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What Do Hot Beverages Have to Do With Politics?

Before the American Revolution, our country was under English rule. The colonists had to rely on England to import a lot of goods, and tea was one of those goods. The East India company was a large trading company. They were having financial problems and in danger of going out of business, which would have a devasting effect on England's economy. England decided to solve the problem by placing huge taxes on goods that were shipped to the American colonies.

The Americans were already angry about taxation without representation, which meant that they paid taxes to England, but they were not represented in the British government, called Parliament. They did not feel that they were treated as tax-paying citizens. They felt disrespected.

At the time, there was an underground, or secret, resistance group called the Sons of Liberty. They were led by Samuel Adams, and membership included Paul Revere, Patrick Henry, John Adams, and John Hancock. To some, the Sons of Liberty were heros; to others, they were terrorists.

The American Colonists were already paying heavy taxes on printed materials, sugar, textiles, and other goods, but the final straw came when England enacted the Tea Act, which gave the East India Company a monopoly on all British colonies, including America. This meant that colonists were not allowed to buy tea from anyone else.

Other colonies simply refused to allow the tea to be unloaded from the ships, and allowed them to sail off to other colonies. In the Massachusetts colony, however, they not only refused to allow the tea to be unloaded, but they would not allow the ships to leave Boston Harbor. On the night of December 16, 1773, a group of colonists, led by the Sons of Liberty, boarded the ships and threw all of the tea into Boston Harbor.

In response to "The Boston Tea Party," England closed the port of Boston and declared that the colony would pay for the tea that was destroyed. They took complete control of the Massachusetts colony, basically declaring martial law. Colonists were even expected to provide room and board for occupying British troops.

This chain of events led directly to the organization of the Continental Congress and the American Revolution. If you'd like to know more, plenty of information is available online or at your local library!

So what does the Boston Tea Party have to do with the modern Tea Party we've been hearing about on the news? The Tea Party, is not a "real" political party, but more of a movement. It's made up of a group of people who support tax cuts, less government spending, and lowering the national debt and the federal deficit, and they believe that Washington is not serving their interests. Most Tea Party supporters are conservative Republicans, and Sarah Palin is one of their main public figures. Their name connects them to the Boston Tea Party, because they have adopted a Sons of Liberty phrase as one of their slogans: "No taxation without representation.

The Coffee Party arose in response to the Tea Party. Although the Coffee Party is mostly made up of liberal, or progressive, democrats who want to separate big business from politics, they are a more diverse group of people. There are even some conservatives who support the Coffee Party. The group is also interested in environmental, energy, and immigration issues. They encourage all Americans to become involved citizens.

Wikipedia

If you would like to read more about any of the posting on this blog, or anything else you would like to know more about, check out http://www.wikipedia.com. This site is a giant encyclopedia, and the best part is that everything is hyperlinked. This means that, as you are reading, you can click on the highlighted words to go to another page and learn more about that subject! You could spend an awful lot of time on wikipedia just jumping from subject to subject!

Remember, the more you read, the more you know!

Sitting Bull and General Custer

Many American children have played "Cowboys & Indians." Usually the "Cowboys" were the good guys, and the "Indians" were the bad guys. A better name for the game might have been "Cavalry & Native Americans," and historically speaking, the "Indians," or Native Americans, were not bad at all. They were simply trying to preserve their culture and keep their lands from being stolen.

The events of the 1800s resulted from Anglo-American expansion across North America. Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man and chief in the Dakota Territory, which is now North and South Dakota. Anglo-Americans, or white men, were moving further and further west into Sioux territory and meeting with resistance from the Sioux people. In the mid-1870s, the Northern Pacific Railway attempted to build a railroad directly through Sioux territory, and the Sioux resisted.

Shortly afterward, Civil War vetaran Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led an expedition into the Black Hills to scout for gold and a place to establish an Army fort. When he announced that there was gold in the Black Hills, mining companies wanted a piece of the action.

The government tried to force the Native American people out of their lands and onto reservations. This action led directly to the Battle of Little Big Horn. The Lakota Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho joined forces to fight Custer's 7th Cavalry near the Little Big Horn River in the Montana territory. The Army attacked the Native American camp, not realizing how many tribes had joined together. The US troops were badly outnumbered and they lost over 700 men, including Custer himself.

After the Battle of Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull led his people to safety in Canada. They stayed there for four years, but returned to the United States as they were facing mass starvation. Sitting Bull surrendered in 1883, and was sent to the Standing Rock Reservation in what is now South Dakota.

In 1890, the Ghost Dance religious movement gained popularity amongst Native Americans. In an effort to keep Sitting Bull from supporting the movemnet, a group of Indian police was sent to arrest Sitting Bull. They went very early in the morning, hoping to avoid confrontation; however, the confrontation took place anyway, with several people, including Sitting Bull, being killed.

Shortly after this happened, the Wounded Knee Massacre took place, and ended the Native American resistance.

