African American Soldiers In WWII

In April 1944, nine African American soldiers were denied service at several establishments in Texas. As they left, "about two dozen German prisoners of war, with two American guards came to the station," remembered Corporal Rupert Trimmingham, one of the black soldiers. "They . . . had their meals served, talked, smoked, in fact had quite a swell time. . . . I could not help but ask myself why they are treated better than we are?"

In the 1940s, the segregation of African Americans was not limited to civilian life. About 909,000 black Americans served in the Army during WWII, but most of these recruits were assigned to support details because military leaders questioned their ability to perform effectively in combat.

Two all-black infantry divisions, the 92nd and 93rd, were led by white officers, some of whom were openly racist. Morale was low in these units due to substandard facilities, poor training, low pay, and inferior commanders. The 93rd was shipped to the Pacific and showed promise in its first few fights. It was later split up, with its troops assigned to support positions.

The 92nd Division, nicknamed the Buffalo Division, had mixed success in Italy. By the end of fighting, the division had suffered about 22 percent casualties while earning about 12,000 decorations. Its erratic performance in the field, due primarily to ineffective leadership, damaged the division's reputation and reinforced the stereotype that African Americans were unfit for combat. Tuskegee, Alabama, became the training site for black pilots.

The 99th Fighter Squadron and the 332nd Fighter Group were two of the units formed from its graduates. The 99th was inadequately trained when it was sent into combat, and its poor performance placed the Tuskegee program in jeopardy. Given a second chance, these airmen eventually proved themselves in combat.

By the end of the war, almost 1,000 pilots had graduated from Tuskegee and earned more than 850 medals. The 332nd Fighter Group, nicknamed the "Red Tail Angels," earned fame as the only escort group that did not lose a bomber to the enemy.

http://history.howstuffworks.com/world-war-ii/

New Essential Standards Available for Comments

Have you looked at the proposed essential standards for social studies? If not, you should. They are posted at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/acre/standards/phase2/. There is a mechanism for commenting about them while on-line. You can also comment in more detail by following these instructions from DPI:

Call for Track Changes Feedback Specific feedback and suggested changes in content, sequencing and wording are very helpful to the writing teams working on these standards particularly in this early draft stage. With that in mind, we have posted 1.0 versions in Word format to encourage the use of track changes and comments to gather feedback. Below is a brief video on using track changes and comments function in Microsoft Word to provide detailed line-by-line feedback within the draft documents. Feedback in this form can be send to feedback@dpi.state.nc.us. [Actually, the video can be found here: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/movies/acre/standards/phase2/standards-feedback.mov]

I know everyone is very busy, but if you can find a few minutes, please make comments. After all, unless you plan to get out of teaching in the next couple of years, some form of these standards will be guiding your classroom work.

I noticed MAJOR changes in World History, US History, and 6-8 social studies. If you teach in, or are certified in, any of these areas, the changes will astound you. You may be delighted, or appalled, but either way you will be informed. Let DPI and the writing teams know what you think.

Roosevelt Flies!

Did you know that Franklin Roosevelt was the first president in history to travel on an airplane while in office? He went to Casablanca, Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill in December, 1943. Now we see President Obama waving from the steps of Air Force One as he jets around the world.

In today's world, it is difficult to remember the days, or imagine them if you were born in the 70s or later, when airplane travel was new and amazing. When I was a child, airplane travel was something special. We didn't take it for granted, because it was new and exciting for regular folks to fly anywhere. These days we can hardly get through airport security to even board a plane!

Air travel revolutionized the world. Can you name 5 inventions that changed the world which were completely new? What about 5 things which have become part of everyday life which were not around 50 years ago? Send in your list!

Hatian Family Perishes on Titanic

Joseph Phillippe Lemercier Laroche was the only black man, a Haitian, to perish in the Titanic after he saved his wife and kids. Laroche was born in Cap Haitien, Haiti, on May 26, 1889.

The silence about the stranger-than-fiction life story of the Titanic's only Black passenger astonishes noted Titanic historian Judith Geller, author of Titanic: Women and Children First, who said, "It is strange that nowhere in the copious 1912 press descriptions of the ship and the interviews with the survivors was the presence of a Black family among the passengers ever mentioned."

The story of this interracial family was not known until 2000, three years after the movie's release, when the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry and the Titanic Historical Society revealed the information as part of a Titanic exhibit.

