Postcards From Buster 2

I made a slide show using scanned images from a cheap, commercially available comic book for the slide show above. Such pages can be used as writing prompts for kids as well as digital coloring pages when scanned

Postcards From Buster

This is another example of great resource "transfiguration." I'm using that word because my family had dinner at a Chinese restaurant near Transfiguration Church in Chinatown. I don't know what the favorite buzzword of the talking heads is, but what I'm referring to is when accessible and motivating multimedia curriculum appear on the scene and teachers can take advantage of it and modify it for their students. That's the case with Time Warp Trio and here with Postcards with Buster. The pbs show has a great site with games and songs. This link takes you to the episode that the show above refers to Perfect for geography and perfect for third grade social studies' themes. They even have the lyrics of the songs so kids can read along

Buster's Lucky Year Chinatown, San Francisco
Where's this place? See my map! It was Chinese New Year when we visited Chinatown in San Francisco. It's a time to wish for good luck in the new year. I hope it works for me - I've been having terrible luck. How bad has my luck been? Well, my potato chips got stuck in the vending machine. The cheese slid off my pizza. I left my doughnuts in a taxi. Aaargh! Bad food-luck is the worst kind of bad luck there is!
Listen
Los Viajeros wrote a song about bad luck. It's called Turn My Luck Around. That has to help me at least a little bit! We met Hayley and Kary in Chinatown. They showed me some yummy Chinese desserts called dim sum. Dim sum (which can be food, too) means "touch the heart." That sounds pretty... but I want them to touch my stomach first. Many things are lucky for the Chinese New Year. Tangerines are lucky. The color red is lucky. Bamboo is lucky, too, because it is so strong. Plus, you wear new clothes so the bad spirits can't find you. Muffy
Muffy e-mailed to say she always has new clothes, so she's always lucky. Hey! Maybe she's hogging some of MY good luck. We saw the Chinese New Year's parade. There were lots of dragon floats, dancers, and firecrackers. Each year is represented by a different animal. This was the Year of the Monkey. That sounds like a fun year!
Turn my luck around,
From bad luck to good luck.
Friends are there to help you through
On good-luck days and bad ones, too!
Friends can bring good luck your way.
Somehow they know just what to say, too.
Oh, yeah!
I've turned my luck around,
You betcha!
From bad luck to good luck, now.
Sure you might be feeling down,
But don't plan on getting stuck!
Take it away, guys!
Whoo-hoo!
Turn my luck around
(Whoo-hoo!)
From bad luck to good luck.
(Good luck at last!)
Turn my luck around
From bad luck to good luck.
Turn my luck around
From bad luck to good luck.
Shoogie-doogie
Doogie-doogie!

Route 66: A Great Project Source

From three years ago: Another slide show I created as a "teaser" for a never to be done transportation themed technology/social studies units (death due to the reading/writing process gestapo and collaborators). The original sound file was corrupted, Bing Crosby substituted.I thought Route 66 would be a great "resource mine" to make use of. I see others have similar views and last years great "Cars" movie would have been a terrific stimuli for the kids. The folks at Alvarez and Marsal don't have ideas like that. There's a great blog devoted to Route 66, some excerpts:

