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11/12/2009
Texas Tribune - new newspaper
The Texas Tribune is described by the Texas Community College Teachers Association:
Parks & Wildlife - Keep Texas Wild - for Educators
 The invitation from TP&W reads: "Dear Educators, We are excited to present to you "Keep Texas Wild" – a magazine section for kids. Our kid-friendly, four-page sections include fun facts presented with a lively writing style, eye-popping photos and a creative, whimsical design. The topics are Texas- specific, with special attention to conservation issues. "Keep Texas Wild" includes hands-on activities that cross the spectrum of curriculum (including art, math, science and social studies) and a call to action that encourages students to get outdoors and get involved." Special issues of the KTW periodical is accompanied by teacher lesson plans. The November issue:  November 2009 – Volume 2 Issue #3 (PDF): Bird Lips!? |
Half Broke Horses - Walls
 'Half Broke Horses: A True Lfie Novel,' By Jeannette Walls Book Review by Juanita Sherwood The review begins: ""Half Broke Horses" is listed as a true-life novel. That designation is used because the book is based on experiences of the author's grandmother, which are true, but to tie them altogether, the author has added dialogue and information that she cannot substantiate. Thus, she has designated it as a novel. Lily Casey Smith is the main character. She was raised in two locations: west Texas and New Mexico. Her father was a rancher; the ranch she first lived on was very isolated." Read more at |
Semicolon Remembers the Alamo
A recent (10/13/09) Semicolon's "Texas Tuesday' focused on several young readers' volumes and the Alamo. |
11/11/2009
Youth Writing - Sweazy
Larry D. Sweazy writes "Youth Writing: Corralling Young Readers: in the October issue of the Western Writers Association's Roundup, an online journal. Read it at http://www.westernwriters.org/OCT2009RU.pdf This issue also has article on the recently passed Texan, Elmer Kelton, the "Greatest Western Writer." |
11/09/2009
H.G. Bissinger Inteview
Friday Night Lights author H.G. Bissinger is interviewed, partially about last year's banning of FNL in Beaumont schools, in the annual report of the Texas ACLU review of Texas schools' recently banned books. McCarthy's The Road and Sandra Cisneros' Woman Hollering Creek are on the lists. Page 8 reports "Where were the Most Challenges? Stephenville, Houston and Irving school districts reported the most challenges for the 2008-2009 school year. Stephenville ISD led the charge this year with 11 challenges, all of which resulted in bans. Houston ISD and Irving ISD tied for the second most this year with six challenges each. This marks quite the improvement for HISD, as the district reported 20 challenges last year. Unfortunately, only one of HISD's six challenges resulted in the book being retained without restriction. While Irving ISD experienced just as many challenges, five of the six books challenged were retained without restriction: a sole book was restricted to the reference library. Tying for third was Seguin ISD and Klein ISD, each with four challenges."
National Banned Books Week September 26 – October 3, 2009 |
Luke and the Van Zandt County War - Alter
 Luke and the Van Zandt County War by Judith MacBain Alter tells a story from a 14-year-old girl's eyes and her brother's, both children of a doctor. She sees the Ku Klux Klan in East Texas. There are objections.Reviewed at http://www.semicolonblog.com/?p=7553 |
Jack Rabbit Moon - Darden
 Jack Rabbit Moon by Dorraine Darden is reviewed athttp://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-jack-rabbit-moon-by/ 11-year-old Marnie lives in SW Texas, and life is, well, just not perfect. |
11/08/2009
Juan Seguin lesson plans - Harris
Charlie Harris, formerly of Brooklyn and now of El Paso, has prepared a several page long background and lesson plan on Juan Seguin, the prominent Tejano whose life wrapped around the 1830's and beyond. His family had been a pillar of Bexar for some time before. Try the plan, available via UTEP's Center for History Teaching and Learning, at http://academics.utep.edu/Portals/1719/Publications/Seguin.pdf |
11/06/2009
Why Study History?
