Making the Most of Memorial Day

Memorial Day...also known as Decoration Day.

Arlington National Cemetery
photo by Lance Mosier.

For many Memorial Day is the official start to Summer. Although I appreciate a good barbecue and warmer weather, the true meaning of Memorial Day is to remember all the brave Americans who have lost their lives defending this country.

Memorial Day originally started after one of America's most bloodiest wars, The Civil War. The holiday was originally known as Decoration Day, which was a day to go to cemeteries to pay respect to loved ones who were killed during this conflict. Viewing these two websites, Civil War Infographic of Causalities and Battles and Casualties of the Civil War Map, it is easy to see why so many began this tradition. Everybody in the country was impacted by this war in some way or another.

 Below are a list of websites and resources to help you and your students remember Memorial Day.

Learn About The Soldiers:

Great Great Grandfather who served in Civil War.

Civil War Soldier Database: Search for a family member or local civil war soldier who fought in the Civil War to learn about what unit they were in, battles they fought in, and other interesting information about this Civil War Soldier. I found some great information about my own family member who served in the Civil War.

The Civil War 14 National Cemeteries: Search the 14 Civil War National Cemeteries by using their database to look for family or those in your community who fought in the Civil War and are buried at these cemeteries.

Antietam 360- Battle of Antietam: Can't make it to a National Cemetery or a Civil War Battlefield, go to this very well done website. Visit the Antietam Civil War Battlefield and learn from Park Rangers about this important battle and some of the interesting history found there.

My Great Uncle who died in France
 during World War I

Nebraskans in World War I: Database of Nebraska Soldiers who served in World War I. You can search by names or by counties. This is where I found a picture of my Uncle Frank. I talked about this in a previous Blog Post "A Personal Touch...Soldiers and World War I"

The Price of Freedom: Americans at War A good interactive database of artifacts and items soldiers used in all wars American's have been involved in to learn about the life of a Soldier.

***New 2017*** Soldiers, Veterans, and War in American Life via PBS Learning Media has a great collection of videos, images, and lesson plans to help students explore the solider's perspective.

Vietnam Memorial
Photo by Lance Mosier

Visit The Vietnam Memorial Wall 

(Virtually if you can't make it to D.C.)

Look for soldiers from your community who died in Vietnam by using the database from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and than visit the Virtual Wall at View the Wall to find their names on the Memorial itself.

I had my students do this when we were studying the Vietnam War. I was able to get a list of alumni from our High School who died in Vietnam and I had students see if they could find their names on the Wall and any history about them. 

Learn about TAPS and Arlington National Cemetery

Taps Player Statue at
Arlington Visitor Center
Photo by Lance Mosier

Taps Bugler: Is a A very informative website about the history of Taps, sound files and music, and other really interesting information about this iconic song.

Arlington National Cemetery App: If you get a chance to visit Arlington National Cemetery and have a Smartphone (iPhone, Droid) make sure you download the app to help you find markers and monuments at the cemetery. 

Read On Hallowed Ground by Robert M. Poole which is a great book on the History of Arlington Cemetery. Great read for Memorial Day. https://itun.es/us/FnBoK.l 

Watch My Favorite Rendition of the Gettysburg Address. 

Watch The Changing Of The Guards At The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Watch the Changing of the Guards at the Tomb of  the Unknown Soldier. Here is a video I shot while in DC in April, 2013.

The First Decoration Day by David W. Blight Yale University  

Learn about African Americans important role in Decoration Day at Charleston, SC. 

Quote of President Truman at the
WWII Memorial Washington D.C.
Photo by Lance Mosier

I hope that you find these resources helpful to you and your students. I would love to hear from you what you do to help connect Memorial Day, Soldiers, and our Cemeteries to our students in the comments section below.

HMTV...History Music Television

"I want my H-MTV"

I am at an interesting age where I'm young enough to have enjoyed how music videos changed how we experience our music, yet old enough to remember when you could watch MTV to actually watch music videos.

