Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Purchase of Alaska - This Day, in 1867

The Alaska Purchase was the acquisition of the Alaska territory by the United States from Russia in 1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate. The purchase, made at the initiative of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward (treaty signed on March 30, 1867), gained 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 km2) of new United States territory. Originally organized as the Department of Alaska, the area was successively the District of Alaska and the Alaska Territory before becoming the modern state of Alaska upon being admitted to the Union as a state in 1959.

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: The Purchase of Alaska
Subject: U.S. History
Grade Level: 6-8
Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will understand that:
- there was disagreement among the American public regarding the purchase of Alaska
- Alaska has presented both benefits and challenges to the United States.
Materials: Documents, books, articles concerning the United States' purchase of Alaska from the Russians; computers with access to the Internet.
Time Needed: Three 50-minute class periods
Provided by: Discovery Education (Credit: Summer Productions, Inc.)
Link: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/alaska.cfm

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Hollywood Legend Elizabeth Taylor Dies

Elizabeth Taylor (1932 – 2011) was considered one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age and a two-time winner of the Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Actress. The American Film Institute named Taylor seventh on its Female Legends list.

Best known for her films: National Velvet (1944), A Place in the Sun (1951), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Cleopatra (1963), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967).

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: Cleopatra
Subject: Ancient Civilizations
Objectives: By the end of this lesson, students will understand that:
- Comparing people and ranking them is a difficult challenge.
- People are important to society in many different ways.
Concepts / Vocabulary: Consort, femme fatale, linguist, dysfunctional, inflation, prenuptial, disembarked
Grade Level: 6-8
Materials:Access to a photocopier, biographical reference materials, computers with access to the Internet.
Time Needed: Two 50-minute class periods
Provided by: Discovery Education (Credit: Jay Lamb, world history and religion teacher, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, Virginia; Sandy Lamb, social studies teacher, Thomas Jefferson High School.)
Link: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/free-lesson-plans/cleopatra.cfm

 

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Mikhail Gorbachev, best known for Perestroika and Glasnost, was born this day in 1931

Perestroika (reconstruction) was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system.

Glasnost (openness) was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s.

Gorbachev's attempts at reform as well as summit conferences with United States President Ronald Reagan and his reorientation of Soviet strategic aims contributed to the end of the Cold War, ended the political supremacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), and led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

- Wikipedia

Lesson Plan Information
Title: “The Sinews of Peace” and the Cold War
Subject: World History / US History/ European History
Objectives: Students will identify the key ideas and themes in several important speeches of the Cold War era by Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Harry Truman, the Berlin Airlift, John F. Kennedy, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan
Grade Level: 9-12
Materials: Computers with access to the Internet.
Time Needed: Five 50-minute class periods
Provided by: TeachingAmericanHistory.org (Author: Amanda S. Rowcliffe, Webb School of Knoxville)
Link: http://teachingamericanhistory.org/churchill/lessonplans/rowcliffe.doc