CONTENTS

The February
Electronic Field Trip is

"Chained to the Land"
February 6, 2003

The Colonial Williamsburg Education Outreach Department launches its newest initiative—an
E-Newsletter—with this issue. Titled the Teacher Gazette, the newsletter will be issued monthly August through June.

Each issue will contain a variety of information geared for educators: primary sources, teaching techniques and tidbits from Colonial Williamsburg staff, updates and information about Electronic Field Trips and other Colonial Williamsburg educational materials, news from the teaching world, and more!

As we venture into this new initiative, we would love to hear your feedback. Let us know what you like... or what we can do to make the Teacher Gazette even better.

Songs are a very important part of our history. They tell us a great deal about people of the past—how they worked, how they entertained themselves, and what their daily lives were like. Analyzing a slave work song can help your students better understand the attitudes, feelings, and beliefs of 18th-century plantation slaves. Examine the work song "Hoe Emma Hoe" .

To help your students understand what life was like for an 18th-century plantation slave, have them explore our "Enslaved" web activity. Part of the A Day in the Life module, this activity enables students to take on the role of an enslaved field hand to learn about slave life in the 18th century. Learn More!

Primary sources can be extremely provocative and useful in a classroom setting. Few things speak more eloquently about the past or a person's experiences than their own words. This month's selection features an excerpt from a 1936 Federal Writer's Project interview with a former Civil War-era slave— Charley Williams.

Black History Month gives educators an opportunity to help students explore and understand slavery—an important aspect of our country's history. The February 6, 2003 Colonial Williamsburg Electronic Field Trip Chained to the Land examines aspects of 18th-century plantation and slave life.

Daily Life on a Plantation: Slavery, Primary Sources, and Multimedia was created as a sample technology integration project exploring the life of a Maryland-born slave who recorded his memoirs later in life. Join me on my adventure!

Colonial Williamsburg offers a variety of quality instructional materials dealing with 18th-century slavery and the life of enslaved Africans in the American colonies, including:
—Slavery: A Colonial Odyssey (lesson unit)
—Enslaved (videotape and web content)
—Hands-On History: Slave Bag (object kit)
—Caesar's Story: 1759 (book)

Learn More!

From the Washington Post web site:
Louisiana state education officials warn that a new federal education law's requirement that each racial and demographic subgroup in a school show annual improvement on standardized tests will result in the majority of the nation's schools being deemed failing. Read the rest of the story.

Sojourner Truth

Source: May 28,1851 speech, Ar’nt I a Woman?