Music videos are a great way to tie our two most powerful senses of "Sight and Sound" to help convey emotion of a song.

As a wrote in an earlier post "A Song In Your Step" I have always enjoyed music and try to play as much music in my classroom to help set the stage of learning of that day for my students.

Another way I have incorporated music into my classroom is by creating music videos that tie specific music with historical photos. It really helps lead our discussion in class where students can both examine the lyrics of the song and the various images used to discuss the themes and attitudes of the historica event we are focusing on. I have found it really helps our discussion go to a much deeper level.

Making the Music Video:

The easiest way to do this is by using iPhoto's Slideshow Feature. iPhoto is fairly easy to use, and has enough editing features to make it very profesional looking.

Of course it is possible to use online tools like Animoto, or using slideshow features in Powerpoint and Keynote to create these music videos.

Most of the songs I have used for my music videos have been purchased on iTunes or CD's that I've purchased.

If you looking for general thematic music, FreePlay Music is a great tool to find music to fit a particular theme, mood, or style.

There are also a lot of places to find historical images, it is just important that you follow copyright law and use agreements. Using the Advanced Google Image Search, you can filter your results by usage rights to help you find images to use.

The Library of Congress Prints and Photo's Division has a great collection of searchable images as well as guides to help direct your search. If you are looking for images of 20th Century America, LIFE PHOTOS are a very extensive collection of images. Historical Photos in Shmoop can also help you find images of a particular time period. Just make sure you are abiding by Copyright Law when using these images with students.

My Music Videos I Have Created I Share With Students:

I wish I could show you my videos, but because songs are protected under Copyright I will tell you which songs I use for which topic.

Slave Songs... before the Civil War
Slave Shout Songs from the Coast of Georgia (iTunes)
Music in Slave Life from PBS

Heart of the Appaloosa...Story of the Nez Perce
The Heart of the Appaloosa

It's a Hard Knocked Life.....Child Labor and photos of Lewis Hines
It's the Hard-Knock Life

If Everyone Cared....Images of the Great Depression
If Everyone Cared

Fish Cheer.....Woodstock, Vietnam Protests, and Counterculture
The Fish Cheer

Fortunate Son....Images of the Vietnam War
Fortunate Son

We Shall Overcome....struggle for Civil Rights
We Shall Overcome

Student Extension

Of course a great project idea would be to get students to create their own music video. Students can find images and music to help convey a theme of a historical event or time period that you are studying.

How do you use music and images in your classroom? Love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

Analyzing Historical Images....Debunking Time Travel

Analyzing Historical Images

There is that old adage "A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words." It definitely can be an important skill for young Historians to be able to analyze Historical images. The TPS-Barat Primary Source Nexus has lots of great resources for History Teachers on using Primary Sources Material. My state has yet to adopt the Common Core Standards, but Primary Source Nexus has a great resource on how image analysis ties into Common Core: analyzing historical images can connect to the Common Core Literacy Standards.

If you are new to using image analysis in your classroom, The Library of Congress has a powerful learning module on Analyzing Primary Sources: Prints and Photos. This can be a great tool for staff development on how to use the Library of Congress resources.

I want a fun way for students to to be introduced to this skill for next year. So I've always thought it would be fun to use famous historical images to create a mashup with something in the picture that doesn't necessarily belong there, such as your's truly.

By giving students some a practice image such as this one, might be a way for students to look closely at details of an image.

Photoshop is probably the best to create these "photobombs" but I was able to use the Alpha tool in Apples Pages to spice images together and use iPhoto to add Black and White effects to the images.

Primary Source Nexus has a good Image Analysis Pyrmaid to help focus students thoughts that I'm looking forward to using with my students: http://primarysourcenexus.org/2012/04/connecting-common-core-primary-source-thinking-triangle-activity/

The trick is to get students to focus on the details, listing the facts, looking at historical context, speculating perspectives, being critical of things that don't make sense, and raising more questions to than they answer.

I also think it might be fun to have students create their own Historical Mashups or photobombs as a creative writing assignment. What would they see or hear in some of history's most famous photos. That sounds like a great future blog post.

