Podcast #3 Making History 4.28.2006

Making History Podcast 4.28.2006
Direct Link to Podcast #3 (22 minutes)


Segment #1 What I have Learned so far..

Segment #2 Teacher Toolbox
1. Strive for Five Sample and Strive for Five Key (MS Word Documents)
2. Review CD's - Powerpoint, United Streaming, and MS Producer 2003
3. NYS Regents Review- Exmaple of web based video clips for Government Review
4. The Presidents DVD from the History Channel - A panoramic look at the personalities who have occupied the Oval Office.

Segemnt #3 Links for US History Campaign Ads for the Classroom

The Living Room Candidate - Thee American Museum of the Moving Image has examples of television commercials from presidential elections.

EASE History - A rich online environment that supports the learning and teaching of US History. Hundreds of historical videos and photographs are currently available in EASE History
Direct Link to EaseHistory Tutorial

Segment #4 Cool Historical Facts
Local History: Abner Doubleday birthplace - Ballston Spa, NY
CSPAN: Booknotes - Add these titles to your toolbox for great US History ancedotes
Wikipedia entires: Abner Doubleday; John Scopes; William Jennings Bryan

Direct Link to Making History Podcast #3

Please feel free to e-mail me with questions, comments or observations at rhengsterman@bscsd.org

The Evolution of an occasional Blogger

I am coming to the close of my first academic year as a member of the blog and podcast nation. What a interesting journey. True to form, the moment I embrace any new technology or software I create more work for myself trying to figure out how to incorporate it into my daily routine. This point is not lost on my wife. When I emerge from the basement on a caffeine induced experiment with Audacity, she will patiently ask me if I have finished painting the fence. She is all about the bottom line and I enjoy the fact that she keeps me grounded. She is supportive of my efforts. For example, she encouraged me to create a blog post about how I painted the fence. I could include brush stoke techniques, the color of paint I used, and a JPEG of the finished project. Go get'em tiger!!!

Here is a complete history of my blogging career. You may notice that most of my blog and podcast action takes place around school breaks and holidays.

October 23, 2005 - My first blog post from my SociologyEchoes blogsite.
October 26, 2005 - I rename my Sociology Echoes site The Human Zoo because I forgot the password to Sociology Echoes. I then realize you can create multiple accounts for one user name. Brilliant!!
November 30, 2005 - I make 2 posts to www.thehumanzoo.blogspot.com
December 26-27, 2005 - I create several new blogger accounts and begin regular posts at http://historyshack.blogpsot.com. I spent most of my time trying to come up with a catchy name for my blog and podcasts. This became time consuming because many of my choices were already taken. So I decided to connect my blog site name to my class website historyshack.com. To make things a little more confusing I decided to call my podcast " Making History"
January -March 2006 - I created 17 drafts or posts to my blog. Basically just things that are going on in my classroom and some elementary observations. Nothing earth shattering

March 17, 2006 - I produced my first podcast "Making History - The Spoken Word" I sound monotone and need to stop using the word fantastic.
April 12, 2006 - I celebrate my son Alex's second birthday in blogstyle!!
April 14 -20 2006 - During April break I decide to take my blog and podcast in a different direction. I have found the trifecta - a catchy name for my podcast, an available blogspot site and an available gmail site. Now I am officially in business. Scheduled Debut May 1, 2006
April 20, 2006 - I produce my second podcast. It is actually a months worth of spoken word recordings mashed together. I am very close to fine tuning the process.

I am now going to finish painting the fence

Words of Wisdom from the Boss

The following link was passed on to me from one of our first year teachers here at Ballston - Mark Trazskos. Mark teaches Global History and Economics and between creating lessons, evaluating students, and adjusting to the bureaucratic nuisances associated with the daily grind he does not have the time to create a blog. In due time he will become a valuable contributor. Bruce Springsteen (Class of 1967) was recently inducted into the Freehold High School Hall of Fame. Although he was unable to attend the ceremony, his mother accepted the honor on his behalf. She read the following statement:

"I'd like to thank everyone for the honor. It's especially nice coming from my hometown and my old alma mater. It's kind of funny, really. I spent my years at Freehold Regional pretty much as an outcast and at best a very mediocre student. I would probably have been voted 'Least Likely to Succeed.'

"My only advice to teachers and the administrators would be to keep your eyes on the ones that don't fit in. They're the ones thinking out of the box and reimagining this place we live in... our hometown. You never know where they're going. "So, thank you once again and please show my mother a good time. Without her I may not have survived Freehold Regional High School."

"Go Colonials!"

http://www.backstreets.com/

Podcast #2 Making History 4.21.2006

Direct Link to Podcast #2 4.21.2006 (16:07) 15.5 MB

Podcast #2 Shownotes - You heard it here last....

Introduction Music: Blue Mountain Boogie by Mark Scott LaMountain and the Blue Thunder Band from the Podsafe Network: http://music.podshow.com

Segment #1 Rural college pushes iPod use for lectures
The campus of Georgia College & State University boasts traditional college fare: spacious greens, historic architecture and a steady stream of students with the familiar white headphones of iPods dangling from their ears.

