Crystal’s Weblog

Women have always been strong but often they were not allowed to use this strength without consequences, but a few women did use their strengths.  Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr are two such women.  They chose to dedicate their lives to making life better for the poor.  Using the money Addams inheritedthey began building the Hull House which helped teach, feed, and protect the poor of that area.  However, money soon ran out and they were forced to ask for donations.  These women were very smart and were able to keep money coming in and attempted to help as many peopleas possible.  The caring deeds they did over the many years of the Hull House will be remembered for many years to come.  I would like to do a community project with my kids where they could help out at a nursing home or other place were they might work with people.  I think this would give them a great experience on service work and then we could learn about how the Hull House did many great things for the people of the area.

We hopped on the bus and headed for a boat tour that didn’t turn out to be as exciting as I’d hoped.  Perhaps on a warmer, less rainy day it would be OK.  One thing I did get from the tour was that when looked at from the right perspective you can make most things interesting.

Today was one of those days when I look at the syllabus and go “huh?”.   I couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around the reasoning behind going to the Frank Lloyd Wright museum and the Museum of Science.  We are on a history trip, right?  So needless to say I was a bit sceptical about today, but boy did I get the socks knocked off me!  From the moment we pulled up in front of the Wright house I knew I was in for a treat!  We were given a tour by Grete, who was a lively lady who was very knowledgeable on all things Wright.  As I walked through the house my idea of what history is changed.  My notion of history was skewed.  I tend to clump history into Washington to Lincoln era and anything else isn’t “real” history.  Today my world was tipped and I enjoyed the view!  I’m sure I have kids who sit in my lessons and are “narrow-minded” on history and I see now that I need to expose them to these other areas while they are young and impressionable. 

After a tour of Mr. Wright’s private residence we began a walking tour with David.  I again was shocked because I had pigeon holed Wright’s work into one type.  As we were lead around David pointed out all the houses that Wright worked on I was truly amazed at how different they all were while still retaining a few key elements.  I would enjoy showing my kids some photos of his work and then looking for examples of work that looks similar and different in our area.  This might become a section of my lesson plan.

After leaving Oak Park we headed to the Museum of Science where I was again asking “is this history?”  We went in for a speech on the 1893 World’s Fair, also known as the White City.  The speaker began by giving us a virtual tour of the Chicago World’s Fair.  They have been working on this virtual city since the late 80’s and it is still not complete!  The virtual tour was nice for giving you an overview of where all of the buildings sat and what still remains, which isn’t much!  Something I would like to share with my kids is that Cracker Jacks and Juicy Fruit gum were both introduced to the world at this fair, along with many other items we still use!  We also saw a great slide show on the architecture that went into the making of the world’s fair.  We did a short walking tour around the outside of the museum, which also is the only building remaining from the fair. 

Touring the museum gave me some ideas on how to teach my kids but they weren’t all history related.  I was able to take pictures to show the kids how an item goes from the beginning stages all the way through to the packaging that we see in the stores.  I also found a book in the store on counting money as well as 365 great science projects to do with kids. 

Today started with an interesting lecture about Data Based Questions.  We were able to walk through an assignemnt (mush faster then a normal lesson) and get the hang of using them.  I gained some great ideas on how to get my kids to uwse primary sources and maybe even write about them! 

After lunch we split up and walked parts of Chicago.  I was lucky enough to go on the old city tour that took us through a historical section of the city.  There were reminders of the Great Chicago Fire and many beautiful pieces of arcitecture.  When we wrapped that up we dropped things by the dorms and a few of us headed into Greektown!  We enjoyed some wonderful Greek cuisine then went to the Sears Tower.  The view was really amazing and I was able to get some good pictures for my lesson plan.

While talking to a couple of teachers at lunch I saw my lesson plan coming together! I will do a compare and contrast of Chicago to our very small town of Swink. 3rd grade is where they learn about their community and how better to do that then to have them look at the differences and similarities in other communities, both big and small. I want to record some sounds and video clips of the traffic as this is something most of my kids have never seen and heard. I will also do a section on the different buildings as well as the similar buildings in the two locations. Part of my lesson would include a walking trip around our town where I can display photos taken here and have a group discussion.