Saturday Night Live Released on This Date in 1977

Are you old enough to remember disco? It was a popular dance style in the 1970s. On December 14, 1977, a film called Saturday Night Fever was released. It was about a young man in Brooklyn, NY, who lived for dancing at a local club. The young man was played by a very young John Travolta. The movie was all about the disco culture, and the soundtrack, which heavily featured The Bee Gees, became a bestseller. That was when music was still released on vinyl disks that us old folks called albums! If you'd like to see a little bit about what the late '70s were like for young urban 20-somethings, head to your local video store!

Blog Changes

You may have noticed that this blog has been changing over the past month. The posts have been leaning more toward reading, history/social studies, and science, than about math and writing. While I will still be posting on these subjects, I am planning to include more posts about cultural literacy. This means that, not only will I be posting on things like Watergate and the Civil War, I will also be posting more about modern cultural references, such as movies, books, television, the Internet, and news items.

Cultural literacy is more than reading. It is having the background knowledge to make the most of your reading. Have you ever started watching a movie in the midde, so that you didn't really know what was going on? That's how a lot of people feel when they read a newspaper. One of my goals for this blog is to help fill in those gaps!

Race to the South Pole

Roald Amundsen was an explorer from Norway. He was among the first group of men ever to spend the winter in Antarctica. He had also been exploring the Arctic. In 1909, he was planning an expedition to become the first man at at the North Pole; however, while Amundsen was plannig his trip, American explorer Robert Peary beat him to the North Pole.

Amundsen did not give up. He turned his attention to the South Pole. Robert Falcon Scott, and English explorer, was also leading an expedition to the South Pole. He and Amundsen were competing to get there first.

Amundsen's team set up their camp 60 miles closer to the South Pole than Scott's team. The Norwegian team relied on sled dogs for transportation, while the English team used motorized sleds, Siberian horses, and sled dogs. These two factors made the difference, not only in winning the race, but in life and death.

Because Amundsen's camp was 60 miles closer, his return trip was shorter. Scott made it to the South Pole a full month after Amundsen. To make matters worse, the weather was very bad on his long trip back to camp. His motorized sleds broke down, and his animals had to be put down. Many of Scott's men, including Scott himself, froze to death.

Roald Amundsen had another notable achievement, but it was mistakenly attributed to Richard Byrd until 1996! Amundsen attempted many times to become the first to fly an airplane over the North Pole, and he came within 150 miles of his target. He finally accomplished the feat in a dirigible, or a zeppelin, in 1926. Unfortunately, Richard Byrd beat him to it by three days. In 1926, Byrd's diary was discovered. It seems, according to the diary, that Byrd actually turned back before reaching the North Pole, because he had a oil leak. This new information means that Amundsen was not only the first person to reach the South Pole, he was also the first person to fly over the North Pole. Because Amundsen died in 1928, he never knew about his North Pole flight's success.

Thank Marconi for Radio!

Do you remember the song "We Built This City (on Rock & Roll)" by Starship?

One of the lines in the song goes like this:

Marconi played the mamba

Listen to the radio

Do you know who Marconi was or what he had to do with the radio?

Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor who lived from 1874 until 1937. He won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909 for his work in wireless telegraphy. Before Marconi, we had telegraphs, but they could only be used with a network of cables and wires. Marconi proved that it was possible to not only transmit information via wireless radio waves, but he was the first person to send such signals across the Atlantic Ocean. Other scientists believed, correctly, that wireless radio waves would be lost after travelling approximately 200 miles, because the would continue to travel in a straight line, rather than follow the earth's curvature; however, after much experimentation, Marconi was able to bounce signals off the Earth's ionosphere to reach a receiver in Newfoundland, Canada.

Marconi's wireless system was widely used on ships to maintain contact with the mainland. One of those ships was the RMS Titanic. The radio controllers aboard the Titanic who sent out the distress signal were employed by Marconi's company, Marconi International Marine Communication Company. Only one survived the sinking. Despite his injuries, he helped the radio controllers aboard the rescue ship, RMS Carpathia, to send wireless messages to New York regarding survivors, and to send messages from survivors to loved ones. Marconi's invention saved the lives of 706 passengers that night. Without it, more than 2,223 lives would have been lost.

Think about that the next time you turn on the radio!

Nobel Prize

It is a great honor to win a Nobel Prize. The Prize is given to people whose work over the previous has been a great benefit to mankind. It awarded annually in the categories of chemistry, physics, medicine, literature, and peace.

The Nobel Prize is named for a Swedish scientist named Alfred Nobel. Nobel invented dynomite and other explosives. When he died in 1896, his will stated that most of his fortune should be banked and the interested should be distributed each year to the person or group of people whose work over the past year had the most benefit to mankind. It is believed that Nobel created the award because he felt guilty that his inventions were used for violence.

The first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901, five years to the day after Nobel's death. The awards are still given each year on December 10. The Nobel Prize is considered the most prestigious prize in the world. Winners are given a cash prize, as well as the gold medal pictured above.

Past Nobel Prize winners include Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela.

