Course Information
Summer Academy
Week 1 at Evergreen
Monday, June 22
Jeanne Hahn brought up several different resources to help expand beyond the "grand narrative," including:
John Winthrop's speech, "A Modell of Christian Charity" (1630): http://history.hanover.edu/texts/winthmod.html.
Some resources on early American "globalization" to use in the classroom:
Primary sources with discussion questions and notes from the National Humanties Center Toolbox Library:
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/index.htm
The Library of Congress has many exhibits of early American history: http://www.loc.gov/topics/content.php?subcat=86
Did the Chinese "discover" America in 1421? See the review of this lesson plan from the National Council for History Education at http://teachinghistory.org/teaching-materials/lesson-plan-reviews/22057.
Browse primary source websites for the time periods: "Three World Meet, Beginnings to 1620" and "Colonization and Settlement, 1585-1763" at http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/featured-website-reviews How do these sites approach the traditional "grand narrative?"
Tuesday, June 23
Jennifer Gerend helped us explore issues of housing and shelter in US history.
During her discussion, she mentioned:
Richard Florida's work on how we select where we live: http://creativeclass.com/
Read a review of Karen Joy Fowler's Sarah Canary, historical fiction set in a Chinese railway camp in Washington in the 1870s: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,315880,00.html
Charles F. Wilkinson's Messages from Frank's Landing illustrates native housing in the Nisqually valley: http://www.amazon.com/Messages-Franks-Landing-Salmon-Treaties/dp/0295985933/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245775559&sr=1-1
Frederick Law Olmsted, founder of American landscape architecture: http://www.fredericklawolmsted.com/
The White City of the Chicago Columbia Exposition changes how we view public spaces: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma96/WCE/title.html. The non-fiction book The Devil in the White City highlights the experience of the fair: http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/devilinthewhitecity/home.html.
National Interstate and Defense Highway Act (1956): http://archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=629
G.I. Bill of Rights (1944) promoting housing for vets: http://www.gibill.va.gov/GI_Bill_Info/history.htm. Richard Yates' book Revoluntionary Road discusses some of the issues of suburbanization after World War II: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11913039. Levittown was the first American "suburb:" http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown/.
Explore the segregation of this time through Seattle's Civil Rights & Labor Project: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/segregated.htm. The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 was enacted to prevent the practice of redlining - check out the Encyclopedia of Chicago's explanation at http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1050.html. Episode 7 of New York: The Center of the World explores many of these issues: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/newyork/index.html.
Joel Garreau talks about the "Edge City:" http://www.garreau.com/
The New York Times reviews Jane Jacobs' classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961): http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/08/17/reviews/jacobs.html. Read more about the saving of Grand Central Station at http://grandcentralterminal.com/info/wreckingball.cfm.
Ray Oldenburg talks about the need for a "Third Place" to gather, outside of work and home, in The Great Good Place (1989): http://www.pps.org/info/placemakingtools/placemakers/roldenburg.
The Main Street Approach from the National Trust for Historic Preservation works to retain our city centers: http://www.preservationnation.org/main-street/.
Check out data on housing from the US Census Bureau: http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFHousing?_sse=on&_submenuId=housing_0.
James Howard Kunstler explores the decline of our communities in The Geography of Nowhere: http://www.kunstler.com/books.html
Wednesday, June 24
Nancy mentioned David Marr's American Worlds Since Emerson: http://www.amazon.com/American-Worlds-Since-Emerson-David/dp/1558497692/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245861139&sr=8-1
Bill Bigelow spoke to the group about rethinking US border relations. We talked about the Mexican-American War, and brought up some issues:
Explore how textbooks discuss the war with Kyle Ward's History in the Making: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6517854.
For similar issues, these resources might be helpful:
The 1971 film This Bloody Blundering Business talks about the motivations behind the Spanish-American War: http://www.villonfilms.com/filmrec.php?queryIndex=0&subject=22.