What are some ways you introduce image analysis in your class? Love to hear your ideas in the comments section.

The Truman Decision...The Interactive Online Debate

Should Truman drop the Atomic Bomb

Having class discussions and debates is a very important part of a US History Class. The challenge in any type of debate is to make sure that all students get opportunities to express their opinion. For students that are shy, this always poses a problem. The more vocal students typically take over a discussion very quickly drowning out class debate. 

The past few years I have tried some online forums to help students debate class topics online. I have used:

• Discussion Boards in Blackboard
• Google Docs now Google Drive
• TodaysMeet
• and CoveritLive

Of all that I've used, I like CoveritLive the best.

Pros of CoveritLive

• I can moderate comments. With working with 8th Grade students I have had problems in the past with inappropriate comments being posted in online forums. With CoveritLive I can check comments before they become live to prevent something inappropriate coming through and I can send a direct warning message to the student who made the comment. 
• I can embed Videos, Images, and Polls for students to react and respond to. Check out CoveritLive Features to learn more. 
• I can record and replay the discussion after students are done. This way students can go back and read comments. I can also go back and look at comments to give a participation grade in the debate. 
• CoveritLive Pricing: They have a Trial Account that is free and other options if you contact their Customer Support. 

Cons of CoveritLive

• There is a time component involved setting up the debate. Where TodaysMeet and Google Docs are quick and spontaneous, CoveritLive requires a level of pre-planning.
• There is a Learning Curve. You have to embed the  CoveritLive  on a Wiki, Blog, or site that allows embed code. If you are unfamiliar with embeding code into a website this, it can be a challenge for first time users. If your school has "intensive web filters" you might run into some problems. For help, check out CoveritLive Support. 
• It is a little stressful managing the online debate and trying to keep tabs on students in class. 

Teacher Prep Work:

After creating my account in CoveritLive, I went into the Media Center in CoveritLive to add images and types of poll questions I wanted to ask during the debate. I pre-thought out what type of questions I would ask to help faciltate discussions. I let students guide this discussion once we get started, but having a pre-plan of attack is helpful for those spur of the moment decisions. You can create polls pretty quickly on the fly, but it is easier to have them pre-created and ready to push out to students.

Student Prep Work: Mr. Truman I think....

Before we held our class debate, students were given a Pages Document that I created to help them research three different scenarios that President Truman had to end the War against Japan during WWII.

     A. Drop the atomic bomb.

     B. Demonstrate the atomic bomb   to Japanese

     C. Invade Japan.

Students read about advantages and disadvantages for each option, as well as watched an embeded video of a Kamikaze attack.  Their homework that needed to be completed before the day of they debate was to pick one option and explain why they would recommend this option to President Truman. Student had to provide two reasons why the felt their option they were recommended was the best.  Students also had to pick which option they thought was the worst choice and provide an explanation why they felt it was a bad choice.  Students had to bring their recommendations to class filled out the next day.

Day of the Debate:

Before students got out their computers, I had students share with a partner their Student Prep from the day before. While students are doing this I do a quick scan to make sure all students are ready for the debate. After students share, we go over expectations for the day. 

• Comments must be positive at all times. No put downs are allowed. 
• Make sure your comments help support the discussion that is going on.
• All comments are moderated and after two strikes, you will be removed from the online debate.
• Listen to your teacher's instructions at allPost Debate:

Usually at the end of the debate, or the next day we watch part of the following YouTube Clip that recreates the Atom Bomb drop on Hiroshima. Students final piece is to write a three to four paragraph reflection on the debate. What they learned from the debate? What they thought was the best decision Truman could make and why? Why the didn't like the other options?

Resources: 

There are lots of resources that can be used for an Atomic Bomb debate. Here are few I've used. I would love to hear what you use in the comments section below.

