5/28/2009

Buffalo Music - Fern and Castillo - DRT Naylor Award

NaylorBook  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
 
  1. Project Information
  2. Schedule of Presentations
  3. Photo Gallery
  4. Sample Student Presentations
  5. FAQ
  6. Evaluation Form
  7. Read about Texas History Mystery Connections

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 
 

 

Texas Treasures 

This exhibition highlights the greatest treasures of the Texas State Library and Archives, from Travis' Letter from the Alamo to the original Ordinance of Secession, from historic flags to wanted posters for Sam Bass and Clyde Barrow. New treasures and topics will be added on a periodic basis.

Texas Treasures
 

Portraits of Texas Governors

Biographies of all of the governors of Texas, complete with official portraits, timeline of events, revealing documents, and rare photos.


The McArdle Notebooks

Henry McArdle's battle paintings, Dawn at the Alamo and The Battle of San Jacinto, have become Texas icons. The painstaking detail of the paintings was reflected in exhaustive research. McArdle's notebooks are packed with letters, notes, and photographs documenting the paintings and the events they depict.


Forever Free

Fifty-two African-American men served Texas as either state legislative members or Constitutional Convention delegates during the last half of the 19th century, representing the first significant political achievement by the African-American citizens of this state.


Votes for Women!

Diaries and letters of Texas women, political cartoons, government documents, and photographs and postcards tell the little-known story of the women activists who fought to overcome societal attitudes and entrenched power and won the rights of full citizenship.


Pioneer Texas Architects

In the years from 1877 to 1900, the �Gilded Age� in American history, F. E. �Ernst� and Oscar Ruffini were part of the first wave of professional architects to practice in Texas. A large collection of their drawings, specifications, and correspondence can be viewed on site at the Texas State Library and Archives. Representative examples of their work are included in this exhibit.


Hazardous Business: Industry, Regulation, and the Texas Railroad Commission

Government documents, photographs, political cartoons, and other artifacts help tell the story of the agency founded in 1891 on a tide of populist resentment of the railroads that went on in the 20th century to wield legendary power over the supply and price of oil and natural gas.


Indian Relations in Texas

For more than three centuries, relations between whites and Indians occupied a central place in Texas life. The Texas State Library and Archives is home to a massive collection called the Texas Indian Papers. These and other documents and photographs from our collections tell the story of an epic clash of cultures.

Fortune Favors the Brave: The Story of the Texas Navy

The sailors of Texas were vital to the survival of the Republic; they defended the coastline, ensured Texas supply lines, and brought in much-needed revenue from prizes and captures. In this exhibit, adventure in the Gulf is paired with a political blood feud which brought the Navy crashing down amidst charges of piracy, mutiny, and murder.

Triumph and Tragedy: Presidents of the Republic of Texas

For the next ten years, four very different men led the Republic of Texas down a difficult and unknown path as an independent nation. Although these men were different--sawmill operator, soldier, poet, doctor--they were also much alike. To a man they had known crushing failure. Each had the heart and nerve to take the helm of a penniless, lawless land and dream of the mighty Texas it might one day become. Each of them, for good and for ill, shaped that destiny. This is their story.

Hard Road to Texas: Texas Annexation 1836-1845

At the time of the Texas Revolution, most Texans and Americans assumed that the Republic of Texas would be swiftly annexed to the United States. Instead, the process of annexation took nine long and bruising years. In hindsight, Texas annexation seems inevitable. But it all could have been so different.

To Love the Beautiful: The Story of Texas State Parks

Created in 1923, the State Parks Board struggled until the New Deal poured millions of federal dollars into creating state parks for Texas. In the decades to follow, Texans who loved the outdoors promoted state parks as a public good that provides fun and serenity to the public while preserving the natural beauty of Texas. But always the parks have competed with other state needs and priorities.

Under the Rebel Flag: Life in Civil War Texas

Though Texans had fought for many years to achieve annexation to the United States, they voted decisively to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy in 1861. From the embattled cotton port of Galveston to the besieged Indian frontier, from the Louisiana border to the Rio Grande, Texans would spend the next four bitter, desperate years learning the reality of war.
 
Hard Road to Texas: Texas Annexation 1836-1845
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/exhibits/annexation/index.html

5/07/2009

Texas history curriculm - Bastrop

Mrs. Cheshire, of Bastrop's Middle School, has posted her summary curriculm of Texas history online at

Texas Curriculum - Galena Park ISD

Galena Park ISD has posted its 35 weeks (59 pages) of Texas history curriculum with attention to TAKS and TEKS at

5/02/2009

Last Mango in Texas by Ray Blackston

Sherrie at her Just Books WELCOME TO MY BLOG! reviews
the Last Mango in Texas by Ray Blackston.  A splice from her comments include this "This is a very good book.   Sometimes funny, sometimes serious, Kyle's pursuit of Gretchen takes him to the desert of Texas, the coast line of Alaska, a bed and breakfast in France and a small village in Africa. The whole time Kyle is chasing Gretchen he still has his oil wells and they are causing some trouble with his romance of Gretchen."

Texas History in the 1st grade

Nat and Leslie show how its done one day.  And the rewards.
 

Mike Kearby and Hypocrisy of Culture

Texana Mike Kearby, Spur winning novelist of the Free Parks trilogy, offers an insightful article on the "Hypocrisy of Culture" at Isnare.  Kearby's novels' plots are set in Texas' multi-cultural frontier times after the Civil War.