Archive for the ‘Educational Video/DVD’ Category

The Mount Vernon Education Dept. knows how important teaching with primary documents is to teachers- after all, what better source is there than the original. For this reason, we provide a link on our website to the digital edition of the Papers of George Washington, as well as a number of lesson plans that use primary documents. We have also decided to focus our next distance learning program on these important teaching tools, which will air across the nation on Jan. 8, 2009 from 4:00-4:45 pm. The program, Primarily George, will feature educators from Mount Vernon, the National Archives, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and the Papers of George Washington. These educators will highlight online primary source documents, in their respective collections, that can be used to teach students about various aspects of George Washington and the founding and also give brief overviews of the online collections that can be used to access the sources. As always, if you miss the program when it airs, educators can request a free DVD of the program from the Fairfax Network.

On October 14, 2008, the Mount Vernon Education Department and the Fairfax Network will tape a distance learning broadcast called Shaping the Presidency, which will look back at the profound impact George Washington had on defining the office of the president. The panelists will also discuss how campaigning, the election process and the role of the media affected early presidential candidacies, and how those influences have evolved.

The panelists will include Joseph J. Ellis, the Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College and award-winning author of the Pulitzer Prize winning Founding Brothers and the National Book Award winner for American Sphinx. He is joined by Cokie Roberts, author of the best-selling book Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation and Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation, and John P. Riley, former historian at George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estates and Gardens and present director of education and scholarship programs at the White House Historical Association.

In addition to the distance learning broadcast, the Mount Vernon Education Department has compiled a Shaping the Presidency Teaching Unit, which focuses on Washington’s remarkable accomplishments as first president. Through a compilation of lesson plans based on primary documents and the distance learning broadcast, Shaping the Presidency is designed to enrich your students’ understanding of Washington’s impact on the founding of our nation and his insight into world affairs.

You can register for the broadcast, which will air on October 23rd, or request a complimentary DVD, by contacting the Fairfax Network. If your students would like to have a question asked on air, leave a comment below with their question, student name, teacher name, grade, state and school name.

As you may have heard, Mount Vernon’s recent initiative to “bring George Washington back to school” has proven a resounding success! To date, about 2,000 schools have received (and about 4,000 schools have requested) our free, framed reproductions of Rembrandt Peale’s Porthole Portrait of George Washington. All portraits are accompanied by a “George Washington Celebration Kit” of teaching resources and an American flag that has been flown over Mount Vernon (courtesy of a small army of energetic Mount Vernon volunteers!). Recipients have shared gracious letters of thanks praising the portrait’s potential to inspire students and other members of the school community.

We’re grateful that schools have so enthusiastically responded to this effort to restore the first president’s portrait to our nation’s K-12 educational institutions. We also appreciate the kind patience of schools currently on our waiting list. Finally, enormous thanks are due to the many generous private donors responsible for funding this ongoing project. (Mount Vernon does not receive government funding of any kind.) We will continue to provide portraits for as long as we’re able!

View answers to common questions about our portrait program!

Enjoy our online jigsaw puzzle version of the portrait!

Members of Mount Vernon’s Education Department have fielded repeated questions about our opinion of the portrayal of Washington in HBO’s popular John Adams miniseries. We’d like to use this opportunity to raise what we think is a more compelling question: How can and should historic sites and classroom teachers capitalize on the interest Hollywood increasingly generates in historical events, places, and people?

As it happens, this very question was the topic of one of our recent distance learning programs, History Meets Hollywood, available for FREE to educators in DVD format while supplies last!

Continue reading Washington, Adams, Hollywood, and Free DVDs! »