We are doing our annual testing right now, which reminds me of a debate about the use and consequences of praising your children's intelligence that has been popular lately. Sparked primarily by articles like The Secret to Raising Smart Kids (Hint: Don't Tell Your Kids That They Are), the theory goes that praising children's intelligence encourages them to think that their academic achievements are based on an inherent quality (intelligences) that they either have or don't have. If they think they don't have it, they won't try; if they think they do have it, they either coast by on their natural talents or try to avoid anything that might demonstrate that they don't have as much intelligence as you think they do.
The alternative advocated by psychological research Carol Dweck, on whose studies most of this advice comes from, is to praise the amount of effort that children put into their work. Dweck found that students who received effort-related praise continue to put more hard work into their studies and were willing to take on more challenging tasks to prove how much more hard work they could do.
It all sounds good. But I'm always suspicious of these media-pushed, black and white, simple panaceas for educational issues. So I did a little checking, and found an excellent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled Carol Dweck's Attitude: It's Not About How Smart You Art. As I expected, this discussion shows that the whole situation is much more complicated than the one-page version being shared on parenting websites around the web.
The article shows that in three recent studies done to test that theory, student performance did not reflect the predictions of Dweck's framework. In one case, the researchers believed that the "hard work" mindset could be just as detrimental as the "innate intelligence" is supposed to be in Dweck's theory (that is, those who believe that their scores are due to hard work and who expect to do badly will self-sabotage their work by listening to distracting music so that they can blame their poor performance on the music, rather than on their work).
The Chronicle article also talks about Dweck's earlier work, which was focused on an outside control/deterministic viewpoint versus a self-determining perspective, When I read about this research, it seems to me that this locus of control is really what is most important, rather than the "innate intelligence" versus "hard work" perpective per se. That is, if you aren't convinced that your performance and your life is under your control, you can find "outside" factors to blame your failure on, whether that is blaming your parents' DNA contributions to your lack of intelligence, or bad music or outside life factors for your inability to do the work necessary.
Another thing to consider about this "praise the effort" system is the fact that is is diametrically opposed to the actual assessments students face in schools these days. With all the high-stake testing that is running education today, it makes NO DIFFERENCE whether the student worked really, really hard preparing for and taking the test, or goofed off all year and treated the test as a joke. If the hard-working students don't achieve the minimum score, they fail and are held back, and if the lazy goof-offs ace the test, they are promoted. So I think raising students' hopes about the value of hard work could be counter-productive or misleading when the bottom line is that amount of effort doesn't count at all; only the number of right answers does.
I found a briefing paper by the Association of American Colleges and Universities entitled Greater Expectations to Improve Student Learning that I found useful about the general issue of expectations in education. For example, it says that Americans are particularly attached to this whole "innate intelligence" scenario, while other cultures attribute much more to hard work rather than raw ability. I also thought Daniel T. Willingham's Ask the Cognitive Scientist column on How Praise Can Motivate--Or Stifle to be a great resource in thinking about this topic.
As is typical for me, I think the "either or" approach is wrong. So in our case, I've told my son that he is smart, because he is, and I will continue to tell him that. I'm kind of an encouraging, "praise-y" personality anyway, and I think it would feel unnatural and inauthentic of me to withhold my assessment of his intelligence because of some research studies.
However, I also tell him that because I know how smart he is, I have high expectations for the quality of his work, and what other parents or teachers accept as "good enough" for other students may not be "good enough" for what I expect from him. And we discuss the fact that quality is a factor of effort as well as natural talent. We talk a lot about all sorts of gifted people and how hard they had to work to manifest their gifts, even with their natural abilities. So Michael Jordan had an incredible body for basketball--but that didn't mean that he hasn't practiced for hours almost every day of his adult life. Likewise with Mozart, or Picasso, or Einstein, or Maya Angelou or anyone....it all takes work to refine and apply whatever natural abilities we might have.
Don't get me wrong--I think it is a good thing to read and consider research like this--IF you are looking at the full picture, which usually has a lot more nuances than the "sound bite" version we get in a single page in a magazine or website. But in the end, we have to do what feels right as parents and teachers. And usually, that is a more common sense, mixed approach than the typical distinct treatment populations of research studies.
So if you want to tell you children they are smart--go ahead! Just don't forget to tell them that isn't the whole picture.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Book Review: The Emerald Atlas
We are knee deep in end-of-the-school-year activities, but our summer schedule is beginning to beckon to us. And one of the highlights of our summer plans is that my son's Mock Newbery Club will be starting up again in June.
