The Trail of Tears

            Aubrey had recently learned about The Trail of Tears in history, which was the cause of President Andrew Jackson’s decision. Therefore, she had an urge to see a memorial site that connected to her new knowledge. The day before the small snow storm Flat Aubrey visited the Indian site in the center of Jasper, AL. On the side of the highway, it was a small memorial site of the Cherokee Indians small section of the route after they were forcibly removed from their homeland. The Cherokee hiked many routes, but this part of the route was the water route. The water route followed the Mississippi River that flows from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Winter months and cold water weakened the Indians on their journey. Like the weather of their trek, Flat Aubrey had shivered in the winter air and the wind blew as if it could cut you.

            The memorial site consisted of mostly rock structures. A giant heart rock with an arrow pierced through the middle had caught Aubrey’s eye. At its side, a rock had The Trail of Tears date inscribed on it, which was 1838-1839. Those dates represented the years the Cherokee had traveled the water route. 

The Bankhead House and Heritage

One windy and cold day, when the temperature was about thirty-four degrees, Flat Aubrey visited the Bankhead House and Heritage Center in Jasper, AL. The house opened to the public a few years ago, but Aubrey didn’t have an interest in history then. In 2008, the house was renovated in memory of William Brockman Bankhead and his family. The renovations of the house and landscaping were beautiful. The circular garden with a nice sitting area would have attracted Aubrey on a summer day, but the weather had been too frigid to sit outside. Inside, the house had a semi-victorian décor with spacious rooms, famous paintings, and expensive area rugs covering polished floors. Portraits of family members were hung along each wall. Prized possessions of Mr. Bankhead’s were displayed at each corner of every room. His accomplishments and highlights brought attention  to the gallery wall, because of the amount hung. Aubrey’s visit had took her back in time to William Bankhead’s life.

     The three-story brick home in north Jasper was built in the 1920’s by William Bankhead himself.  His political career and personal life contributed to much of the United States’ history. Although, Flat Aubrey is an Auburn fan, she found it astonishing that Mr. Bankhead played fullback on the University of Alabama’s first football team in 1892. The personal facts of Bankhead’s life shocked Aubrey, but not as much as the facts of his political career. In his political career, Bankhead was on the U.S. Congress as a representative of Alabama from 1917-1940. He held the position of the 47^th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1936-1940 during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. Flat Aubrey connected Mr. Bankhead’s political stance under Franklin D. Roosevelt to her visit to the Veteran’s Memorial in Oakman, AL and history knowledge. She concluded that William Bankhead had important responsibilities of his position and his political career led into the beginning of WWII.

(A link to the Bankhead house is in the first paragraph.)

The Birmingham Zoo

Flat Aubrey’s friends had told her about their fun visits to the Birmingham Zoo and how they saw tigers, elephants, and giraffes. Apparently, the zoo seemed to be an exciting place to visit and see exotic animals up close. Aubrey decided to go to the Birmingham Zoo on a day that it wouldn’t be crowded with people. The perfect day had arrived because it was extremely cold outside in the low thirty degrees, so people more than likely wouldn’t visit the zoo. That day Flat Aubrey made her way to the zoo and she had hoped to have an experience worthy to boast about.

Aubrey had went through the admissions office and the nice employee advised her to visit the animals in the buildings, because the areas would be much warmer inside. Therefore, she had decided to visit the primates building first, where she wanted to see the gorilla first. Sadly, the big gorilla wasn’t anywhere in sight that day, so she moved on to the various types of monkeys. Flat Aubrey read the information labels beside each monkey’s area. Their eyes had stared back at hers through the glass, and they ran along the tree limbs playing. Aubrey had never seen monkeys like them, or ever thought they existed. She ventured through the rest of the primates building to the exit. The next building belonged to the predators, which was across the zoo.

