Edmodo

    If you are a teacher and you are not using Edmodo, well, you are just  clueless.  It is the quickest, easiest way to share with students and allow the students to collaborate or share with each other.  It operates like Facebook so the learning curve for use with regards to the students could not be shorter.  I can not say it is the same for teachers.
   
   File sharing is probably the best feature for me so far.  Since I am trying the flipped classroom the students have easy access to power points, screencasts, podcasts, documents and links to webpages and videos.  After a little practice it is so easy.  You can even administer quizzes and it not only grades it for you but will break down the most missed, etc.  Just amazing!!

   

Flipped Classroom

I am trying on experiment this year.  It is going well in some classes but not in others.  Advanced students seem to be able to keep pace and access the technology outside of the classroom more consistently and successfully.  I am have not tried video yet, I think I will try voice over a powerpoint. then maybe a video in the classroom.  I have had some medical difficulties but I will try to post here more frequently now.

A successful flipped classroom serves students so well in today's connected world.  Wish me luck. I will keep you posted.

Historian Rock Star - Walter Borneman

The next great up...Walter Borneman!!!!  He has quietly, well not so lately, been writing excellent readable narrative history for years.  I am proud to day that I own several of his works and am currently reviewing The French and Indan War, Deciding the Fate of North America.  It sits proudly on the shelf next to Dr. Fred Anderson's The War That Made America and Parkman's book on Wolfe and Montcalm.  Check out Borneman's latest on the only four men to make the rank of fleet admiral in Admirals.  Thank you for all of your great work!  I just your Polk volume on my Amazon wish list!

The Cleveland Tumor

   Just the motivation of a president to take such personal risk for the sake of the country.  Cleveland decided to make the surgery secret, which increased the risk exponentially, to keep the confidence of the people steady after the Panic of 1893.  The surgery was a secret long after the Panic and the president were gone.  If a modern president made such a gamble, would we even know?  Even twenty years later?  Read Matthew Algeo's The President Is A Sick Man, about the surgery, the coverage, the doctors, etc.  It is a wonderful read about an interesting subchapter of American presidential history.

Dr. Don Fehrenbacher, Historian of the Week

This week's historian of the week is Don Fehrenbacher.  Dr. Fehrenbacher is the author of The Dred Scott Case: Its Signifiance is American Law and Politics which won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1979.  In the same year, Dr. Fehrenbacher won the distinguished Lincoln Prize from the Gettysburg College which is the highest annual award for Civil War Studies in the nation.  He held many distinguished visiting chairs at several universities including Oxford, LSU and the College of William and Mary.

   His work is remarkable.  He was working on a constitutional history of slavery when he died in 1997.       His influence still lives in a generation of American history scholars and his work graces the bookshelves of many more, including mine. 

Historian Rock Star of the Week (okay sometimes monthly). Edward Larson!

Edward Larson is best know for his book Summer of the Gods: The Scopes Trail and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion which won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1998.  He is currently a visiting professor at Stanford University.  He holds the Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University and recently held a similar chair at the University of Georgia.  I have the pleasure of owning his effort at on the 1800 presidential campaign, A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign.  It is a great narrative piece illustrating the importance of the first partisan campaigning which results in the peaceful change of government from one political party to another.  A testament to our democracy.  If you want the facts in a clear written narrative with insight from a keen mind, this is the book.  Great, work Dr. Larson!  I look forward to your next publication.

Photo taken from University of Arkansas press release.

The Presidential Office

After the Rose Garden interruption of the president's speech I felt compelled to say something.  I have no memory of other presidents receiving the absurd lack of respect as the current president.  From the "You lie!", to Jan Brewer's finger, to the O'Riley interview to the Rose Garden. Come on!!  I know that many Americans do not like the president and that is fine.  But like it or not, he is the president.  And even if you do not respect the man, you should respect the office.  There is a certain level of decorum which is not present.  The real truth lies under and is only hinted at...so...I will go ahead and say it.  It is because he is black?  Black, orange, purple, or pink the president should receive the level of respect that his office commands.  And that does not include finger pointing.

Roanoke Colony, New Clues?

The mystery is one more step to being solved.  Centuries without checking on patches on an original map?  Really? Check out the link for the story.  I think that there may be resistance to tearing up the golf course that the archeological evidence may be buried under since it was designed by Arnold Palmer.

This image was taken from Fox News image, on-line.


See the story on Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/lost-colony-of-roanoke-re_n_1474199.html

Native Americans - No future, no citizenship?

As of June 2, 1924, the Secretary of Interior was authorized by Congress to issue certificates of citizenship to Indians.  Until then, Indians were considered members of foreign nations and therefore were not subject to or protected by U.S. or state law.  Used, abused, subjugated.....and finally..still are not treated equally or even well.  There is no future for a Native American that wants to maintain any semblance of real traditional cultural heritage.  Tragic.  Check out the congressional act at the National Archives.

Justified

I love this FX TV series. It is based on a short story by Elmore Leonard.  It is the way that I like to imagine U.S. Marshals to really be in law enforcement.  I own all of the previous seasons and was introduced to Elmore Leonard this way.  It is rumored that due to the popularity of the show, on which he is a consultant, has prodded Leonard to write another story about Marshal Givins.   The casting of the show could not be more perfect.  I am afraid that this may have typecast Timothy Olyphant as a police officer, though.

Justified!!!! 