The American Historical Association's website has a useful essay on "Why Study History?" by Peter N. Stearns. Teachers and parents may wish to read the brief article to help their children find their value and identity within the historical stream. Among the reasons is that history "harbors beauty." |
Young Adult Texana from Austin Public Library
| The Austin Public Library has a nice variety of lists for their teenage readers. One of those lists features Texas authors which also includes titles about Texas. http://www.connectedyouth.org/books/index.cfm?booklist=texas |
10/30/2009
Bullock Texas State History Museum Teaching Aids
Educators may visit the Bullock Museum for assistance.http://www.thestoryoftexas.com/education/educators.html
K - 12th Grade Teachers Home School Teachers Adult ESL Educators Star Educator E-newsletter |
10/24/2009
LC American Memory Collections
American Memories is a section of webpage by the Library of Congress. Searching for "Texas" one finds 250 pages of items, each page with 15 items, and 250 is the maximum number of pages retrievable. So Texas likely has far in excess of 5,000 items. Can so be useful for schools. What items? Photographs, maps, sheet music, architecture, books, laws, just all sorts of things - graphically depicted !!! The items are mostly from the LC, but other institutions contribute, e.g., UT-Austin. In all probability your town has material there, maybe dozens, maybe hundreds. Topics are broad. American Memories has bluebonnets, armadillos, longhorns, etc. Go see !! http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html You can search by place - lotsa hits for Dallas, Galveston, Houston, and of course my hometown of Marshall, and my places of education Jacksonville, Nacogodoches, Kingsville, and Austin. You can browse by time period.. You can also browse by topic
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10/23/2009
Texas History (with Primary Sources 1997) Marrou
ERIC at http://www.eric.ed.gov/ notes this decade old introduction (ERIC 428996). Somebody should find it interesting to obtain a copy and compare it to opportunities today. Texas History: Teaching with Primary Source Series. By Judy Marrou and Patti Woolery-Price. Peterborough, NH: Cobblestone Publishing Company, 1997. 192 pages. It's abstract reads: "Intended to be used by teachers of grades 5 and up, this unit deals with Texas. The unit is built around the seven standards of the new Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), an outcome-based social studies curriculum guide for teaching Texas history. The guide includes the following standards: citizenship, economics, geography, history, government, culture, and science/technology. The activities in the unit are designed around the social studies skills outlined in TEKS. Looking at old photographs, letters, maps, and census records students learn the stories of real people. Students are asked to collect information from several sources and to create visual materials that include maps, timelines, and graphs. The focus is on cooperative problem-solving and decision-making as processes for learning. Activities are provided that allow students to practice the following skills and strategies: collecting, organizing, interpreting, and weighing the significance of factual evidence to achieve a systematic document analysis; comparing and contrasting evidence from different sources; identifying factual information and separating it from opinion; identifying points of view and biases; and developing defensible inferences, conclusions, and generalizations from factual evidence practice. (BT) " |
Texas Slavery Project
 What is it? Self-description: "The Texas Slavery Project takes a deep look at the expansion of slavery in the borderlands between the United States and Mexico in the years between 1837 and 1845. Based at the Virginia Center for Digital History, the project offers a number of digital tools that allow users to explore the changing face of slavery in early Texas ...." Need a some statistics, by area within early Texas, need direction to some primary sources (letters, laws, documents, etc.), need some maps that show distribution of slaves and slave-holders across the years? This is a notable place to come. Torget's self-description: "Andrew J. Torget is the project's founder and director. Andrew is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Texas, where he is completing a book titled Cotton Empire: Slavery, the Texas Borderlands, and the Origins of the Mexican-American War. Andrew received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia while serving as the founding director of the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond. He is also the co-editor of two books, Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration (University of Virginia Press, 2006) and Two Communities in the Civil War (W. W. Norton, 2007)." An excellent website substantially derived from the work at the University of Virginia. Does not address slavery among Native Texas tribes or the previous military system or peonage systems among the Spanish and Mexican elite, or the slavery in post-annexation Texas, or the prison labor system conducted by the state in subsequent years.. |
10/21/2009
Antique Maps of Texas - Charlton
Well, pull up a chair and grab a cup of coffee because when you get your copy, you'll be looking and clicking for a spell. This 4th edition of Antique Maps of Texas has over 300 maps. Yessireebob.