Joseph Laroche was born into a powerful family. His uncle, Dessalines M. Cincinnatus Leconte, was the president of Haiti. When Joseph Phillippe Lemercier was fifteen, he left Haiti to study engineering in Beauvais, France. Several years later, he met Juliette Lafargue, the 22-year-old daughter of a local wine seller. The two eventually married.
Despite having an engineering degree, Joseph's skin color left him unable to find employment in France. The Laroches decided to return to Haiti and booked second-class reservations on the Titanic. After the ship struck an iceberg, Joseph loaded his wife and children onto a lifeboat and he went down with the ship. His body was never recovered.

Shortly before Christmas of that year, Juliette Laroche gave birth to their son, Joseph Laroche Jr. Juliette never remarried.

Sources:
http://www.haitianinternet.com/articles.php/428 ; http://www.titanic1.org/people/louise-laroche.asp

Six Stories You Need to Know How to Tell

Annette Simmons, founder of Group process Consulting, is a practitioner of the art of applied storytelling. A corporate trainer, Annette specializes in the workplace with the toughest situations. Her ability to help problem people learn better ways of dealing with one another was supported by her advertising communication skills. She understands the power of a story to improve communication and knowledge.

Annette's book, The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence and Persuasion Through Storytelling, contains six kinds of stories we all need to be able to tell to improve our communication. These skills are also useful for the teacher/storyteller. Students and teachers comprise a gestalt that needs stories. Teachers also need stories to make history live for their students, and these techniques are transferable from communication to enlivening dry historical facts.

Story 1: Who Am I? This is the story that shows the students who you are and helps them establish trust in you. The connection you have with your students is initially determined by the way you present who you are.

Story 2: Why Am I Here? This allows you to tell people what's in this for you before you try to sell them on what's in the situation for them. When students think you are hiding what you stand to gain by their cooperation, they may see you as insincere ot deceitful. What do you gain by students cooperating with you? Tell them!

Story 3: My Vision Once students know who you are and what you are getting out of the situation, they may be ready to hear what's in the situation for them. Your vision for your students must be presented so that they connect with it, adopt it, own it. People who follow your vision must be able to see it before they own it.

Story 4: Teaching Stories Teaching stories combine what you want someone to know with how you want them to work with it. For example, a story about a successful student who did a particular assignment goes a long way toward illustrating your expectations about that assignment. That story makes the assignment visible, and helps students grasp it better - and perhaps want to grasp it as well. When skills are linked to the story, new information is linked to existing knowledge and retained far better.

Story 5: Values in Action How do you tell students about expected behavior? You tell them a story that shows them what the value looks like. A values in action story allows you to demonstrate what you want but keeps your students thinking at the same time.

Story 6: "I Know What You Are Thinking" When you are with people who appear to agree on the surface but are sabotaging your efforts beneath the surface or behind your back, "I know what you are thinking" stories are a potent tool. People may have negative thoughts they don't express publicly but share with others outside of your presence, i.e the parking lot meeting. Another technique is to use derogatory terms repeatedly, such as marginalizing someone by speaking negatively or disparagingly about them while smiling. Telling a story or taking control of the vocabulary is one way to limit or neutralize the toxicicity without a confrontation.

Chinese New Year!

The Chinese Year of the Tiger starts on February 14, 2010. Are you doing anything to celebrate?

Winter Break

It is time for a break. We all know it. The kids know it. Our families know it. What are you planning to do with your time away from work?

I am heading north to visit family!!! I must be crazy, since I remember all too well what kinds of things can happen in families around holidays. But there you have it. Airports at 6am, paying to check my luggage, and wearing my Uggs.

I wish you the best time away, whether it is in your own home or on the road. Come back refreshed and ready.

.

Best Practices 101

How Many Ways Can You Use a Textbook?

1. as an excuse, OR

2. as a weight to build up flabby arm muscles OR

3. a doorstop, OR

4. to illustrate bad writing OR

5. as one of many sources of historical information for your students.

A strategy called OUT [Opening Up the Textbook], developed at Stanford University, helps students use the textbook as one source rather than the only source of information. This technique focuses on using small passages from the text juxtaposed with other texts so students can compare them. The combination of multiple texts with differing perspectives allows students to gain a better understanding of the process of historiography. Rather than accept the account of history as filtered through the lens of textbook writers and their committees, these differing accounts can open student eyes to the variety of interpretations available about past events.

One way to use this technique is to find a primary source that is the subject of a small portion of the textbook. Examining the primary source and then evaluating the text's treatment of the event will give students the opportunity to judge for themselves the validity of the textbook's interpretation of the event.

