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Sic Semper Tyrannis
Today is July 3, 2013, the eve of our National Day of Independence. "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed," said the late Dr Martin Luther King, Jr..
Earlier today in Egypt, the Egyptian army deposed Mohamed Morsi, the country's first freely elected president. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Mediterranean, life rolls on. Mark Cavendish, the so-called missile from the Isle of Man, won today's stage of Le Tour de France. One has been dethroned; another has been crowned king, at least for the time being.
So, then, as I begin to use this blog as a learning tool, I would like to know how a secondary educator such as myself might use this blog to connect his students with history, both past and present? I open the floor to my fellow interns for discussion.
The great part about blogs is that you don't have to create the content. For a history class I think it would be especially useful. You could post a link to a current events story and then leave the question: "How does this event relate to something we've learned about this year?" (or) "Is the unrest in Egypt more like the French Revolution, the American Revolution or the Glorious Revolution? Give one reason why." I think that the blogs gives you a way to bring in more up-to-date content at a minimal cost.
ReplyDeleteI like the title. Although shouldn't the font be Orange?
I appreciate the connections you were able to draw in a few simple paragraphs between events of the present and the past. Your thoughtful summary helped to bring the events of the world into the palm of my hand, while also opening up time- past and present- and place, highlighting for me these grand scales we live within... There's always more layers to consider! I look forward to reading connections of history to the present that you will be sharing on this blog.
ReplyDeleteGreat work man, I love your tie in with current events. I think we could both really benefit from using technology in the classroom as history guys, especially tying it into current events. It will be very interesting to follow up on what happens in Egypt.
ReplyDeleteVery provocative post, especially considering today's world: Who are the literal and figurative kings and queens of today? How might they compare with those of yesteryear?
ReplyDeleteAnd, a great job at pulling together different geographical and temporal lines into a history nexus that might spur a discussion about different topics that seem potentially relevant to your students' backgrounds and interests.
As for technology, I agree with the other comments that have already been provided to you. Perhaps getting students to use the blog as a news network, whereby each student is responsible for reporting on a specific part of the country and/or world, perhaps in conjunction with other writing experiences/assignments (e.g., letters, journals, and artwork). It might allow them to see how the written texts of history are crafted and become useful to historians for discovering and re-imagining the past. This could be especially relevant to getting students to develop the skills they might need for document-based questions, for keeping them engaged with the micro- and macro-levels of community that surround them and abound beyond each new horizon, and, hopefully, to appreciate history as something other than simply learning some names and dates.