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Unit Study e-Newsletter, February
2006
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By Julie Nott |
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This past Christmas, my family and I went down to Louisiana—which
is where I am from. While we were there, we took a day trip over to New Orleans.
We were able to tour one of the few museums that were open since Hurricane
Katrina. We visited the Cabildo,
which is one of the state’s most historical museums. The Louisiana
Purchase was signed there. Now you would think, being from Louisiana and
all, that I would have known this tidbit of history. Well, I’ll let
you in on a little secret—I hated history classes in school. I loathed
them. I guess you could now call me a “recovering history hater.” I
just memorized the essential dates and facts for the tests and then forgot
them ten minutes later. My husband, on the other hand, knows WAY more about
history than I do—and he LOVES it. He was even a little bit “giddy” about
seeing the actual room where this purchase took place. I tried to get excited,
but I just couldn’t muster it up.
Needless to say, I was pretty excited to see Barbara
Shukin’s unit study this month. After seeing this piece of history,
I definitely want to know more about it. Barbara has written us a unit
about the Westward Expansion in the U.S. during the 1800s—which includes
the Louisiana Purchase. I still have a lot to learn, right alongside my
kids. I've already picked up a few books at the library, and we’re
going to start reading about it. Surely I must learn the history from whence
I came, huh? This study is going to help immensely with our research, and
it will also give the kids and me a way to document everything. Plus, it’ll
be something good to show the grandparents!
You’ll definitely want to check out the other
units that Barbara has written. Her stuff really complements the notebooking
concept. I organize my life with binders and notebooks, so it seems only
natural for me to do that with homeschooling.
Barbara has also given us some very practical ideas on how to acquire and
use images in our homeschooling that we find on the Internet. Actually, your
older kids probably know a lot more about this than you do. I’m constantly
amazed at how quickly my kids have learned to use the Internet. This can
be good—and bad. Take note of her tips on how to keep your kids safe
when using the Web and the ever-popular Google.
I hope you enjoy this month’s unit study! Let me know what you think.
Jot me a note at UnitStudy@TheHomeschoolMagazine.com.
I always welcome your comments and suggestions! And as many Louisiana natives
say, “Y’all come back now, ya hear?”
Julie Nott, Editor
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Unit Study e-Newsletter |
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A Unit Study on Westward Expansion in the U.S. / 1803 – 1890
Adapted from the Modern Volume of the History Portfolio Books
By Barbara Shukin, homeschooljourney.com
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Contents:
1) Click
here
to access Teacher Materials containing:
- Reproducibles
- Topics for Narrations and Reports
- Vocabulary Lists
- Important Dates and Events
- Book Recommendations
2) Click
here to access the student materials in the form
of a 14-page portfolio
Printing Tips
I have designed the Student Portfolio to be printed
on both sides of heavyweight paper (60 lb. cover, for example). Once printed,
the pages can be bound on the left-hand side in order to create a booklet. Print
as many sets of the student portfolios as necessary for your family (one set per
student).
The Student Portfolio contains 14 sides. Select “Print.” Once the
Print dialog box opens, select pages 2-14, “even sides only,” and
“reverse order.” Print the even sides first, and then print the odd
sides. Make sure you include the last blank page before printing the odds.
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How to Use This Unit
| 1. |
Begin by referring to the Table of Contents located at the beginning
of the student portfolio. Study the designated subjects by reading books of your
choice. Be sure to refer to the bibliography at the end of the teacher materials
for titles of some of my favorite books. |
| 2. |
Rely on the bibliography to steer you to some of the highest quality literature
on the subjects covered in this unity study. Here, I suggest numerous books written
by authors who are passionate about their subjects, and if at all possible, speak
directly to the reader in a conversational style. I’ve also included a generous
list of historical fiction titles, allowing you to supplement your studies with
exciting fictional stories that bring the time period to life. The historical
fiction titles are in bold type. |
| 3. |
To begin creating your student portfolios, refer to the teacher materials
provided in the newsletter. Here you will find puzzles and imagines to color and
label, which can be pasted into the student portfolio. Notice that each puzzle
or image is designed to fit exactly within the frames in the Student Portfolio.
