Henry who?

In our history class we got to know an important explorer from England, named Henry Hudson. He went on four different voyages to find the Northwest Passage, but his crew returned without him from the last voyage. The traveling conditions were very brutal and this was toll taking on the crews. Despite having a lot of experience from his prior trips in search of the passage, it is believed that his crew lost faith in him. Hudson, his son, and other sick and dying crew members we put into a small boat as the remaining crew sailed back to England.

After gaining some background knowledge about Hudson, our class proceeded to role play being the crew on those final days before leaving behind our captain. We were all dealt cards for our current condition on the ship. I “had” a dislocated shoulder our first round, 2 we pronounced dead, and we only had 4 healthy members left in our crew.  On our second round of I ended up with frost bite on both feet, we had another death, and not one crew member was healthy.

Our “conditions” led to a series of topics to discuss. What would I still be able do to help the crew? Should the crew be required to do the manual labor for me? What were the conditions like that would leave my feet frost bitten? Understanding that a fire couldn’t be started on board to keep us warm was a new thought let alone not having any form of heating.  

This started to help us understand why Hudson and the sick were left behind. The crew was doing what they had to in hopes of survival.

Hudson and his son, with the sick crew members as they are left behind.

Trade Fair

I was very exciting for this in-class activity. The purpose of the trade fair was to use a tangible experience to help us understand how people of the past would exchange goods and services. The trade fair was an authentic experience that gave us a better understanding about supply and demand.

One thing that was interesting to see was which person would have the “coveted” item that everyone would want to trade for. Being that we were all in the class studying to be teachers, Elizabeth’s framed set of quotes was IT. It was very cute and crafty, not to mention she has beautiful handwriting, just a great homemade product.

Sadly I wasn’t “rich” enough with goods to trade for it, but I still made out well.

This activity was linked back to how the Indians and settlers, and how trading may have been for them.  We discussed how emotions and friendships could have been effected by trades, and how for some, vital products could have been close to impossible to buy if they did not have a good or service that was needed.

We also talked about some of the complications a teacher might experience with this activity. A few concerns were about the monetary value of items students might bring in and how friendships could affect the trade process.  This could be related right back to how the settlers and Indians felt but it important as a teacher to keep the classroom environment safe. One way to overcome this problems could be to have time and supplies available for the students to make their products to trade.  



What couldn't you live without?

Our classroom was asked to bring in atleast 5 artifacts that define us...

The interesting part of the exercise was that many of brought very similar items. This then brought about the question, how can one learn about different cultures based on the artifacts that might be left behind? This  became an overall encompassing idea from the exercise.

We talked about how students would likely enjoy this exercise as much a we did. And as a bonus would be a great way to build our future classroom community, because as a result another opportunity to get to know each other better presented itself.

My collection of artifacts consisted of:

• Bible- there is nothing in this world more powerful than the God's word
• wedding ring- my marriage is a big part of who I am
• Airman coin- the Air Force greatly impacted my life and I'm proud to be an American
• Jo's collar- animals are a major passion of mine
•  pictures-my husband, dog and nephew
• dice- I am an old school gamer