Fanfare for the Common Man: Let the Games Begin!

Wow, February is a busy month in 2010!  In addition to being Black History Month, and the date of the official holiday celebrating United States presidents, the Olympic Games are set to open on February 12.

If you're preparing lesson plans or programming around the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, be sure to take a look at the official Olympic Museum online at http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Olympic-Museum/.  Virtual exhibits include "The Spirit of Vancouver 2010" and "Champion in the Mind."  The website also includes an interactive map, an RSS feed of Olympic news, and a virtual tour fo the physical museum.

The museum's website is part of the official Olympic movement Web presence.  Tabs on the top of the page link to the games, athletes, and even youth olympic games.  The organization's website offers a single, reliable source of information about the international games.  There is also a link to the official Winter Games 2010 in Vancouver (http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Olympic-Games/All-Future-Olympic-Games/Winter/Vancouver-2010/).

NAACP Resources

The Library of Congress just posted information about their NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom online exhibit (http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/naacp/Pages/default.aspx).  According to their Facebook post, this collection is the largest and most used; now it is available online.  Primary-source materials are among the resources available for classroom use from this link: http://loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/naacp/.

Be sure to bookmark these links for planning programming during February!

Take me out to the ballgame!

The World Series is about to begin! Tap into your students' love of baseball with resources from the Baseball Hall of Fame. A field trip to Cooperstown, NY may be out of the question, but with the resources available online, you can use baseball to teach on subjects ranging from the 3 R's to cultural diversity, leadership and women's history. See their wide-ranging thematic units by visiting http://education.baseballhalloffame.org/experience/thematic_units/index.html. In the menu on the left side of the screen, you may choose to find out more about Videoconferencing--scheduling a time to talk live with someone from the Hall of Fame. Whether you videoconference or use the thematic units, you're sure to score a homerun!


Are your students "ready for some football" instead? The Pro Football Hall of Fame offers a 237 page Teacher Activity Guide that teaches math and geography, among other subjects, as they relate to football. Guides are even available that are tailored to your favorite football team! If fall means football in your classroom, be sure to "tackle" the Football Hall of Fame's website at http://www.profootballhof.com/hall/teacheractivityguide.aspx and choose the Teacher Activity Guide image (or the link below it for the PDF version)!

Let's go on a Museum field trip without leaving the building!

To get started, let's find a resource that has museum resources and other information in one place. I like "The Institute for Library & Information Technology" page (http://www.ilile.org/). This project, established and maintained at Kent State University, is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the U.S. Department of Education. The site includes instructional resources (lesson plans and pathfinders) and web resources (information literacy and lesson planning links; KSU, regional and local resources; and a list of suggested museum websites as resources). This is a great platform to start investigating museums as resources in libraries and classrooms!