In honor of the approaching restart of that activity, I read one of this year's books for the tween audience that had been recommended by our FABULOUS local independent bookstore, Quail Ridge Books. That book is The Emerald Atlas by first-time book author John Stephens (he has a background in television production). It is a fantasy novel that is presumably the first of a trilogy (an increasingly prevalent trend in fantasy novels).
Stephens said he was inspired to write children's novels after reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (which I wrote about in an earlier post). And it kind of shows (terrible grammar, I know, but I can't think of a better way to express it). That is, at first when I was reading it, it felt like "been there, done that." It seemed like a little bit of many of the most popular young adult fantasy series in recent years--some His Dark Materials, some Harry Potter, a little Reckless, a bit of Incarceron, with even a dash of A Series of Unfortunate Events thrown in. Our FABULOUS local children's librarian admitted that she had begun it, but hadn't been able to get into it, and I was sort of feeling the same way.
However, I persevered, and in the end, I'm glad I did.
The story centers around three siblings. Again, I have to admit I found them somewhat generic--the responsible older sister, the brainy/bookish/fantasy-nerdish middle brother, and the "spunky," defiant youngest sister. The children have been shuttled from orphanage to orphanage, in part because they insist, based on a foggy memory of the oldest sister of the night that they were taken from their parents, that their parents will return one day to reclaim them. They end up in a strange, out of the way orphan's home where they are the only children, in the care of the mysterious Dr. Pym in an abandoned mansion with many secrets.
As is common in these stories, the children discover something that transports them to a fantasy world of dwarves, monsters, giants, and beautiful but deadly antagonists. This world is battling over the control of some almost-mythical books that appear to have a special connection with the three siblings.
It is not giving away too much of the plot (since it is revealed early on) that the crux of this book involves time travel. And while it takes a while to develop this plot line, I think it is this theme that redeems the book. The whole treatment of the time traveling is quite thought-provoking, almost metaphysical. So as someone who majored in philosophy in college, that's something that grabs my attention. It even has a bit of that Inception feel of being confused about what layer of time you are working on at times. So that fact that it makes me have to think about how this intersection of different "histories" work together lifts it beyond the generic fantasy YA novel for me.
Also, the backbone of this book (again, like many other in this genre) is about family. Finding family, protecting family, trusting family even through conflict and doubt, and even creating family from strangers when yours aren't around. So while this is not an original theme, it is always a rich one, especially for the early adolescents who are beginning to question or pull away from family ties.
In the end, I recommend it. I don't really see it as a Newbery contender, but I think it was worth my while reading it, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do in the next book.
In honor of the approaching restart of that activity, I read one of this year's books for the tween audience that had been recommended by our FABULOUS local independent bookstore, Quail Ridge Books. That book is The Emerald Atlas by first-time book author John Stephens (he has a background in television production). It is a fantasy novel that is presumably the first of a trilogy (an increasingly prevalent trend in fantasy novels).
Stephens said he was inspired to write children's novels after reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (which I wrote about in an earlier post). And it kind of shows (terrible grammar, I know, but I can't think of a better way to express it). That is, at first when I was reading it, it felt like "been there, done that." It seemed like a little bit of many of the most popular young adult fantasy series in recent years--some His Dark Materials, some Harry Potter, a little Reckless, a bit of Incarceron, with even a dash of A Series of Unfortunate Events thrown in. Our FABULOUS local children's librarian admitted that she had begun it, but hadn't been able to get into it, and I was sort of feeling the same way.
However, I persevered, and in the end, I'm glad I did.
The story centers around three siblings. Again, I have to admit I found them somewhat generic--the responsible older sister, the brainy/bookish/fantasy-nerdish middle brother, and the "spunky," defiant youngest sister. The children have been shuttled from orphanage to orphanage, in part because they insist, based on a foggy memory of the oldest sister of the night that they were taken from their parents, that their parents will return one day to reclaim them. They end up in a strange, out of the way orphan's home where they are the only children, in the care of the mysterious Dr. Pym in an abandoned mansion with many secrets.
As is common in these stories, the children discover something that transports them to a fantasy world of dwarves, monsters, giants, and beautiful but deadly antagonists. This world is battling over the control of some almost-mythical books that appear to have a special connection with the three siblings.
