Window displays and an old shoebox
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: January 26, 2012
Like many folks I’ve been cleaning out stuff. I came across an old shoebox from Dayton’s Department Store which naturally led to remembering what it used to be like shopping in a big downtown Department Store. The shoebox is old & it’s battered. I think I’ll keep it.
Target Corporation paid tribute to the downtown Minneapolis Dayton’s with a slide show of window displays depicting designer fashion from the early 1900′s until the 60′s. It’s a fun resource for the ever-popular decades projects. From the Vault: A Window into Dayton’s Displays
The American Memory Collections have an abundance of catalogs, advertisements and documents. Enter “department stores” in the search box; you’ll discover thousands of treasures including photos of department stories in many cities. The first document on the list is a facsimile of Edward Filene’s prediction in 1927 about the decline of individual department stores and the rise of chains.
Learn more about using primary sources.
The present status and future prospects of chains of department stores, by Edward A. Filene ... an address delivered before the American economic association, Wash. D.C., Dec.27, 1927.
From scribes to enhanced e-books
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: January 22, 2012
The arrival of enhanced e-Books and iTextbooks is exciting; both add a new dimension to the continuing discussions about the future of the book. Media specialists are purchasing e-readers, e-books; media centers and classrooms are providing iPads and other tablets for students. This week I visited with a former teacher who has been retired for several years. She is an avid reader and book lover. Her iPad filled with books, videos and photos is her constant companion. She “blames” me for dragging her into the technology age in the 1990’s. The reading/technology projects we developed for her middle school students are among my favorites. I’d love to see enhanced e-books of the Gary Paulsen novels her students couldn’t get enough of. Last night I explored a biology textbook on our iPad; It makes makes total sense to enhance textbook learning with built-in audio and video.
Media specialists are asking what to purchase; some are getting requests or suggestions to replace all books with digital content. It’s a more daunting mind-shift than the “why do we need books when we have the Internet?” questions of a few years ago.
These discussions always bring to mind From Scribes to Printers, to You/Me, a seminar I attended three year’s ago. The English professor’s entertaining, scholarly, and thought-provoking history of the book stuck with me. He chronicled the evolution of the book and reactions to its changing formats throughout the centuries. Hstorically, he placed books publishing in three eras.
The medium: Stone, clay, parchment, paper, disk
The container: Book, html, and scroll
The production/dissemination method
He included visuals and a fun video, “The Medieval Helpdesk with Subtitles,” in the session. Take a look if you haven’t seen it. Enjoy watching the scribes who are both amazed and afraid when they examine a book, the printed word in a new format. They had to turn pages! I left the seminar full of thoughts, excited and comforted. Books will remain, they just will they will be different.
Learn more!
Medieval Help Desk with Subtitles
The New Media Specialist. Internet@ Schools, Jan/Feb 2012 or http://wp.me/P9FeO-9z
Teaching Digital Media Literacy in the Content Areas Online class
Learning Together: The Evolution of a 1:1 iPad Program Internet@ Schools, Jan/Feb 2012
A Swedish heritage and family connections to the Civil War
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: January 12, 2012
I‘ve always been proud that I actually new someone who was alive during the Civil War. Earlker I shared a photo of my great Grandpa Henry Einhorn that was published in a local newspaper. He was born during the Civil War and lived to be 98.
Andrew Anderson, Swedish immigrant and Civil War veteran
Another great grandpa, Andrew Anderson was a Civil War Veteran. Andrew immigrated to The United States from Goteborg, Sweden in 1853 and farmed outside of Houston, Minnesota, in the area known as Swede Bottom. He served during the Civil War in 1865 and died in 1881 of stomach cancer when his youngest son, my grandfather was only one. I lived in the area as a child; descendants of the Swedish immigrants still live in that area. A distant relative who in Minneapolis has documented the family history through interviews, photos and digging into family primary sources. My connections to the Civil War seem amazingly close!
