Road to the Constitution!

The Revolutionary War is behind us!  So, what did the new United States do next?  It actually didn't go to smoothly for about 6 years.  The new country almost fell apart a few times, especially with Shays' Rebellion.  This rebellion actually got us moving in the right direction though.  After the Revolution, we had 13 separate states who agreed to a "strong league of friendship" under the Articles of Confederation.  The states didn't work too well together this way, and Congress couldn't really do much of anything, except regulate the post office (Whoa what power!).  The next few weeks before Christmas we will talk about the events that cause our young nation to wake up and get on the right track, and how they formed our new government under the Constitution.  We will also learn about how this government works and functions by actually doing it ourselves!  Every class will be its own "country" that uses the US Constitution as its form of government.  It is going to be awesome.

Video 10

Video 9-The War Turns

Hello fabulous students.  Video 9 is up and ready for you to view.  In this video, we will cover things like the Battle of Saratoga, and why it was so important, the infamous/famous winter at Valley Forge, Foreign assistance, and the Battle of Monmouth.

Also, in class (at least the Red Day classes so far) have read an article called Top 5 Foreign Continental Army Officers (Other Than Lafayette).  Which one do you think was the one who contributed the most?  My money would be on Baron von Steuben, but you can come up with your own opinion after reading about them.

Top 5 Foreign Continental Army Officers (Other Than Lafayette)

Next week, I hope we can start a new project using iMovie Trailer, and actually FINISH it!  The whole Twitter project, though potentially amazing, ended up not working out due to Twitter's weird phone number requirement.

Tweeting the Revolutionary War!

It is time for our newest project that we will be doing in class!  What would Continental Army soldiers tweet about during the Revolutionary War?  I bet if they had cell phones and social media, they would really let their thoughts be known.  When we read some primary sources in class, you'll see just how miserable they were at times.  How will you tweet as soldiers?  Check out below.

1st. Create an account on Twitter.  We will be using the netbooks for this.  I will also guide you through each step.

2nd. Choose a name for your soldier. from the Valley Forge Muster Roll.

3rd.  Fill out the biography for your soldier.  Include the Regiment, the name of the army, where you are from, and something else about yourself (your soldier).

4th. Find an appropriate picture for your account.

5th.  Follow my soldier account :@LindowRegiment

6th. Begin tweeting.  Your first tweet should be something about joining the army, and your hopes of the army being victorious.  Also, talk about why you are fighting in the first place.

7th. Comment on some of my tweets, and each other's tweets.  Keep the language/speech period, and don't use any modern slang.

8th.  Talk about the British leaving Boston, the Battles of New York, Trenton, the Hessians, Princeton, American Crisis, etc.  What would one of these brave men have been thinking during these victories and defeats?

9th.  Remember that you are putting someone's real name on this account that fought, bled, and possibly died for your freedom.  Do them proud, and give everyone an accurate representation of what happened.

Finally Back to Normal (and Video 8)!

Well, the essay is finally finished!  I like to think of that thing as King George III.  It hung around forever and getting on our nerves, but we finally finished it and declared our independence from that tyrant of an assignment!  Since that is out of the way, we can get back to normal regular class, which I am very thankful for.  Over the next few weeks we will be learning about the war that actually allowed us to keep our independence....The Revolutionary War (American War of Independence, or whatever name you want to call it).  You didn't think Britain was just going to let us have independence just because we wrote them a break up letter did you?  We had to FIGHT for that independence, and fight on for seven more years!

There are some things I want you to do along with this week's homework video (which is Number 8 by the way).  Watch the short video clip about the Hessian soldiers below.  We are going to learn a lot about these guys over the next couple of days and find out just how important they were.

Also, along with this video, we will be reading this article in class.  If you happen to lose your paper version, here is the electronic version.

8 Fast Facts About Hessians

Last but not least, your video is up.  On the Brink of Defeat (Video 8).  There are not any "I can" statements for this video, so just use that section to take your regular notes.  Also, listen carefully for the vocab words.  If you need help, or have questions, please let me know!

2nd Continental Congress Reflection

Our 2nd Continental Congress reenactment has come and gone, and I could not be more proud.  I saw some students do some amazing things last week.  Even those that I honestly did not think would do well, absolutely rocked it!  I have to give an extra special shoutout to Red 1...You guys made me feel like I was actually there!

During our congress, we debated three things.  First up was whether we should send an Olive Branch Petition to the king.  Every class said yes on this one.  I think the letters you received from your constant assemblies helped you decide.  Then we discussed if we should form a Continental Army with George Washington as commander.  Again every class said yes.  You all talked about the need to prepare for war in case the King rejected our Olive Branch Petition, and pointed out the fact that fighting had already begun.  Most importantly we asked this difficult question: Should we declare independence from Great Britain?  This passed every time with 12 Yays, 0 Nays, and 1 abstention (Thanks New York...).  

I hope you all really learned more about these issues that we discussed and I also hope that you were able to appreciate both arguments that were being made for each issue.  Our forefathers did not always agree, and they all were able to make good arguments.  I also hope that you have a greater appreciation for our Founding Fathers and how they risked their lives to declare to the world that we are an independent nation.  I have also taken into consideration all of the suggestions that were made to make it better for students next year.  I also just want to say THANK YOU to all of you who gave it your all in bringing this to life.  You all have no idea how proud I am of this group of students.  I cannot wait to see what the rest of this year has to offer!

Video 7-Britain, I'm having second thoughts about us.

Video 7 is up and running!  In this video we will review the Battles of Lexington and Concord, learn about the siege of Boston, the Olive Branch Petition, and Common Sense!  But of course, that is not all!  There are not any goals or targets for this video, but you still need to make sure you fill out that section of the most important things.  Enjoy!