The Power of Pictures: Part 2-History is Everywhere

About a month ago I came across an idea thanks to #nebedchat and the discussion surrounding "The Power of Photos in Education."  I blogged about the discussion and created a project with my students that included them having an assignment over Thanksgiving Break!  Check out my previous post here.

Basically the students had to each take at least 1 photo of something relating to history-send it to me via email-and that it.  My goal for this project was to reiterate to the students that history is everywhere!  Everywhere you look, anywhere you go--something relates to history.  The students did an excellent job and some sent me several photos.  I had photos as far back as 1804-to some as recent as 2012-in both cases, the students described the photos and their historical significance.

After gathering all of these photos, I used picmonkey.com  to create several different collages to display these photos.  Check out all of them below!  Some of the photos are self explanatory-some needed some explaining.  The best thing about this project was hearing the stories the students had about their little piece of history-each photo was unique-each photo had a story.  Also, each student has a different definition of what "history" really is, a great discussion piece!  I really enjoyed seeing all of the photos and discussing with my classes.  I will definitely be doing this project again--the students loved it, and it was a great reminder to them the importance of studying history.  Photos are so powerful in education---students today need that visual to connect the dots, this project validated my thoughts on this topic.

A few notable items I received within the project:

• relics from the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq
• numerous military service medals-including purple hearts
• Civil War Bayonette/lead bullets
• Nazi issued sword
• pocket watch from 1809
• minor league baseball bat used by George Brett
• Numerous lamps, cars, tractors, sewing machines, typewriters.
• Wheaties boxes featuring the 94 National Champion Nebraska Cornhuskers (the kids doing this project were not even born!)

After all was said and done-I displayed all the photos in my classroom, quite the conversation piece!

Look closer at all of the photos by clicking the link below--please comment or email if you have questions!  Thanks for reading!

History Photo Project