​George Washington permeates our fourth grade classroom in ways I never imagined.  My summer residency at Mount Vernon renewed my interest in this iconic American figure to the point that he is now a lasting member of our classroom family.  Not only does Washington appear in posters and portraits, not only is he prominently displayed on bulletin boards and webpages, and no longer is he relegated to lifeless readings in textbooks.  We bring George back to life daily.
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In our classroom, George Washington is not dead.  Though he no longer visits us in living form, we travel in time to find him.  We observe as he gathers his hair and  straighten his cuffs to face the day, we watch him mount his horse and draw his sword, and we hear his voice.  We truly wonder at his thoughts in each battle – as he witnesses the incredible slaughter of Jumonvillé, as he learns of the loss of ground at Bunker Hill, as he schemes to cross the icy Delaware on Christmas night, and as he lights the fuse to ignite the Yorktown battle.

We apply Washington’s thoughts to our own time – considering his Rules of Civility in connection with our own personal and classroom expectations, renaming our restroom breaks as "visits to the necessary", cheering for each other by shouting "Huzzah", dusting ourselves off when we fail, and respecting others.

George Washington stands before us, human, full of fault, a work in progress for all of his days.  From his early pretentiousness, impatience, and selfish ambition, we follow him to more effective days of long-suffering, quiet thoughtfulness, and wise decision-making.  One of our most valued ideas of Washington is that he develops as he lives.  We appreciate that he is not a romantically perfect superhero or messiah, but that he courageously faces his flaws, toes the line, and serves others.  He constantly takes risks, learns from his mistakes, and still moves forward.  If there is an overarching theme that applies to ten-year-olds, it is the avoidance of being discouraged and the headfirst drive to improve.

I always seek to make connections for my students - connections to other areas of the curricula, connections to outside resources, and connections to students’ own lives today.  With Washington accompanying us, we make use primary documents for reading, and we recreate Mount Vernon to understand symmetry in math.  I curate and archive resources – primary sources, videos, music, art, readings, etc. – for use in our classroom, and I share most of these publicly on our classroom website for other teachers to use.

As I expect my students to learn, grow, and apply the things I teach them, I must also drive myself to do likewise.  A single visit to the Teacher Institute at Mount Vernon lit a flame in me, encouraging me to continue to read and learn more about our founding era and that unusual combination of humans who made it all happen.  It is a story I love to tell.

I have discovered materials at classroom.monticello.org several times in the past, but now that our Missouri curriculum has shifted to the founding generation, I catch myself returning to the site to locate more and more resources for my fourth graders.  I enjoy showing images of some of the real objects from Monticello.  I encourage students to appreciate the things they are seeing in the image – the age, the origin, the owner(s), and the interactions implied by their existence at Monticello.
 
I also value the infographics and prepared informational images at classroom.monticello.org.  These images and their 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 the status of these individuals helps 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 like getting my hands into the materials and burying myself in creative freedom.  I take pieces of the lesson plants, mix them with the images and maps, throw in a video, and season the mixture with a gadget or two.  When I can tie in some science or some math, I know I’ve successfully made some connections.  That’s when I feel the most successful.
 
One example of this is when I pulled information about the construction of Jefferson’s house from the Monticello website.  I researched about some of the architecture and found that bricks were Jefferson’s choice for the exterior.  I even played a Flash-based activity on the site to depict the sequence involved in making the bricks on site.  Taking that as a base, I am currently creating a lesson that includes science (water resistance) and math (surface area and volume calculations, as well as identifying mathematical patterns within a growing set of bricks laid end-to-end or stacked).  This, combined with reading some of the text pieces that are written for elementary students, also gives 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 recipe like this is easily shared with peers, and I will be happy to contribute something like this as a resource on the Monticello website, as well.
 