Emily recently renovated a couple of Route 66 sites she owns — Route66Food.com and SpringBreak66.com. Route 66 Food is a guide to restaurants, and Spring Break 66 is an online resource for college students considering a trip on the Main Street of America.Both were moved to Wordpress.com. Here’s her explanation on the Route 66 yahoogroup on why: Spring Break 66 likely will not receive tons of updates, as it’s pretty stable, but the blog format is A.) free, and B.) easier to update than a standard Web site. I’ll probably post travel tips and what not on there from time to time. Route 66 Food should improve dramatically with the new format, as it is now manned by a team of reviewers whose names will be familiar to y’all: Mike Ward, Ron Warnick, and Kip Welborn will all be contributing restaurant reviews to the blog. I’m still ironing out some techie-type stuff there to get the non-Wordpress junkies set up with Wordpress IDs. I am still in need of some assistance in the form of additional reviewers, so if you are on 66 often and are interested in helping, please e-mail me … and let me know. I am particularly in need of volunteers in Illinois, Texas, New Mexico, and California, but I will also be accepting guest reviews from folks in other locales, so don’t let geography deter you from volunteering.
Review: “Dinosaurs Across Route 66″ comic December 23, 2007 Posted by Ron in History, Movies, Publications, Road trips. add a comment
Many Route 66 aficionados are, to put it gently, a little long in the tooth. So many of them fret about whether there will be enough young people interested in the Mother Road to keep it viable in the future. That’s why many roadies rejoiced at the 2006 release of Disney-Pixar’s animated movie, “Cars,” which introduced Route 66 to millions of kids. Roadies have reason to celebrate again with the publication of a comic book, “Dinosaurs Across Route 66″ (32 pages, $3.95). It was created by California artist and literacy advocate Phil Yeh, whose previous comic, “Dinosaurs Across America,” has sold almost 200,000 copies. So Yeh already has a sizable audience that can be informed about the Mother Road. In “Dinosaurs Across Route 66,” the ever-patient Mrs. Mills drives a flying convertible west on or above the Mother Road. Accompanying her is Patrick Rabbit, an oaf on a “fact-free diet” who has no motivation to read or learn or aspire to anything except host a television show and become famous. Every so often, the duo comes across a “magical time hole” where they can go back to another era and visit figures such as Abraham Lincoln or see defunct Route 66 landmarks such as the Trails Restaurant in Duarte, Calif. They also meet the “Dinosaurs Across America” crew, who escaped extinction by learning to read and building a flying time machine.

The book is available here

Immigrant History Week 2007

video removed

Monday-Sunday, April 16 – 22, 2007
Immigrant History Week is a city-wide celebration that honors the experiences and contributions of immigrants in NYC. Established by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2004 and coordinated by the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Immigrant History Week is a rich collection of free or low-cost programs that build cross-cultural understanding between diverse New Yorkers.

I made this taking images from Byron's old Ellis Island collection and combined it with a powerful song from Ragtime, "The Wheels Of A Dream." You can fahgettaboutit in regard to the schools doing any of those wonderful old fashioned topical units to coincide, because April is Poetry Month on the TC Reading/Writing Workshop schedule

The lyrics:

I see his face.
I hear his heartbeat. I look in those eyes.
How wise they seem.
Well, when he is old enough
I will show him America
And he will ride
on the wheels of a dream.

[COALHOUSE]
We'll go down South

[SARAH]
Go down South,

[COALHOUSE]
And see your people

[SARAH]
See my folks.

[COALHOUSE]
Won't they take to him

[SARAH]
They'll take to him

[COALHOUSE]
Like cats to cream!

[COALHOUSE]
Then we'll travel on from there.

[SARAH]
California or who knows where!

[BOTH]
And we will ride
On the wheels of a dream.

[COALHOUSE]
Yes, the wheels are turning for us, girl.
And the times are starting to roll.
Any man can get where he wants to
If he's got some fire in his soul.
We'll see justice, Sarah,
And plenty of men
Who will stand up
And give us our due.
Oh, Sarah, it's more than promises.
Sarah, it must be true.
A country that let's a man like me
Own a car, raise a child, build a life with you...

[COALHOUSE]
With you...

[SARAH]
With you...

[BOTH]
Beyond that road,
Beyond this lifetime
That care full of hope
Will always gleam!
With the promise of happiness
And the freedom he'll live to know.
He'll travel with head held high,
Just as far as his heart can go
And he will ride-
Our son will ride-
On the wheels of a dream.

