cleaned.”
Narrator: Serbia and Russia stare at Austria.
Narrator: When Serbia and Russia stare Austria says, “
Austria: Who do you think you’re looking at?”
Narrator: Russia says,
Russia: “Hey, man don’t pick on my little brother!”
Narrator: Austria asks Russia,
Austria: “Who’s going to stop us, you????”
Narrator: In the meantime Britain and France are glaring at Germany.
Narrator: Germany says to Britain and France,
Germany: “Why are you glaring at us? You just need to back away?
Narrator: Britain says,
Britain: “France and I can look at whoever we want, what are you going to do about it?”
Narrator: Germany says to Russia,
Germany: “Stop looking at Austria, or I’ll smack you upside the head!”
Narrator: Britain asks France,
Britain: “Why is Germany looking at Belgium?”
Narrator: Turkey and Germany go off in a corner and whisper. When they come back to the group Turkey ignores everyone.
Narrator: Germany rolls up its sleeves dramatically, looks at France, and punches Belgium!
Narrator: France and Britain punch Germany.
Narrator: Austria punches Russia.
Narrator: Germany punches Britain and France with one hand and Russia with the other.
Narrator: Russia throws a punch at Germany, but misses and nearly falls over and says,
Russia: “Man how did I miss?”
Narrator: Japan waves and calls over from the other side of the room,
Japan: “We are on Britain’s side! But I think I’ll stay over here for now.” But Japan stays on the other side of the room.
Narrator: Italy, who was a friend of Germany punches Austria to everyone’s surprise! Italy says,
Italy: “That felt kind of good!”
Narrator: Australia punches Turkey.
Narrator: Turkey punches back and says,
Turkey: “Take that!”
Narrator: Australia says,
Australia: “No hard feelings mate, I know Britain peered pressured me to do it.”
Narrator: France gets thrown over a table by Germany but gets up and continues fighting. France says,
France: “You can’t keep me down.”
Narrator: Russia gets knocked down by Austria. When it wakes up it has a personality change and decides to quit fighting. Russia says,
Russia: “What’s going on here? Peace man!”
Narrator: Italy tries to punch Austria and misses, but Austria falls over anyway.
Narrator: Italy runs around, with fists in the air, chanting,
Italy: “Fight, fight, fight!”
Narrator: Germany is pounding Britain and France. Eventually Germany becomes tired and is huffing and puffing.
Narrator: America waits until Germany is about to fall over from fatigue , then walks over and smashes it with a chair.
Narrator: Germany is knocked unconscious and stays that way. America pretends it won the fight all by itself - shakes fist in the air, sings
America: “I am the champion, my friend”.
Narrator: By now chairs and tables are overturned, most countries are on the ground (Germany, Serbia, Russia, Austria, Italy). Britain and France slowly get up and walk over to America.
Narrator: America says,
America: “Well Germany started it”.
Narrator: France says,
France: “They deserve what they got!”
Narrator: Britain says, “
Britain: They did throw the first punch!”
Narrator: America, Britain and France look at each other, smirk, and start taking things out of Germany’s pocket while it lies there unconscious. They go off together maniacally laughing!
After we finish the skit the students and I discuss what happened in the skit and which countries allied with each other. I usually find myself explaining how the Marinara Sauce represents the killing (Bloodshed) of the Archduke and help the students understand why the allies were going through Germany's Pocket at the end (War Reparations). Students usually have lots of questions and are very animated from doing the skit which is great to see. It's a nice way to get students out of their seat and actively learning about history.
We usually end class with this video The Start Of World War that looks at the events that started World War I. There are some pieces that get covered latter in my unit, but I love the animation of the Lego's and it help explain some of the alliances.
What are some ways you teach World War I? I would love to hear about them in the comments section below.
February is a month of two of America's most well known President's Birthdays; Abraham Lincoln February 12th and George Washington February 22nd. Washington's Birthday was created as a Federal Holiday in 1879 during the President of Rutherford B. Hayes as a way to commemorate the first president.
