Extra Credit: What is the Iditarod?

We've got a room full of curious students who really enjoy using technology and writing about things that interest them so I thought it might be fun to offer a challenge for some extra credit!

The Iditarod is a very famous sporting event that takes place every year at the beginning of March. Here's a video to give you an idea of what the Iditarod is all about...



Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to research this incredible race and then share what you've learned with the class. You can create a Prezi, PowerPoint presentation or video, write a book, give a speech... or whatever you'd like! Most of the work for the project will be done at home but I am happy to help you with any resources you need. You can do the work on your own or team up with a classmate or two. There is no due date for this assignment.

http://iditarod.com/

Long Ago and Today

One of the second grade standards in History Social Science is:

• 2.1 Students differentiate between things that happened long ago and things that happened yesterday.

Some related Historical and Social Sciences Analysis Skills in the area of Chronological and Spatial Thinking are:

• Students correctly apply terms related to time, including past, present, future, decade, century, and generation.
• Students explain how the present is connected to the past, identifying both similarities and differences between the two, and how some things change over time and some things stay the same.

As we address these standards, we'll be looking at some images from the Library of Congress website. If you click on an image below, you'll be taken to the LoC website link for the photo.

 

Other images:
Classroom photo we looked at last week http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b04325
Classroom with inside of desks visible http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b31080
Field trip http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a30669 
School house http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.id0029/photos.060288p
School house http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hhh.pa0602/photos.135986p
Children playing in school yard  http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b15512

I recently attended a workshop about the Library of Congress website put on by The California History-Social Science Project. Here's a blurb about it from their website:

In partnership with The Library of Congress the California History Social-Science Project (CHSSP) has joined a special consortium to provide professional development for teachers as part of their Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program. Over 150 teachers across the state, including 25 in Orange County and 25 in San Diego County, will have the opportunity to take part in this free program that promises to support instructional use of primary sources in the classroom. 

I really enjoyed the workshop and appreciated the emphasis on inquiry. I have had quite a bit of training in the use of inquiry for instruction in science, math and art so it's great to see that trend continuing. We have a follow up training this week - I can't wait to see what they have in store for us!