For more information, and to find out about this year's winners, go to http://nobelprize.org/ or just watch the news today - December 10, 2010!

Winter 1 2010 Session Begins!

Welcome, new and returning learners! The Winter 1 session begins Monday, December 13.

We mailed all of the materials out yesterday. Online students should have received an email that included links to your classes. Workbook students should receive their materials in the mail over the weekend. If you have not received your materials by Wednesday, please let us know.

Because the holiday season falls in the middle of the Winter 1 session, this session will be seven weeks long, instead of the usual six weeks. Enjoy the break and please have a pleasant and safe holiday season!

Happy Thanksgiving

The District Learning Project office will be closed Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

We've all heard the story of the first Thanksgiving. In 1621, the pilgrims at Plymouth, MA, gave thanks to God for helping them to survive the long New England winter. They celebrated by inviting their Native American neighbors to a feast that lasted for three days.

Although Thanksgiving has been celebrated since that time, it wasn't an official national holiday until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared it, and proclaimed that it should be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.

In modern times, most families celebrate Thanksgiving by visiting and enjoying a turkey dinner. Certainly, we at DLP will be enjoying friends, family and food, and we hope that you will be doing the same. Please take the time to reflect on the things for which you are thankful, and remember those who aren't so fortunate.

History and Reading - Gettysburg Address

On this date, November 19, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made a speech at the dedication ceremony at the Gettysburg National Cemetary. This speech, called "Lincoln's Little Speech," because of it's short length, has become famous as The Gettysburg Address. This is the text:

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war . . . testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated . . . can endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.

We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate . . . we cannot consecrate . . . we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us . . . that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion . . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain . . . that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom . . . and that government of the people . . . by the people . . . for the people . . . shall not perish from this earth.

Let's look at it one paragraph at a time. Most people have heard "four score and seven years ago," but don't know what it means. A score is 20. Four score is 4 x 20, or 80. Four score and seven is 80 +7, or 87. If we subtract 87 years from the year 1863, we get 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. Lincoln was saying that, in 1863, the year he gave his famous speech, America had only been a nation for 87 years, and that our nation was founded on the principles of liberty and equality.

In the next two paragraphs, he is acknowleging that the civil war tested whether our nation was strong enough to uphold those founding principles, and that he and the other people were now gathered on part of the battlefield to dedicate the cemetary for the men who died to uphold those principles. He says they are there because it is the right thing to do.

In the fourth paragraph, the president then says that, although they have gathered to dedicate the cemetary, their efforts are small in comparison with the men who died here. The blood and bravery of those men who fought at Gettysburg had already made it hallowed, or sacred, ground. Lincoln goes on to say that in the future, people (us) will not remember the speeches that were given at the dedication ceremony, but they will always remember the Battle of Gettysburg and the men who fought and died there.

In the last paragraph, Lincoln asks that we, as Americans, dedicate our lives to the principles that the founding fathers set out for us, and that, over the years and throughout many battles, our citizens have fought to uphold: a nation where all are welcome, free, and equal.

Science - Uses for Human Hair

People laughed when the suggestion was made to use human hair to soak up the oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year, but that idea is not so offbeat. It was also suggested to help with the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in 1989.

Try this experiment after your next haircut:
Fill a bucket with water. Add enough cooking oil so that you can see the oil floating in the water. Next, cut the foot off an old pair of nylon stockings (pantyhose), stuff it with hair, and tie the end shut. Put the bundle into the bucket of water and watch it collect the oil. It really works!

Woman have long known that the oil from human hair keeps sewing needles sharp and rust-free. They used to keep the hair from their hairbrushes in "hair catchers," and when they had enough, they would use it to stuff a pincushion.

Human hair has been woven to produce fabric for clothing, and twisted to make rope.

Recently, it has also been used as a substitute for silicon in solar panels.

It also has applications in agriculture and the food industry. It is being woven into mats and uses to keep moisture in and weeds out in gardens and fields around the world. In some countries, because food is scarce and hair is high in protein, oil is separated from hair and processed to become a substitute for soybean oil.

Of course, we can't forget the more obvious uses for human hair. It is still used in wigmaking, and cosmetic testing.

Can you think of any other ways to recycle human hair?

History - Watergate in a Nutshell

It all started in 1972 when a security guard at the Watergate Hotel and Office Complex in Washington, DC, was making his rounds. He discovered several doors with tape over the locks. He removed the tape and moved on. When he came back an hour later, he found more tape over the locks. He called the police.

Five men were arrested for burglarizing an office on the 6th floor. The office belonged to the National Democratic Party. After much investigation, it was discovered that the burglars had ties to the Committee to Re-Elect the President, also known as CRP, or jokingly, CReeP. Many prominent people in Washington were allegedly involved, not only in the conspiracy to commit the burglary, but also in the resulting cover-up. These included some of the president's top aides and advisors, as well as people in the Justice Department, the FBI, and the CIA.