Another method is to compare multiple textbook accounts of the same event. Textbooks can be old and new, or published for classes of different levels, or even texts for different classes in the same discipline, i.e. world history and American history. How do these books tell the story of the same event? What parts are emphasized, and which are passed over lightly? What biases do the different authors have about the event?

A third method is to look at who is left out of the textbook narrative. Using the textbook and alternate sources, students can evaluate who or what is left out of the text narrative. Which voices are not being heard? Which participants in the story are included only in a sidebar? How did the authors decide who or what was important enough to include? How can the story be made more complete?

For more information about this technique, see the January 2010 issue of our newsletter.

End of the Year Stuff.....

The end of the calendar year is approaching and there are lots of things to do in addition to any holiday celebrations. One of those is check your FSA balance. If you have pre-tax money deducted from your paycheck for medical expenses, you may have a balance remaining that needs to be spent before 12/31. Eligible expenses include things like over the counter meds, glasses, eye exams, and other medical expenses. I notice that some eligible expenses are indicated on register receipts with a special mark at my drug store. Just something else to think about in these busy days.

Current Events Make Great Discussions

What kind of current events do you do with your students? There are so many stories that can be used in a social studies classroom, where does one start when choosing what to use? I noticed at least 3 stories recently making the rounds that would be great for bell ringer discussions or making social studies relevant to the lives of our students.


1. Greg Oden, the 2007 number one draft pick of the Portland Trailblazers, was seriously injured in a basketball game against the Houston Rockets. Oden, who has been sidelined with injuries during his rookie season, will now have to sit out the remainder of this season. Oden was diagnosed with a fractured right kneecap. EVen though injured during a defensive collision on Saturday, Oden continued to put his team first. He apologized for getting injured and letting the team down. He encouraged them to focus on the score rather than his injuries, and Portland won 90-89 in the last 3 seconds of the game. How could you use this story with your students?




2. Tareq and Michaele Salahi, alleged White House dinner crashers, are in the news. Their attendance at the first state dinner hosted by President Obama has created a number of inquiries. Their visit to the White House state dinner for the Prime Minister of India became widely known when the couple posted pictures of themselves at the dinner with various dignitaries on their Facebook page. The Secret Service has suspended the agents responsible for allowing them in without an invitation. Investigations have been called for by Congress, and the Salahis failed to appear before House Homeland Security hearing on December 3. Mrs. Salahi is trying to win a role on an upcoming reality series "The Real Housewives of D.C." How could you use this story with your students?


3. The Afghanistan-Pakistan War: the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a non-partisan thinktank, has published a number of monographs including "Losing the Afghan-Pakistan War? The Rising Threat" in September, 2008 and "The Afghan-Pakistan War: A Status Report 2009, A Brief Summary." [http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/080917_afghanthreat.pdf and http://csis.org/files/publication/burke/090803_BriefSummary.pdf] [Map from BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7601748.stm] These documents should be required reading for anyone who wants to speak intelligently on the Afghan-Pakistan problem and the President's current plan. The site has a number of other resources, including videos, that give background information on this vital topic. How could you use this information with your students?

What is Your Focus?

Now that we are working our way toward the end of the calendar year, we can take the opportunity to ask ourselves some important questions about what we have done since August. One of the most important questions we can ask ourselves is "What is my focus?"

Many of us are thinking about what we've done over the past few months and are looking forward to the end of the semester. Some of us are assessing our progress in dealing with challenges - discipline, academic, personal - and asking what we need to do differently after the Winter Break. Others are trying to understand benchmark results. The primary question underlying our thoughts is, "what is our focus?"

Focus is understanding the goal and objective before planning the lesson.

Focus is planning an assessment which reflects the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy level of the objective.

Focus is teaching the standard course of study.

Focus is managing the pacing of your course so that items assessed by the benchmark are the items you have already taught.

Are you focused?

Holiday Shopping or Holiday Shocking!

The holiday shopping season has officially begun and I am doing my best to avoid it. I was on the road visiting my grands this Thanksgiving and got to see all of them at the same time!!! I also got to see snow in Ohio and sleet in West Virginia. Finally, I got to see the ads for "Black Friday" which I thought was supposed to be a special holiday just for me! Imagine my surprize when I found out it was a shopping day when people get up before dawn to stand in line at stores to spend money they don't have for things they don't need. Not my kind of day at all.

I remember last year's Black Friday death of a Wal-Mart security guard who was trampled by a mob of shoppers.There isn't anything I could possibly want to buy that would be worth a man's life to buy.

What did you do the Friday after Thanksgiving?