It is not giving away too much of the plot (since it is revealed early on) that the crux of this book involves time travel. And while it takes a while to develop this plot line, I think it is this theme that redeems the book. The whole treatment of the time traveling is quite thought-provoking, almost metaphysical. So as someone who majored in philosophy in college, that's something that grabs my attention. It even has a bit of that Inception feel of being confused about what layer of time you are working on at times. So that fact that it makes me have to think about how this intersection of different "histories" work together lifts it beyond the generic fantasy YA novel for me.
Also, the backbone of this book (again, like many other in this genre) is about family. Finding family, protecting family, trusting family even through conflict and doubt, and even creating family from strangers when yours aren't around. So while this is not an original theme, it is always a rich one, especially for the early adolescents who are beginning to question or pull away from family ties.
In the end, I recommend it. I don't really see it as a Newbery contender, but I think it was worth my while reading it, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do in the next book.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Britney Spears and the Wake County School Board's Redistricting Plan
Last month, I wrote a post about how the Wake County Public School System's Board approach might relate to the school systems accreditation problems. Since our accreditation hinges on the School Board's ability to repair its fractured relationships with the community it is supposed to serve, I proposed that the legally-required 10 year redistricting process was an excellent way to start rebuilding trust with the Wake County citizens.
Alas, it appears that the Board has not taken my sage advice. Instead, as I look at the way they are choosing to handle the redistricting issue, it reminds me of one of Britney Spear's most famous songs-- "Oops, I did it again." It appears that the Board--or, at least, the anti-diversity and Republican majority of the Board--are back to their same old tricks of secrecy, partisan politics, and disdain for public input.
As I stated in my original post, Wake County has a model of what an open and accountable redistricting process can look like. One of the units within Wake County, the Town of Cary, has demonstrated what good redistricting should look like. They began early (in February) with public meetings, and all of their official discussion have been in open meetings. The town staff prepared 19 different map options, all of which were made available to the public with all the details. The town welcomed, responded to, and/or incorporated public comments and issues. They are close to deciding on a final map that everyone seems to think is fair and reasonable.
But what did the Board of Education do? First, they paid an OPENLY PARTISAN Republican lawyer--one who had donated to the campaigns of the Republicans on the Board and even hosted a fundraiser for one of them--$10,000 to handle the redistricting. This Republican Shanahan (a former Republican member of the Raleigh Town Council) then met IN SECRET with each of the Board members individually (so that they could subvert the open meetings requirement).
There was no official opportunity for the public to voice concerns about what should be in the maps since there were no public meetings beforehand. However, the League of Women Voters of Wake County and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition collected all the data, produced some proposed redistricting maps that met the Board guidelines and good electoral map procedures, and held some public meetings to help educate the public about this issue. They even revised their maps in response to concerns that were raised by the School Board.
Then on April 26, Shanahan produced a SINGLE map for our $10,000. The public then had two weeks to respond to that map, which was finally discussed publicly on May 10. However, even then the public wasn't given all the specifics about exact borders and such. Shanahan's excuse for why he hadn't provided the exact data was that it would go against client-attorney confidentiality.
So even in the ONLY public comment meeting, the community was not given detailed information in order to comment effectively. Also, two of the Republican Board members announced in advance that they wouldn't consider any revisions to the plan, regardless of what the public had to say during the meeting. However, even without the specifics, several speakers questioned why the general guidelines broke up several municipalities and seemed to have much more tentacle-like boundaries than the ones produced by the League for Women Voters.
The detailed information was finally released at the end of last week AFTER the public comment meeting. According to a News and Observer analysis and blog post, the Board's plan seems to be politically advantageous to the Republicans, since it moves several potential Democratic candidates out of Republican-held districts into competing against other Democratic candidates in Democratic districts, or moves some Democratic strong holds out of Democratic-held districts into Republican ones.
Despite all this, everyone thinks the plan is a done deal and will be approved by the Board on Tuesday, May 17.
I'm not surprised, but very disappointed by the Board's actions on this matter. The Republicans may think that they have won. However, it is one more reason for the accrediting agency to conclude that the public is not being served by its School Board and so to pull the Wake County School System accreditation. And then it will be the children and families of Wake County who have lost--big time.
Alas, it appears that the Board has not taken my sage advice. Instead, as I look at the way they are choosing to handle the redistricting issue, it reminds me of one of Britney Spear's most famous songs-- "Oops, I did it again." It appears that the Board--or, at least, the anti-diversity and Republican majority of the Board--are back to their same old tricks of secrecy, partisan politics, and disdain for public input.