If Dreams Come True: Top 28, Number's 6 and 15, Almost Done

I was looking for a Central Park Map for a Seneca Village project and I came across Tom Beller's excellent site, mrbellersneighborhood.com. A few schools use his site, customized offshoots of his which he calls "mapsites," as a way to nicely unify their work in a nyc time and space continum. Too bad Mayor Mike couldn't send a few sheckles to Tom and his schools instead of to ARIS (which I decided stands for A Really Idiotic System). I noticed that one of his schools did a city wide project using A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Great stuff and not your typical regimented, uninspired tc crapola. See, I'm not so crazy:
LETTER FROM THE TEACHER
by KAY ROTHMAN
My two sixth grade sections used Mapsites in conjunction with our reading of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, which tells the story of Francie Nolan growing up in Brooklyn in the early 1900’s. Brooklyn plays a starring role in the book. Betty Smith describes the streets, stores and early 20th century mores of Brooklyn in loving detail.
In conjunction with their reading of the book, the 6th graders at the NYCLab School told the story of their own streets. After walking through their own neighborhood, writer’s notebook in hand, the students created narratives around their observations and memories. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn served as a written model and Thomas Beller, the acclaimed essayist and novelist, helped as a literary coach.
After finishing the book, we took the L train to Lorimer and Grand Street - Francie’s neighborhood. The kids then walked in Francie’s footsteps in Williamsburg, past the streets and stores Francie walked by 100 years ago. The students used their own observations, as well as the description from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to create poetry about change.
The story was posted on 2004-05-01

My Practice Informed

Here's an all purpose template (filled in by one of Ms. Rizzo's 4th graders) that I'm using now. I made a folder containing a bunch of Liberty Kids' movies that I got from Powermedia Plus and put it on the laptops. The sight, free to all NYCDOE teachers, but hardly anyone knows about it, has all 40 in the excellent series. What's excellent too is that the show is still being shown in reruns on Sunday on Channel 11 so that many of the kids are already familiar with the story and the characters. This, to me, is the kind of strategic thinking and planning that I thought curriculum mapping was all about, but it isn't from what I have seen (especially in the think tank void of the nycdoe as channeled thru Columbia TC). Good thinking involves knowing what resources are available and accessible to kids, including their previous exposure to films and television shows.

Women's History Month 3: Harriet Tubman, Using A Powerpoint Template

This is an example of how I used a powerpoint template to make it easier for kids to concentrate on the content rather than on wacky ppoint procedures. I had set up the ppoint layout and had inserted the music and timing. For the titles I used the lyrics of the song. The students then had to insert the appropriate text. The text came from the themes that were elicited as we watched the movie together. I used inspiration for that (a sample of one for Eleanor Roosevelt above). The students also inserted whatever picture they wanted. For ease and control (and not have to be internet based) they copied and pasted images from the quicktime converted version of the movie that I had made. Here I converted the ppoint to a slide show so as to make use of youtube.(forget about trying to get ppoint to convert to a movie itself!) This ppoint was done a few years ago by Cree Mitchell, a really great kid. Depending on your connection and traffic on youtube's server the timing for the movie is inconsistent but I think onercan get the general idea

Harriet Tubman (Walter Robinson) sung by Holly Near
One night I dreamed I was in slavery, 'bout 1850 was the time 
Sorrow was the only sign, there's nothing about to ease my mind 
out of the night appeared a lady leading a distant pilgrim band 
First mate, she cried point her hand, make room aboard for this young woman 
 Come on up, I've got a lifeline 
Come on up to this train of mine 
Come on up, I've got a lifeline 
Come on up to this train of mine 
They said her name was Harriet Tubman 
And she drove for the Underground Railroad 
 Hundreds of miles, we traveled onward gathering slaves from town to town 
Seeking all the lost and found and setting those free that once were bound 
Somehow my heart was growing weaker, I fell by the wayside sinking sand 
Firmly did this lady stand, she lifted me up and took my hand

