Week before Holiday break

The last week before Christmas vacation is arguably the craziest of the year! There are so many obligations outside of school (parties, concerts, etc.), the students are overly excited for the Holiday break, looming here in New England is the possibility of a weather related closing or delay, and the business of school is expected to carry on as usual! By the last day before break this farce has all but collapsed. I used to wonder why schools would plan a half day on the day before the Holiday vacation, and I now know why! (Although my school district doesn't do this). The only positive, really, is that my online class ended this week for the semester and the next semester doesn't start until 1/27! My online class in VHS ends earlier than my face to face classes each semester which is a welcome break, but the trade off is that the VHS class goes 15 weeks with no breaks for holidays. So there are times when my face to face class is on a break but I still have to check on and "teach" my online class through VHS.

We started the week with the few remaining $35 Dollar Bill presentations. These presentations take several classes, but I always enjoy watching students rise to the challenge and talk about these important people.

Student Dollar Bill design featuring Martin Luther King Jr.

Another Student Dollar Bill showing the back side of a bill

After the presentations we moved back into the tensions of the 1850's. One activity I always enjoy is a role-play of the famous Dred Scott trial. Scott had been a slave who sued his new master for his freedom. The details of his case called into question the constitutionality of slavery in general, and the Missouri Compromise in particular. This case went all the way to the Supreme Court and result in the famous Dred Scott v. Sandford case.

Only photo of the famous Dred Scott

For this role-play I have two homemade puppets that I use (my wonderful wife Erica who is an Elementary School teacher made the puppet for me!). I portray the attorney for both Sandford and Scott and then I use the puppet so the students know who I am speaking on behalf of. The students are role-playing the supreme court and must come up with a decision based on the Constitution. Then we discuss what happened in real life and the significance. It should be noted that the decision of the Court in this case cemented the notion of the slavery being endorsed by the Constitution, which led many to conclude the only way to end it would be an amendment. With the nation so split that would be almost impossible, and so Civil War seemed plausible. The decision is criticized by many legal scholars today.

"Dred Scott"

"John Sanford"

Since we are talking in class about the Civil War, just before the break I always show some of the images and video from my Civil War tour. My colleague Mike Streeter and I were part of a Teaching American History Grant through the Maine Humanities Council in 2008-2010. As part of this Grant, in July of 2009 a group of teachers traveled to Gettysburg, Antietam, Harper's Ferry, Monticello, and Montpelier.

Cannon at the Gettysburg Battlefield

Virginia Memorial at Gettysburg

Myself and Mike Streeter at the famed Monument to the men of the 20th Maine Regiment who defended Little Round Top at Gettysburg

view of the 20th Maine Monument on Little Round Top

part of the Battlefield at Antietam

Me in front of "John Brown's Fort" where Brown was captured at Harper's Ferry

It was a busy week, but we made it to vacation! After the break we will be doing an inductive learning activity that I will blog about and finishing up the semester with iMovie projects in History v. Hollywood. So I will blog again in a couple weeks. Happy Holidays!!!