- I’ve learned more about Swedish immigrants by reading I Go to America (Joy. K. Lintelman, Minnesota Historical Society Press. 2009.) which presents an interesting account of Swedish American women and focuses on the life on Mina Anderson. Mina came to Minnesota in the 1880′s and lived in central Minnesota. Her memoir was used by novelist Vilhelm Moberg as a resource for his series of emigrant novels. Mina migrated later than my ancestors, yet her experiences reminded me of the many Swedish and Norwegian women I knew growing up.
A good place for learning more about the Swedish experience is the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis.
Dala horse at the Swedish Institute. The beautiful Turnblad mansion is always fun to visit.
What happened on my birthday?
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: December 28, 2011
Help! I am a teacher and would like my students to look in newspapers for what happened on their birthday. Does anyone know where we can go so they can actually see the newspaper, like microfiche?
Contemporary newspaper archives and digitized copies of newspapers published before the Internet make the popular “Today in History” or “What Happened on my Birthday?” activities fun and easy.
The Historic American Newspaper Collection from the Library of Congress is one of my favorites. The landing page has 100 Years Ago Today links with zoomable images of front pages. There are millions of pages of newspapers from 1836-1922 representing cities and rural areas in 25 states and the District of Columbia. A topic list includes topics widely covered in the press at the time the paper was published. Use advanced search to put in a specific month, day or year and options for searching selected newspapers by state, selected ethnicities and languages. There is also a directory of newspapers from 1690 – present. These newspapers are fun, exciting and educational.
It’s interesting to see daily displays of newspapers from throughout the World on the sidewalk outside the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Digital visitors can view images from almost 900 newspapers online. Daily front pages from previous dates are not available, but there is a newspaper archive where newspaper front pages are grouped by 21st century events of historical significance.
Digital projects by museums, universities, and state organization provide easy access to local and regional newspapers. I’ve 
had fun searching The Winona Newspaper Project for articles about family members. I even found my own birth announcement!
Digital Newspapers
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/
http://www.winona.edu/library/databases/winonanewspaperproject.htm
How can I use primary resources like these in the media center and classroom?
Teaching Digital Media Literacy in the Content Areas: Using Primary Sources
See what former students have to say.
This class changed my teaching forever
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: December 19, 2011
This class changed my teaching forever. It was powerful!
Congratulations to science teacher Stacey Balbach who will be speaking about Primary Sources Science at the
National Science Teachers Convention in March 2012. Way to go!
When she was a student in Teaching With Primary Sources, a Wisconsin science teacher discovered primary sources are not just for history or serious researchers. Primary sources can enhance student learning throughout all content areas and for for students of all ages. She used Leonardo DaVinci’s journals and notes help students understand the importance of scientific observation and note-taking. The science teacher discovered that Primary sources are exciting from the point of a chemist or physicist. ” With the new accessibility of the sources really the opportunities for teachers are endless. The sky is the limit. Really you can build any type of multifaceted project that you want “
A health/science teacher used maps depicting the spread if diseases as the United States expanded westward to the study of today’s infectious diseases. She connected the health curriculum to literature by reading Peg Kehret’s Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio to her students.
A middle level teacher was excited to learn how she could use primary sources to help teach resource validity and overall literacy. Instruction became more student-centered, there was a high level of student engagement, and students developed a deeper meaning of the subject matter because of increased accessibility to primary sources. She concluded, by learning how to locate and use primary sources I was reminded of what my responsibility is as an educator: to increase student achievement and understanding. By failing to incorporate primary sources, I fail my students.
The next Teaching Digital Media Literacy in the Content Areas: Using Primary Sources course begins soon.
See what former other students have to say.
Register Online: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/register.cfm
TIES 2011
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: December 14, 2011
It’s Personal! Transforming Pedagogy with Technology was the theme of this year’s very well attended annual TIES technology conference. As always I came home with new resources and ideas to incorporate in online courses.