The Battle of Algiers (1965) explores French colonialism: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0907-07.htm
Regret to Inform looks at the Vietnam War: http://www.regrettoinform.org/pages/resources.shtml
Melba Pattillo Beals' book Warriors Don't Cry charts the Little Rock Nine: http://www.amazon.com/Warriors-Dont-Cry-Searing-Integrate/dp/0671866397.
Thursday, June 25
David Greenwood shared with us Shifting Currents, a student film from Eagle Harbor High School on Bainbridge Island about the Elwha Dam Removal and River Restoration: http://www.bitv.org/EagleHarborHighSchoolDoc.htm
He also talked about Paul Hawken's book Blessed Unrest and its great list of social movements: http://www.blessedunrest.com/
Participant Presentations
During this final year, participants reflected on their culminating projects.
Barb Diaz brought up one student's exhibit on Dorothea Lange. Check out Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment at http://www.amazon.com/Impounded-Dorothea-Censored-Japanese-Internment/dp/0393330907.
See Teresa Ramirez's blog at http://mrsramirezsblog.blogspot.com/.
Mark Bowden's blog at http://www.misterbowden.edublogs.org/ includes links to classroom friendly technology. He also brought up http://delicious.com/ as a resource to store and sort bookmarks.
Week 2 at Friday Harbor
Monday & Tuesday, July 27-28
Dr. Susan Strasser from the University of Delaware was with us for the week discussing her work on the social history of trash:
On Monday, she mentioned that she draws inspiration from Christo and Jean-Claude titled Wrapped Walk Ways in Kansas City's Jacob Loose Park in 1977-1978, which helped her ask questions about the world around her, and Sheldon Dick's Farm Security Administration photo Mrs. Paul Minnich's staple cupboard, 1938, which shows the intersection of public and private concerns.
On Tuesday, we discussed her work Waste & Want. We brought up the debate about the amount of disposable diapers in landfills (see the NY Times article "Seeking the Truth in Refuse"), including the Saturday Night Live skit Pampers. She also brought up David Quammen's work, and where humans fit into our environment. She used the story of Crisco as an example of modern marketing, as she outlines in her second work Satisfaction Guaranteed. Listen to Michael Pollan's (the author of Omnivore's Dilemma) take on trends in health and nutrition from KUOW.
Wednesday, July 29
Steve Alexander, San Juan County Solid Waste Manager, spoke with us about the system side of waste management, and the history of garbage collection in San Juan County. He referenced the book Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage, and the Orcas Island Exchange.
Thursday, July 30
Dr. Strasser also talked about how she uses photographs and other online primary sources in the classroom:
She recommended Peter Bacon Hales' Silver Cities.
Participant Presentations
During this final year, participants reflected on their culminating projects:
Sue Johnson discussed child labor, and watchdog organizations like RugMark and TransUSA (Fair Trade products). Horst mentioned the work of the organization Invisible Children.
During Mark Bowden's presentation, we explored his website Teach Nisqually, and Dean McCoy brought up a good source for a historical perspective in Julian Hawthorne's 1893 account History of Washington, Chapters 18-19.
Teresa Ramirez showed us how she uses the eInstruction audience response system and Hot Potatoes.
Jan Watson demonstrated how she uses Mapwing, Tiny URL, Wordle, and Blackle. Later in the week, she talked about the Popular Reference Bureau.
Sue Johnson & Cassie Ricker described their other summer activities, including programs at the National Archives, Smithsonian American Museum of Art, and Legislative Scholar Program (including Teach with TVW). Sue shared books she bought at Busboys & Poets. Check out the exhibition Written in Bone from the National Museum of Natural History. Cassie also was exposed to Visual Thinking Strategies. She uses Inner / Outer Circle method to help her students brainstorm.
Tim Voie showed us how he uses Pandora in his classroom.
We discussed online citation tools like EasyBib, Citation Machine, and NoodleTools.