The Watergate Break-In quickly became known as the Watergate Scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. Nixon maintained his innocence to the end, but the Republican Senate voted to remove him from office. Nixon decided to resign rather than be impeached.

Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, uncovered much of the story with the help of an anonymous source who went by the name of Deep Throat. Deep Throat's identity remained secret until 2005, when it was revealed that he was the former Deputy Director of the FBI. Woodward and Bernstein wrote a book about the Watergate Scandal called All the President's Men. It was published in 1974. In 1976, All the President's Men was made into a movie starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.

Writing - More Fun with the English Language

Here are some rules to remember when writing:

1. Don't use no double negatives.
2. About them sentence fragments and pronouns.
3. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
4. Correct spelling is esential.
5. When dangling your participles are in the wrong place.
6. Use your apostrophe's correctly.
7. Don't use commas, that aren't necessary.
8. Proofread you writing.
9. i think case is important.

Remember, you must first know the rules before you can break them!

Reading - Fiction, Nonfiction and Genres

Have you ever gone into a large bookstore and felt completely overwhelmed? It can help if you understand how the books are arranged.

The first thing you should know is that all forms of writing are divided into two groups: fiction and nonfiction.

Fiction is made up.

Nonfiction is true.

Fiction and nonfiction are both divided into subcategories called genres.

A genre is a category.

Fiction is divided into genres such as mystery, science fiction, romance, and drama.

Nonfiction is divided into genres such as biography, how-to, travel, political, history, and self-help.

Fiction and nonfiction are both made up of many, many genres. I've only listed a few. If you're one of those people who says, "I don't like to read," maybe you just haven't found the right genre yet. Think of something you're really interested in, something you would like to know more about. Everyone is interested in something! It could be cars, dogs, cooking, outer space - absolutely anything! There is a book - probably a whole genre out there just waiting for you! And remember - books are like potato chips; one is never enough!

Writing -- A Few Simple Rules

Have you ever noticed that, while your writing teacher corrects your punctuation and your tenses, famous authors use them in novels all the time? If you pay attention, though, those novels are sometimes written from a certain character's point of view, that is, the character is telling the story. Other times, the author only breaks the grammatical rules when he is writing one character's dialog. In these cases, the author is using grammar to reveal details about a character.

Make no mistake. These authors know how to use perfect grammar, but they choose to break the rules in order to let us infer more about a character. You must know the rules before you break them!

Here are some examples of how you can have fun with the rules of grammar:

1. Always avoid alliteration.

2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

3. Avoid cliches like the plague.

4. Employ the vernacular.

5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

8. Contractions aren't necessary.

9. Foreign words and phrase are not apropos.

10. One should never generalize.

11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

12. Don't be redundant. Don't use words more than necessary. It's highly superfluous.

13. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

14. Be more or less specific.

15. Understatement is always spectacular.

16. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

17. One-word sentences? Elliminate.

18. Analogies are like feathers on a snake.

19. The passive voice is to be avoided.

20. Who needs rhetorical questions?

Reading - Bram Stoker & Margaret Mitchell

What do these two authors have in common?

Bram Stoker was an Irish threatre critic who also wrote several novels, the most famous of which was Dracula, which was published in 1897. With this book, Stoker took an obscure bit of Eastern European folklore and turned into a cultural phenomenon. Without Dracula, there would have been no Interview with the Vampire, and no Twilight.

Margaret Mitchell was an American journalist who spent ten years writing one novel, Gone With the Wind, which was published in 1936. This book tells the story of a spoiled southern belle during the American Civil War, who loses everything, but finds herself. Without Gone with the Wind, there would have been no Steel Magnolias, and no Cold Mountain.

Although Stoker was born in 1847, and Mitchell was born in 1900, they share a birthday on November 8, and their works have heavily influenced modern literary and film culture.

Both Dracula and Gone with the Wind have been made into award-winning films.

Social Studies -VOTE!

Did you vote on Tuesday? Are you registered? Everyone in America ages 18 and over has the right to vote, and we should all exercise our right to choose our leaders. If you're not registered, it's easy! Just go to the Voter Registration Office at your local courthouse and tell them you'd like to register. They'll ask you to fill out a form. That's it! Bear in mind, that even if you are registered, your registration can expire if you don't go to the polls on Voting Day.

Here is a brief history of voting rights in America:

In 1787, the US Constitution allowed only white male property owners, ages 21 and over, the right to vote.

By 1843, all white men over the age of 21 could vote.

In 1870, the 15th Amendment was passed. This gave all men over 21 the right to vote, regardless of race or ethnicity. Despite the passing of the 15th Amendment, minorities were regularly discouraged, and even prevented, from voting through the use of literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and even intimidation.

In 1920, the 19th Amendment gave women over the age of 21 the right to vote.

In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed. This put voter registration into the hands of the federal government to ensure that minorities were not kept from registering. In essence, the 15th Amendment was finally enforced, almost 100 years after it was passed.

In 1971, the 26th Amendment was passed, lowering the voting age to 18.