You will also find vocabulary lists and multi-level report topics. I have even
provided specially designed lined paper to fit within the frames of the Student
Portfolio. Print up as many sets of the teacher materials as necessary for your
family, and get ready to be creative and have fun. |
Barbara Shukin is the creator and founder of the
History Portfolio©.
Come and see all the wonderful stuff over at homeschooljourney.com.
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An engaging history
curriculum for homeschoolers. |
| • |
Supports a Classical & Living
Books approach. |
| • |
Homeschooling with Notebooking |
| • |
Rigorous: involves writing, geography,
art, and literature. |
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Inspires creativity. |
| • |
Compact. |
| • |
Adaptable to your method of teaching! |
|
 Using Images
from the Web as Part of a Notebooking Approach to History
A primer
to the process of searching for, saving, modifying, and printing
images
from the web
By Barbara Shukin
A Picture Says a Thousand Words
- Illustrate a narration or report
- Illustrate a concept that is difficult to explain
- Show examples of art and artifacts
- Beautify a notebook
Benefits of Using the Web to Locate Images
- Drawing is a good skill and a worthwhile pastime but,
researching skills are also important
| • |
Creates a need to surf the Web |
| • |
Helps gain familiarity with the Web |
| • |
Creates a real need to know how to bookmark sites
and organize the “Favorites” folder in
your Web browser. |
- Using your home computer to save, modify, and print images
offers many useful skills.
| • |
Creates a real need to learn how to
create new files and locate them again when needed. |
| • |
Creates a real need to learn how to use Publisher
programs. |
Copyright Issues
- Most sites put images up on the Web in order to be of
use to other people.
- It is understood that the World Wide Web is a tool and
is especially useful for educational purposes.
- Some sites will clearly state not to print or store images.
| • |
If this is so, you should respect their
request. |
| • |
Images or text from other people’s websites
should never be saved and offered for sale. |
Safety
- You will be putting keywords into the Google search bar.
Google searches through the text on millions of webpages
and finds images that relate to the keywords. It then displays
the results as a series of thumbnails (small images).
- Sometimes an image will be displayed that has nothing
to do with the subject you want to research and may be
inappropriate. Because of this, I recommend that an adult
pre-check the keywords that the students will be using.
- Personally, as a family doing research, we have never
had any problems.
- This is because we use fairly specific keywords that
are gleaned from our studies. For example, to look for
images of Greek vessels, we put in the keywords “Greek
Amphora” as opposed to “Greek vessel,” or
even worse, “vessel” (“vessel” is
too generic a term and the images will vary greatly).
- The bottom line is to be familiar enough with the subject
to be able to pick good keywords, and, to be extra cautious,
pre-check the keywords to make sure that they will yield
a good crop of images.
- TIP: Placing quote marks around a phrase, such as “Greek
Amphora” will ask Google to find the exact phrase,
thus narrowing the search and often producing better results.
Definition of Terms
- Browser
| • |
A tool used to view webpages and
navigate the Internet. |
| • |
Examples are Explorer and Netscape |
- Search Engine
| • |
A tool to search the Internet for specific
information. |
| • |
Examples are Google, Yahoo, and NorthernLight. |
- JPGs
| • |
There are different types of images.
I have had best results printing JPG files (pronounced
Jay-Peg), and I would recommend that you use JPGs
too |
- Pixels
| • |
The word “pixel” is
short for “picture element.” An image
or picture on a computer monitor is measured in pixels. |
| • |
If you are printing an image straight from the
Web, look for pixel dimensions that will print at
the size you want. |
| • |
A dimension of 500 x 500 pixels will print out
about 5” square. |
| • |
If you are saving images to modify (resize) using
a program such as Microsoft Word, Publisher, or Photoshop,
you will want to find large images that can be reduced
to whatever size you want. |
| • |
Images that are 800 x 1200 pixels will have the
best quality when resized. But, if you try to print
these large images straight from the Web, you may
end up with cropped images or images that are too
large to be practical. |
| • |
Experiment. Jot down your results so you can refer
to them later. |
Searching for Images Using Google
- Once you have been studying a certain topic, you will
have an idea of some pictures you would like to find.