Aubrey visited the elephants on her walk to the predators building. The elephants were gigantic and there were two, while Aubrey had thought there would only be one. Was one a boy and the other a girl, Flat Aubrey had wondered? There wasn’t an employee for her to ask, so she would have to ask the admission’s lady when she left. Aubrey had moved on to the primates building, but the glimpse of lions on the left distracted her. Flat Aubrey’s friends didn’t mention the lions to her, but she didn’t care. She had seen an animal they might not have. The male lion had a long mane of hair and it was thick and real dirty. He paced by the gate, while the female lion laid along the glass wall. The lions didn’t look mean or aggressive; they only had appeared to be very strong. Their bodies’ had seemed to be full of muscle, because each muscle pressed through their skin as they moved. Aubrey had spent a long time looking at the lions, and she turned around to enter the predators building. Smaller lions were inside but they hadn’t fascinated Flat Aubrey as the large ones had. There was a tiger that had put on a show for her, where it strolled around the enclosed area close to the glass wall. It had faced her at the glass wall multiple times, and she was stuck on its glow-like eyes. The tiger had strolled around for a few minutes until it went back into its indoor cage. Aubrey visited the hyenas, which were jumpy animals. They trotted to the glass to look at her, while she had stared at them. Aubrey had known the animals hadn’t seen someone like her before. The cold weather was getting hard to bear when she walked outside. It was too cold to be freezing at the zoo, so Aubrey waved goodbye to the lions and they didn’t return the wave. She was back at home before and she had realized that she didn’t ask about the elephants. On the bright side, that gave her a reason to visit the Birmingham Zoo again.

             

Aubrey's Trip to the Veteran's Memorial

     Flat Aubrey wanted to learn about historical events and facts of the United States. Most historical museums were a long distance to drive and she didn't want to search the web. A personal learning experience as a visit to a historical site was just what she had wanted. Aubrey listed places she knew of on a piece of paper, and she had marked out all that were not up to her liking. The newest historical site wasn't far from her house in Oakman, AL, which was the Veteran's Memorial. Aubrey had thought that place would be interesting because it had the Statue of Liberty, monuments of wars, and lists of local veterans, which were important parts of history. Therefore, Flat Aubrey had chosen the Veteran's Memorial to learn about the local veterans and more historical events.  

    The memorial site was outdoors and close to the main road of Oakman. Weather conditions had slowed down, so it was warm in the high sixty degree weather. The monument by the entrance with, "The Brave Who Gave", written across the top stood out to her. It wasn't because the monument was close to the entrance, but the meaning of the words grabbed her attention. Flat Aubrey had thought about the men and women dying only to serve and protect our country. The thought of the soldiers that didn't return to their families had made her sad and realize one must be brave to be a soldier. The depressing thoughts had left her mind as the large monuments of the rights of Americans emerged into her sight. The monuments entailed the Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom From Want, and Freedom From Fear. Aubrey noticed the familiar initials of a president on one of them and above it a quote. The initials belonged to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As for the quote, it was by far his most famous one, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.", and it was inscribed in the Freedom From Fear monument. Flat Aubrey knew he led our country during the Great Depression, and that he was the only handicapped president. His quote inscribed on a monument meant he had done great things and he must have been a successful leader. Flat Aubrey's mind had wondered about the wars the United States were apart of and how the President of the United States impacted them. That information would have to wait until another time, so she read the war monuments. Those monuments listed the wars of WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. Under the wars, were the names of veterans that fought in the them, and on the back of the monuments were quotes. Aubrey's favorite quote was the one on the WWII monument. It said, "Look at these names. It's easy to see they gave their all for us to be free." At her feet, there were bricks with the local veteran's names on them and under the names were their military branch and service dates. The bricks made up the entire floor of the memorial site; therefore, the amount of local veterans were overwhelmingly large. Veterans lived all across the town and Aubrey had never known. Later, Aubrey walked over to a monument she was familiar with. It was the Statue of Liberty, which still stands as a symbol of our country's friendship with other nations, freedom from oppression, hope, and liberty for American citizens. The monument seemed identical to the one in New York, except it was a smaller version. Flat Aubrey had never seen the original statue in person, but one day she hoped to. The memorial site impressed Aubrey. The ongoing lists of names, quotes, and monuments led Flat Aubrey to the decision to always give soldiers the upmost respect they deserve. The site had amazed her by the historical information it held of the local veterans and the United States. The Veteran's Memorial contained meaningful quotes, names of veterans, monumental events, which all played a part in history. The memorial site held more than enough historical value to educate Flat Aubrey and change her perception of soldiers and our country. 

