A teacher's help needed

Students do you feel as though one of your worst classes is your history class. I know I'm not alone and I think we should do something to change that. I think part of the reason we dislike history so much is that thw makers of text books make the information so boring and dry. I think students should be taught the truth, even if it is grusome or offensive. If it brings excitement to the class room and in return has kids more interested, wouldnt it be worth a try??

Paper decays, blogs are eternal!!!

It seems this quarter of history has blown right by me. Mostly because when I look into my notebook I see that the only things I've written are my notes. What happened to all the questions and assignments I've been so used to having to write in the past? The countless notebooks and pens wasted on stuff I toss at the end of the year? That's because all of our assignments have been converted into weekly blog post that we post here. I think it has made this class a lot less boring and also I have been more motivated to do the homework. I feel that now when I write a 600 word essay its saved somewhere that I will able to access it anytime, where all the papers I have written in the past have been thrown away. For once I actually feel as if I am learning and accomplishing something thanks to the ability to look back and read these posts.

There is such a thing as fun homework!

We were asked which blog post for our history class we liked doing best. Most of them were not bad but my favorite has to be the one where we played Oregon Trail and wrote about it. The exact question was, "Play Oregon Trail. Discuss how gaming could potentially connect with learning." This allowed us to play a game that had to deal with westward expansion and then write about how it could be a effective learning tool. I think more teachers should look to stuff students enjoy doing to help us learn.

Needles and chains

After reading the lyrics to a song that was sung in a textile mill titled "The Song of The Shirt" I think about what I am wearing. This song kind of depicts the life of a poor woman working in a textile mill. She talks about her fingers being worn from all the sowing. Her eyes heavy from the long hours. Even the stars shining through the windows which leaves you to believe they worked late into the night. I think life was beyond difficult for a worker in a textile mill, there were no safety standards like today which led to unsafe and unfit working conditions.

19 and mostly illiterate

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be an adult and not able to read? Well in pre-civil war times slaves were prohibited to learn to read or write. Slave owners thought this would keep then from creating a uprising against owners. However some slaves did learn to read and write secretly knowing that if caught the punishment was most likely death. Once all the slaves were free the ones who could not read were jobless, they had to teach themselves or find a slave who could read to teach them. It was a very hard life.

Here lies Tyler...

Okay so this week we had to play the classic Oregon trail and see how we did, well i died. The question behind it is that does it help children learn. I believe that it can help kids learn. It shows how tough it was to make the journey, how much it cost to move out there, and what different stops were on the trail. You also encountered delays most people could have faced moving west. Overall i do think the game can help you learn more about the Oregon trail.

Six Word Story

Heading west, harsh reality, never arrived