Idea Stack for history

[scwilliams at cji.net]

Mark Greenberg got me started with Rev.  I am still struggling and haven't
had a lot of time to work with Rev.  I read everyone's post with interest
and absolute no-clue as to what they are talking about.  I keep telling
myself it will make sense when I sit down and really get knee deep in the
program.  Mark has promised to help when I get ready.  

Our educational facility is dedicated to the continuing education of Law
Enforcement.  I'm the Computer Instructor.

BUT I still like to read Mark Twain!

Sandy Williams
Direct: 501-570-8076
Fax: 501-565-3081
"If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, 
change the way you think about it." - Mary Engelbreit


-----Original Message-----
From: Lisa Westbrook [mailto:lisa at onebranch.org] 
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2005 12:31 PM
To: Revolution in Education
Subject: Idea Stack for history

Sandy,

Thanks for sharing this.  I came across this site a few days ago.

http://www.marktwainhouse.org/theman/bio.shtml

I did not know Twain co-authored The Gilded Age.  We barely got past  
the Jumping Frog story in my high school!

I would love to see (or create if I ever get the competency)  a  
Runtime stack that covers the history of a particular author (or time  
period with several authors), with historical events filled in.

I made a little timeline in Runtime (with the help of my husband) but  
I'm sure how to post it yet for others to see, and its not finished.   
I've been trying to work on a paper version of a timeline project for  
elementary kids (that they could do with their parents and hang on  
the refrigerator), but then started thinking it would be great to do  
that in Runtime.

I saw the horizontal scroll bar at www.riverventure.org (http:// 
www.riverventure.org/columbia/index.html)  and thought this would be  
a great way to do an indepth study of a time period.  I put the  
beginning date at one end of the scroll (in this case it was the  
1800s, so it was 1800 at one end and 1899 at the other end of the  
scroll bar)

Then I have a popup card for each year as I scroll from left to  
right.  On some I filled in events. Like 1804 was Louis Braille and  
1857 was Almanzo Wilder and 1880 was Helen Keller).  I have other  
events to fill in but then thought, maybe kids could do this? Then I  
could add appropriate graphics that relate to the event that can come  
up on the stack or on another stack that goes with it.

Now, I'm thinking this might be a good way to do tests for kids and  
teach them a little Runtime at the same time.  So if I have a stack  
that represents the 1800s (or it could be whatever period of time)  
then I could ask the kids to fill in the data on the cards, after  
they read historical fiction or nonfiction about the events. I could  
fill in a few as anchor spots on the timeline and they could go to  
town as they read and find out about others within that time.  Then  
each student would have different stuff and could share with each  
other.  I was thinking the sources for the data could be historical  
fiction and nonfiction, source documents from history, and even  
information from students oral history interviews of their own family  
history.

Could some of the veteran users on this list let me know if this  
thinking is logical?  It seems like I could copy the stack 15 times  
if I had 15 kids in my class, and give each one their own stack to  
fill in.  Should I proceed or does this sound crazy?  Seems like if  
it would work, we could reduce paper usage in the classroom.


Thanks again Sandy!

Lisa






On Jul 29, 2005, at 8:54 AM, scwilliams at cji.net wrote:

Hey All
I took a class on Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens at the University of  
Maryland,
Germany Campus.  I really enjoyed one of his little read books, A Tramp
Abroad.  We were able to visit some of the places he visited which  
helped
understand the book a little better.

I have a minor in history only because I took so many classes in history
just for fun.  While in Germany, I took a class just on WWII.  We  
were able
to visit many of the main battle sites and a few less known sites.   
We had
speakers from both sides of the war.  It was very interesting and
informative.  My German landlord flew a spy plane.  They were very  
ashamed
when they discovered that Hitler was such a bad man.  They had Jewish
neighbors that just disappeared.  At the time they thought they had just
moved they never say anything unusual or disturbing happening.  They  
lived
in a very quiet neighborhood.  Their description of their life during  
the
war doesn't match any of the Hollywood pictures.

Just thought I would share.

Sandy Williams
Direct: 501-570-8076
Fax: 501-565-3081
"If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it,
change the way you think about it." - Mary Engelbreit
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