The Year Of The Boar

and wouldn't it be a great idea to use the Betty Lao book on Jackie Robinson this spring to coordinate with a Boar year.
There are tons of great websites with ideas about how to use the book, but its "verboten" here in nyc to use one book for a whole class project. And even if a teacher wanted to use it in a small group, it probably wouldn't fit in with the tc strand of the month.
In any case I used one of the buster DVD's I scored for $3 at Academy last week to enlighten the 1rst graders on the Chinese New Year. I just revisited the PBS site for Buster. It's terrific. It has downloadable video clips with read along transcripts as well as read along songs
Here's a short clip from the DVD
youtube-removed

Walking My Baby Back Home YouTube

I just realized that through VisualHub (a mac utility) that I can easily make DVD versions of many of my slide shows. The program also stitches files together. I made one of this and I also made a youtube version.I mentioned this previously here (copy and paste the url below-I'm too lazy now to code the direct link)
http://dbellel.blogspot.com/2006/05/walking-my-baby-back-home.html

This actually illustrates tech idea #29. With younger kids, instead of having them act out a suggested movie scene, just have them pose for a receated historical scene and take stills of that for a latedr constructed slide show movie version.
tech idea # 30. By creating DVD versions (using say VisualHub for Mac) of home made movies you can create a more easily shared version of studfent work
since DVD players are certainly cheap enough and can be connected to the more prevalent large format monitors used in offices and auditoriums.

Who Am I Kidding Top 28

I erased my January post on this topic since I have updated it quite a bit from the original Top Ten. I'll have to update the logo too: My ideas to improve technology integration in NYC:
1. Archiving posters, along with suggested primary document questions, for museum in a school use. Archiving the digital files so others can use them. Acquiring a plotter and wholesale quantity of foam-board for production to share with many schools. (PS I ran this idea by a Brave New World Network Team Leader, (offering to give away my hundreds of files for nothing). He said, "It's an idea one school could sell to another!"


2. Having a group of teacher/parent volunteers (celebrity guests) provide the voice for digitized read-alouds


3. Providing students with mp3 players with books on tape.


4. Purchasing books that already have an audio and video matching component.


5. Creating smaller imovies with stills and creating contests for kids to see how well they can match up songs with images (either via googling or creating their own via digital photography)


6. Taking a map of New York City and image map the work of students all across the city to show the wealth, vibrancy and variety of life. e.g's: Harlem Live and Tom Beller's Neighborhood.


7. Selecting sites that are important to students in each neighborhood and nominating them as "Places That Matters." (borrowed idea drom Citylore). Image map those sites as well

8. Getting parents and families involved in such a program by inviting them to share their primary documents and link them to the maps. Have scanning stations in schools, "Come one, come all bring us your primary documents." As with idea #1 create "hme made" dbq's to accompany these documents.


9. A kids created mapping New York program with a Neighborhood Map Maker Program.


10. A Timeline of events in New York City History with a Timeliner type program


11. Taking the films available on United Streaming and archiving questions to accompany those films and attempting to match them to various literacy skills.


12. Sharing successes with streaming video of real work in real classrooms and saving tons of money in off site professional development.


13.Making podcasting a citywide initiative. It's easy enough to do. Have kids report on news in their schools or just broadcast 
kids' (and family) created stories. Create booths in schools just as Story Corps did. Likewise make WNYC's a citywide initiative.


14. Piggyback on the media that's current, i.e. If we know in advance that Flags Of Our Fathers is coming out then buy quantities of that book and the accompanying audio tapes. I'm sure the publishers would help with discounted copies. Such a book could engage our high schoolers.


15. Have a citywide story to read (ala Oprah) . I nominate "A Trees Grows In Brooklyn"


16. Make greater use of graphic novels and use comic book maker software to encourage kids to make their own graphic novels.


17. Use PhotoShop to erase the dialogue from scanned comics and then create their own scripts.


18. Take scanned text from stories and then illustrate them with original artwork or appropriate googled images.

19. Make greater use of ebooks so as they can be matched with books on tape.

20. Use the ready availability of onlined song lyrics (including rap) to help with poetry literacy as well as an aid to reading.