As I stated in my original post, Wake County has a model of what an open and accountable redistricting process can look like. One of the units within Wake County, the Town of Cary, has demonstrated what good redistricting should look like. They began early (in February) with public meetings, and all of their official discussion have been in open meetings. The town staff prepared 19 different map options, all of which were made available to the public with all the details. The town welcomed, responded to, and/or incorporated public comments and issues. They are close to deciding on a final map that everyone seems to think is fair and reasonable.
But what did the Board of Education do? First, they paid an OPENLY PARTISAN Republican lawyer--one who had donated to the campaigns of the Republicans on the Board and even hosted a fundraiser for one of them--$10,000 to handle the redistricting. This Republican Shanahan (a former Republican member of the Raleigh Town Council) then met IN SECRET with each of the Board members individually (so that they could subvert the open meetings requirement).
There was no official opportunity for the public to voice concerns about what should be in the maps since there were no public meetings beforehand. However, the League of Women Voters of Wake County and the Great Schools in Wake Coalition collected all the data, produced some proposed redistricting maps that met the Board guidelines and good electoral map procedures, and held some public meetings to help educate the public about this issue. They even revised their maps in response to concerns that were raised by the School Board.
Then on April 26, Shanahan produced a SINGLE map for our $10,000. The public then had two weeks to respond to that map, which was finally discussed publicly on May 10. However, even then the public wasn't given all the specifics about exact borders and such. Shanahan's excuse for why he hadn't provided the exact data was that it would go against client-attorney confidentiality.
So even in the ONLY public comment meeting, the community was not given detailed information in order to comment effectively. Also, two of the Republican Board members announced in advance that they wouldn't consider any revisions to the plan, regardless of what the public had to say during the meeting. However, even without the specifics, several speakers questioned why the general guidelines broke up several municipalities and seemed to have much more tentacle-like boundaries than the ones produced by the League for Women Voters.
The detailed information was finally released at the end of last week AFTER the public comment meeting. According to a News and Observer analysis and blog post, the Board's plan seems to be politically advantageous to the Republicans, since it moves several potential Democratic candidates out of Republican-held districts into competing against other Democratic candidates in Democratic districts, or moves some Democratic strong holds out of Democratic-held districts into Republican ones.
Despite all this, everyone thinks the plan is a done deal and will be approved by the Board on Tuesday, May 17.
I'm not surprised, but very disappointed by the Board's actions on this matter. The Republicans may think that they have won. However, it is one more reason for the accrediting agency to conclude that the public is not being served by its School Board and so to pull the Wake County School System accreditation. And then it will be the children and families of Wake County who have lost--big time.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Curriculum Resource: Freedom RIders
Tomorrow starts a new series on PBS about the 1961 civil rights activists known as the Freedom Riders. The Freedom Riders were challenging the laws regarding segregated travel by having interracial couples sitting together on buses, as well as having black people ride in the front section of the bus, which was reserved for blacks. Altogether, 436 Freedom Riders--75% of whom were male, 75% of whom were under 30, but even split between blacks and whites-- participated in 60 different rides within the South, despite the fact that they faced mob violence and arrest during their travels. Their courageous stance not only awakened public awareness of civil right issues, but provoked the Kennedy administration to find a way to end the segregation of buses and trains and terminals involved in interstate travel.
There are several resources for using these programs with middle and high schoolers. There is a study guide entitled Democracy in Action that has background information, discussion questions, and additional online resources for each of the shows. There is a website from which you can download short clips from the entire show, along with some information and thought points. There is also a blog where 40 college students spent 10 days in May tracing the Freedom Riders routes and recording their thoughts and perspectives comparing their ride to the ones the Freedom Riders faced in 1961.
So if you would like to turn these programs into an opportunity to have some fruitful discussion with your tween/teen children or students, check out these resources.
There are several resources for using these programs with middle and high schoolers. There is a study guide entitled Democracy in Action that has background information, discussion questions, and additional online resources for each of the shows. There is a website from which you can download short clips from the entire show, along with some information and thought points. There is also a blog where 40 college students spent 10 days in May tracing the Freedom Riders routes and recording their thoughts and perspectives comparing their ride to the ones the Freedom Riders faced in 1961.
So if you would like to turn these programs into an opportunity to have some fruitful discussion with your tween/teen children or students, check out these resources.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
How to Search On Google--Advanced Tips
I don't know about you, but I would be lost without Google. I truly can't imagine what it was like for parents to homeschool before Google and the World Wide Web. And my son has grown up with an idea of Google as an omnipotent information source. I think he was only five when, after asking me one of those questions that has been pondered for ages (like "which came first, the chicken or the egg?"), he responded to my answer that I didn't know with a sigh and a disgusted face and said, "Mom, just Google it."