• The Atomic Bomb via Teachinghistory.org - Interesting look at what Textbooks, Historians, and what the Primary Documents say about this event.
• The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb -Primary Sources from the Truman Library 
• Visualizing The Frightening Power of Nuclear Bombs - Some videos, but neat infographic that compares the destructive power of various nuclear weapons.
• Last Enola Gay Member Recalls Hiroshima via CNN
• Would I survive a Nuke? - A little morbid site, but can show the destructive range of various nuclear weapons using Google Maps. A way to compare destructive power of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki to students local area.

Who Fired the Shot Heard Around The World?

Who Fired the Shot Heard Around The World?

History is full of mystery. That is the joy of Historical Studies is that we don't always know what happened with great certainty  What we do know comes from the first hand accounts of those who witnessed history.

April 19th marks the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington. This pivotal moment in American History known as the "Shot Heard Around The World" is often times seen as the first major battle of the American Revolution.

This is also a great event to introduce students to Historical Thinking by analyzing various primary sources from eyewitnesses of this particular event.

I always start this lesson with the following School House Rocks Video. You can never go wrong with some School House Rock.


After students have watched the video, we watch a Battle simulation from RevolutionaryWarAnimated: Battle of Lexington &  Concord.

I tell students that that their job today is to find out a great mystery. Who fired the first shot of the Revolution? Was it the Colonists or the British Red Coats?  I lead students into a discussion on how we can find out what happened and introduce Primary Sources.

HSI Historical Scene Investigation has several excellent examples of Primary Source Material for students to use from the Battle of Lexington.

My greatest challenge when working with Primary Sources, especially from this time period, is the language difficulty my student have. I have a diverse level of readers and learners and sometimes the text can be a challenge. Here are some strategies that I've used.

The Print Option:

I print out the Documents and highlight key words/phrases for my students.

The Digital Option-Using Diigo to annotate, highlight Websites:

Since my school is a One to One Laptop School where each student has a laptop, I have started to use the tools in Diigo to help digitize these primary sources online.

I am a huge fan of Diigo, and it is my primary bookmarking tool that  I use. I also like Diigo because it is possible for me to highlight and annotate websites with sticky notes. I can save these annotations and share these links to my students so they can access these annotations.

Diigo is a free resource and I would definitely check them out as a way to help model analyzing Primary Source reading skills to students.

Here is an example of a website that is annotated with Highlights and floating stickies to help focus student's reading from an account from the Boston Massacre: Anonymous Account of the Boston Massacre.

What is great about this link, is I can share this to students who need help with the document as a way of differentiation.

Usually the first time we analyze a document I will share this with all my students, but latter in the year I can differentiate with my students on who needs more or less support with the documents.

Click the links for tutorials on  getting started using the Highlight and StickyNote feature in Diigo.

After students have looked at various Primary Sources, I have student vote on who they thought was responsible using tools such as a Google Doc or Socrative

What is great about this lesson, is that there really is no right or wrong answer. It is a good opotrunity to introduce my students to using Historical evidence to support their claims.

Other Primary Source Materials on the Battle of Lexington 

• Massachusetts State Papers via DocsTeach
• Deposition of Captain John Barker via DocsTeach
• Letter from Joseph Warren to Colony Agent Benjamin Franklin
• Paul Rever's Account of His Midnight Ride to Lexington
• Minute Man National Historical Park Primary Sources

What are ways you introduce Primary Source Materials to students? How do you teach about the Battle of Lexington and Concord? I would love to read your comments.

A Song In Your Step...

A Song In Your Step...Playing Music Into Your Classroom.

I have always been a huge fan of music. Whether it has been singing or playing a musical instrument, music has always been a way for me to get my mood in the right direction.

For the past couple of years I have been playing music in my room as students enter class. I try and find music that matches or fit the Learning Objective that day, or is from the time period we are currently studying.

I sometimes get those random comments from students who don't appreciate my musical choice that day, but I do once an awhile get music requests. If their request matches what we are talking about, I will sometimes go ahead and play the song for them. It is pretty amazing how the  mood of the class changes with this little bit of music as students enter. If the music is reflective or somber, students will typically enter the same. If the music is more high energy, student's energy level also increases.

