Lowell

Our last day, can you believe it? I am ready to go home to a nice comfy bed where I am not freezing to death at night. Today was very interesting. We started our day with a tour of one of the sections of the museum. In the museum we saw and very clearly heard six machines working. They were amazingly loud. I can not imagine the noise that would be produced if all the machines were working at once, nor all the people working at those machines. Watching the machines run was quite interesting. We then toured the second floor where they showed the process of making cloth from beginning to end. It also showed how the cloth was made before and during the industrial revolution. We then went on to a very quick tour of the housing for the girls and wher they ate their meals. The imigrant portion of the museum was filled with pictures and other kinds of memorbelia from imigrants from the past and current. We had a very delicious catered lunch and then we took a short trolley ride and then a boat ride down to the lock gates. The ride down the canal was very beautiful and peaceful. While at the lock gates we learned about the gate that hangs by a single iron shackle. I thought it was very unusual that the gate was dropped to prevent flooding this spring and last spring, two years consectutatively out of the 100 year cycle. The other two years the gates were dropped were in 1936 and 1852. After the boat ride we watched a short video on Lowell’s industrial revolution. At the end of the day we got to play with water and thread. We  worked together doing a hands on activity to find the most efficient way to harness the power of water as it went by the mill. The second hands on activity was running a loom like it was on the farm before the industrial revolution. This was fun but I think would get old real fast. Both activites were fun but I would not be able to replicate them in my classroom. I do think my students would have a blast doing them though. We then had a traffic filled ride back to Salem.

MHS Day 2

Jefferson’s Record Book 

Today we went to the MHS for the second time this week. Pauline Maier author of American Scripture spoke to us about  the Declaration. We also looked at different printings of the Declaration. They were interesting to examine. They were all very different looking, however, all but one still showed the signatures as they would have appeared on the original document. We also had another viewing and lesson on some of the artifacts that MHS holds in its collections.

This afternoon we had a lesson on looking at primary source documents on town meetings. In groups we compared these differnt documents.   This would be a great lesson for the older grades. These documents held a wealth of information about the different communities. At the end of the day they showed us their website and gave us pass words to get into their on line collection. They have some amazing things on this website. I can’t wait to login and check it out.

Paul Revere House

Today we went to the Paul Revere House, Old North Church, Bunker Hill Monument and Museum, and the USS Constitution. We started off the day with primary documents on Paul Revere. This was a great lesson where we examined a piece of writing from Paul Revere. The piece of writing was either a letter, a bill, an ad, or a page from an account book and we had to tell three things from the document that we did not already know. We then looked at a replica object that came from Paul Revere’s life went along with our document and had to determine what the object was made of and what the object was. This would be a great activity to do with the students. The down side of this is I went to look at the lesson on the internet but found out I have to pay $15.00 to get the book. If I had known that I would have purchased the book when I was there so now I am with out the thier lessons. I think this lesson would be fun in the classrooom. This lesson would generate alot of new vocabulary, and discussion.

After the lesson we toured Paul Revere’s house. It is hard to believe that about 16 people were living ion those four small rooms. The next stop was the Old North Church. I sat in General Gages personal pew. The short presentation on the history of the church was interesting. We then hiked up to Bunker Hill Monument in the cold drizzle. Here we had a lecture on the Battle of Bunker Hill from a gentleman from the parks service. From there we went to see the USS Constitution. This is the size I pictured the Mayflower to be. The ship was very interesting.

  

State House and Faneuil Hall

Today we went to the historical State House. Here we had a wonderful lecture presented by Dr. Allison on the Boston Massacre. Also in the room we had the lecture in  there were several belongings of Elijah Wyman, who we believe to be one of Dave’s ancestors. Which was incredible.

Today’s lessons to take back to the classroom were great!

The role playing of the court battle was interesting. I think the students grade 5 and up would get alot out of the lesson but 4 and below I think would struggle . There would be alot of discussion of vocabulary and what happens in a court of law. They need to be told it is not like peoples court. I think there could be some changes made so that 4 and below could do something similar.

The lesson on taxation was great. This would be a great lesson for third graders. This would get them to think about how people were taxed and why they were argueing about it. It would also teach vocabulary and make for a great discussion.

The lesson about the Town Meeting was also awesome and gets the students into role playing and sets up some great discussions. The students would love the fie’s and hazzah’s. This would get the students involved in a discussion about why that person was a Patriot or a Tory. The students would be able to do a venn diagram on likes and differences of a Patriot and a Tory. The only problem with this lesson is there are those students who do not like to speak out in front of others. However, this is a great opportunity for them to work on getting over this fear.

