Group 1's "History Lesson" - using video (Melissa's Class)

I'm thoroughly enjoying my collaboration with Brandy, Todd, and Jessica in creating an extraordinary learning activity on World War I.

This week, Todd created and shared a training video on how to create a video! Our team does not want to include technology for the sake of technology and Todd showed us a technique that makes video so easy, that we can include video as part of our project, while still maintaining focus on learning and teaching about World War I.

Most of the team, however, feels that we should give our "learners" the choice of using one of several technologies (including video) to participate in this learning activity. We truly want people to enjoy learning about this fasinating period in world history.

Brandy set up a blog for our first draft executive summary. I expect to finish the 1st draft by this Friday, so that our Group can edit it and complete it before the March 3rd deadline.

Jessica did a wonderful job of researching the California standards for learning about WWI. We believe that we will exceed this standards in this project.

Last week I spent three hours in Barnes and Noble reading books on WWI. I didn't intend to spend that much time there, but I was thoroughly enjoying the exploration and it was difficult to pull myself away. I used this time to jot down historical data.

I then went to the Internet this week and found music and photos from the WWI area. My purpose was to get a view of what Private Harry Lamin may have seen in his WWI experience as a British soldier on the front lines.

From my Internet exploration, I created a slide show and converted it into a teaching video. This was largely inspired by Todd coaxing us to try to use another medium. I don't recommend that my cohorts attempt this because it was time consuming for a person who doesn't make movies every day, but I think it may serve a good purpose for one of our Essential Questions.

Since we have to go through our own lesson as if we were the actual learners, I may do a simple video response to one of the Essential Questions. If time is not available, I may do it in writing (blog).

At the core of this project is the WWI blog of Private Harry Lamin. His letters home to his family reminded me of my own Dad's WWII letters to his parents and my mother. Some 15 years after WWII ended, I would sneak into my Mom's over-sized jewelry box where she hid the letters and I'd read them. When I asked my Mom about the letters, she told me that it was important to remember the sacrifice that everyone made during WWII. She recalled that my father, who she was engaged to throughout most of the war, was a very spiritual man and that his faith kept him safe and strong when he served in the South Pacific. I found it interesting that he always ended his letters with: "God bless you, Bob. " Or, "Your loving son, Bob."

My mother also pointed out to me that several of her girlfriends served in the Army Nurse Corps and that she worked stateside for the Navy while my father was abroad. She told me that war was a bad thing and that she prayed every day that we would never enter a war like that again.

I'm happy that my sister is maintaining these letters in honor of the sacrifices made by both of my parents during WWII. Over the past few weekends, I had her read several back to me over the phone to refresh my "jewelry box" recollections. I also "phoned up" my oldest brother, a retired social studies teacher, who was able to give me a few pointers about researching movies and songs that were written about WWI. (Rita)