Web Tools for Grades 4-8 In-Depth Inquiry captured my attention; two teachers shared easy to implement ideas such as using Todaysmeet.com and primary sources to encourage engaged, thinking discussion.
I was excited by a first grade teacher’s creative and helpful classroom blog. Tom Deris shared great suggestions for successfully communicating with families.
Jen Legatt from Farmington and I shared the MN Teacher Loop Resource Center. MN Loop is a searchable database of over 9000 resources aligned with MN content standards, NET-S Technology Standards, MEMO information and Technology Literacy Standards, and the Common Core Standards. Educators liked the standards alignment.
Keeping up, keeping it personal – Ipads, eReaders and smart phones were everywhere! The former email stations available for attendees are now charging stations. Its fun to see the changes each year. As always, connecting with friends and colleagues, making new friends and meeting an online student in person was the conference highlight.
Mary Alice and Kellie
Mrs. Keckley and Mrs. Lincoln
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: December 5, 2011
When I visited Ford’s theater earlier this year I learned walking tours of downtown DC led by “Mrs. Keckely” are offered. Bummer! I would have loved to learn more about Mrs. Keckley’s neighborhood, but was unable to go for a tour that day.
I met Mrs. Keckley in Mrs. Keckly* and Mrs. Lincoln, a fascinating biography by Jennefir Fleischner about Mary Todd Lincoln’s friendship with Elizabeth Keckly, a former slave who was her seamstress and friend. I searched the American Memory Collections for more information and located Mrs. Keckley’s Behind the Scenes, an early DC insider book that was also an interesting read. Both books rank high on my memorable books list.
ResourcesBehind the scenes.: By Elizabeth Keckley. Or, Thirty years a slave, and four years in the White House.
1868 Atlantic Monthly review of Behind the Scenes
The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana A [Bookmark prospectus for three works by Willsie Morrow: With malice toward none; Forever free; and Mary Todd Lincoln.]
Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
Object of History: The Keckley/Lincoln Dress A lively, fun Smithsonian teaching activity!
**Keckly is spelled without the e in the book title; both spellings appear in published works.
Share ideas for using wonderful primary resources like these in your classroom:
Online course: Teaching with Primary Sources, Digital Media Literacy in the Content Areas
It’s all relative! Keeping up to date!
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: November 28, 2011
“Mary Alice can take care of the e-newsletter; she has the tech skills.” The skills I have acquired continue to be valuable in so many ways — creating e-newsletters or databases, helping others, teaching online classes and working on education related projects.
It’s all relative! There is always someone who knows more than us, can do more than us and there is always something new to learn. My newest experience was using a computer cash register, a skill I never needed until now. My transferable skills made it easy.
A great resource for helping us be one of those who knows is A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet created by New Jersey Media Specialist Julie Greller. Julie generously shares her good and creative ideas frequently. Take a look at her recent postings about photo apps, citation generators and web 2.0 screencasts. Thanks, Julie!
Pizza at a former blacksmith shop; remembering Great-Grandpa
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: November 20, 2011
William Benz and Henry Einhorn visit at the Benz Blacksmith Shop. Winona Republican Herald, April 5, 1954
An evening out for pizza at a former blacksmith shop (the buildings limestone shell was built in 1857) got me thinking about a newspaper photo of my great-grandfather, Henry Einhorn, visiting with blacksmith William Benz. Located on Winona’s east end, Benz Blacksmith was Winona’s last surviving blacksmith shop.
The April 5, 1954 Winona Republican Herald said a Benz worked in the shop for 84 years; blacksmiths who once shod horses and oxen now worked with plows. William Benz spent much of his time with his old crony, Henry Einhorn. The decaying building was torn down in 1957 and the equipment was sold. A replica of the shop and the photo are displayed in the Winona County History Center. It’s one of my favorite exhibits! The 1954 newspaper article and photo are digitized in the Winona Newspaper Project. Select the image on the left to view the full article.
