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.