In 1982, amendments were made to the Voting Rights Act to include provisions for Americans with disabilities that may have previously prevented them from registering and/or getting to the polls. This also included Americans who are unable to read and/or write, or who are not fluent in English.

As Americans, we are very fortunate to have the right to choose our own leaders. Citizens of many other counties do not have this right.

In case you're wondering whether your vote really counts, consider this:

One vote made Rutherford B. Hayes the President of the United States of America in 1923. One vote also gave Adolph Hitler control of the Nazi Party in Germany in 1923.

Writing - The English Language is Difficult!

Did you know that the English language is one of the most difficult languages to learn to read and write? The reason is that, although we have rules, we also have many, many exceptions to those rules. We also have tons of homophones, or words that sound the same, but are spelled differently or that have different meanings. And then there are homonyms, or words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings.

Keep in mind that because our language is so crazy, we are able to have a lot of fun with it!

The bandage was wound around the wound.

The farm was used to produce produce.

The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

We must polish the Polish furniture.

He could lead if he would get the lead out.

The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

I did not object to the object.

The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

Since there is no time like the present, it is time to present the present.

There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

They were too close to the door to close it.

The buck does funny things when the does are present.

A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

To help with the planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

After a number of injections, my jaw got number.

Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.

I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Reading - Stephen Crane

On this date, November 1, 1891, American author Stephen Crane was born in Newark, NJ. Crane's best-known work is The Red Badge of Courage, a novel about an 18-year-old young man who goes off to fight for the Union Army in the Civil War. The main character, Henry Fleming, has a romanticised idea of war when he leaves home, but he as the story progresses and he is forced to confront the realities of war, and becomes a man as he faces his fears.

The Red Badge of Courage is an example of American naturalist literature. Naturalism portrays the subject as it is, rather than how we think it might be. For example, like the Fleming character dreams of becoming a war hero at the beginning of the book, but when he gets there, he actually sees the grit and violence of war, and Stephen Crane portrays this very much as if he had seen it himself, in stark detail. It is interesting to note, however, that Stephen Crane had never seen battle at the time he wrote the book. Crane chose to write the book in this manner, because he had read accounts of soldiers who had fought in the Civil War, and he found them dissatisfying because the soldiers told about what they did, but not about what they felt. Crane felt it was important to include emotion in his story so that the reader could empathize with the characters, rather than just read dry accounts about what they did.

Stephen Crane died in 1900, of tuberulosis, at the age of 28.

Tip of the Day - Social Studies

On October 27, 1858, Theodore Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States was born. He was an avid hunter and naturalist. When he was growing up, his room always contained a pet mouse or a collection of stuffed birds. When he was president, zoologists recognized him as one of the best field naturalists in the country. He was also an authority on North American Game.

In 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated, and Roosevelt, at 43 years old, became the youngest president ever to assume the office. He stamped the presidency with a vitality that delighted most Americans and was elected to a second term in 1904.

Roosevelt set aside land for America's first national parks and monuments.

Tip of the Day - Reading

Author, Poet, Activist - Dr. Maya Angelou

Born Marguerite Johnson on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Angelou was raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas between her mother and her grandmother. In Stamps, Dr. Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture.

At age seven, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend, who was subsequently killed by her uncles. The event caused the young girl to go mute for nearly six years, and her teens and early twenties were spent as a dancer, filled with isolation and experimentation.

At 16 she gave birth to a son, Guy, after which she toured Europe and Africa in the musical Porgy and Bess. On returning to New Your City in the 1960s, she joined the Harlem Writers Guild and became involved in black activism. She then spent several years in Ghana as editor of African Review, where she began to take her life, her activism and her writing more seriously.

Dr. Angelou has written many autobiographies and published several volumes of verse.

In 1993, Dr. Angelou read On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton's Presidential inauguration, a poem written at his request. It was only the second time a poet had been asked to read at an inauguration, the first being Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F, Kennedy. In 2006, Dr. Angelou agreed to host a weekly radio show on XM Satellite Radio's Oprah & Friends channel. She also teaches at Wake Forest University in North Carolina where she has a lifetime position as the Reynolds professor of American studies.

Fun Science Facts

• There are 206 bones in the adult human body and there are 300 in a child's body. As we grow, some of the bones fuse together.


• Fleas can jump 130 times higher than their own height. In human terms, this is equal to a 6 foot person jumping 780 feet into the air.


• Velcro was invented 50 years ago.


• The human eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times a year.


• It takes approximately 12 hours for food to entirely digest.


• An inch of rain water is equal to 15 inches of dry, powdery snow.


• 40% to 50% of body heat can be lost through the head as a result of its extensive circulatory network.


• The ears of a cricket are located on its front legs, just below the knee.


• Sound travels about 4 times faster in water than in air.


• The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

Today in History

On October 20, 1803, the Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase Treaty by a vote of twenty-four to seven. The agreement, which provided for the purchase of the western half of the Mississippi River basin from France at a price of $15 million, or approximately four cents per acre, doubled the size of the country and paved the way for westward expansion beyond the Mississippi.