CONTENTS: And its arranged into "Great Maps of Texas" 1777-1931, Special Maps (cattle, exploration, military and forts, county, geologic, minerals) US historic 1803-1907, and 9 sections of grouped USGS selected topographic maps. Accompanying each map, Charlton has written a 200-word text on the map, the topic, and / or the cartographer. NAVIGATION; You can flip through the pages as you would a paper book; you can zoom in for a closer look; you can pan by grab and drag; you can bookmark, you can click the 17 tabs set on the right-hand edge, you can use the find button to search the maps' supplementary text Charlton provided. And, hey, look, there's a date and place index in the back. And for those accustomed to passive viewing, you can set the presentation on an auto-flip and watch the page spreads at a variable time span. If you prefer to opt out of the "page" presentation, a side-show option can be invoked. To top it off, Charlton has added period graphics between the sections. Sure enough, the 1902 (the year before my father was born) Century Atlas railroad map shows my father's hometown of Harleton, my mother's hometown of Jefferson, and my hometown of
Charlton's near decade long project is admirable. And while you can certainly use and benefit from this electronic map collection, Charlton also offers you the opportunity to have him supply printed versions. There're fairly good prices. This is a worthy acquisition for citizens, libraries, and social studies teachers. |
10/20/2009
Texas history classroom videos - Jank Williams on Veoh
Jank Williams teaches Texas history to a flock of youngsters. He is an active user of the Veoh video website to load his classroom videos there. The 18 videos (3 - 25 minutes) often feature Williams beside a power point presentation on the day's topic. He joined Veoh about three months ago during the summer. These 18 seem to be his videos to date. His additions across the year will make an intersting and useful source for folks. Certainly his students find it helpful, and others wishing an survey of Texas history will also. Some samples include |
9/28/2009
Will's Texana Youtube Channel
I've developed a Youtube channel, Will's Texana Youtube Channel. It's free, It's easy. An account is called a channel. Yes, I know and groan about the junk and ephemera that's there, but this last summer I wondered, just what IS there? So I looked. It took a while to get the hang of it all, but using a very undisciplined method which was also very unconsistent, I cobbled together 1,000 videos from other folks' channels and centralized them into 100 topical playlists. There are some drawbacks (e.g., Youtube doesn't allow for alphabetizing the 100 playlists, so you'll find them in a jumble of 100.) I working on a means where by they can be alphabetizing on somebody's separate page, and this alternative would also enable the addition of other folks' playlists on other channels. I'm issuing a report on Will's Texana Youtube Channel as a special issue of my Will's Texana Monthly. If you'd like a free copy just let me know. That report also includes a list of the 50 or so Youtube channels to which I subscribe, some rather professionally done - historical, contemporary, nature, gardening, media, etc - and some casually produced by individuals but worthy of notice and maybe your own subscription. The WT Channel was first intended just as a device to record what I found. Now it serves as a repository (if temporary) to nudge librarians, archivists, historians, teachers, and other interested folks to further explore Youtube and other video repositories for their long-term value. Already one WT channel viewer, Joan Hood, has since begun her own channel, Joan's Texas Women Channel, to collect videos exclusively on that topic which I wouldn't be able to do as well at http://www.youtube.com/user/JoanHood1 . Actually, I encourage you to start your own channel, if not so much to produce your own videos, but to collect along special lines. And tell me where to go and what to do when I get there! It's a broad prairie with only slow rolling hills. I could use some talk and thought. See the whole shebang at http://www.youtube.com/willstexana |
9/18/2009
TEKSWatch site for TEKS
 CHTL, the University of Texas at El Paso's Department of History's Center for History Teaching and Learning at http://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=58084 has added a new component to their website, a TEKSWatch.  The CHTL focuses broadly on history, but at this time there is considerable to draw the attention of those interested in Texas, for example the below are sample entries from their website: "U.S.History to 1877 (8th grade)
Texas History (7th grade)
3rd grade U.S. History
Government
Middle SchoolTexas History
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8/13/2009
Draft Recommendations for Revisions to Social Studies TEKS
Per TEA's Social Studies listserv:
The first draft recommendations for revisions to the social studies TEKS are now posted on the TEA website at http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teks/socialstudiesTEKS.html.
Instructions for providing informal feedback will be posted in the next few days on the same website. |
7/16/2009
UT Arlington Maps and Teachers
Improving Teaching through the Use of Historic Maps
The University of Texas at Arlington's map collection is widely recognized as is their association with the Texas Map Society. A considerable effort, with some funding from the Houston Endowment, has enabled their mounting of a special program especially amenable to teachers - Cartographic Connections. It's self-description reads: "The University of Texas at Arlington is conducting a project entitled Cartographic Connections: Improving Teaching through the Use of Historic Maps. Funded by a grant from the Houston Endowment, Inc., Cartographic Connections is a three-year, interactive electronic pilot project. Its goal is to connect secondary school students and teachers to a primary source--historic maps of Texas, the Southwest and beyond, dating from the 1500s through the 1900s. Through the use of maps, students gain a better understanding of history and the sources that reveal it. The social studies and other programs in Texas schools can also benefit from the use of these historic maps.