21. Use digital movie cameras to recreate scenes from history (you see many illustrations of this on youtube with high schoolers displaying that kind of assignment). This could be modeled after kids see such a money in class, either via a dvd or 
a quicktime version.


22. Flickr has a new Web 2.0 component that allows you to make links from images. This could be done as a challenge to students to make a kind of junior webquest from a social studies rich group of flickred images.


23. For early childhood kids: Using only the video track of digital movies of trips or neighborhood explorations and then have the kids watch the film and supply their own voiceovers. Done with QuickTime Pro


24. Have adults and older kids digitally narrate stories and books so struggling readers can have read alouds.

25. Have the DOE create their own version of youtube to store (and filter) streaming video.

26. Making use of local websites to improve literacy. For exampled,for read alouds, NY1.com has streamed video combined with transcripts.

27. Making quicktime VR movies ( a relatively easy and low tech, low cost, low data task) with kids to show off their communities.

28. Using Quicktime Pro to make movies that combine image, text and narration. Again, a lower data and memory solution than using Movie Maker or iMovie.

If Dreams Come True: Top 27, Number 24, Done

From my top 27 (and expanding) list of ideas to improve technology integration that I posted in early January : #24. "Have adults and older kids digitally narrate stories and books so struggling readers can have read alouds." Looks like someone is taking care of this over at librivox.

Neigborhood Explorations

Haven't spoken much about my neighborhood project with the first graders. I decided to use a forgotten method I once hit upon. Why not take some video of the neighborhood, delete the sound, and then have the kids add their own narration. You can do that very simply with quicktime pro.

I should add this to my "who am I kidding" tech tips

Yip Harburg: What Is There To Say

Another great Harburg lyric song by Johnny Hartman
They should use Yip and the rest of the Big Five lyricists (Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Howard Dietz, Oscar Hammerstein ) for April is poetry month. All of them New Yorkers! But then Who am I Kidding?

What is there to say
And what is there to do
The dream I've been seeking
Has practically speaking come true
What is there to say
How will I pull through
I knew in a moment
Contentment and home meant just you
You are so lovable
So livable
Your beauty is just unforgivable
You're made to marvel at and words to that effect
What is there to say
What is there to do
My heart's in a deadlock
I'd even face wedlock with you

The slide show includes all those who have recorded this song (in no particular order) Sadly only Pizzarrelli, Billy Taylor and the great Sonny Rollins are the only ones still alive
Johnny Hartman, Gerry Mulligan, Susannah McCorkle, Chet Baker, Rosemary Clooney, Ella Fitzgerald, Artie Shaw, Bill Evans, Mel Torme, Nat King Cole, Sonny Rollins, Dorothy Dandridge, John Pizzarelli, Billy Taylor, Dizzy Gillespie, Barney Kessel, Ellis Larkin, Sylvia Syms

Zorro: If Only Life imitated Art

I finally got this to upload this (the stirring finale of the 1941 version of the Mark Of Zorro) to youtube. (probably lots of congestion with people uploading saddam's execution?) It makes the Zorro Dream Sequence post of yesterday more understandable. Is Kathleen Cashin the DOE's Zorro? If life were only like this, but Who Am I Kidding?

Creativity is Piercing The Mundane To Find The Marvelous

The above quote from Bill Moyers. New Year's Day finds me not embarking on any New Year's Resolution (I've never nade one in my life) or working on the cure for cancer or learning flash version 78, but
digitizing paper doll books for fourth graders to make historical era dolls to go along with their anticipated units on colonial and revolutionary times. I love the fact that Sojourners' 4th grade still has the time to get involved in doing project based work with their social studies units. Before the break the hallways were alive with kids making Indian Villages out of card board boxes.This is the exception these days in our schools. I'm also digitizing a magic tree house book (Revolutionary Times On Wednesday) as a text the kids can read en masse digitally. (heaven forbid that you are allowed to use classroom sets of books any more) I've been switching to acrobat files from movie files to do this. It's a little less work for me. The only problem I can't make them read alouds like I can with a .mov version, but who has the time to record myself or a kid doing this. Tom Tierney has authored so many of these great paper doll books. I bought a slew of them used from half com as a perverse holiday present for myself. Then its off to mass scan, photo edit and compile into book form in my self created sweatshop. Hey, I have to keep myself busy or face my otherwise self-created cruel world. PS Staten Island, I'm not doing anything illegal if I confine myself to one classroom set of duplicated material.
Buying Dover Books (they're relatively cheap) for all NYC elementary schools-Who Am I Kidding?