The bounds of the territory, which were not clearly delineated in the treaty, were assumed to include all the land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, at that time known as the Stony Mountains. Just twelve days after the signing of the treaty, frontiersmen Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out on an expeditions to explore the newly acquired territory.

The purchase of the Louisiana Territory and the Lewis and Clark expedition marked the beginning of a century of conquest. As explorers, speculators, adventurers, and settlers pushed the territorial boundaries of the United States westward toward the Pacific coast, the notion of America as a nation always pushing toward new frontiers took hold in art, literature, and folklore.

Tip of the Week - Compare and Contrast

You may be asked to write an essay that compares and contrasts two things or ideas. Remember this:

Compare = Similarities

Contrast = Differences

When you are asked to write a "compare & contrast" essay, you should discuss the ways in which two things are the same and different. The easiest way to organize your ideas for this type of essay is by using a Venn Diagram. Just make two overlapping circles. Label each circle with one of the things you're comparing and contrasting. For example, in this diagram, we're comparing and contrasting dogs and cats. In the "dog" circle, we've listed some ways that dogs are different from cats; in the "cat" circle, we've listed some ways that cats are different from dogs. In the place where the two circles overlap, we've listed some things that apply to both dogs and cats.

Now we have our ideas all set up for three paragraphs for the body of our essay. In one paragraph, we'll talk about dogs. In the next paragraph, we'll talk about cats. In the third paragraph, we'll talk about both of them. Of course, we'll still need opening and closing paragraphs, too! Use this Venn diagram to practice writing a "compare & contrast" essay, or make one of your own!

Tip of the Week - Reading

We're once again combining the Reading Tip of the Week with Today in History! Author Terry McMillan was born October 18, 1951. McMillan was born and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. She was a single mother living in New York in the 1980s when she attended a writer's workshop in Harlem. She went on to write several novels including Mama and Disappearing Acts. Two of her novels, Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back, have been made into movies. If you haven't read anything by Terry McMillan, check out one or more of her books!

Skills Tutor Update

The Skills Tutor site is experiencing technical difficulties, but they are aware of the problem and they are working on it. If you are having problems accessing the site, don't worry! Just try again later

Fall 2 Session Begins Monday

The Fall 2 Session begins Monday, October 18, and runs through Friday, December 3.

Online students-- you should have received an email with your class information, along with your usernames and passwords. You may begin working when you receive this information.

This blog is not part of your classes. It is here to provide you with helpful tips and information, plus some fun and interesting facts. Feel free to comment on posts!

Although this blog is intended for PA Distance Learning Project students, it is open to the public.

Tip of the Week -- Fractions

A lot of folks are afraid of fractions, but the truth is that we use fractions every day. Every time we use money, measure something, or tell time, we are using fractions.

A fraction is simply this: a part of a whole. The top number is the part and the bottom number is the whole.

A penny is 1/100 of a dollar, because 1 dollar and 100 pennies are the same thing. A quarter is 1/4 of a dollar, because 1 dollar and 4 quarters are the same thing.

And inch is 1/12 of a foot, because 1 foot and 12 inches are the same thing. A foot is 1/3 yard because 1 yard and 3 feet are the same thing.

A minute is 1/60 of an hour, because 1 hour and 60 minutes are the same thing. 15 minutes is 1/4 of an hour because there are four sets of 15 minutes in an hour.

The most common way that fractions are taught is with pizza. Most pizzas are cut into 8 slices, so if we have 8 slices, we have one pizza. Therefore, a slice is 1/8 of a pizza. If two friends share a pizza, and each person eats 4 slices, then each person has eaten 4 slices out of 8, or 4/8, which is the same as 1/2.

Tip of the Week -- Division of Germany

The United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union (The Allied Nations)fought together against Germany, Italy, Japan (the Axis Powers) and during World War II. Both factions included many smaller countries, as well.

When the war was over, much of Europe was in ruins. Germany was a broken country, with it's infrastructure destroyed and its people unable to help themselves. The Allied countries, with the exception of the Soviet Union, wanted to rebuilt Germany so that she could become self-sufficient again, under the Marshall Plan. The Soviet Union wanted to annex Germany as an Eastern Bloc country, so the she would be under Soviet Rule.

As a result of this disagreement, Germany was divided into two countries, East Germany and West Germany. East Germany became a socialist Eastern Bloc country under the Soviet Union, and it's official name was the German Democratic Republic or GDR. West Germany's official name was the Federal Republic of Germany, or FRG. American, British and French troops remained in West Germany throughout the rebuilding, and in 1955, the country was declared "fully sovereign," or operating on its own, with it's own government. West Germany joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Allied troops maintain bases there until this day, under NATO.

Throught the 1950s, many people attempted to defect from East to West Germany. The easiest place to do this at the time was in Berlin. Although the entire city was in East Germany, half of the city was controlled by the US, Great Britain and France.

