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Author Topic: Musings and thoughts from here in Texas...
aretee
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[Wave] Anyone miss me?

Well, I've been absent again (depite promises I made to Ralphie). But, I now have access to my new classroom which has a great computer set up. I have a new computer that runs Windows XP and is directly connected to the TV at the front of the room. That means I can watch the Homestar Runner website like a TV show. (I love that Strongbad.)

I like it here in Texas. I survived my first hurricane which popped up the third day that I lived here. How many of you are disappointed they gave her (the hurricane) a "white" name. In fact, I was disappointed that they gave it a woman's name. Isn't that sexist? I'm planning on doing some research to see the percentage of hurricanes named after womyn. What is being suggested by such actions? I think the implication is that womyn are natural disasters! I think I'm going to start a petition.

Much to my dad's conternation, I have begun listening to talk radio. I can't get enough of it during the day. I sit in my class room (even as I write this, Glenn Beck voice is blaring through my TV speakers since you can listen to it through the internet which is connected to my TV), planning future lessons on world history, and listen to Rush and Chris Baker and Glenn Beck. I'm not saying I agree with everything that is stated on these shows, either by the hosts or the callers, but I find it rather entertaining. And since I know 4 people in my new city (one of them being my boyfriend's ex-wife) it helps me occupy the time.

I've missed Hatrack. I guess that is the point of this whole thread. I was tickled to see the new smilies. [The Wave] These are just cracking me up. I have to spend some time reading and catching up on threads.

This is my question, to which I would like replys in this thread to answer: What were some of your favorite projects you did in World History in high school? I always get great ideas from you people, and I trying to plan some fun activities for my students to do. I'm teaching a different subject here, in Bay City... and I need some help.

So, think back to high school...those of you who had a fun history teacher...and tell me the fun things you remember from your world history class. Or, if just have some ideas for me. Texas requires that I cover it ALL, so any aspect of world history is relevant.

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T. Analog Kid
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Until relatively recently, Hurricanes were named exclusively after women.

All jokes about "him-icanes" aside, anyone who has made a woman truly angry (hell hath no fury, etc.) knows why they are named after women.

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aretee
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You know, you may have a point. I DESTROYED my boyfriend's $3,000 mountain bike [Eek!] (a Specialized S-works he built from scratch with all XTR components) by backing his car into a light post in the Sam's parking lot whilst it was on the bike rack in the back and he wasn't mad. He screamed for 1.5 minutes (non-stop), but not at me. And when the initial shock wore off, he calmly walked back towards me (my eyes wide with shock and horror at my own stupidity) [Angst] he said, "It's just a bike."

I would not have been so calm or forgiving.

I did that Friday, on my 30th birthday, by the way. I meant to mention that in my first post.

You have a point, maybe there is a reason they are named Herrricanes and not Himicanes.

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Noemon
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Welcome back!

I didn't really have any great history classes in High School, but an assignment that would be interesting would be to have them research and write a paper on what they think would have happened if some historical event had gone the other way--what if the Khan hadn't died just as Mongol forces were poised to invade Europe, or something like that. Doing this, if they get excited about the project, could cause them to look at the details of a historical situation much more carefully than they typically would.

Another thing you could do is have them look at some critical juncture in which a strategy or approach failed to work, and have them brainstorm strategies or methods that might have succeeded, and then talk about why these ideas were either rejected or not conceived of at the time.

I would have *loved* it if I'd had a high school history teacher who'd asked me to do something like this.

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Noemon
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Another thing you could do would be to give them an event, and have them talk about why the event happened and what its consequences are. For example, you could say "in 1953, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran. Why did they do that? What have the consequences been? Who actually profited from this action?"

In high school, I would have loved to have been given a question like this and a couple of weeks to find answers.

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aretee
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That is a good idea. There would have to be a way of eliminating hindsight, though. My students are really bad at saying,

"Uh, if some many civil war soldiers died of infection after getting shot, why didn't they just wash out the wounds to stop the infection?"

But I guess that is just conditioning and I can help nip that in the bud in the beginning by training them to ask certain questions before developing their conclusions...huh?

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Belle
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sadly, aretee I never had any good world history teachers. [Frown] I just didn't like the subject.

One project my high school English teacher did that I still remember, was he made us choose a historical figure to write about, but it had to be a 20th century figure and couldn't be a president.

I think he also outlawed Martin Luther King, Jr. because he wanted us to focus on figures and the history surrounding them that we otherwise didn't focus on.

I chose Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox. [Smile] I had to read a book on World War II, and do reasearch in the library, and I learned a heckuva lot about the war than I ever learned in History class.

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dkw
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In seventh grade World History we had to do an illustrated timeline. We did it in groups of two or three and each group got a roll of newsprint. We had to choose three major and two minor events/places/people/topics from each period. The major topics had to have two paragraphs of text under the illustrations, the minor had to have one paragraph. Most of them ended up being 75-100 ft long.

***

I think that hurricanes alternate male and female names these days. The lists are made before the year starts, so everybody knows what each hurricane will be called.