I tell students that "America's Music is a glimpse into its soul." I don't know if I heard that someplace, or I just  made it up but I feel it's pretty true. I have found music is a great way to help start discussions on how Americans are feeling about a topic or era, their attitudes, or American concerns. It makes for a great way to start a topic: Why do you think Mr. Mosier picked this song today? What do you think we might be talking about today? etc.. For some of my students music is a motivator to get to my room earlier so they can listen to the music that is being played that day.

I have gotten most of my music from our textbook resources CD and some from free Website resources. I always follow copyright, so I don't download illegal music. If I can't find something I typically buy it from iTunes or look for it on Spotify.

Here are some places for free music:

Free Music Archive: A variety of music that is free to use under Creative Commons.

Old Radio World: Not really music, but some popular radio shows from the 1930's & 40's to get a glimpse of pop culture.

Library of Congress- National Jukebox: Recordings that are in the public domain.

Manufacturing Memory: American Popular Music in the 1930's: A good sampling of music from the 1930's.


Music in Slave Life- PBS: Slavery and the Making of America: This is a great resource in general on slave life in America, but the music can also be a place for students to hear the type of music slaves sang. I usually talk about that this music becomes the foundation for Jazz, Rock & Roll, and R&B.


Civil War Songs from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (These are as free iTunes downloads) - Soldiers' Songs (Civil War Songs): The Battle Cry of Freedom , Goober Peas , Just Before The Battle Mother , Tenting on the Old Campground , Aura Lee , When Johnny Comes Marching Home 

Music I purchased in iTunes or bought the CD because it works well in my lessons:

I probably don't want to add up the music I've bought the past several of years. At least it's good music and diversifies my iTunes Library some.

Westward Expansion

• Rawhide by Frankie Lane (Good on days we talk about Cowboys in the American West)
• Main Title from How the West Was Won (Good song for our introduction to Westward Expansion and various groups who settle west)
• The Buffalo Hunt (Film Version) by John Barry Dances with Wolves Soundtrack (Good song on days we talk about culture of the tribes on the Great Plaines) 
• Wounded Knee (Main Title) by George S. Clinton Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee Soundtrack (Song on day we talk about the impact of Wounded Knee and the Native American Experience during Westward Expansion)

The Civil War

(All of these are good songs to play on various days in our unit on the Civil War. I also play a lot of songs from the Gilder Lehrman Institute from the links above.)

• Ashkon Farewell by Jay Ungar 
• Southern Soldier Boy by Bittersweet and Briers
• Dixie by Bittersweet and Briers

Industrialization 

• Nine to Five by Dolly Parton (Great song when talking about Working Conditions and Labor)
• Working in the Coal Mine by Lee Dorsey (Great song when talking about Working Conditions and Labor)
• It's The Hard-Knock Life Original Broadway Cast Annie(Like to use this song when we talk about child labor)  
• Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford (Great song when talking about Working Conditions and Labor)

Immigration

• The Immigrant by Nino Rota (Nice moving immigrant song on our day we talk about Ellis Island)
• America by Neil Diamond (Nice song on days we talk about causes and challenges of Immigration)

Progressive Era

• We're Not Gonna Take It by Twisted Sister (Great song when we start talking about some of the reformers of the Progressive Era)
• A Change Would Do You Good by Sheryl Crow (Great song when looking at the goals of the Progressive Era)

World War I

• Over There by Rob Carriker (Use this when we talk about America's involvement in WWI)
• Keep Your Head Down Fritzie Boy by American Quartet (Great song on our Trench Warfare day)

1920's & 30's

• Maple Leaf Rag by Scott Joplin (Good sample of 20's Jazz)
• Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? by Bing Crosby (I try and contrast this song with an upeat jazz tune of the 20's)

World War II

• Boogie Woogie Buggle Boy by the Andrews Sisters 
• White Cliffs of Dover by Verra Lynn

