clair055

A few years ago I paid homage to my Uncle Buck for his service to our country during the very early morning hours of June 6, 1944 by writing Gliding Into D-Day .   Feel free to obtain a little background if you wish by clicking through and reading it first. My uncle….Flight Officer Cyrus S. Carson…. was a glider pilot. Gliders were actually the first stealth aircraft used by the military. The Gibson Refrigerator Co. received contracts from the U.S. Army Air Force for the production of CG-4A troop carrying gliders, and was one of 15 companies to do so. Each glider was made up of 70,000 individual parts.   Gibson built over 1,000 of the nearly 14,000 CG-4A gliders constructed during the war. On the morning of June 6, 1944, Cyrus S. Carson was flying as pilot in command and John Winkler was flying co-pilot in a WACO CG-4A glider similar to the one I’ve posted below. Both men had graduated as second lieutenants from advanced flight training in 1943 from Lubbock, Texas. A WA...

Look at this picture.   Observe it very carefully.  You can click on the pictures to isolate them and make them a little larger Yes, you see soldiers proceeding up a street, but notice that you are actually looking at two images…..one from World War II and another from more contemporary times of the same location. A historical mix…of sorts. Think about the impact this could have on students of history.   Think about the connections that students could make between historical content and their surroundings. These pictures are the work of historical expert Jo Teeuwisse from Amsterdam.   This article from the Daily Mail states she began superimposing images from different time periods of the same location after finding 300 old negatives at a flea market in her home city depicting familiar places in a very different context. Here is a second example of her work....... Like Miss Teeuwisse I think this process of making war scenes or any historical image have meaning by l...

Cute Young Man approached my desk rather gingerly because he knew he shouldn’t be up.   First, since it was our “silence is golden” time – that time I allotted on the plan book during the week for students to read aloud anything they wanted to from my classroom library, so he shouldn’t have been out of his seat since I had already given everyone a chance to choose their reading material, and we had already rotated through the restrooms.      Secondly, since I read something during this time as well……I really didn’t like being interrupted. Cute Young Man whispered, “Elementaryhistoryteacher, I need to ask you something.” Hmmm….that was obvious since he was standing beside me during “silence is golden” time, but I decided not to mention that and said, “What do you need, Cute Young Man?” He had a book in his hand….not one of mine, but it didn’t matter.   Students could bring items from home to read.   The important thing was that my students  we...

Our greatest generation, those men and women who got us through World War II, keeps getting smaller as time marches on.   In fact, it is estimated 1,000 to 1,200 men and women who lived through the Great Depression and volunteered to serve during the war are dying every day.   In just a few short years we will see the sad story on the news telling us how the very last World War II soldier has passed on.     This really hits home with me since I firmly believe that one of the most important stories regarding World War II to get across to students has to be the various stories of the people who participated in the war effort.    They volunteered, they participated, and they sacrificed.   In today’s society of entitlement and sensationalism I think it’s important for students to see a different view regarding citizenship. Sonlight Pictu res Blog explains the importance of teaching about the greatest generation much more eloquently than I can stating, “Th...

My niece and sister sent this link to me the other day. It is an obituary for the grandparent of one of my niece’s friends. This line caught my eye: [Mr.] Max [Howard Medert] was a WWII Army veteran who proudly served as one of “Merrill’s Marauders” in China, Burma and India. Following his military career, he served on the city of Atlanta Police Force , retiring after 25 years of service. Now, just the fact that Mr. Medert had 25 years of service with the Atlanta Police Force is commendable, but he also was a member of Merrill’s Marauders in China, Burma and India. Wow! What? You don’t know about Merrill’s Marauders? I’m not surprised. You see, the China-India-Burma theater of war during World War II is basically forgotten by the history books mainly because it did not follow the standard American command structure, but it is key in studying the push toward VJ Day and in realizing some of the roots of today’s modern army. It was during their Quebec meeting in August, 1943 when Preside...

This post first appeared here at History Is Elementary in May,2007 . Enjoy! Look at my title. Balloon. Bomb. Separated each word means something very different and the concepts they represent are on opposite ends of the desirable and undesirable spectrum depending on the situation. Of course, when you place the words together the concept they represent (water balloons) can also reside on opposite ends of the desirable and undesirable spectrum. Having a balloon bomb fall on you when you least expect it is not a desirable situation. Watching a water balloon drench someone you are upset with can be a great thing. Playing with water balloons on a hot summer day is a very desirable situation for many, however, believe me when I state being appointed as the adult who gets the honor of filling 200 water balloons for a field day event is not a desirable situation Today’s 13 list doesn’t deal with just bombs, or just balloons, or even balloon bombs filled with water. The balloon bombs that are...

Lesson Planning 101 teaches that students must be engaged in the lesson for learning to take place. Charlotte Danielson of the Educational Testing Service states students should not simply spend “time on task” but should be actively involved in the curriculum. She calls it “minds-on learning.” In fact many researchers have shown that teachers who are most successful develop activities with students’ basic psychological and intellectual needs in mind (Ames, Alderman & Midgley, and Strong, et. al.). Those statements sound good to me. I agree with them, however, I often feel as if I am doing a frantic tap dance attempting to keep everyone focused and learning at the same time. Spinning plates is the best way I know how to describe delivering instruction in a classroom that has quite a menu of interruptions from loose teeth, unannounced visitors, and the ever squawking intercom. From time to time the content I teach actually gives me aide and comfort and makes my tap dancing steps a li...

It was just another Sunday…..but it turned out to be a day that would live in infamy. Today we remember the attack on Pearl Harbor. Follow this link to my postings regarding Pearl Harbor.