- Go to Google.com
- Once there, select “Images.” Then put your
keyword(s) into the search bar.
- If you are studying the Ancient Greeks, you might enter
words such as Amphora, Greek Amphora, Parthenon, or Acropolis. If
studying Medieval Europe, you might use words such as Book
of Kells, Notre Dame Rose Window, or Limbourg Brothers.
- You will hopefully come up with some good images!
- Look for images that say TITLE.jpg.
- Also, notice the pixel dimensions. Dimensions of about
250 x 250 will directly print images to be 2½” x
2½” (without modification in a publishing
program). Images with dimensions of about 500 x 500 will
print images to be about 5” x 5”. The pixel
dimensions of any image on the web can be determined by
right-clicking on it and selecting “properties.”
Printing Straight From the Web Using Google
- From among the thumbnail pictures that your Google search
has produced, double-click on the image you want to print.
This takes you to a new page.
- At the new page, click on the link that says, “See
Full Size Image.”
- Under File, select Print. In Preferences or Properties,
select Paper Type (I like to use Brochure paper, two sided),
and Print Quality (I select “high quality,” but
that’s up to you).
- If you have, and want to use, a publishing program to
resize your images (reduce only), then right-click on the
image and select “Save Picture As.” Put the
images into your dedicated folder(s) for web pictures.
See Saving Images below.
Saving Images
- Before you save any images, first go to Windows Explorer
and create a folder dedicated to storing images from the
Web. I keep a folder in “My Documents” for
history-related Web pictures. Each member of my family
who uses the computer also has a folder for his or her
own personal collection.
- To create a folder, just select or highlight “My
Documents.” Then, under File, select New. Then select
Folder, and name it. Now you are ready to start saving
images!
- To save most any image on the Web (not only those found
by a Google search), right-click on it. Click on “Save
Picture As.” Save the image into your dedicated folder
for Web images. You are given an opportunity to rename
the image before you save it.
Modifying Images
- The above instructions for printing images assume that
you will be doing your printing straight from the Web,
rather than saving images and modifying them in a publisher
program before printing.
- Since I don’t know what type of publisher program
you might have, I can’t really give instructions
on how to modify your saved images.
- I do want to encourage you to look into it because there
are some nice benefits to learning these types of programs.
My children generally save their images, open up Microsoft
Publisher, and then resize them before printing.
- More recently they have been writing reports using Microsoft
Word. They then insert images right into the text, wrapping
the text around the images. It looks very professional.
- Saved images can also be used for birthday cards and
other projects.
- TIP: Never enlarge images. It reduces the quality.
Ink
- The high cost of ink can be an issue.
- I buy refill kits online. You must make sure to use a
business that sells specific kits for each type of printer.
Each printer uses a different recipe for ink. There is
no generic type of ink that can be used in all printers.
- My preferred source is www.encoreink.com/scart/products.htm.
Paper Types
- The type of paper can make a big difference in the quality
of your prints.
- For prints that the children put in their history portfolios,
I usually choose brochure paper. Brochure paper can be
printed on both sides. I also try to find the cheapest
paper available, which for me has been at Sam’s Club.
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Thank you for reading the TOS Unit Study e-Newsletter this
month. We’ll have another exciting unit study for you next
month!
You may forward this e-Newsletter to your friends in its entirety.
If you have any comments, email me at UnitStudy@TheHomeschoolMagazine.com with
your feedback. Don’t forget to look for the Winter issue
of the magazine, now in stores and mailboxes! Right now, 19 free
gifts to the first 3,000 new subscribers 
Copyright © 2006 The Old Schoolhouse Magazine,
LLC
PO Box 1701, Dandridge, TN 37725
All rights reserved.
Publisher@TheHomeschoolMagazine.com
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