In 1961, the Soviets built the Berlin Wall on the border of East and West Berlin. They said it was to protect East German citizens, but it was most likely to keep them from defecting to the West. The Wall became the symbol of the Iron Curtain, the border between the East and the West. In 1990, Germany was officially reunified, and the Berlin Wall was taken down.

Writing Tip of the Day - Spelling

This Saturday, October 9, is International English Spelling Day!

Look around for misspelled words on signs, in newspapers and magazines, and other print materials. Play spelling and word games alone or with your friends. Read a dictionary - seriously!

Check out this website: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ozideas/spday.htm for more information. The site includes games, spelling tests, and interesting information about why we spell words the way we do. One article talks about what writing was like before we had dictionaries, and people spelled any way they wanted.

I encourage you to check it out!

CCAC Offers Bonuses for GED Students

http://www.examiner.com/personal-finance-in-pittsburgh/fee-ged-classes-for-allegheny-county-residents-come-with-bonus-at-ccac

We all know that a GED can lead to more pay, but it can also help you get a discount on college tuition!

Reading Tip of the Week: Tone

Just as we have a "tone" when we speak, writers and their characters have a "tone."

When you read, think about the characters. Tone can be detected from their words, from the way the words are delivered, and from context. For example:

Jane said, "I'm going to Joe's house."

This sentence is flat. We have no idea why Jane is going to Joe's house, or how she feels about it.

Jane exclaimed, "I'm going to Joe's house!!"

Jane's tone has changed. She's excited or happy now.

Jane rolled her eyes and sneered, "I'm going to Joe's house."

Her tone has changed again. Now she's sarcastic.

A character's tone can change throughout the story, just as a real person's tone can change, depending on the situation.

If we think of The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator is a character in the story. His tone starts out calm and calculating, and slowly builds to guilt, and finally to terror and madness.

Sometimes, though, a character will have the same demeanor throughout. Let's look at Count Dracula from Bram Stoker's Dracula. The Count behaves differently with different people, just as we all do. He is a charming gentleman to Mina, a controlling monster to Renfield, and a dangerous adversary to Van Helsing, but he is always secretive, cryptic, and mysterious.

Tip of the Week -- Science

Marie Curie (1867-1934) was a pioneer in the field of radioactivity. She did not actually discover radioactivity, but she did give it the name, and she created the theory of radioactivity. She also developed techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and she discovered two elements, polonium and radium.

Marie was the first scientist to explore oncology. Today, when we hear of people undergoing radiation treatments for cancer, we can thank Marie Curie. The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology in Warsaw, Poland, grew out of the Radium Institute, which Marie founded in 1932.

Although Marie was Polish, she was the first female professor at the University of Paris. Her husband, Pierre, was also a professor and a scientist. Together, they won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. Their daughter, Irene, carried on the family tradition, winning a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Irene's children are prominent scientists as well.

Marie also won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. She was the first person ever to be awarded two Nobel Prizes.

Goose Day

Today is September 29 - Goose Day!

The Medieval Period is also known as The Middle Ages. It lasted for 1,000 years, from the 5th century until the 15th century (the 400s until the 1400s). During this time, people celebrated Michaelmas, or the Feast of St. Michael, as a religious festival.

Michaelmas also happened to be the time of year when peasants paid their rent to the landowners. A peasant would come to the landlord's castle or manor house with rent, which could be paid in currency or, more often, a portion of the crops from the fall harvest. The peasant would also bring a stubble goose (a nice, fat goose), for the landlord's table, to ensure that the lease would be renewed for the coming year.

When the British began to colonize the United States in the 1600s, they brought the tradition with them. The only place in the US where it is still celebrated is in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, where there is a large population of people with British and Scots-Irish heritage.

In modern times, Michaelmas is called Goose Day, for the traditional goose dinner Mifflin Countians have on this day. Many restaurants in the area have a "goose day special." Eating goose on September 29 is said to bring good luck in the coming year. Other festivities include a 5K run and a "Wild Goose Chase," which is a county-wide scavenger hunt in which teams of people pile into cars and head out in search of clues. Another tradition is that a police officer will pull over a random car with out-of-state license plates, tell the occupants of the car that they will need to be "taken in," and then treat them to a surprise goose dinner at a local restaurant.

Tip of the Week -- Singular and Plural Possessives

Last week, we talked about apostrophes in contractions and possessives. This week I wanted to take a closer look at possessives. Possessive apostrophes can be confusing, but we'll try to make it clear.

Singulars are easy! Just add "apostrophe s". For example, Jim's car.

But what if Jim uses his real name, James? Is it James' car? James's car? James car? Well, James is one person, so he's singular. Use the same rule! James's car is correct.

Now let's look a plural example. The Smiths live next door. Notice that we just add an s to show that there is more than one Smith living next door. If they have a cat, we would say the Smiths' cat. The apostrophe after the s shows that Smith is plural, that is, a number of Smiths own the cat. If Mrs. Smith lives alone and has a cat, it would be Mrs. Smith's cat.