Cold War

• Various songs from The Beatles,  Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry. Always try and have a 50's Music Day.
• Star Spangled Baner by Jimi Hendrix (One of the songs we play when we talk about Vietnam Protests)
• Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival (One of the songs we play when we talk about Vietnam Protests)
• Turn!Turn!Turn! by the Byrds (One of the songs we play when we talk about Vietnam Protests)
• Wind of Change by Scorpian  (A song we use on our final day of the Cold War unit when we talk about the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union)

Civil Rights Movement

• We Will Overcome (Great song to start our Civil Rights unit)
• What's Going On by Marvin Gaye  

World War II Battle Maps

World War II Battle Maps

My students are just starting our unit on World War II. This is such a huge topic and there is a plethora of resources on the Web. One aspect of this conflict I like to show students is its global nature. Being able to see the mass impact this conflict had across the globe can help them get the sense of how large this war was. Google Earth works great as a resource or students and I to explore the geography of World War II.

I am a huge fan of Google Earth and Google Maps. I love using them to take my students on virtual field trips. I always make this a big deal with my students, zooming down to our school before we go on some trip somewhere to see the area we are currently studying. Getting a sense of location and geography can help facilitate our discussions to get a little deeper into understanding the complexity of global historical events.

If you are new to Google Earth, I would definitely point you to Google Earth Resources for Teachers. There are lots of tutorials and videos to help you get started. If you are interested in creating your own Google Earth Projects, check out this post from assortedStuff: Tech for Learning


KMZ files are files that you can download into Google Earth that somebody has created to use the different layers and features. Below I have listed some great KMZ files that are good to use with World War II. You will need to have Google Earth installed on your computer. It is both Mac and PC compatible. Click here if you need to install the program.

1. WWII KMZ File: I really like this file. It is very comprehensive and organizes battles into Geographic Areas or Theaters of War. It can be a little overwhelming, but if you uncheck areas that you are not focusing on it can be a little easier to navigate. Each battle is linked to a Wikipedia Article that describes aspect of the battle. 
2. Night by Elie Wiesel: If you are having students read this novel along with your study of WWII, this can be a great Geography link that highlights major areas in Wiesel's journey to Auschwitz. This is one of several Google Earth Virtual trips from Google LitTrips. There are lots of great resources worth looking at along with your Language Arts teacher. Some of the links on this file does lead to graphic material, so I would definitely preview before using with your students. Even if you are not reading the novel, but need a link to help students better understand the Holocaust this is a great resource. 
3. Diary of Anne Frank: Like Night, this follows the story of Anne Frank and the horors of the Holocaust. If you are having students read this as part of your World War II unit or if you just want to view the Holocaust as part of WWII this can be a beneficial resource in Google Earth.
4. Mapping the Holocaust: There are two KMZ layers (Timeline Layer and Holocaust Encyclopedia Layer) from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Some of the links does show graphic material, so please preview before using. I like showing students the locations of the various Ghettos and Concentration Camps to show patterns where they were located in Europe. 

Other Map Resources: These do not require Google Earth, but a Web Browser and Internet Connection.

1. HistoryAnimated: I am a big fan of HistoryAnimated. There are several great interactive Battle Maps that run off your Web Browser. I have used their Revolutionary War and Civil War Battle Maps. Students love them and so do I. They also are starting to build up their World War II Battle Maps, and they look phenomenal.

• Battle of Britain: I just learned of this one today. It combines some real audio from the time along with some neat visual description of battle tactics. 
• Europe Theatre: This looks fairly new, but seems that they will be adding others soon. 
• Pacific Theatre: I have used the Battle of Iwo Jima along with selected scenes from WWII HD from the History Chanel to help students explore this battle in World War II. 

2. History Chanel Interactive Map: This is a very cool interactive map that has several different topics students can explore. There is a lot of information. I have had students explore the Nazi Expansion. Lots of images and information.


If you are looking for some other KMZ files for Google Earth for other topics, I would definitely check these out as these two sites as well.

• KMZ Files- Google Earth
• History Tours from Norton

What type of Geography/Map resources do you use? Would love to hear what others are using in the comment section below.