That said, I've only recently realized how much I had been missing about how to use this powerful tool. Here are a few of the features that I've only learned about lately:
That said, I've only recently realized how much I had been missing about how to use this powerful tool. Here are a few of the features that I've only learned about lately:
- Did you know you could use Google as a calculator? It serves as an advanced math calculator, in fact, since it can give you the answer to math equations with symbols that I've long ago forgotten what they stand for.
- Did you know that they have a special search engine, called Google Scholar, that is geared to searching through scholarly literature? This search engine attempts to rank the responses to your quest the way an academic researcher would--that is, looking not only at the text of the article, but weighing factors such as the author, where it was published, and how many times it had been cited in other scholarly journals, before ordering the responses to your search request.
- Did you know that if you are looking for something within a particular website, but it doesn't have its own internal search engine, you can make Google do a site-specific search?
- Did you know you could use Google to give you conversions, like changing dollars into English pounds, or degrees Farenheit into degree Centigrade, or other metric conversions of distance and weight?
- Did you know you could use Google as a dictionary?
Well, maybe you did, but I didn't. But Google Education is here to the rescue! They have recently developed a series of posters for teachers to post in the classroom to educate students about search engine terminology, symbols, and best practices. You can download them here, and even if you don't print them out as posters, you can keep the documents on your computer when you need a quick reminder about how to search for, say, Martin Luther King Jr. quotes ONLY during the Kennedy Administration, or gathering information about twilight without venturing into vampire territory.
Friday, May 13, 2011
World Religions: Asatru and Norse Religions
Like most teachers, I have a plan about what it is that I am going to teach and when. What is so lovely about my situation, however, is that if I feel like I should through away the plan and do something else, I can. And sometimes it is that sudden inspiration that turns out to be the perfect lesson.
This was my situation last week in my world religion class. I had planned to do a lesson on Native American spirituality. But suddenly it hit me--what big event in the lives of my students took place last weekend? Why, the opening of the movie Thor, of course. So why not take advantage of all the buzz of the hottest movie of the moment, and do a class on traditional Norse religions and mythology and its modern incarnation, the religions of Asatru and Northern Heathenism?
So I through out my lesson plan (or, actually, rescheduled it for next week), and plunged into Norse mythology. And it was so much fun! Of course, it ended up taking a lot more time and a lot more work than I had anticipated (a common problem for me!), but unlike Greek, Roman, and even Egyptian mythology, I never knew too much about the Norse gods and goddesses beyond the biggies--Odin, Thor, Frigga, and Loki. But what a fascinating cosmology the Norse tradition created. The Norse universe consists of nine worlds inhabited by different beings--gods and goddesses of the sky, gods and goddesses of the earth, giants, light elves, dark elves, dwarfs, and, of course, us mere mortals--all supported by a Tree of Life with a name I have no idea of how you are supposed to pronounce because it is spelled "Yggdrasil." It is a world of balance, but instead of the usual light versus dark or good versus evil, the primordial contrast in the Norse world is cold versus dark. As I read about the creation of life, which came from the drippings from the real of ice when it was warmed by the ball of fire, which were the only two things at the beginning of time, or the battles of the gods against the frost giants, or other great Norse tales, I couldn't help put it into my American perspective on things, perhaps best expressed by Robert Frost in his wonderful poem, Fire and Ice:
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Anyway, it worked out really, really well. As I expected, most of the students were excited to learn more about something so topical. They enjoyed learning the truth about the Norse myths (from which the movie apparently departs significantly in many ways) and learning more about modern worshipers who are trying to revive the old Norse religions. Towards the end of the class, we read the myth about how Odin gave his eye in search of wisdom, and how he suffered in order to obtain the mystic runes. We discussed some about the runes and how they were used, and each student made a set out of air dry clay to take home for his or her own use. All in all, I think they really enjoyed the class.
For my part, besides learning a lot about this tradition myself, I was glad to get some of this information to them before they saw the movie and thought that was how the Norse gods, goddesses, beliefs, and worlds were originally written. Also, this was a great example of how Earth-based religions reflect the environment from which they were derived. Of all the religions we have studied so far, this was the first to talk about the power of cold and ice. So this ended up being a valuable addition to our studies of nature-based spiritual traditions.
This was my situation last week in my world religion class. I had planned to do a lesson on Native American spirituality. But suddenly it hit me--what big event in the lives of my students took place last weekend? Why, the opening of the movie Thor, of course. So why not take advantage of all the buzz of the hottest movie of the moment, and do a class on traditional Norse religions and mythology and its modern incarnation, the religions of Asatru and Northern Heathenism?