Charter Schools,Comments on public school

I have just become a follower for Diane Ravitch's blog, a well respected scholar of public education in the United States. Her last post about the ability of charter schools to market themselves vs the public community school is an interesting observation that I have not thought of before.  For-profit charters and the ones that really get me.  I do not see how a public service like health care and education can be effectively run for profit if not at the expense of the customer, i.e., you.  After 11 years as an educator, I can honestly tell you that it can not be run as a business and fulfill the expectations of the public.  It is messy, sometimes slow and addresses such a myriad of issues it is unfathomable.

Luckily, we still have a large public commitment to public schools in Texas that charters have not made very much headway and their performance has been really spotty.  School budgets are tight, just as all governments budges are, so the future will be really interesting as it is the majority of the public expenditure by the state.  More and more expenses are just being handed down to the districts and the state wonders why things are getting missed. 

Oh,  and anyone outside of Texas that wonder about teacher's unions?  Organizing Ppublic protest and some lobbying are all that that they can do.  Texas is a right to work state, no strikes or collective bargaining here.  So, want to see an independent minded states failing in education and looking for solutions?  Look no further than Texas.

Pauline Maier - Super Star

   Now that STAAR is over and I am bedridden with colitis, probably because of it, I have time to blog, look for centennial celebrations for the War of 1812, set up an edublog, renew my DEN status, search prezi, look at Goodreads, catchup on reading, watch war movies to celebrate Memorial Day.

  Anyhow, enough suspense,our next historian as a rock star is...Pauline Maier.  She is truly a Rolling Stone star status among early American scholars, right there with distinguished names such as Gordon Wood (who I consider a god of American History), Edmund S. Morgan and Bernard Bailyn.  Her work has been well-written, researched and arguably some of the best Neo-Whig argument in print.  I especially enjoyed "From Resistance to Revolution".  Currently a chair of American History at MIT, Dr. Maier continues to teach and preach the importance of the origin and development of American thought of government and principle. I do not know if she has anything else in the works after "Ratification", but I will be looking forward to more of her scholarship. 

  Her photo was copied from her faculty page at MIT.

  

Paul Boller, Jr., the Anecdotal Historian

      I have enjoyed both Dr. Boller's Presidential Anecdotes and to a lesser degree, Congressional Anecdotes.  I do not know what it is about Congressional histories. I think that I am disappointed about the lack of "good stuff" that I know exists but is in abstentia in many of the works produced about our national Congress. Bourbon soaked poker games between Truman and Rayburn, the machinations of Joe Cannon, Speaker Reed's reign, etc.  Dr. Boller did a good job but I was extremely disappointed in the history of the House of Representatives that Dr. Remini, now House historian, produced and published with the Smithsonian.  So disappointed that I gifted it.  Back to Dr. Boller, his Presidential Anecdotes has been instrumental in "dressing up" my lectures in my American history survey course.  If you have not read it, it is worth your time.
     The other great thing about Dr. Boller is that he was a professor at TCU.  Though he retired long before my time there as an undergraduate, I really appreciate the work of this accomplished historian.

The photo was taken from on on-line pic by the TCU Daily Skiff about a 2011 episode of "History Detectives".

Parks and Recreation

I just finished season three on Netflix.  Hilarious!!!  I will not watch this one on network tv.  I will not conform my schedule to programs and on Netflix the episodes average a bit over twenty minutes...not like television.  Thinking about checking out The League or Archer.  I am looking for the funny.

Historian Rock Star of the Week - Harlow Giles Unger

  Mr. Unger is no stranger to readers of revolutionary era biographies.  I have recently read his biography of James Monroe, The Last Founding Father, James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness.  The research was superb and the writing was even better.  I would put his readability close to that of Joseph Ellis, who is the biggest rock superstar of current living historians.  Mr. Unger just does not have that star power yet.  Both Unger and Fleming are on the cusp of the all-time hall of famer list in my library of scholarly works.  I plan toreadUngerbioof Patrick Henry, Lion of Liberty, in the near future.  I look forward to the next bio to flow from Mr. Unger's pen.

Photo is taken from Mr. Unger's website, harlowgilesunger.com 

Political View - Republican Primary

Jon Huntsman is the most qualified of the Republican field to me.  Executive experience as governor of Utah, great record of service as governor, ambassador to China, what really is there not to like?  Oh yeah, he is a moderate which dooms him in the ultra-right Republican primary that pushed candidates so far to the right of the American public they have to sprint to moderate positions after the primaries to have half of a chance.  Come on!!!  Huntsman is the only one I would consider!  Romney does not seem principled at this point.

Dr. Brian Linn - Rock Star, this week!

   If you want well researched and written volumes on the Philippine War, you can not do better. Dr. Linn is currently teaching at Texas A&M University.  He is the Ralph R. Thomas Professor of Liberal Arts and is a well respected military historian.  In addition to being a visiting professor at the Army War College , recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, Woodrow Wilson Fellowship,he has received two book prizes from the Society for Military History. Thanks for your great research and work!  I look forward to reading Guardians of Empire, even though the UNC Press misspelled your name on front cover.  Do not worry, I have already written to them.

The photo was taken from the Texas A&M Dept. of History website.

Weekly Rock Star - Richard Beeman

Dr. Beeman recently published Plain, Honest Men (Random House, 2009) which was rightfully awarded the George Washington Book Prize..  Dr. Beeman is the John Welsh Centennial Professor of History and long-time faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a respected authority on the American Revolution Era and is currently working on a prequel to this last work which will concentrate on Continental Congress between 1774-1776. Keep up the great work, Dr. Beeman! I am looking forward to more of your insight on the founding of our great experiment in democracy!


The photo of Dr. Beeman was taken from the UPenn faculty site.