Here's an easy way to remember: If there is one Smith (singular), then the singular word Smith appears before the apostrophe. If there is more than one Smith (plural), then the plural word Smiths comes before the apostrophe.

Let's look at one more example. What if the James family lives next door? We say, "The Jameses live next door. If Mr. James (singular) has a truck, we would say Mr. James's truck. If the James family (plural) has a dog, we would say the Jameses' dog.

Banned Books Week September 25 - October 2

As the character Scout Finch said in Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from 1960: "Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing."

Scout was saying that reading is something people take for granted, like breathing. As we assume the air will always be here for us, so we assume that books will always be here. Not so.

The American Library Association declared annual Banned Book Week in 1982, and we celebrate by reading books that have been challenged or banned. Every week, there there is mention in the news of a person or group of people who want this or that book removed from library shelves for one reason or another. Do you want other people to decide what you are or aren't allowed to read?

This is just a very small list of the books that have been banned or challenged in the past:

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Beloved by Toni Morrison

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

Little Women by Lousia May Alcott

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradburg

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

The list goes on and on . . . and on . . . Be a rebel! Support your right to FREADOM! Read a banned book!

September 24, 1789

On this date in 1789, the United States Supreme Court was established, as Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1789, and President George Washington signed it into law.

The original Supreme Court had six justices, but over the years, that number has increased to nine. Justices serve until they day or retire. New justices are nominated by the president, but must be confirmed by the Senate.

The Supreme Court has jurisdiction over all laws in the country, especially those in which the United States Constitution comes into play.

Math Tip of the Week -- Subtracting Time

Subtracting time is no different than subtracting other numbers. We know that if all of the digits on the top are bigger than all of the numbers on the bottom, we just subtract straight down. The same goes for time.



But what happens if we have to borrow? When subtracting time, we don't so much borrow as we convert. If we borrow from the hours column, we must add the number of minutes (the equivalent to the hours we borrowed) to the minutes column. It looks like this:

We would use the same process for subtracting units of measure, too. But we would use the equivalent numbers for the measures we're working with. For example, 1 foot = 12 inches, 1 pound = 16 ounces, etc.

Today in Science History

On September 23, 1846, the planet Neptune was discovered by Johann Galle, a German astronomer at the Berlin Obervatory. Galle discovered the planet, not by directly observing it, but through mathematical calculations based on variations in gravity on its neighboring planet, Uranus. Italian astronomer Galileo observed Neptune as early as 1612, but he thought it was a star.

Neptune, the 8th planet from the Sun, is named after the Roman god of the sea, because of its blue color. It is 4 times bigger than Earth. Neptune rotates on its axis faster then Earth does; a day on Neptune is 16 hours long, whereas a day on Earth is 24 hours long. Neptune takes longer to orbit the sun than Earth does, though, so a year on Neptune is the same as 165 Earth years. Neptune has eight known moons, while Earth only has one.

Neptune is a gas giant, meaning that it is made up mostly of gases, as opposed to rock and other solid matter. Neptune is made up mostly of hydrogen, helium, ammonia and methane.

Social Studies Tip of the Week -- Nathan Hale

On this date, September 22, 1776, US patriot Nathan Hale was executed by the British for spying.

Hale joined the Continental Army, serving in a Connecticut regiment. He was involved in the overthrow of the British in occupied Boston in 1775.

In September 1776, he went behind enemy lines on Long Island, NY, to gather information about British troop movements. While he was there, the British took control of Manhattan. Hale was captured September 21, while trying to cross Long Island Sound to get back to American-controlled territory.

Nathan Hale was hanged the morning of September 22, 1776. According to legend, while standing on the gallows awaiting his execution, he uttered the famous words, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country." He was 21 years old.

September 21, 1866

Science fiction pioneer HG Wells was born today in 1866. Wells wrote such classics as The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and War of the Worlds, all of which later became classic films as well.

On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles directed an narrated War of the Worlds as a radio play on the Columbia Broadcast System (CBS). The play was presented as a series of "news bulletins" and without commericial interruptions. It was intended as a spooky Halloween show. Unfortunately, many Americans had missed the beginning of the show and did not realize that it was a Halloween prank. This resulted in mass hysteria across America by people who believed that space aliens were invading the planet.

Writing Tip of the Day - Apostrophes

Have you ever seen a sign like this at a store or along a road:

Did you notice that unnecessary apostrophe? This is called a "grocer's apostrophe" because it is commonly seen in grocery stores and roadside produce stands, although it could pop up anywhere.

Apostrophes can indicate two things - either that two words are being combined into one contraction or that something is owned by someone or something else.

Let's take a look at the first case - the contraction. A contraction happens when two words are combined into one. The apostrophe substitutes for the missing letters.

For example:

Now let's look at the second case - the possessive. The possessive form is used to indicate that something belongs to someone or something else. In this case, we add "apostrophe s" to the end of the name of the person or the thing that does the possessing.

For example:

This is Sarah's puppy. The yellow toy is the puppy's rubber ducky.