                                               

 

                   

 

 
 

    Here is an educational app, US History Timeline I would use after visiting the Veteran's Memorial. It  gives a list of important events of the United States history. This particular app is absolutely free, which most teachers would find as a must have. As for the learning curve, this app would be easy to navigate and master, by the category options at the bottom of the screen. The categories are specific, such as people, events, world, territories, and etc. Students could benefit from this app, because of its broad range of information. The topics are touched on briefly, that way students would not be overwhelmed with the in depth topics. Obviously, the app connects to Social Studies which could lead to objectives such as, "Students will be able to identify cause and effect of events in history." However, a problem that would more than likely arise from this app is the simple summaries of the topics may not be sufficient. For a solution, I would have the students research the incorrect or simple information on the internet or revert to their textbook. Then, in a whole group discussion, we would address the information on the Promethean board.  

Flat Aubrey and her friend, Flat Stanley, were bored one day and they tried to think of something to do. The weather was perfect that day, but neither of them felt like going out. They thought and suggested different places, but they finally decided to go on a virtual field trip to the Vulcan Park and Museum, in Homewood, AL. Stanley used his MacBook Pro laptop to access the virtual field trip, which was a video online. Aubrey was very anxious to explore the Vulcan Park and Museum.

The virtual field trip shown brief views of the museum, gift shop, and monument. The museum held many great factors of Birmingham’s history. One section represented Birmingham in the early years, which is how Birmingham was built by iron. Soon Birmingham became known as the “Magic City”. Flat Aubrey had liked that name and but wondered about the reason behind it. In the Birmingham Vulcan section, Flat Aubrey and Stanley learned the reasons behind the statue and where it was built. The Depression and WWII area revealed the effect of the depression on Birmingham. It had completely wiped out the city, but the military demands for iron during WWII revived the city again. Towards A New City explained Birmingham being the major point of the Civil Rights Movement, iron industry decline, and UAB’s growth. The iron industry had suffered from the Civil Rights Movement’s violence, and in effect UAB began its uprising. Birmingham Today tells how it is a diverse city, and a main attraction of visitors. Flat Aubrey and Flat Stanley learned numerous details about Birmingham and its history, which they had never acknowledged. Neither one of them realized Birmingham had overcome so much destruction. Flat Aubrey thought it could be the reason they called it the “Magic City”.

 This virtual field trip would be an advantage for education, because the students would use technology to take the trip and not physically travel there. That is an inexpensive and technological approach to field trips. On this virtual field trip, the students would obtain a new understanding of the impact of historical events on the city of Birmingham. Not only are they historical events, but international events that majorly affected Birmingham. The students would learn about historical international events, cause and effect, industrial growth, and the effect on Birmingham. Most importantly, the depth and degree of destruction Birmingham overcome and its uprising. I would use this virtual field trip in my classroom, by using it as a follow up to a unit on the history of Birmingham. The students would get a close up experience and learn how Birmingham derived from the iron industry, its downfall from the Civil Rights Movement, the Depression’s impact on the city, and the revival of Birmingham. Students learn best by hands on experience, and I believe this virtual field trip could be very beneficial to a student’s meaningful learning.

(Flat Aubrey and Flat Stanley on their virtual field trip, and looking at the Iron Wall.)

                           

                           

(Pictures from an actual visit to Vulcan)