Washington DC

I just got home from a five day trip in Washington DC. This has been the third time that I have been in the city. Being from Kansas, it is amazing that the buildings are so tall. The building really blocks the sun sometimes. What I really wanted to tell you is that if you have a chance to go, GO!!!!!!! It is very moving and helps explain what being an American citizen really is. I always feel so proud to be an American. Being a history buff, Washington DC really helps bring history to life. I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in making DC what it is. It took a lot of money, insight, and a look into the future to get it right. Washington DC is done right. If you have a chance go see the memorials at night, than retrace your footsteps during the day. WOW!!!!!! That is the only way to check them out. Let's make sure we keep this going for our grandchildren.

Washington DC

I just got home from a five day trip in Washington DC. This has been the third time that I have been in the city. Being from Kansas, it is amazing that the buildings are so tall. The building really blocks the sun sometimes. What I really wanted to tell you is that if you have a chance to go, GO!!!!!!! It is very moving and helps explain what being an American citizen really is. I always feel so proud to be an American. Being a history buff, Washington DC really helps bring history to life. I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in making DC what it is. It took a lot of money, insight, and a look into the future to get it right. Washington DC is done right. If you have a chance go see the memorials at night, than retrace your footsteps during the day. WOW!!!!!! That is the only way to check them out. Let's make sure we keep this going for our grandchildren.

"Life"

I found the life assignment that we did id class to be interesting. It made me stop and think about what I have experienced. It also put pressure on me to stop and think about my life. I felt pressure when I could not come up with an event in a certain year. I felt better when I found out that other people had the same problem. Being one of the older ones in class I had to think back farther then most of the other students. It made me realize that I have seen a lot of history in my life time. When I think of what I have seen, it really makes me mad that I didn't keep good records of what was going on throughout my lifetime. Today made me want to stress to my children write down their experiences and keep a journal of their life. The changes that I have seen in my life, makes me wonder what they will see that will change their life. It was a good assignment for me to do .

"Agriculture Today"

Agriculture has always been a part of my life. I grow up in central Kansas where 65% of my graduating class either lived or worked on a farm. There were many small farms that were growing crops and raising cattle or hogs. I worked on a dairy farm when I was in the fifth grade all the way through high school. In our rural community most people worked in the oil field or on farms.
In 1979 I graduated from college and started teaching in Altamont, Kansas. At that time a little more than half of my students lived on a farm. Many of the farms in Labette County at that time were smaller family farms. Most of the farmers around here raised wheat, milo, corn, soybeans, and were making a fairly good living.
When I started teaching in Parsons most of my students were "city" kids. Most lived within the city limits and their parents did not work in any part of agriculture. Less than 30% of my students had any relative who owned a farm. Today there are less than 10% of my students living on farms. I have some that live in the country but their parents work in town. Parsons has alway been a a railroad, State Hospital, and ammunition plant town. Most of the students who have an interest in agriculture tend to go to Labette County School Districe #506 in Altamont. There has been quite a bit of land just north of Parsons that is being used for businesses, that used to be farmed.
In the summer I farm hay to sell. In the past five years I have noticed that more farmers in this area are raising cattle and not raqising crops. They feel that they can make more money using their land as pasture and keeping cattle on it. The farmers that have the means to raise crops seem to buy more land. This means that their is a decrease in the number of farms in the area. The big farms need land for livestock and crops, which is why they buy out the smaller farms. In the past five years we seem to sell more hay, but to fewer people. We seem to have to lease different fields to bail, to get the hay because of the land that hass become pasture.
I found this website Farm Subsidy Database for Labette County. It shows a graph fo the USDA subsidies in the county by year from 1995-2004. It shows there was an increase of subsidies in Labette County until 2000. From 2001 until 2004 there has been a steady decrease.

"Bakke Case"

I found The Bakke Case by Howard Ball to be a very interesting book. I was in high school and college in the 70’s and remember hearing about affirmative action and this case on television. The seventh grade Civics – Government standards do not cover affirmative action, but we can use affirmative action to cover some of the standards. The standards that would be covered would be benchmark 1, indicator 3 and benchmark 2, indicator 1.
The first thing that we need to do is to define what affirmative action is. We can talk about the Bakke case as well as the DeFunis case, The discussion of the two cases will help show the students the different courts, the lower courts, the State Supreme Court, and the United State Supreme Court. This will be a good time to discuss the fourteenth amendment and title six. I would hope that this would generate some discussion on how they feel about affirmative action. I currently have a son applying for medical school. I could discuss this with my students and make the situation more personal. I could ask my students if they could think of any other situation that might be example of affirmative action and how they feel about what happened in these examples.
This would be a great time to divide the class in to the different opinions about affirmative action and have a debate in class. I would like to take a couple of days for the debate to give the students a chance to research the fourteenth amendment and title six.