In 1971 under the Uniform Holiday Act Washington's Birthday was moved to the Third Monday in February. Although it is still is officially celebrated by the Federal Government as Washington's Birthday in modern time it is more commonly referred to as President's Day, a date to celebrate all our US Presidents.
Little Abe at the White House
So in Honor of Washington's Birthday (a.ka. President's Day) here are some great resources to learn about POTUS: The President of the United States.
I hope that you were able to spend this day with that special person in your life. I thought I would post a few things.
History of Valentine's Day Video
Here is a good short animated video on the History of St. Valentine.
Historical Valentine's Day Cards
These are some Historical Valentine's Day Cards I created used Strip Design (for IOS). See some other great resources to make your own on some of my blog post: Making Inspirational Posters for your Classroom. This might make for a fun activity for student's to make their own historical Valentine's Day Cards.
After a few days of introducing the Civil War with my students and talking about some of the early battles, I like to have students complete an activity to explore Civil War Medicine. In this lesson I give students several images from the Library of Congress that depict Civil War Medicine and a journal of a Civil War soldier that describes a field hospital. Students use these resources to help develop a picture of what treatment was like for Civil War Soldiers as well to help them generate questions about what that treatment was like.
If you have not seen the Analyzing Primary Sources (Images) Training Tutorial via Library of Congress it is a great starting point for teachers looking for ways to help students analyze images and how to use the vast resources of images through the Library of Congress. There are lots of useful suggestions and helpful hints for teachers starting out with using primary source images with students.
My Analysis Grid for Image Analysis
The Library of Congress also has a very useful Primary Source Analysis Tool that is good to use for image analysis. I have taken a few modifications with this template for this particular assignment to help students focus in on a few specific analytical areas of thought.
A goal for this assignment is to help students closely examine images and begin to create inferences from these images to begin to create an understanding of battlefield medicine. We want students to generate questions they may have from these images to help further their curiosity in this topic and seek out those answers to their questions.
The Library of Congress Civil War Collection is a great resource to find images for this activity. If you search "medical aspects" will give you over a hundred images and you can further refine your search if you are looking for specific areas within Civil War Medicine.
Here are three of my favorite images to use from this collection for this assignment.
To go along with the images, I also include a Union soldier's diary entry where he tells of his visit to a field hospital during the Wilderness Campaign. This account is in one of my favorite series of books The Blue and the Gray: Volume 1 and Volume 2 edited by Henry Steele Commager. This is a great book of numerous journals, diaries, and official records from the Civil War. I have found this book a great treasure trove of soldier and civilian accounts of the Civil War (as you can tell with the numerous sticky notes coming out of my books).
After students have looked at the images and journal entry, we discuss our results together as a class. We look at what observations they have made and what questions they have about the soldier's medical treatment. Usually students focus on the large number of wounded soldiers and of course on amputations of the wounded soldiers limbs.
Following our discussion we than check our findings and see if we can answer some of our questions with these video resources.
Civil War Medicine in 4 Minutes via The Civil War Trust
This is a great overview of Civil War Medicine that helps talk about the complexity of Civil War Medicine. The message in this video is great because it helps explain why amputations were so common and that the Civil War Medicine is not as barbaric as it tends to be portrayed.
National Museum of Civil War Medicine
This has a lot of why Civil War Medicine was important (even for today's soldiers which makes for a great connection to present day) and also debunks several myths people have about Civil War Medicine (i.e. Did Soldiers Literally Bite The Bullet?")
I learned about this fantastic database of resources titled Civil War Washington at a Teacher Fellowship in Washington D.C. June 2017. There are lots of resources there but one I want to highlight that fits nicely with this lesson on Civil War Medicine are the Medical Cases. You can search for specific types of medical cases with their search tool (i.e. "Gunshot wounds" "amputation" "dysentery"). These are written by doctors and can be very graphic so be prepared and prepare students before using this database.
