Hey! Useful stuff here!!

[Jacen McCullough]

Hey all. Here's a thread I've been anxious to start for months, but until this forum, just never had the proper place. If you've ever come across something and said to yourself, "that would be great to use in a lesson," post it here. If you are currently using something, be it a handy webpage, graphics, whatever, that you think would be useful to other educators, post it here. I'll start off with this little gem:


http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-valley?id=AD1008&tag=public&images=images/modeng/A&data=/texts/english/civilwar/diaries&part=0



This is a link to a University of Virginia page containing an authentic diary of a civil war soldier named James Beard. It shows the way soldiers lived and died during the war, depicting the way it really was. This page would be a good way to incorporate reading into a History class without sacrificing content.

Here is another page, showing a possible activity using the Beard link:

http://pages.towson.edu/mhofer/istc301/materials/beard.html

[Iceblink]

I'll start off with this little gem:


Finally had a chance to look through that diary. I love first-hand accounts like that. For that Sunday school class I mentioned in another thread, I use a lot of letters, etc. from the soldiers.

It's very interesting to see the Jewish perspective of the Civil War. A lot of people don't know that Jews fought on both sides. I have copies of Rabbis' sermons both for and against slavery. Crazy times! Interesting around Passover, when the soldiers from each side would sometimes find a nice Jewish family from the other side and have a seder at the home of the enemy.

The real stuff hits home with the kids... especially younger kids... especially when it's written by other kids.

When we were doing a story that took place around the time of the Great Depression, I used some of the letters that children wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt. They heard from little girls who couldn't go to school and had no clothes... asking for Mrs. Roosevelt's old dresses that she might not want...

And some of the kids got responses from a secretary. Very moving stuff.

[needs]

Great thread. All the digital stuff that's been put up in the last few years is amazing. Unfortunately, I think you have to be on university servers that subscribe to get a lot of this stuff. Here are a few of my favorites.

Valley of the Shadow Project (I think this is open to the public)

I think this is the best historical website ever done. It's a massive digital archive that traces the reactions of the people of two communities (Augusta County, Virginia and Franklin County, PA) to the Civil War. It's got letters, soldier's records, battle maps, newspapers, freedmen's accounts, images. It's truly amazing if you're teaching the Civil War in any depth.

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/


Proquest Historical Newspapers

A fully searchable digital archive of the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor and other papers. The search pulls up a digital photo of the articles themselves. Great tool for showing how historical events were perceived at the time.

http://www.il.proquest.com/proquest/features/feature-04/default.shtml

I'll put more up later, but check out the Valley of the Shadow

Edit: I just looked at the diary Jacen posted and it's got to be off the same sight.

[bungadiri]

For anyone wanting to teach about mainland SEA:

http://www.mekong.net/

[needs]

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/hypertex.html#c_d

I just found this site while putting a class for the fall together. It's got hypertext versions of classic American studies books (from Ben Franklin's Autobiography to 20th century stuff like DuBois and John Dewey). It's also got some really cool stuff under the museum link on the left side. A walkthrough of the 1913 Armory Show, stuff on Grant Wood and the 1893 Columbian Exposition.

The really cool thing though is in the 1930s section. They have RealPlayer radio broadcasts of programs and commercials from the 1930s. I'm definitely using some of these.

[Jacen McCullough]

If anybody is going to be teaching Chaucer's Canterbury Tales anytime soon, I put this together if you want to use it:

http://tiger.towson.edu/~soneil4/internship/pilgrims.htm


It describes what each of the pilgrims on the trip did for a living.

It seemed to go over pretty well when I did a bit teach on Tuesday (I LOVE being in the professional year of the Education major!!!).

[Iceblink]

If anybody is going to be teaching Chaucer's Canterbury Tales anytime soon, I put this together if you want to use it:


Cool. I started Canterbury Tales yesterday with the intro to Henry II v. Thomas.

[MikeLastort2]

For fans of Roman History, Bill Thayer has put together an incredible site of links to sites all over the Roman world

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/home.html