Vietnam - National Archives

Vietnam is still a subject that has Americans asking many unanswered questions. Growing up during the Vietnam “conflict”, I remember having many different emotions. Looking at the pictures on the National Archives website brought back memories of my life. I still feel a little disappointed that I could not have been a part of the conflict. I was too young to participate.
I do talk about Vietnam in my classroom; even through it is not part of my seventh grade history standards. I can cover some of the Civics standards by talking about Vietnam. The news about Vietnam was very seldom positive later in the conflict. When our veterans come back today they are welcomed with open arms. The patriotism today is more widespread than it was in the 70’s. Many of the Vietnam vets were looked down on. Many of them were spit on and treated very poorly. The protests against the Vietnam conflict were on the news daily. Below are two pictures from the National Archives that I will use in my class.



Photographs and other Graphic Materials, Arc Identifier: 283627 "Vietnam War Protesters. 1967. Wichita, Kans, 1967" Protesters carry signs and act out "Saigon Puppet" demonstration in front of Wichita City Building; Record Group 21: Records fo District Courts of the United States, 1685-1991; NARA's Central Plains Region (Kansas City) (NREKA), 2312 East bannister Road, Kansas City, MO 64131-301; EMAIL; kansascity.archives@nara.gov.





Photographs and other Graphic Materials, Arc Identifier: 283626 "Vietnam War Protesters. 1967. Wichita, Kans, 1967" Protesters carry signs and act out "Saigon Puppet" demonstration in front of Wichita City Building; Record Group 21: Records fo District Courts of the United States, 1685-1991; NARA's Central Plains Region (Kansas City) (NREKA), 2312 East bannister Road, Kansas City, MO 64131-301; EMAIL; kansascity.archives@nara.gov.


These pictures show protesters in Wichita, Kansas. They are protesting the Vietnam conflict. I would use these pictures to show that the protests were widespread across the country. The pictures would also be used for the students to guess what the picture is saying and why they are protesting the war. Hopefully the pictures will generate questions about the seventies. This is also a good time to discuss the dress of the sixties and seventies. The pictures would help introduce what patriotism is, and what it means. Hopefully this will instill some patriotism in my students and show what it means to be a good citizen of the United States.
This will help cover some of the Civics – Government standards for seventh grade. The Civics benchmarks that would be covered benchmarks 2, Indicator 1, benchmark 4 Indicators 1 and 2.

I found the Teaching with Documents: The War in Vietnam: A Story in Photographs a very good place to start looking for the pictures that I would use in class.

7th Grade Kansas History Project

The seal of Kansas was made by the 7th graders at Parsons Middle School. Parsons Middle School is in Parsons,Kansas. My students had a wonderful experience making the seal out of seeds that are important to Kansas.

20th Century America Blog #2

Truman Presidential Library


I found the Truman Presidential Library website to be very interesting. It was easy to maneuver through. I found several things that I could use in my classroom. The first thing that I went to was the kid’s page The Middle and High School section was where I went. I went to student activities and student project samples to get some ideas for my class. I found several worksheets that could be useful in my class. The worksheets were from essay questions to crossword puzzles.
I went to games and puzzles to see what was there. The Three Branch of Government game would be an excellent way to help teach the seventh grade Civics – Government Standard – Benchmark three. I ended up playing the game for quite some time.
The Great Depression Essay is one of the lesson plans that I copied. It consisted of lesson plans for seven days. The students end up with an essay on a person who suffered hardship during the depression. You use a picture from the Internet and the student will end up with a five-paragraph essay about the people and times of the depression. It gave several sites that you can go to get the pictures. It even came with a scoring guide. This is a way to bring in what we have learned in our other eHIKES classes about using pictures in class.
I also downloaded the Harry Truman power point. I would like to use this power point to show my students how the people of the United States looked and what some of the issues were, that faced them. The power point was interesting and had a place where I can add my own notes for my class. I will go to the other presidential libraries to get some new ideas for my class. I hope that the others will as helpful as this has been.