Keeping a larger picture in mind, at some point, I may also lead my students in some kind of mock protest on behalf of the enslaved people, asking for compensation for the work they are doing.  We will easily conduct conversations or debates about slavery and wonder how Thomas Jefferson justified owning slaves while declaring All men are created equal…
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Liberty's Kids America the Beautiful The United States really does contain some of the most beautiful landforms and natural features in the world.  In the next few days, let's make maps of the United States - something for our Ozobots to explore.

Freedom of the Press Watch this History Channel clip: What is investigative reporting? What is the role of the press? Does the press ever "go too far"?  When? Let's talk about each section of a newspaper and each part of a television news report. ​ Why is it important to notice the differences between articles and editorials? Do articles ever contain opinions, slants, or spin? What is fake news?

While We're on the Subject

It's important to know how the press works.

What Is Fake News?

​We steal from the future when we rob our children of history.  When our nation’s founding principals are blurred, so is our vision of the future.  I aspire to return history to elementary schools where context helps teachers give muscle to our founding documents.  My fourth graders hunger for the incredible stories of our nation’s founding era.  I am happy to dust off a history that has too often been relegated to secondary and collegiate courses.  It is my job and my pleasure to reveal and apply those stories earlier in their educational lives.

George Washington is an active, relevant member of our classroom.  We welcome him to sit around our table and discuss current events from varying points of view.  Hailing mostly from lower middle class or impoverished families, my students (and other classes, periodically invited to join ours), appreciate the opportunity to wrestle with Washington and his contemporaries, mull over their “radical” ideas, and debate over freedoms and rights.  They rigorously approach the Revolutionary struggle and wonder at the sacrifices of Patriots.

Washington’s courage and wisdom smacks of the difficult lessons he learned at a young age.  Students are encouraged to discover that he made costly mistakes and still developed as a great, successful leader.  Undeniably documented by primary sources, Washington is one of those great visionaries who resisted oppression, forged a free country, and gifted us with unprecedented rights and freedoms, but when I display images of the Necessary at Mount Vernon, students realize that, yes, even George Washington had to relieve himself.  It helps bring this hero from the pedestal to a human level where we can better relate to him.

As historians, my students collaboratively struggle with material and process.  They actively engage in the civilized discussions and disagreements conducted in class.  They draw conclusions based on physical and inferential evidence.  They respectfully dig into difficult topics and successfully unearth innovative solutions.  They gather information, learn from failure, and actively build systems to serve future generations.  Identifying mistakes and responses from the past, students equip themselves to face genuine issues and influence the future.  They can do so, because it has been done before!

Washington influenced uneasy times.  Amid confusion and extraordinary events, Washington’s strength and demeanor exhibited leadership and decision-making abilities.  He weighed risks, led boldly, calmed rooms, and sought civility and decency.  I aspire to be that resolute peacekeeper for stakeholders in our school, and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.  When my peers curiously spy into our window, freely click on my website, or observe my class directly, they find us time traveling – encountering real, stimulating situations, artifacts, and images.  I thrive when I openly and professionally share my experiences and expertise – through conversations, observations, and formal or electronic presentations – locally and at the state level.  At day’s end, I rejoin my family, under my own vine and fig tree, enjoying the satisfying fatigue resulting from empowering children with real mettle for success and encouraging others to do likewise.

Act One (25 Minutes)

Act Two (40 Minutes)

Act Three (20 Minutes)

​​Mathis explained, for the last item, “Wait. Your job doesn’t make you laugh, cry, jump up and down with joy, pull your hair out, sadder and happier than you’ve ever been? You don’t absolutely know for sure that you’re making a real difference every day? Wow, that’s … weird.” That's a lovely sentiment. I wonder what I would come up with.  It won't be easy.

THINGS TEACHERS SECRETLY DO BUT Should Honestly Admit

Mr. President Were you aware that there were presidents in the land before there was a president of the United States?​  Henry Laurens was the fifth president of the Continental Congress.  Would you recognize any of the other 13 names on the list?  You can find the list on Wikipedia's page about the subject.  Scroll down to see the complete list. Liberty's Kids

Page 1, Articles of Confederation

George Washington Loses His Cool

Charles Lee

Music Appreciation