Also check out their images of Washington D.C. Hospitals. If you are interested in other primary source documents around the Civil War and Washington D.C. particularly check out some of their other resources.
This is a lesson that I usually do not have to worry about lack of student interest and typically generates lots of great small group discussions among students.
What type of Primary Source Activities do you do with your students during your study of The Civil War? I would love to hear about them in the comments section below.
Slave Quarters Mount Vernon
Picture by Lance Mosier
With my students currently working on a self-paced lesson to learn about the institution of Slavery in the United States in the 1800's, I thought I would share some of the various resources I've collected over the years to help students further explore this topic. With recent news about textbooks and how they discuss slavery having other resources can be very helpful for teachers.
Do you have any favorite resources to help students gain a better understanding of this part of American History? I would love to hear about it in the comments section below.
Primary Sources
(1) The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record (University of Virginia) http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/index.php
Good resource for images for students to use in projects or find images for students to analyze as a primary source. Use these suggestions from the Library of Congress.
List of advertisements of runaway slaves. Have students look at these advertisements to examine how slaves were described by their owners and what that says about their attitudes towards their slaves.
(3) Faces and Voices from the Days of Slavery (The Library of Congress) http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/vfssp.html
This is a great resource of interviews that were conducted in the 1930's of former slaves. Lots of first hand accounts of what slavery was like for those who lived it. I have taken segments from these lengthy narratives to help student's discuss various aspects of slavery.
(4) Unknown No Longer: A Database of Virginia Slave Names http://unknownnolonger.vahistorical.org/
This is a searchable database to look for names of slaves in Virginia. This is a great way for students to see the real names of those slaves who were impacted by Slavery and the documents of where these names are found.
This is a really great resource for students to learn many different aspects of slave life. There are already segments from the Faces & Voices of Slavery interviews for student to use. I also really like their Year In the Life interactive to look at how plantation life looked through the year. There are lots of topics to explore and the information is very user friendly.
(6) Landscape of Slavery: Mulberry Row at Monticello http://www.monticello.org/mulberry-row
This is a terrific online exhibit from Monticello. The 3-D modeling in the section View Places of the various buildings on the Plantation is a neat interactive exhibit. I personally like the 3-D rendering of a Slave Quarters r, s, t. There is also some great biography information at Meet the People where you can learn about the 88 people who lived and worked on the plantation of Thomas Jefferson.
***New 2018: A Note of Caution on Games/Simulations***
When teaching controversial topics such as slavery games and simulations can have negative impacts on students and/or not teach the concepts you may have intended in your lesson. When I originally posted this post I was unaware of some of these concerns. I would encourage teachers to read this article Classroom Simulations: Proceed with Caution as a reflection prior to using really any simulation with your students. As a teacher you know you students best and your own school situation. Make sure you have conversations with your students before attempting any of these actives listed below and you have done a lot of front-loading of information with your students. I have moved away from some of the "adventure" games and instead of done more small group discussion lessons instead incorporating scenarios and primary sources.
(13) Following the Footsteps: A Maryland Runaway Slave http://pathways.thinkport.org/following/
This is a very simple Choose Your Own Adventure time simulation that lets student's make choices on how difficult running away was.
(14) Underground Railroad: Journey to Freedom
http://undergroundrailroad.muzzylane.com/play
This has grown into one of my favorite games for students to learn about the Underground Railroad. The video quality and game play is outstanding. Students will learn a lot about what it took to runway.
(15) Mission 2: Flight to Freedom (Mission US) http://www.mission-us.org/pages/landing-mission-2
I love the Mission US Games. This is another great game where you are a young slave girl in Kentucky and you have to make choices to find your way to freedom.
(16) SlaveryFoot Print http://slaveryfootprint.org/survey/#where_do_you_live
If you are discussing modern slavery, this is an interesting simulation to see how the items we buy might be connected to slave labor. What is your slavery footprint?
