Category: history
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Surviving Dachau, Liberating Mauthausen
I spent most of the day today with Mrs. Eva Hance and Mr. Mark Geeslin, who gave morning and afternoon presentations at the Texas Tech International Cultural Center on the topic, “Surviving Dachau, Liberating Mauthausen.” This is education that matters. Please take the time to listen to the podcast of their presentation, which is just…
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Great history resource suggestions from Tom Hale
Many thanks to Tom McHale in Flemington, New Jersey for his comment on my Veteran Oral History podcast and blog post this week! Tom’s team teaching approach combining Social Studies and English reminds me of one of my favorite classes from high school: the “combo class” taught by Mickey Bogart and Carol Adams at Manhattan…
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Veteran Oral History Interviews and the TTU Vietnam Center
We need students to be engaged in “History That Matters:” Educational activities that truly engage students in ways simply reading a textbook and writing an essay cannot. We also need to engage students in the process of CREATING multimedia, not just merely consuming it. Having access to a robust variety of “voices from history” like…
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Hotel Rwanda
Every human being on the planet over age 15 needs to see “Hotel Rwanda.” That is a strong statement and a strong opinion, but the facts of the film and the situation it describes justifies this imperative. Digital storytelling is a powerful medium. Watching a film is not as powerful as actually “being there” and…
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Yellowhouse Canyon: A Place-Based Writing Experiment
I wrote this place-based essay for my summer “Studies in Language Arts” class. An accompanying 7 minute video is also available. Situated on the east side of a bustling West Texas city, Yellowhouse Canyon offers a surprising and contrasting outdoor experience for those who venture into its natural beauty. Part of a natural stream that…
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Veteran Oral History Interview with my father
I originally posted this in February 2004 on a blog I have now deleted. I am reposting it here with links. For my TCEA 2004 Presentation entitled “Veteran Wisdom: An Oral History Project with Digital Video” I interviewed my father, Tom Fryer (USAF-Ret) about his experiences in 1966 when he served as an Air Force…
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Armenia and the Allure of Ararat
Just finished reading an amazing article about Armenia in the March 2004 edition of National Geographic…. Does anyone else just get absolutely entranced whenever you see a photograph of Mount Ararat, or when you hear about places in Central Asia like Samarqand? Man I do. I saw a NASA photo a year or so ago…