Zorro Dream Sequence

From the movie. The alcalde's speech at the finale: "Good people of Los Angeles. Owing to my ceaseless efforts to improve conditions in the district my health is endangered. I have therefore decided to give up my office and go to Spain."

From a dream: ""Good people of New York. Owing to my ceaseless efforts to improve conditions in the DOE my health is endangered. I have therefore decided to give up my office and go to live with Jack Welch."

Was Zorro Jewish?
from Zorro producer John Gertz in 1998:
Was he a swashbuckler in Spanish California by day and a reader of Zohar by night?
While much of the lore about the masked swordsman is swathed in mystery, Zorro has an indisputable local Jewish connection. Just ask John Gertz, president of Berkeley's Zorro Productions, which co-produced "The Mask of Zorro," starring Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins. "It's quite obvious Zorro is very Jewish," said Gertz, who is also the president of the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center. "His family has escaped to the far reaches of the Spanish empire in California. He is interested in matters of justice. He has a hidden identity. He is clearly a Marrano. He is definitely Jewish and ready to come out of the closet at our premiere." At Sunday's premiere of the film at Oakland's Jack London Cinema, Zorro will become an honorary member of the East Bay Jewish community. Proceeds from the benefit screening and salsa party, hosted by Zorro Productions, will benefit four East Bay Jewish community teen programs.
The black-garbed swordsman has been intriguing filmgoers for several generations. He made his debut in a silent film in 1920. In 1957, Disney revived the character in a popular TV series that spawned Zorro accessories and a song by the Chordettes. Zorro Productions, which owns all copyrights to Zorro, was launched in the late '60s. Before "The Mask of Zorro," the character most recently reappeared in movies in the 1982 spoof, "Zorro, the Gay Blade."
Gertz got involved in the business to support himself while in graduate school. He decided to leave his studies in biology to expand the company into further TV and film opportunities.
Gertz developed the concept for the new Zorro movie in the Berkeley office. "My twin sister wrote the first script. We then came up with a list of the 19 most important Hollywood executives. We set up an auction for the script and 18 scripts were picked up," Gertz said.
It turns out the one person who did not pick up the script then was Steven Spielberg. But once he found out about the movie, he was very interested and ended up choosing to fund the movie.
"When he grew up, he loved Zorro," Gertz remarked. "He said as a 12-year-old kid, `Zorro' played around the corner. Those old Zorro movies taught him how to film cliffhangers, and some of the Indiana Jones stunts are from those Zorro movies."
The production of the movie began in 1991 and originally had cast the late Raoul Julia and Andy Garcia in the lead roles. Gertz's team continued to work on the "high-end creative side," making changes on plot and story structure, and coordinating merchandising around the movie.
In addition to his work as a self-described "minor movie mogul," on July 1, Gertz took over as president of the BRJCC. He looks forward to broadening the financial contributions to the agency and expanding adult education and programming, including work with teens.
Sandy Curtis, creative director at Zorro Productions and Gertz's wife, orchestrated the benefit to raise funds for teen programs at BRJCC as well as the Volunteer Action Center of the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay, Jewish Family and Children's Services of the East Bay and Looking Behind the Mask, a youth drama project.
The post-film party will include salsa dancing, fencing demonstrations, tapas and sangria. Zorro Productions will be selling Zorro T-shirts signed by Banderas and Hopkins to benefit the four organizations.
Curtis' recent book, "Zorro Unmasked: The Official History" published by Hyperion, which describes the life of the Zorro character up to the present, will also be on sale.
"We want to create a fiesta feeling to celebrate," Curtis said. "If people want to come in period fiesta costume attire, that is great."
 