Segment #2 New York State Computers and Technologies in Education - Conference March 22, 2006 http://www.nyscate.org/ NYSCATE includes educators and educational administrators. Their mission is “to inspire and empower learning communities to envision and implement technologies for the purpose of improving student achievement.”

Bloglines: Free news aggregator http://www.bloglines.com/about/

Will Richardson's Blog http://www.weblogg-ed.com/

What every educator needs to know about Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms in one handy (and if I do say so myself, smart-looking) volume. Written for young teachers, old teachers, soon-to-be-teachers, administrators, heck…anyone who wants to learn more about how the Web is changing teaching and learning.

Segment #3 Classroom Experiments - Test Process Pocasts

The Test Process podcasts website provides a personalized summary of each of our class unit tests http://www.testprocess.blogspot.com/

Segment #4 Comments on Jackie Robinson Day April 15th 2006: n April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African-American player in Major League Baseball. In celebration of the most momentous day in baseball history, Commissioner Alan H. (“Bud”) Selig declared April 15 “Jackie Robinson Day” in perpetuity.

Additional Links from Segment #4
Jackie Robinson Foundation: http://www.jackierobinson.org/
Teddy Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington from Wikipedia.org
Baseball Hall of Fame http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/

Until Next Time....

Celebrating Alex

I would like to take an opportunity to celebrate my youngest son's 2nd birthday. Alexander Hengsterman was born April 12, 2004. Much like his namesake, colonial luminary Alexander Hamilton, baby Alex is a fighter. Born with Down Syndrome and three congenital heart defects Alex survived his first open heart surgery on April 19th 2004. After a 30 day stay in The Albany Medical Center's ICU, we returned home to nurse Alex back to health and get him strong enough for open heart surgery #2 on December 7th 2004. During our 45 days in the Albany Medical Center we witnessed firsthand the Intensive Care Unit's doctors and nurses work around the clock the give Alex a chance to celebrate his first birthday. It is impossible to put into words the depths of our gratitude. It doesn't seem possible, but two years have passed. If I could turn back the clock to April 11th 2004, knowing what I know now, I would not change a thing. An extensive network of family, friends, co-workers, therapists, doctors, and nurses have become what Stacey and I refer to as Team Alex. One little boy the focus of so much love and appreciation. As part of Alex's birthday celebration I plan on personally calling, writing, or e-mailing Team Alex and letting them know how much I appreciate what they have done for my little guy. I will start with his big brother Jackson - a caring and compassionate five year old who has embraced his role a guardian and protector of Alex. He models this behavior after my wife Stacey - the captain of Team Alex :). I am blessed on so many levels. I thought it would be nice to get that on the record. Happy Birthday Alex!!!!

March Madness

How nice it is to weave a little history into our March Madness conversations. I was able to incorporate the recent success of George Mason's basketball team into my mundane Monday morning welcome. Here is what I shared with my classes on 3/27/2006

Point#1 Reviewing Colonial History: George Mason 1725-1792) has been called the "Father of the Bill of Rights" and a major player in the writing of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. Ironically, he did nor sign the Constitution because it did not explicitly outline protections of individual rights. Later, the Constitution would be modified to address these concerns.


Point #2 Post Game Press Conference http://gomason.cstv.com/ Coach Jim Larranaga used a quote from William Jennings Bryan when talking about his team's historic victory. Coach stated :" Destiny is not a matter of chance, its a matter of choice" Nice work coach

I am pulling for GMU

Test Process Podcast - An Experiment

For my next podcast I decided to create an audio "test process". I have several students staying after school next week to give it a test run. If you would like to check it out go to my new blog at: http://testprocess.blogspot.com/ Please keep in mind this is 14 minutes of your life that you can not get back. :(

Stay tuned Making History Podcast #2 will be up next week. I went to see Will Richardson speak at the NYSCATE conference http://www.nyscate.org/ so I have plenty to share with my audience (3 at present)

Later

Podcast #1 Joining the Revolution 3.17.2006

At long last I have put togehter my debut Podcast: Podcast #1 Making History -The Spoken Word 3.17.2006

Podcast #1 Shownotes:

• My class webpage www.historyshack.com
• Ballston Spa CSD www.bscsd.org
• The Jime Rome Show www.jimrome.com
• Classroom Blogging: A Teacher's Guide to the Blogosphere by David Warlick
• David Warlick's Blog http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
• Podcasting: Do-It-Yourself Guide by Todd Cochrane
• Free Podcast and Audacity Tutorial http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/
• PODCAST HIT LIST:
  #1 Eric Langhorst http://speakingofhistory.blogspot.com
  #2 Talking History http://talkinghistory.oah.org/
  #3 Ed Tech Talk http://edtechtalk.com/
  

Direct link to MP3 Podcast #1 of Making History (15 minutes)

Until Next Time...