Looking for newspaper articles about your community? Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers is a good place to start. What primary sources are part of your story?
Online course: Teaching with Primary Sources, Digital Media Literacy in the Content Areas .
Off the beaten path
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: November 13, 2011
From Bluffs at Reads Landing, Minnesota looking down stream, 1885. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul Minnesota Reflections
Yesterday’s trip to the Reads Landing Brewing Company turned out to be a history lesson. We’ve driven through the Mississippi River town of Reads Landing countless times, but hadn’t ever turned off Highway 61. First stop: the Wabasha County Historical Society. The museum’s brochure describes the building, built in 1870, is the oldest schoolhouse in Minnesota. Initials of hundreds of students carved in the school’s walls. The museum’s old barn holds old agricultural machinery used in the early days of Wabasha County.
Reads Landing now is now home to 100 people, but in “its day “ as the landing spot for thousands of rafts hauling lumber down the Mississippi River. There were 17 hotels, 21 salons, and 15 stores.
A remaining brick storefront building is home to the Reads Landing Brewing Company. Like many businesses of its type, it has its own history and displays reproductions of historical photos on the walls. A window seat gave us a great view of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi River dredging in action. Reads Landing is a short drive from National Eagle Center in Wabasha.
Photo: From Bluffs at Reads Landing, Minnesota looking down stream, 1885, Henry Bosse, Creator. Minnesota Reflections, Minnesota Digital Library
Primary sources are all around us! What’s in your backyard? Teaching with Primary Sources, Digital Media Literacy in the Content Areas starts Jan.23.
A Mine, Buses, & Bob
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: November 8, 2011
One more travel adventures post with a local history theme!
Our visit to Hibbing was a pleasant surprise. We discovered a lovely city and enjoyed visiting variety of interesting sites.
The Hull Rust Mahoning Mine, is the largest open pit operational mine in the world and nicknamed “The Grand Canyon of the North.” We climbed aboard equipment in a pretty park at the overlook and saw other equipment in action below the overlook.
Stop #2 was the Greyhound Bus Museum which has historical buses on display along with a terminal replica and many artifacts. I was especially interested in the museum because my uncle drove for greyhound after World War II until the 1970′s. Family members contributed career artifacts to the museum. The Branding of America, a Library of Congress Teachers’ Page Activity features Greyhound as an iconic Minnesota brand. Visit Branding to learn how Greyhound got it’s start.
Hibbing High School was built in 1922 when Oliver Mining Company relocated the city of Hibbing. Bob Dylan’s alma mater features marble steps, chandeliers, a rare pipe organ, and ornate ceilings. The piano Dylan played is still used. The Hibbing Public Library has a Dylan Collection.
Primary sources are all around us! What’s in your backyard? Teaching with Primary Sources, Digital Media Literacy in the Content Areas starts Jan.23.
Charley Goddard & Company K: Resources
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: October 30, 2011
Looking for more information about Charley Goddard and Company K in the Civil War?
Charley, the young soldier in Gary Paulsen’s young adult novel A Soldier’s Heart is mentioned in an August post, Music and letters connect us with the Civil War. Here are more resources about Charley and the Minnesota 1st regiment.
Winona County Historical Society
Company K, A Civil War Journal, Minnesota 1st Volunteer Regiment
Letters, diaries, newspapers, regigment roster, and more primary sources.
Christmas, 1852. Winona's Early History (Winona County History Center)
Winona’s Early History. The Pioneer Settlers section has information about Catherine Goddard Smith, Charley’s mother, and his friend Charles Ely.
Library of Congress American Memory Collections
Civil War Photos, Brady Collection. Subject: Minnesota troops
Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Keyword: Christmas in Early Winona.
Read about an 1852 Christmas dinner at a Winona home and a unique menu item!
Teaching with Primary Sources, an online class for teachers of all content areas begins January 2012. Students comments.
Register Online: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/register.cfm
