More on Using Blogs to Teach the Civil War

I have talked about Eric Langhorst's Speaking of History podcast and blog in the past. While searching TeacherTube recently, I came across this video that he created about how he is using Web 2.0 technologies to teach a book that deals with the Civil War called Guerrilla Season by Pat Hughes.

Be sure to check out Eric's website for some great information on how to use technology in the History classroom.

8 Random Things

This post is going to be off topic so please bear with me for a bit. There is a thing going around the blogosphere right now that is called 8 Random Things.

Here are the 8 Random Facts rules:

• Post these rules before you give your facts
• List 8 random facts about yourself
• At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
• Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged

Thanks to Kristen and Eric for tagging me.

My Facts:

• I am married with 4 children
• My wife and I run The Angel Teddy Bear Foundation in memory of our stillborn son Benji
• I love hunting spring turkeys here in Pennsylvania
• I make, pray and give away all twine knotted rosaries
• I was a wrestler throughout most of my childhood until a knee injury turned me into a swimmer in my junior year of HS
• I play a fife but don't know how to read music.
• My first computer was a TRS-80 Color Computer
• and I grew up in the only town in the US to have a Heisman Trophy winner and an Olympic Gold Medalist.

So, now I must tag someone so Ranger Mannie and Dave you are it!

More on Google Earth and the Civil War

For those of you who use Google Earth, some members of the Keyhole BBS have painstakingly created a very densely populated placemark collection detailing the locations of every U.S. Civil War Battle! But that is not all, most of these have links to a site with details about each of the battles.

Download the file here: Battles of the U.S. Civil War

This is a great way to show your students the relationships between various locations related to a specific campaign. For example, under the Gettysburg Campaign, there are placemarks for Hanover, Pa where J.E.B. Stuart rode through on June 30, 1863 on his way north. You can then have your students use the ruler tool to see that he was only about 13 miles from Gettysburg. You can then have your students consider questions about how long it would have taken him to get to Gettysburg or how far did the soldiers march on their way to Gettysburg.


BTW: Hanover Junction is also where President Lincoln's train stopped on it's way to Gettysburg in November 1863.

Hanover Junction photographed by Mathew Brady showing what is thought to be Lincoln. From the Library of Congress.

Until next time...