High School Resources

(SOL: VUS.11)  Some vary daring and pioneering women pilots are finally being recognized by the U.S. military, decades after their service during World War II. The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) flew Army Air Corps planes during World War II on the homefront, to free up men to fly in the war. 1,100 of them served and 38 died in the line of duy. But they were considered civilians and not recognized for their service as the first female USAF pilots. It’s taken a lot of lobbying to gain recognition over the past 65 years. This year, the nearly 300 surviving members will be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

NPR has a great story about their service and their trials after the war to gain recognition.

Did you know that SAS Curriculum has lesson plans ready to use for teachers?

• Log in using the teachers side of the website.
• Under “Teacher Support” click “Classroom Integration Ideas.”

There you will see the links for plan books where you will find a week’s worth of lesson ideas for upcoming lessons.

MSNBC has a new take on the history of the Federal Reserve Bank by looking at the leadership of the Fed chairmen.

WCVE  Public Television has put online a free resource for teachers called “Classroom Clips” that offers great historical and political video clips. They also offer great professional development videos for teachers.

This is a new interactive feature that appeared in the February 1, issue of the the Richmond Times-Dispatch Online. Readers are challenged to be the Governor of Virginia and balance the state budget that is already $2-billion in the Red. This lesson will be great for U.S./VA Government classes to show the diffuculty in making and balancing a budget. It opens a discussion on how budgets are made, where revenues come from, and how special interest groups play a part in making sure their piece of the budget pie is the biggest. It will be great to see your Seniors going to some of the state universities, fight over how much money should be cut from their favorite university!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The New York Times has developed questions about the tragic Earthquake in Haiti. You can use this with students while they read about it in their current events lessons.

New York Times: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/6-qs-about-the-news/

Check out this MSNBC Story on a survey released by the Pew Research Center about how Americans feel about their place in the world. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34255911/ns/world_news/

But don’t just take MSNBC’s word for it. Here is a link to the PRC’s release: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1428/america-seen-less-important-china-more-powerful-isolationist-sentiment-surges

Geography has been taken to the next level with Google Earth’s new feature:  Rumsey Historical Maps. These select historical maps can be layered over the existing Google Earth globe.  Mixed with modern day overlays, like roads and rivers a student can make historical geographic connections and see how inacurate man-made maps were back in the day.

To use this feature in Google Earth:

• Go to the ”Layers” section on the left hands side of the screen.
• Expand the Galleries menue and click on “Rumsey Historical Maps”  
• Zoom in on the map of the US and look for the “Rose” symbols.
•  Click on the rose and then the maps and they will overlay on Google Earth.