Bullitt County fifth grade students at Maryville Elementary presented a living history wax museum on June 4th. Students in Kimberly Tabler’s social studies classes researched historical characters and wrote monologues. Mrs. Tabler was one of the TAH II elementary teachers who had attended an OVEC professional development on Young Chautauqua in the Classroom. Chautauqua is a program from the Kentucky Humanities Council in which actors portray famous Kentuckians. It was interesting to see students of all levels participating in this activity.
Mrs. Tabler also worked with Dr. Kathy Swan from the University of Kentucky this spring as a part of training provided from the TAH grant to learn the process of using Movie Maker. The next project for her class is to use photos and monologues from the wax museum to create a movie of the experience.
TAH Grant Teacher Begins Junior History Club
Becky Mattingly, a Cedar Grove Elementary School teacher and TAH II grant participant has initiated a Kentucky Junior Historical Society in conjunction with the Kentucky Historical Society. Becky meets once a month with students after school. The club is open to 4th and 5th grade students and she has about 20 children involved this year.
Each month students bring a historical artifact to share with the group. They also spend time on a social studies online game called Study Island. The students compete for top scores. The can also access the game at home and receive prizes according to who spends the most minutes playing each month. At the beginning of the year each student chooses a historical person to research and each time they meet the student updates the group on their research. Becky is using the students’ research to create a History Museum that will be presented in May. Club members also wear club t-shirts that say “I’m Making History”.
The children involved in the club receive a membership card, which allows for free or discount admission to museums. They also receive a newsletter and the opportunity to attend trips and conventions. There are also competitions in which students can participate.
She believes that the students are scoring better on social studies related assessments and that the students have increased their passion for history and independent learning.
More information for beginning your own Junior Historical Society club can be found at the KHS website.
TAH Schools Implement Movie Maker in Their Classrooms
The TAH grant was able to bring Dr. Kathy Swan, professor from the University of Kentucky, to the elementary classrooms of Shelby County’s Abby Thurman and Bullitt County’s Kim Tabler for some hands on help with Movie Maker technology. The students were able to produce several movies dealing with the topic of Irish Immigration in the 1850s. Dr. Swan met with the teachers after school to begin the planning and to follow up and debrief at the end of the experience. Kim and Abby both felt that the experience was extremely helpful in delivering the core content of immigration to their fifth grade students and are now ready to incorporate this new technology in their teaching. As they are now experts in the use of Movie Maker they are planning on sharing their new found knowledge and experience with fellow colleagues and other history grant participants.
Read the book review by Kevin Vachon, an 8th grade student at Eastside Middle School in Bullitt County. Kevin reviews the book, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution
By: Woody Holton. Click here to read the review.
What year was the Statute of Liberty unveiled in New York Harbor?
Twice defeated in 1944 and 1948, Repblican Thomas E. Dewey elicted some of the most memorable insults:
"He is just about the nastiest little man I've ever known."
- Lillian Dykstra, U. S. Academic
"Like the little man on top of the wedding cake."
- Attributed to various sources
"You really have to get to know him to dislike him."
- James T. Patterson, U. S. Congressman
"He is small and insignificant and he makes too much of an effort, with his forced smile and jovial manner, to impress himself upon people. To me he is a political streetwalker accosting men with "come home with me, dear."
- Harold L. Ickes, U. S. Presidential Aide
"He is the only man able to walk under a bed without hitting his head."
- Walter Winchell, U. S. Journalist
"You can't make a suffle' rise twice.
- Alice Roosevelt Longworth on Dewey's second run for the White House.
