Cell Phones

Welcome Back to School 2011 
Please bring the following items to class with you:
-College Ruled Paper
-Four Notebooks
-Four Folders
-Pens/pencils
-Wireless Internet Cellular Device?

At the beginning of this school year a school in Florida added internet able cell phones to their list to buy for the school year. My cousin goes to this school, the thought is that most students have access to this type of technology and use it anyway so we should channel it into the lessons. There was an article written about how cell phones in the classroom can be a learning tool to help enhance the students education. It is called Wireless network provides more flexible learning.   

The use of  cell phones in the classroom has both positives and negatives, the teachers will have to be very stern in when the phones are used and that they are only used when needed to achieve a project. It would be very easy for the students to be on internet sights like facebook instead of doing their research. I also believe there are positives to this, where this is not what I am used to it is what the students today are used to. Internet on cell phones is almost old to them, by having phones in the class room it would be taking something that the students know and use daily and applying it toward their education. 

Picture: http://cdn.elev8.com/files/2009/12/top-5-cell-phones1.jpg

Veterans 

There are many men and women who have sacrificed their lives for our country not only from WWII but in every war we have been involved in. There are still survivors of WWII living today for this project everyone will interview a survivor of World War II. If you can not find one please come and talk to me. 

In your interviews you are free to ask any questions you would like or talk about anything you are interested in from the War. I would like you to really think about the sacrifice that these men and women have made for our country and keep that focus during your interviews. 

When your interview is complete I would like you to summarize it and turn it in to me. We will be sharing interesting points of our interviews with the class. Lastly everyone will send a thank you note to their veteran for serving out country and for doing the interview. 

In this video there are nine veterans that were interviewed from the 101st. Airborne's Forgotten Battalion, please watch it. You may also find some questions that you could use in your personal interviews. 

Using videos in the classroom I believe is a very powerful tool, there are many educations videos or clips that students watch and enjoy and don't even realize that they are learning. Videos are also a good tool because it gives the students a chance to learn from someone else, many times a teacher can become dull to a student and having the opportunity to learn from a video or a guest speaker is very enjoyable to the students. Videos in the classroom should not to be overlooked. 

Iwo Jima

After studying the battle of Iwo Jima together as a class we will get into groups of three and look more closely at the island using Google Maps. 

Follow these steps to get a picture of Iowa Jima Island: 

1) http://maps.google.com 

2) Search: Iwo Jima, Japan 

3) Zoom in and click on satellite 

Once your group has found the Island on Google Maps I would like the group to discuss the following;  geographic influences of the battle, where the troops were stationed, which beach was stormed. I also would like the students to discuss why this Island was so important to conquer along with challenges that occurred during the war and how they could have helped conquer those weaknesses based off of the map and information or technology we know today.

By having the students personally look up things on google maps and search out the land they have an opportunity to learn like they are there. They can see the terrain and points of interest on the island. They are taking a virtual tour of the Island without leaving the classroom. Students learn quite a bit from doing online research and this is one activity to help foster that interest in researching the island.

Picture found at: http://www.visitingdc.com/virginia/iwo-jima-picture.htm

                                                                     

Navajo Code Talkers

There was a battle, in World War One, where many Choctaw Indians were communicating by radio in their native language in hopes of fooling the Germans. Their schemes worked, they were losing the battle and because of the code the tide was turned and the Americans won. A victory that Philip Johnston a World War One veteran didn't forget. 

When World War Two broke out Johnston was reminded again of the Choctaw code used to fool the Germans and Johnston decided to take his knowledge to the Marines. They choose twenty-nine Navajo Indians fluent in both Navajo and English, their job was to create an unbreakable code; they succeeded. By the end of the war there was over 400 code talkers, it is said that without them we would have lost the war. Japan has cracked every code except our Navajo code. 

http://library.thinkquest.org/J002073F/thinkquest/Code_talkers.htm 

  

*The Original 29 Navajo Code Talkers*

In the Classroom

Together as a class we will learn about the Navajo Code Talkers, our lessons would include the information stated above but go into more detail to fit the age and learning level of the students. I want the students to see that there are many different aspects of war, there is more than just what you see on the front lines, and a big part of that is the Code Talkers. 

For an activity each student will write a short paragraph including; first name, what month they were born, and an interesting fact. They will use http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq61-4.htm to write their information in the Navajo Code. Once everyone has written their coded message we will mix up the codes and hand them out to a different student to be decoded. 

  Example: 
      *Jenna
      *March
      *I, love, horses.

      *Tkele-Cho-G  Ah-Jah  Tsah  A-Chin Wol-la-chee
      *Tah-Chill
      *Tkin,  Dibeh-Yazzie   A-Kha    A-Keh-Di-Glini   Ah-Jah,   Tse-Gah   A-Kha   Gah   Dibeh
            Ah-Jah  Kilesh.  

-We will use only the alphabet and the months for this project