I'm a student of the human condition: history, philosophy, art, and culture. I am a passionate educator. I am a lover of new technologies and its abilities to share knowledge
Archaeologists have recently uncovered the statue of a topless, female warrior that they believe represents the likeness of a female gladiator. Female gladiators, termed a Gladiatrix, are well documented in Roman history and archaeology (although somehow left out of popular Hollywood films). They often portrayed mythical figures like Amazon Warriors.
While the figure is depicted topless, wearing only a loin clothe, real female gladiators would have been geared with protective armor and helmet. This statue represents only the second such discovery of a female gladiator (meaning she was likely a popular star of the arena).
This month’s Archaeology Magazine highlights the history of the archaeology of the RMS Titanic, the famed “unsinkable” luxury liner that sank after striking an iceberg on April 15 1912. The Titanic has been subject of romance and scholarly inquiry – especially after its rediscovery in 1985.
Archaeology Magazine highlights the history of the search for the ship (multiple failed attempts by various recovery teams preceded the Franco-American expedition that discovered its remains). Learn about the search, the ships recovery, and the complicated conservation that went into preserving the artifacts and burying the remains of those who died at sea that Arctic Night.
This is my second year working with Professional Learning Practices and are group is looking at finishing up our project in the next couple of weeks. Not sup rising, we have hit a few snags (working with colleagues all across the country will do that to you). We are trying to put together a mentoring network. As I’m the only one with High School Age Kiddos, I’m hoping that my students can serve to mirror proper Digital Citizenship and provide some basic instruction/tutorial to elementary age students. A few of them put together some very short (1-2 minute) videos of concepts and topics. Here are some examples:
Writing in Complete Sentences:
Writing Topic Sentences
Possessive Nouns
Working in Teams
Writing in complete sentences
I have a few others – all very creative and invested. I’m so proud of my kids!
The American Civil War was the most devastating American Conflict in our history. New research indicates that the death toll was significantly higher than previously determined.
“The Civil War left a culture of death, a culture of mourning, beyond anything Americans had ever experienced or imagined,” David Blight, Yale University.
Previous estimates had put the death toll at around 620,000 (with most dying from infection and disease). New research puts than number at 750,000 (more than 21% higher than previous determinations). These findings are published in in the December 2011 issue of Civil War Magazine by Dr. David Hacker.
To learn more about the new research, see the article listed above or the briefer article on at BBC News.
I get to spend a week at Columbia University attending lectures and hiking around the city learning about urbanization. I’m so excited! Of course, I’ll be blogging the whole thing.
The Bully Project, a controversial and raw film about the workings of teenage bullying, is making is film debut and release today in New York and Los Angeles. Anyone who works with children or has children or was a child recognizes the pain and horror of childhood bullying. Often viewed as a ‘right of passage’ or ‘kids being kids,’ the reality is that bullying is a traumatic an unnecessary experience of childhood. There recent wave of teen suicides highlights the painful realities of bullying. See the preview for the film below:
Just as pervasive as bullying is, there are a lot of myths that surround the practice. One of the most common is that “Bully’s have low self-esteem” or that “Bully’s are outcasts.” The reality is that most ‘schoolyard bullies’ have pretty high self-esteem and enjoy a high status that accompanies their predatory behavior. Discovery News highlights this in the article: “Why Do People Bully?” It highlights the behavioral drive for this type of behavior as well as the social rewards that teens experience. I highly recommend this read for anyone that interacts with child or is working to (or wanting to work to) combat bullying.
Robert Falcon Scott was a royal naval officer and antarctic explorer whose last and disastrous expedition was recorded in detail in his working diary. 100 years ago (on March 29), he scrawled his last words into his diary:
“We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far.
It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more.
R. SCOTT.
For God’s sake look after our people.”
Scott and his men January 17, 1912 courtesy of Wikipedia
The entry came two weeks after several weeks of heart-wrenching and disastrous accounts of the weather, the status of food, and the conditions of himself and his companions. In November 1912 (8 months after this), a search party found Scott and two of his companions frozen in their sleeping bags. To learn more about the failed expedition, see the article by Andrew Mustain at MSNBC’s “Antarctic explorer’s last words: 100 years ago.”
Archaeologists in Skye have uncovered the remnants of a lyre on the Isle of Skye. The artifacts looks to be around 2,300 years old and served as a bridge to the musical instrument. While lyre’s existed in the Eastern World more than 5,000 years ago, this piece represents the earliest example uncovered in the Western World. This find is especially rare, considering the material from which it is made:
“Stringed instruments, being usually made of wood, rarely survive in the archaeological record, but they are referred to in the very earliest literature, and, in various forms, were to feature on many stone carvings in Scotland and Ireland, and to become emblematic in both countries.”
Today, MindShift highlights just how savvy and aware tweens and teens are about what they’re sharing online. While they spend a lot of time online, they re aware of the risks and tend to make ‘fairly sophisticated’ decisions about who they are interacting with online, what others may see, and what they post. Students are aware of the multiple levels of privacy settings and conscious of what they are putting out for others to see.
young adults are more wary of the “known other” – parents, school teachers, classmates, etc. – for fear of “the potential for the known others to share embarrassing information about them”; 83 percent of the sample group cited at least one known other they wanted to maintain their privacy from; 71 percent cited at least one known adult. Strikingly, seven out of the 10 participants who reported an incident when their privacy was breached said it was “perpetrated by known others.”
Another interesting point about the article is that the overwhelming majority of children get the understanding of the importance of privacy from the adults in their lives – parents, teachers, counselors, etc. Therefore, adults (especially those in authority) have an incredibly important role in educating children about Digital Citizenship and Digital Footprints.
Construction workers laying ground for a new hotel in the region of Roman Bath hit upon the largest hoard of Roman coins ever uncovered in England. The hoard contains more than 30,000 silver pieces dating to around 270 CE. This time period coincides with withdrawal of the Roman Empire from the frontier and waves of “barbarian” invasions on the island. In a time before banks, rapid burials of ones personal assets was common (and if the owner didn’t return for some reason, they are regularly found by construction workers and treasure hunters with metal detectors).
The coins at some point were exposed to extreme heat and are fused together – making precise dating and identification difficult.
“Conservators at the British Museum are taking a whole year to do the work. There are believed to be more than 30,000 coins, making this one of the fifth largest hoards ever found in Britain and the largest from a Roman town,”
Archaeologists have recently uncovered the statue of a topless, female warrior that they believe represents the likeness of a female gladiator. Female gladiators, termed a Gladiatrix, are well documented in Roman history and archaeology (although somehow left out of popular Hollywood films). They often portrayed mythical figures like Amazon Warriors.