The project involves UTA faculty, library staff, and selected teachers from across the state. The teachers and UTA staff and faculty are identifying curriculum needs and devising strategies that meet those needs through the use of historic maps. The project's objectives include:
Read more at http://libraries.uta.edu/ccon/ The sidebar clicks include
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Texas, Social Studies, and the Wall Street Journal
Texas' neighbors are watching and have noticed the initial script lines of "Texas All in the Family" being tried out on the Texas Education Commission's front porch by actors of yet obscured faces. Exactly who is acting the roles of Archie Bunker and Meat Head are yet to be defined. Of all news sources the Wall Street Journal considers the current Texas leaders' special approach to defining appropriateness or inclusiveness for our children's learning. Texas revisits various parts of the curriculum about once every 10 years. This year, social studies is one of those being visited for revision. Stephanie Simon wrote a July 14 article entitled "The Culture Wars' New Frontier: U.S. History Classes in Texas." By STEPHANIE SIMON The article begins: "The fight over school curriculum in Texas, recently focused on biology, has entered a new arena, with a brewing debate over how much faith belongs in American history classrooms. The Texas Board of Education, which recently approved new science standards that made room for creationist critiques of evolution, is revising the state's social studies curriculum. In early recommendations from outside experts appointed by the board, a divide has opened over how central religious theology should be to the teaching of history." By July 16 morning there were 242 comments, read more at http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB124753078523935615-lMyQjAxMDI5NDE3NDUxMzQwWj.html If it weren't for the fact that millions of school children will be affected for the rest of their lives by the eventual decisions, the tragi-comic episodes to come could be viewed as simply entertainment of the "Family Guy" groundling level, not even constructive enough to be "King of the Hill." At the outset, the oddest thing I find is that somebody wants to exclude from the American history textbook Anne Hutchinson, the famous 1600's woman religious dissenter/teacher who was exiled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for refusing to accept the gummit line on the REQUIRED religious formula and not to be confused (I suppose, but maybe not) with the current Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison who'll run in a primary against Governor Rick Perry who controls the commission's appointments. Anyway, this current Texas ban of Anne Hutchinson brings to memory the recent attempt by some Texans to censor the book "Fahreheit 451," a novel against book censoring. Connected to that memory is Louis Sachar's book "Holes," a Newbery-winning novel set in modern Texas where nonconformist children are condemned to endlessly dig holes for greedy adults looking for buried treasure. |
7/13/2009
TSHA Texas Histsory Day Special Awards
The Texas State Historical Association's Texas History Day special awards include Oral History Award The C. M. Caldwell Memorial Award for Texas History The Colonial Dames Award The Willie Lee Gay Award for African-American History The Jewish History Award The Hispanic Heritage Award The UT Austin Liberal Arts Scholarship The Descendents of Austin's Old Three Hundred History Award The Jane McCallum Women in Texas History Award The Institute of Texan Cultures Award The Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP Legal History Award The Texas Old Missions and Forts Restoration Association Award The Students' Choice Exhibit Awards The Outstanding Entry Awards The David C. DeBoe Texas History Day Teacher Award Read more about them at http://www.tshaonline.org/education/thd/thdspecialawards.pdf |
7/11/2009
El dia de los ninos
El dia de los ninos website at http://www.texasdia.org/ is being updated via a grant from the Texas Library Association. Check back before next April's celebration. For a while the 100 page "Toolkit" can be found at |
Tomas and the Library Lady - Mora
Tomas and the Library Lady by Pat Mora is reviewed in Multicultural Lit for Children and Young Adults  The review begins "Tomas and his family travel from Texas to Iowa to harvest crops. He carries out water to his family while they are busy farming. On breaks his grandfather has the children gather all around and tells them stories. He tells Tomas that he is now old enough to visit the library where there are many more stories. "Read more at |
Days of Little Rain - Nelson
Publishers Weekly: Children's Book Reviews: Week of 7/6/2009  Days of Little Texas by RA Nelson. Knopf, $16.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-375-85593-1 The review begins "Ronald Earl, at the center of this multidimensional coming-of-age/ghost story, earned the moniker "Little Texas" at age 10, after performing a spontaneous healing while touring with his great-aunt's tent-revival ministry. But at 16, burgeoning sexual feelings and the apparition of a girl named Lucy, who died when he failed to heal her, cause Ronald to question his integrity as a spiritual leader." Read more at http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6668315.html?industryid=47141 |
Middle School Texas History Text - Willoughby