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Narnia
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Hey aretee! I have an idea...

In my high school western civ class we had to do a project every quarter or something like that. He gave us a list of things we could do and we had to choose a different one every quarter.

One of the options was to make a travel brochure for the specific section of history we were covering. I had to do one on ancient Egypt. The brochure had to advertise Egypt like it WAS, complete with a list of all the things to do there, people to meet, places to see, and interesting facts. It also needed pictures, whether drawn or color copied...

Another project was similar, but we had to act like we'd traveled wherever it was ourselves during that time and stayed for a week. We had to keep a diary of where we went, who we spoke with and what we did every day. I did that one on ancient Rome and it had to include cool facts about the place, pictures we'd taken etc.

Another one I did was to build a model of a structure from that time period with labels of all the functional parts and descriptions. (I cheated on this one and used one of those 3-D puzzles of a medieval castle. But it was cool because I labeled all the archer lookouts and the court and everything.) My younger brother had to do one of the Shakespeare theater.

The last one I did was another travelling in time one, but we had to go meet two specific historical figures in different places or different time periods. We had to discuss what they did, their personalities and compare and contrast them. (If they were two rulers, how they ruled differently...generals...etc.) I remember I did Jesus Christ and Caesar Augustus. Fun huh?! [Wink]

These were some of the most fun projects I ever did...and they weren't too stressful. That was almost 10 years ago and I STILL remember them, so hopefully I learned something. [Smile] Hope this helps, have fun in your classroom!! I'm so glad you get to watch HSR. How could one possibly LIVE without Strongbad? [ROFL]

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Ralphie
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Woman! You better stick around now or it's coi'tains for ya. COI'TAINS. ::makes slicing motion over neck with finger::
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imogen
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Hi all... I'm a newbie and having fun just looking around and reading old posts - but I thought I'd finally contribute [Smile]

For a variation on the timeline idea: I saw this really cool one in New Zealand. This town, Wanaka, had done it as a millenium project - they'd covered 2000 years from 0 - 2000 AD and chosen significant world events for as many as the years they could (eg AD33 Jesus crucified, some of the different Chinese dynasties, discovery of USA/Australia/New Zealand).

Obviously the last 200 years were jam packed, and the first 1000 or so pretty light on facts, but it was very interesting.

It was done as a biiiiiiiiiiig footpath that you could walk along and read - very cool. Though probably a bit too massive an undertaking for a school class.

So there you go... [Wave]

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Noemon
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That is an interesting twist on the timeline idea. I saw something similar to that at Stonehenge, come to think of it.

Welcome to Hatrack! We've gotten a whole host of great new people lately, and I'm sure you'll fit right in!

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aretee
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Hey, thanks folks! I like the travel brochure idea...especially when we study the 3 major world religions. I think I'll have them do a brochure for Isreal.

I also think I'll have them write a parody song. Kinda like Weird Al. I'm thinking that's good for my AP classes. Then, oooooooooh! Then, I'll make them record it and make a video in Powerpoint.

Thanks, Hatrackers, you really help me figure things out! The wheels are churning.

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Noemon
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Which three religions? I can only narrow it down to four really big ones--Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism. I guess if I *had* to narrow it down the three I'd drop Hinduism, since it's never really had the evangelical angle that the other three have, but that's cutting out the religion of a huge number of people.
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aretee
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Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. I will teach about Buddism and Hinduism, but the Isreal brochure will cover the first three.
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Noemon
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You know, one thing you could do that would definitely be unconventional, but could be really helpful for having them learn the geography of a region really well would be to have them create a Civ III map of the area being studied, with all of the cities in their correct geographical locations. I suppose that that probably wouldn't be feasible--I don't know how your school would respond to your request to have a game installed on your classroom's PCs, and there is a learning curve to the map editor that would conceivably take away from class or study time, but it's a thought. I know that I've sharpened my geographic skills doing that kind of thing, and really, I can read 50 different books talking about this group or that conquoring, say, Transoxiana, but until I actually have a mental map of where it is, it's all pretty abstract to me, and the importance of the place is hazy to me at best, even if I read an essay telling my why. That could just be my style of learning though.

Anyway, while my suggestion might not work as an actual assignment, it might be the kind of thing you could offer extra credit for.

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TomDavidson
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Okay, I'm confused. Why are your "three major world religions" all Judeo-Christian? I mean, can you think of ANY decent reason for Judaism to be on the list, but not Buddhism or Hinduism?
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aretee
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Tom do you want to read my whole post, or should I quote it again for you?

quote:
Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. I will teach about Buddism and Hinduism , but the Isreal brochure will cover the first three.
emphasis added...

Edit: the brochure is just ONE assignment.

[ August 05, 2003, 10:57 AM: Message edited by: aretee ]

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Ophelia
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I had pretty bad social studies teachers in high school, so I don't have anything to add there.

But I'm glad you're back, and I'm glad you like it in Texas. [Smile]
<------Will be back in Houston in about a week and a half! [Big Grin] [Big Grin] [Big Grin]

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