Zorro

I picked up the audio version of Allende's Zorro for the drive back from Providence. Great stuff. I was looking around for info on the book and found that Newport, R.I. is making it the city wide read in 2007.
"Zorro!" by Isabel Allende has been chosen by the Newport Library Foundation as the book for the 2007 NEWPORT READS! campaign.

This new novel, which tells the story of Zorro from his birth through young adulthood, is full of adventure, history, and folklore. Several events are planned for the community to learn about and discuss the novel:

€ March 1 - kick-off party at the Newport Performing Arts Center, with short readings from the novel.

€ March 19 - panel discussion for book clubs and anyone else who has read the novel, location to be announced.

€ March 21 - Showing of the Douglas Fairbanks movie "Zorro" with organ at Atonement Lutheran Church.

More information about these events will be published in the upcoming months. Mark your calendar now and watch for more details. Last year's NEWPORT READS! was a huge success, and this year promises to be just as exciting.

The concept of an entire community reading the same book has grown in popularity across America over the past few years. The idea is to promote reading and at the same time provide activities for the community to come together and share thoughts and ideas through discussions and book clubs.

The Newport Public Library is amassing a collection of Zorro related materials, which will be available to the public soon.

"Zorro!" would make a great gift for friends and family. NEWPORT READS! encourages everyone to read Zorro!, and to participate in as many activities as possible.

Why can't the DOE sponsor a NYC reads. I would nominate A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.
Who am I kidding

We Didn't Start The Fire 2

Making slide shows like these (this isn't mine) should be part of a school system competition (middle school and up). Start the kids out with a content and historically rich song and let them try to match images to it. Then give them the assignment to find out why those images were contextually relevant. It's easier and less memory killing than making imovies with video and it involves a great deal of mathematical skills. Such a project works well as a collaboration since multiple intelligence skills are involved. But then again, who am I kidding?

"We Didn't Start The Fire" by Billy Joel 
Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray 
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio  
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television 
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe 
Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom 
Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye" 
Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen  
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye
CHORUS
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
Josef Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev 
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc
Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, dacron 
Dien Bien Phu and "Rock Around the Clock"  
Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team 
Davy Crockett, "Peter Pan", Elvis Presley, Disneyland 
Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev 
Princess Grace, "Peyton Place", trouble in the Suez  
CHORUS
Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac 
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, "Bridge on the River Kwai" 
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball 
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide 
Buddy Holly, "Ben-Hur", space monkey, Mafia 
hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no go
U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy 
Chubby Checker, "Psycho", Belgians in the Congo  
CHORUS
Hemingway, Eichmann, "Stranger in a Strange Land"  
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs Invasion  
"Lawrence of Arabia", British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson 
Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex  
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say
CHORUS
Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon, back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock  
Begin, Reagan, Palestine, terror on the airline 
Ayatollolah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan 
 "Wheel of Fortune" , Sally Ride, heavy metal, suicide
Foreign debts, homeless vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz  
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law 
Rock and Roller Cola Wars, I can't take it anymore
CHORUS
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

Heave Aweigh 6

The archeaology slide show (made from the display at the 9th Precinct on Avenue C) mentions several families who lived at 365 E. 9th Street. They are the Roths, Eagins, Mckeons, and Sonneks. I looked them up in the federal census' of 1860-1900. The above comes from a section of the 1880 census for that portion of 9th Street. A great project that could involve primary document research, math and technology would be to take the reports from the neighboring blocks and survey the ages, country origins and jobs of those residents. Excel and Graphing could be employed. Who am I kidding? Not in this tech unfriendly climate.