Day One:  Jamestown

Meet a Person of the Past: Marye Bucke
Meet Marye Bucke, one of the first women to come to Jamestown, and hear her amazing story of survival. Discuss with Marye why she came to the “new world” and what conditions were like for men and women in the new colony.

Day Two:  The Colony of Virginia, British Subjects Meet a Person of the Past: Divided Loyalties During the American Revolution, many Williamsburg residents chose to remain loyal to their king or to join the rebellion to create something new. But what about those people who were caught in the middle, whose families were torn apart by divided loyalties? Tour the Governor’s Palace with one such woman and discover what it was like to have family members on both sides of the conflict. Meet a Person of the Past: Nanny Jones  Meet an enslaved Virginian who lived in eighteenth-century Williamsburg. Discuss what life and work was like in the capital city and how it compared to that of the enslaved living in rural areas.

Day Three:  The British Mercantile System

Meet a Person of the Past:  Business Person
Explore the global mercantile economy with the help of a colonial Virginian well-acquainted with its intricacies. Discover how connections in the community and across the globe impacted the supply and demand of goods and services. How was business transacted in the eighteenth century? How did the events of the Revolution influence these practices?

Day Four:  Life in Virginia's Colonial Capital City

Meet a Person of the Past: Ann Wager
An individual’s place, both social and physical, informed their education in Colonial Virginia. Spend some time with the teacher of Williamsburg’s Bray School to explore the possibilities for education outside of the private education afforded to the gentry. This discussion will highlight the reality that most Virginians were not gentry, focusing on the types of education available to the majority of people in the colony.

Day Five:  Unrest in the Colonies

Meet a Person of the Past: A Revolutionary Capitol Building Founder
The seeds of the American Revolution can be found in British colonial government. From 1699 to 1776 the seat of British power in the colony of Virginia was the Capitol building in Williamsburg. Examine how the colonial government functioned and what rights and privileges the people had as subjects of a king. Meet one of our nation’s founders and discuss the issues that led to war, the prospects for winning, and hopes for the nation after the conflict is over.

Here is a second question in the application process for the 2020 Teacher Institute at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.  This question concerns the online resources from the property.  I have quietly used their resources from year to year, especially enjoying the virtual tour available, as well as ordering some free Lewis and Clark posters a few years ago.  With our new emphasis on early American history in fourth grade, however, I have come to appreciate the great depth of resources that Monticello puts at my fingertips.  I can quite easily throw up an image of a real object from Jefferson's time, and students can analyze it with easy.  Whether it be a document or an object to hold in the hand, these primary sources are terrific to use in the classroom. The application asked the following question (with my revised response for this year following):  Take a look through classroom.monticello.org.  That sources appeal to you the most?  Based on your onsite research, what's [a] resource that you would like to contribute to the site?  Feel free to get creative!

As a teacher in the Midwest, I have no local options for experiencing the Colonial and Revolutionary Era, so Monticello’s online educational presence is invaluable to our classroom.
 
I have discovered materials at classroom.monticello.org several times in teaching my fourth graders about Thomas Jefferson dispatching the Corps of Discovery crossing our state in its earliest weeks.  Lewis-and-Clark history remains my favorite part of Missouri history.  Still, now that Missouri curriculum has shifted to the founding generation, I catch myself returning to the Monticello site to locate more and more resources for my fourth graders.  The most valuable have been the images of some of the real objects from Monticello’s collection, the virtual tour of the estate, and a link to virtual field trips.  The extensive educational website is full of quality materials for teacher and student use.
 
The images, infographics, and their accompanying texts assist students in visualizing life on the plantation from varying points of view.  For example, there is one picture that depicts the residents at Monticello – from Thomas Jefferson himself to overseers to the enslaved community.  The comparison of numbers and the comparisons in social status of these individuals help my class understand the size of the plantation, along with how much work was constantly demanded of the inhabitants of this little portion of Virginia.
 
Mostly, however, I enjoy building my own materials, lessons, and activities.  I love digging into the materials and burying myself in creative freedom.  I take pieces of the lesson plans, mix them with the images and maps, throw in a video, and season the mixture with a gadget or two.  When I tie in some science or some math, I know I’ve successfully made some connections.  That’s when I feel the most successful.
 
I especially excel at connecting ideas from across the curricula, and I freely share lesson sets on my website at hoggatteer.weebly.com.  Specifically, my year of 18th-century lessons can be found at hoggatteer.weebly.com/uniting-the-states.html. 
 
I could also contribute ideas connecting science, math, architectural patterns, and Monticello to the site.  My proposition includes aspects of water resistance, along with surface area, volume calculations, as well as identifying mathematical patterns within a growing set of bricks laid end-to-end or stacked.  I also like to combine reading text pieces written for elementary students and give students ideas for writing personal narratives from a brick makers point of view or journal entries for the things they learned in the lesson.  A cross-curricular unit like this engages students and keeps their interest.

Day 1:  Jamestown

“All and every persons being our Subjects, which shall dwell and inhabit within every or any of the said colonies and every of their children Shall have and enjoy all the Liberties, Franchises, and Immunities within any of our other dominions, to all Intents and Purposes, as if they had been abiding and born, within this our Realm of England, or any other of our said Dominions.”

​Virginia Land Company charter, 1606 

Day 2:  The Colony of Virginia, British Subjects “A more pleasing and natural Connection never subsisted between any different Bodies of Men than did till of late, and ought long to continue, between Great Britain and her Colonies. The Americans are descended from the Loins of Britons, and therefore may, with Propriety, be called the Children, and England the Mother of them. We are not only allied by Blood, but are still farther united, by the extensive Trade and Commerce carried on between us. Our Manners are similar; our Religion, and Language, the same.” ​ Excerpts from Considerations on the Present State of Virginia by John Randolph, 1774. Earl Gregg Swem, Ed., Charles F. Hartman, New York, NY, 1919. Pg. 23.

Day 3:  The British Mercantile System

“He that commands the sea, commands the trade, and he that is Lord of the Trade of the world is lord of the wealth of the world.”
​
Sir Walter Raleigh, cited in James P.P. Horn, A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke (New York: Basic Books, 2010), p. 61. 

Day 4:  Life in Virginia's Colonial Capital City

“Mr. Carter informed me last Evening that this Family one year with another consumes 27000 Lb. of Pork; & twenty Beeves. 550 Bushels of Wheat, besides corn 4 Hogsheads of Rum, & 150 Gallons of Brandy.”

​Diary of Phillip Vickers Fithian, April 10, 1774 

Day 5:  Unrest in the Colonies

“Would anyone believe that I am Master of Slaves of my own purchase! I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them...”

Patrick Henry, letter to Quaker Robert Pleasants January 18, 1773 

Day 6:  Forming a New Nation

“. . . But what do we mean by the American Revolution? The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations . . . This radical change in the principles, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.”
​
John Adams, 1818