So I through out my lesson plan (or, actually, rescheduled it for next week), and plunged into Norse mythology. And it was so much fun! Of course, it ended up taking a lot more time and a lot more work than I had anticipated (a common problem for me!), but unlike Greek, Roman, and even Egyptian mythology, I never knew too much about the Norse gods and goddesses beyond the biggies--Odin, Thor, Frigga, and Loki. But what a fascinating cosmology the Norse tradition created. The Norse universe consists of nine worlds inhabited by different beings--gods and goddesses of the sky, gods and goddesses of the earth, giants, light elves, dark elves, dwarfs, and, of course, us mere mortals--all supported by a Tree of Life with a name I have no idea of how you are supposed to pronounce because it is spelled "Yggdrasil." It is a world of balance, but instead of the usual light versus dark or good versus evil, the primordial contrast in the Norse world is cold versus dark. As I read about the creation of life, which came from the drippings from the real of ice when it was warmed by the ball of fire, which were the only two things at the beginning of time, or the battles of the gods against the frost giants, or other great Norse tales, I couldn't help put it into my American perspective on things, perhaps best expressed by Robert Frost in his wonderful poem, Fire and Ice:
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Anyway, it worked out really, really well. As I expected, most of the students were excited to learn more about something so topical. They enjoyed learning the truth about the Norse myths (from which the movie apparently departs significantly in many ways) and learning more about modern worshipers who are trying to revive the old Norse religions. Towards the end of the class, we read the myth about how Odin gave his eye in search of wisdom, and how he suffered in order to obtain the mystic runes. We discussed some about the runes and how they were used, and each student made a set out of air dry clay to take home for his or her own use. All in all, I think they really enjoyed the class.
For my part, besides learning a lot about this tradition myself, I was glad to get some of this information to them before they saw the movie and thought that was how the Norse gods, goddesses, beliefs, and worlds were originally written. Also, this was a great example of how Earth-based religions reflect the environment from which they were derived. Of all the religions we have studied so far, this was the first to talk about the power of cold and ice. So this ended up being a valuable addition to our studies of nature-based spiritual traditions.
Online Civil War Game for Middle Schoolers Opens Monday, May 15
There is a mystery related to the US Civil War afoot, and middle schoolers are invited to help solve it! This online game, sponsored by the National Civil War Museum, with help from Hershey High School in Pennsylvania, resolves around a puzzling document found in the museum’s archives. At the same time the online players are trying to unlock the secrets of this document, which hints at discovering the “The Jewels of the Valley,” Museum Curator Brett Kelley will walk in the footsteps of a Confederate soldier for almost 300 miles. Kelley is hiking from Fredericksburg, VA to Harrisburg, PA from May 15-May 30, 2011 by tracing the route of General Ewell’s army as they marched North to invade Pennsylvania. He is dressed in a wool Confederate uniform and carrying the supplies typical for a soldier of that time. His experience along the way will be recorded by students at Hershey High School at their blog, On The March.
See this news clip to see Brett and learn more about his long journey:
The initial document for The Jewels of the Valleys game has been released; you can see it here. As the game progresses, additional clues will be made available through modern technology, including social media. The game will include analysis of primary source documents and Civil War communication technology, and seems to require some decoding of text, since the initial game site recommends you use this webpage as well as this one.
At the conclusion of Kelley’s march to Harrisonburg on May 30, prizes and certificates will be announced for:
Best Middle School Individual Historian
Best Middle School Team
Best High School Individual Historian
Best High School Team
Anyway, it looks like it will be a fun and interesting experience around a valuable cause. To join in on the game sign up on the project wiki.
Have fun and good luck to all participants!
See this news clip to see Brett and learn more about his long journey:
The initial document for The Jewels of the Valleys game has been released; you can see it here. As the game progresses, additional clues will be made available through modern technology, including social media. The game will include analysis of primary source documents and Civil War communication technology, and seems to require some decoding of text, since the initial game site recommends you use this webpage as well as this one.
At the conclusion of Kelley’s march to Harrisonburg on May 30, prizes and certificates will be announced for:
Best Middle School Individual Historian
Best Middle School Team
Best High School Individual Historian
Best High School Team
Anyway, it looks like it will be a fun and interesting experience around a valuable cause. To join in on the game sign up on the project wiki.
Have fun and good luck to all participants!
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