MHS

Today we went MHS.  The day was very enjoyable. We started the morning with a lecture on the French and Indian War  presented by Dr. Fowler from North Eastern University. The lecture was great. He used maps to show where the different confontations took place. He discussed why France and Britian were at war for so long. They were both empirialistic empires trying to control the world. Dr. Fowler said it was the battle between the shark and the lion. Britian was stronger on the ocean where as France was stronger on land.

My favorite part of MHS were the clocks. The clock that chimed during the lesson and the clock that had a ship moving back and forth were still working and on time after all these years. The ship was my favorite of the two. It makes me miss my who who clock at home. My clock at home is a cuckoo cuckoo clock but has owls instead of a cuckoo cuckoo bird.

 I looking forward to getting on the MHS website to look up primary source documents. I am thinking about looking for a child’s diary and have the students compare and contrast their lives with the child of the past. I could also bring in a second diary entry from another child to compare it to the  first child’s diary entry.  The students could use  venn digrams and other sorting charts to compare and contrast the two diary enteries.

Lexington and Concord

Today was another great day although it is really starting to bum me out that I can’t take pictures in the museums. Buckman Tavern in Lexington was interesting. My favorite part of the day was Concord. I really liked the video presentation at the visitor center of Minute Man Park. I liked the map above the screen with the little lights. It made it easy to picture what was going on and where it was happening. I also liked the reconstruction of Battle Road. This brought an understanding of the terrain and different locations some of the skirmishes have taken place like the Bloody Angle. I liked how our guide read the different accounts and made mention of how the acounts were alike and different. You could then have a discussion on the events and as you are discussing the accounts the students would be able to make a venn diagram and lists the likes and differences.

Cambridge and Harvard were very interesting. As some of us have been commenting on different thing panhandlers have on their signs  I saw one today that said “spare change for weed”. This was my first major experience of panhandlers. I guess thats what I get get for growing up in the backwoods of Wisconsin. I also walked through the cemetary and looked at the different headstones. There was one that came to a point or was peaked, Tad said they were really old like those of the Mayflower time. There were quite a few headstones with death skulls and the willow and urn patterns on them. I want to come back and do some cemetary walks and find some of Dave’s and my ancestors that are buried in Worcester, Essex and Middlesessex county cemetaries.

Old Sturbridge Village

 This place was awesome! After supper I wanted to go and walk around the place some more. They have done an awesome job constructing this place,it is very accurately done.  I loved how they had so many buildings so close together, but yet not really visible from each other. My favorite things about this site were the people who were actually using and making  the items, the people in the sawmill, the blacksmiths and the tin smiths.  I was a little nervous about dinner this afternoon after Monday’s feast but this feast tasted much better. The opportunity to cook in the openhearth fireplace was a fun experiencereally made me understand how difficult and time consuming just cooking would have been in those days.

Pemaquid and Fort Western

I thought the history of Fort William Henery was interesting. I was surprised to learn that  it was burned so many times, attacked by pirates, and attacked by Native Americans. I also thought it was interesting how they know what kind of people lived there by the articles they left behind.  This place also had a tie to the witchcraft trials in Salem, since Governor Phipps was working there during the witch trials. It was also amazing that an effigy from West Africa found its way to the shores of Maine. I wish knew the story behind it!

Rebecca Nurse House / Salem Witch Trials

 

Two interesting features at the Rebecca Nurse house was the bird jar and sun dial that was attached to the side of the house. The bird jar was new to me, I just always thought they used wooden boxes as bird houses. Also, this was the first time I had seen a sundial on a building. I agree with Dr. Baker, The likelyhood of Rebecca’s body being buried in the cemetary is slim. However, it is probably somewhere on the place. It would have been too risky to bury the body in the cemetary because it would have been an easy thing to spot by authorities if they were looking.

Deerfield

June 6^th — Deerfield

Memorial Hall was my favorite part of the day in Deerfield.  The exhibits in the museum were very interesting. My favorite exhibit was the picture of the giant oxen on the third floor.  Their size was amazing.  Their yoke was on the floor was huge. I also thought the ax hollowed log barrels were interesting.  These barrels were three feet across and four feet deep and they were chipped out using a hand ax. Another interesting feature in Deerfield was the tobacco drying barns.