A Look Back...

     Right now I have a few classes that are working on projects dealing with Colonial America.  I found this website this morning that I thought was really special because it actually has scans of original documents from that era!  It is called Archiving Early America and not only does it have these original documents, it has maps, portraits of many people who were influential during this time period, videos to watch about events, actual obituaries of famous people, and much more.  This site is great for the students because it really gives them a chance to look at life during that time and get exposure to the events that shaped our history.  

     Now you wonder what to do with all of the information that you have gathered from this site?  Have the students go to Museum Box and create their own "box" of goodies to share.  This site is great because it is made for teachers.  There is a place to set up a teacher account and add student accounts under you.  I like this part of it because it keeps the user anonymous to the outside world, yet gives your students a place to create and share. What is Museum Box?  It is an online box that gives you a place to collect and store images, video clips, and text to help support an idea or argument.  This would be something that you would use as a visual representation to aid you while you spoke about a topic.  Teachers can use this to present a new topic to the class as well.  Each box has 8 cubes inside, and each cube can hold information on each side of the cube.  Many of us worry about copyright issues with pulling pictures and information from the web.  I tend to keep one side of each cube for a "link stash" to show where I got my objects or information for that particular cube.  It is easy to create a box, and once you get comfortable with creating them then you could have your students create one for a graded project.  I feel we have them do too many projects that just has them create, print, and hand in.  It is nice to get them used to standing up and presenting information to their peers.  Using this site gives them the visual cues they need to present the information they have learned and it also helps to keep the audience engaged in the presentation.
     Another quick point to make: if you are going to have students create a museum box, it would be a good idea to teach them about Thomas Clarkson and how the presentation boxes got their start.  The idea for thie Museum Box Website " project was inspired by the work of Thomas Clarkson.  Thomas Clarkson was described by the poet Samuel Coleridge as ‘a moral steam engine'. He was a red haired man who stood over 6 feet tall, who spent his long adult life working to abolish the transatlantic slave trade and slavery itself.  In an effort to gather hard facts about the slave trade, Thomas Clarkson visited many ports and went aboard the trading vessels. One of the first African trading ships Clarkson visited was called the ‘Lively'. It was not a slave ship but its cargo had a powerful impact upon Clarkson. The ship was full of beautiful and exotic goods; - carved ivory and woven cloth along with produce such as beeswax, palm oil and peppers. Clarkson could see the craftsmanship and skill that would have been required to produce many of the items. The idea that their creators could be made slaves was horrifying. Clarkson bought samples from the ship and started a collection that he added to over the years. The collection included crops and spices, raw materials along with the intricate goods produced with them. He kept this collection in a large box and used the contents to demonstrate the skill of Africans and the possibilities that existed for an alternative humane trading system, challenging the pro-slavery arguments." (copied from Museum Box Teacher's Area)
     Have fun and enjoy!  Do not feel overwhelmed with this.  Take the time to explore and use these tools before you introduce them to your students.  Know enough about the sites and how they work so that you can confidently guide your students to these great resources.  And as always, if you have questions about this please do not hesitate to contact me!