clair055

I went to see the movie Lincoln last weekend. I loved it! I’m looking forward to seeing it again…and again. The movie covers the time period from January, 1865 to April 9 at the end of the war and five days later when President Lincoln was assassinated. Spielberg had already begun to develop the idea of a movie concerning Lincoln, but after attending a luncheon for historians where he met and spoke with Doris Kerns Goodwin he decided to base his project on her book, Team of Rivals , however, the scope of the book…..the scope of Lincoln’s presidency is too large and complex a subject to digest into a movie format. Spielberg had to decide what to focus on, and I’m pleased he decided to focus on the struggle to end the war and most importantly the wheeling and dealing that was necessary to get the 13 th amendment passed. Here are 13 little tidbits regarding the movie…. 1.Spielberg and his team spent over twelve years researching the movie.   The attention to detail far outweighs ot...

I began my morning yesterday realizing I had a few things to do that didn't have anything to do with any of my goals or work....making appointments for others....finding paperwork for others....washing clothes for others....and thinking about two or three projects I needed to finish up for others. It's not that I mind doing these things...hardly.  I like to help, but more and more I find my day is full doing a list of things that don't have anything to do with a table of contents I must flesh out, articles to write, and seeing writing opportunities......or at least answering the emails when the opportunities seek me out. Just a normal day for me as I grew more frustrated by the minute, but this time my thinking and my realizing left my brain, moved down my arms and out my fingers to a Facebook status that said, "I wear too many hats that aren't mine...some by misguided choice, some that are inherited and some are foisted upon me.  I'm going to stop.  Take your ...

Happy President's Day!!! When I was younger we didn’t have a day to celebrate all U.S. Presidents.  Instead we split the day in two and recognized Abraham Lincoln and George Washington since their birthdays were both in February…..so, I’m linking to two past articles.  The first involves Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation.  This article originally appeared at History Is Elementary as well as American Presidents Blog in 2008.  You can view it here. This post appeared at History Is Elementary in 2007 and detailed a famous image we have of George Washington at Valley Forge.   I discuss how I used the image in the classroom and how controversy should not be avoided…but embraced to help students discover for themselves those areas that are white or black…but most of the time controversial areas are really just…. gray.

Haiti…it’s been a week and one day since the devastating earthquake and every day we hear more and more heartbreaking stories tempered with a triumph here and there. As I write this post one major news outlet reports 200,000 dead and 1.5 million homeless….and now a second earthquake. Heartbreaking…. Haiti has had such a sad and terrible history considering certain accolades. Haiti was the first independent nation in Latin America. The island-nation is the first black-led country in the world from post-colonial times, and Haiti has the distinction of being the only nation that gained independence as part of a successful slave rebellion. Yet…..falling victim to such a horrific natural disaster isn’t the only time Haiti has fallen prey to hard times. Times have always been hard for Haiti. The list is long, but to be brief I have to mention exploitation at the hands of the Spanish, the process of being racked with infectious diseases brought by the so-called civilized Europeans and the vir...