Truman Trial

For the past five years, I have been including a mock trial in my curriculum. For one week (or sometimes longer), my classroom is transformed into a courtroom in 1953. The defendant is former President Harry S. Truman and he is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Students assume the roles of lawyers, witnesses, judges, court reporters, and jurors. The assignment becomes tiered with lawyers and witnesses eligible to earn A grades, judges and court reporters B grades and jurors C grades. Due to increased interest in witness level roles, I have created several new witness roles this past year. Originally there were 14 total, but I now can include 21 total.

The trial takes between 5-7 days depending on the number of witnesses, preparedness of the lawyers and number of times lawyers need to take breaks to meet with their witnesses. We start on day one with opening statements from the lawyers and then move right into prosecution witnesses. The witnesses for the prosecution include Premier Joseph Stalin, President Dwight Eisenhower, Ambassador Joseph Grew, Scientist Leo Szilard and Japanese Cabinet Member Hitsasune Sakomizu. Once all witnesses for the prosecution have gone, then the defense presents its case. Witnesses for the defense include Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer and Japanese Minister Shigenori Togo. The final day includes closing statements and then the jury deliberates and votes.Throughout the trial, lawyers are encouraged to present primary sources related to the trial as evidence. This includes photos, maps, letters, etc.

The final assignment for the trial is an essay where students are asked to evaluate President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I take photos and video throughout the trial and make a video each year that I present to the next year's students as a teaser for the trial.

Student Created Websites

As part of our studies on the Roaring 20s, I gave students a choice for a final project. They could choose almost any topic from the 1920s and had several options for the style of project including a children's book, museum exhibit, video or website. I certainly have some creative students and I am very impressed with the quality of projects. This post will highlight one of the types of projects, a website. I spent one day introducing Weebly to those students who wished to do a website and they found it easy and fun to collaborate for the finished project. Here are links to some of the best:

• 1920s Entertainment
• Impact of the Automobile
• 1920s Fashion
• Prohibition

Creative Internet Activities

While attending the Presidential Timeline Institute at the Nixon Library last week, I learned about several websites that can help students create fun and interesting projects to display what they know. One of these was Big Huge Labs. There are tons of games and activities, but the three that I found most useful for a high school class were the Motivator, Magazine and Movie Poster apps.

The Motivator allows students to add pictures and text to create a motivational poster. It is an easy way to assess student learning, as are all of these apps. I also plan to use it as an anticipatory set for a unit or maybe a daily warm up. Here is an example that I created.

The Magazine allows students to create a magazine cover with headlines, date and price. Here is one I created to give you an idea of how to use it.

The Movie Poster is very similar, only one is promoting a movie about a particular topic. It takes some critical thinking to decide the title, leading actors, producers, etc.

I plan on trying these in my classroom this year. I think the students will have fun with it! They can be used in any of the social sciences and even for current events. I love programs that are adaptable to a wide range of topics and subjects.

The Great American Hall of Fame

This post is in honor and memory of a friend and teacher named Darren Thomas. Darren taught AP US History. He was quite proud of his Idaho roots and so established a Mr. Potato Head project for AP students to conduct after the exam was over. Each year students chose 2 famous Americans to induct into the Great American Hall of Fame. What they did was choose Americans they thought were worthy of the honor and had debates over their merits. Once the two individuals were chosen for the year, a Mr. Potato Head was created in their likeness. They are then formally inducted into this hall of fame with a special dinner ceremony. Here are examples of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton:

Other individuals who have been inducted include Sacajawea, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dorothea Dix, Clara Barton and FDR. There is even a Hall of Shame group of inductees that includes Aaron Burr.

Mr. Thomas just recently passed away and his students created a Mr. Potato Head of him and inducted him into the Hall of Fame.

Coffee Cup Biographies

Last night was the showcase for the Teaching American History grant in which I participated this year. One of the middle school teachers (Katherine Rand) showed off a fun project that I am going to try to incorporate into my classroom next year when we study the New Deal. Basically students create sleeves for coffee cups that tell all about the person or event. This teacher had them do biographies of the presidents. I am attaching photos that I took so that you can see the finished product.

She was able to get Starbucks to donate the coffee cups in exchange for a display and big thank you sign after the project's completion. This looks like it would really engage the students and I think would be useful for any grade level. Thanks Katherine for sharing it will all of us!

A Real Life Lesson in Economics

I recently surveyed my 12th grade economics students and asked them what was the most important thing that they learned from my class. Close to 90% referenced budgeting and the cost of living on their own. In order to teach them this, I have them complete an Independent Living Project.

The first task is to look up a career on salary.com and find out the starting salary. They then find a paycheck calculator and figure out how much they get per month after taxes. They then have to find a place to live, a mode of transportation, plan a weeks worth of groceries and plan for monthly expenses such as toiletries, pets, clothing, gas, utilities, entertainment, insurance and miscellaneous. Savings is part of their required budget as well, in the form of vacation, regular savings and retirement. I ask them to think about what type of furniture they would like and how they would decorate their place. They take all of this research and create a monthly budget based on their salaries. The reflection piece is always the most valuable. 

I have had countless students thank me for assigning this project. While time consuming (I devote an entire week to the computer lab), it is a wake up call for most in how much it costs, what their parents have done for them and how important further education or training is to getting a good career.