The Austin Community College offers a press release on their professor's book on Texas history by Austin Community College Professor Larry Willoughby. It begins "State's middle-schoolers use ACC professor's textbook  Austin Community College Professor - Larry Willoughby Austin Community College Professor Larry Willoughby does more than teach Texas history. He also writes about it. A four-time author, Willoughby has written two history textbooks including one that's used in more than half of all Texas seventh-grade public school classrooms. "Texas!" has sold more than 300,000 copies and is in its third printing. A self-proclaimed civil rights historian, Willoughby tries to write the textbooks from multiple perspectives. He especially revels in the underrepresented characters of history and tries to expose their stories." Read more at http://www.austincc.edu/newsroom/index.php/2009/06/29/acc-professor-wrote-the-book-on-texas-history/ |
TEA Social Studies Expert Reviews
Social Studies Expert Reviewers
David Barton, President, WallBuilders
Jesus Francisco de la Teja, Professor and Chair, Department of History, Texas State University
Daniel L. Dreisbach, Professor, American University
Lybeth Hodges, Professor, History, Texas Woman's University
Jim Kracht, Associate Dean and Professor, College of Education and Human Development, Texas A&M University
Peter Marshall, President, Peter Marshall Ministries
Read de la Teja, Hodges, and Kracht for commentary buttressed by their pro-public school, secular, social studies orientations. Read Marshall, Dreisbach, and Barton for other focal points. Contact the Curriculum Division at (512)463-9581 with any questions you may have or for an accessible version of the content on this page. And for the inquisitive: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/curriculum/social/index.html |
6/17/2009
Brazosport ISD - Holder
Yes, an ISD can be worthy of historical reflection. Lanham begins an article in "The Facts," on Brazosport ISD Retired teachers produce history of BISD
CLUTE — Frederick Holder and a group of retired teachers weren't finished giving history lessons when they left the classroom. Holder is presenting copies of the first volume of a three-book series, "The Antecedent and Early History of the Brazosport Independent School District." The first edition covers 1821 to 1917. Many times people are asked questions about the history of the school, but no one has the answer, said Francis Snelgrove, a retired teacher. Holder's books will be able to answer any questions people might have, she said. "We can know something about what happened years ago," she said. The project began in the 1980s when members of the Brazosport Association of Retired Teachers began researching the book, then searched for a writer to compile all of the information. Eventually, they found Holder, a Freeport native and 1948 graduate of Freeport High School." |
Summer Reading
Claire Abraham at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram comments on several (mostly new) Texas books suitable for young readers over the summer, "Read It: Cool Books for a Hot Lone Star Summer." |
6/15/2009
Isabel's Texas Two-Step - Bryant
 Challenging the Bookworm Blog introduces a YA novel of a Isabel's family reunion and her sister's quinceanera on a Texas ranch with chickens, horses, and the like in Isabel's Texas Two-Step by Annie Bryant. It's one of a series, "Beacon Street Girl" series. Read more about it at |
5/28/2009
Buffalo Music - Fern and Castillo - DRT Naylor Award
 The DRT announces:"The Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library Committee is pleased to announce that the 2008 June Franklin Naylor Award for the Best Book for Children on Texas history is awarded to author Tracey E. Fern and illustrator Lauren Castillo for Buffalo Music, published in 2008 by Clarion Books in New York. The announcement was made Friday evening, May 15, by Connie Impelman, Chairman of the DRT Library Committee, at the 118th Annual Convention of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas in Killeen, Texas." |
Texas History Mystery
 This interesting option self-describes itself as: "Welcome to the Texas History Mystery video conference project. This project is designed for 4th and 7th grade students studying Texas History. Through video conference technology students are able to meet other students while learning about important historical events and figures. Prior to the video conference each classroom will create a presentation with clues about their ONE mystery event, person, location, or invention. The other classrooms, using maps, the Internet, textbooks, and other resources, will try to discover the mystery event presented by each of the participating classrooms. Quick Links for Teachers and Building Coordinators
See more at http://texashistorymystery.pbworks.com/ |
Posting Powerpoints on Texas History - Freese
Todd B. Freese demonstrates the adaptability of one electronic format (powerpoint) into another (his blog). His presentation on the latter half of Texas history is embedded into one of his blog postings, "Texas History Review," at http://www.toddbfreese.com/2009/05/19/texas-history-review/ The 30 slides combine summarizing narrative (often bulleted) with photographs. The viewer advance from slide to slide at their own pace. To press the possibilities, one could create a separate, fuller powerpoint for each slide in the review. That may be what he's doing in the day-to-day classroom. |
5/21/2009
Texas Online History Exhibits - Texas State Library & Archvies
Texas State Library and Archives Commission provides several documented lessons on Texas history via their online exhibits. Other depositories would serve Texas well by similar works that integrated their holdings into learning opportunities. Self-described from http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/exhibits/index.html
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5/07/2009
Texas history curriculm - Bastrop
Mrs. Cheshire, of Bastrop's Middle School, has posted her summary curriculm of Texas history online at |
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