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As I posted last week, I was accepted into 2 different NEH Landmarks of American History programs. One of them is based in and around Saratoga, New York and focused on Fort Ticonderoga and the Revolutionary era. The other is based in Sacramento, California and focused on the Gold Rush in the 1850's. Unfortunately you are only allowed to attend one per summer. After some consideration of the pros and cons, I decided to accept the Gold Rush opportunity. My colleague, Mike Streeter, was accepted into the same program, and so the 2 of us will room together and start planning travel to get there the last week of June. For these programs, you do have to pay your own travel and hotel upfront, but in the end you receive a stipend that pays for all those costs and usually more. During our week in Sacramento we will be traveling to places like Sutter's Fort, Indian Grinding Rock, and Chaw’se Museum among other places. We will be exploring Old Sacramento, and with some down time we plan to go see a Sacramento River Cats game. The best part about it, is that we will leave the week with a common core aligned lesson plan or unit to use in our classrooms next year! It should be a lot of fun and I will of course blog about it.

World War Two was such an interesting time in History. Almost the whole world was embroiled in total war, and it seemed as if the very nature of freedom and the type of world that would exist was in the balance. This makes it one of my favorite topics to teach. Along with the stories from my grandparents who lived through this time period, it seems I can never get enough!

We spent some time this week analyzing the causes of the war in Europe and in Asia, and how the U.S. eventually got involved. We also analyzed some letters home form soldiers in the war. We used a clip from Ken Burns series The War, and read the actual letters of Babe Ciarlo.

I showed some images from my 2006 trip to Germany specifically connected to the legacy of the Holocaust in Germany today. This includes our powerful tour of the Concentration Camp at Dachau. Most have studied the Holocaust at some level, but its such an important issue that I think it can never be taught too much.

(All over the Jewish Quarter of Berlin are these gold cobblestones in front of the homes where Jewish people lived. Each cobblestone is one person never heard from again. On the stone it says when they were born and deported along with their name and where they were sent. The one above is a 12 year old girl sent to Auschwitz and never seen again. Very powerful for students!)

(one part of the Concentration Camp at Dachau, I am on the right in black pants)

(Larger than life photo of the liberation of the Camp in 1944, with the dead bodies from the Nazi attempt to kill the people in the camp before liberation)

(Guard tower at the camp)

(Entrance to the Concentration Camp at Dachau)

We wrapped up the week by analyzing propaganda in the form of popular cartoons from the era. These cartoons would never be shown on TV today as they are filled with racial and ethnic stereotypes. However, through the lens of an educational setting, these cartoons become powerful teaching tools for the analysis of stereotypes and propaganda. The Government's need to dehumanize the enemy to empower Americans to bring themselves to kill in the name of war plays a central role in these cartoons. It's always a great discussion, and one we can connect to the world today. We used a basic analysis sheet for this, and watched these cartoons: Private SNAFU- Spies, The Ducktators, Tokio Jokio, and Der Fuehrer's Face. It's important to remember with these cartoons, they are filled with racial and ethnic stereotypes and students need to be prepped for this and have a chance to discuss it after. It fits in with our theme as we have been looking at stereotypes and pop culture depictions throughout history.

In Psychology we looked at personality and perception this week. We did an experiment to illustrate the concept of Absolute Threshold. In Ethics we finished our interrupted discussion of evil, and moved into an analysis of the ethics of gender equality.

Next week is our last week before vacation. We will be wrapping up World War Two and starting to look at Civil Rights. We will also be watching the film "Awakenings" in Psychology class and students will be working on their projects for May 1st. In Ethics we will be debating the Ethics of the Death Penalty. Should be a fun week!