October 4, 2005 by

The Ideas section for this week’s Inbox focuses on “Coming Out in the Classroom.” Next Tuesday (October 11) is National Coming Out Day. This year’s theme, “Talk About It,” focuses on the importance of discussing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues openly and honestly. The resources in the section explain how language arts and composition teachers can “Talk About It” in the classroom.

I got some work done on the Gettysburg Address lesson plan, though nothing concrete in the sense of writing down bits of the lesson. Instead, I shared the new focus with Sharon and Lisa, and I spent some time looking for online resources on the myths related to the Address. I found an All Things Considered piece. Unfortunately it’s from 1995, so it’s not in their archive. I went through a stupid tool, HighBeam Research, with a temporary login to get a copy of the transcript (full of typos). Then I quickly cancelled my membership. I found a treasure trove of CSPAN videos as well, and I figured out how to link to the individual real audio files (rather than going through that listing page). The most interesting fact I learned today was that prior to the Gettysburg Address, when people talked about America, they said “The United States are” and after they said “The United States is.” I question the absolute moment of this national shift, but it’s still an interesting thing to note, especially since it gives you a chance to talk about grammar in context and in a very meaningful way.

I’m not sure that there’s much more to report. I got through the whole day of work and managed to get to the grocery store, though I overdid it and was all ouchy and hurty about 1/2 through Schnuck’s. Once I unloaded the car, I took medicine. That was the first time today that I took any though, so I’m doing better. Now if I could only stop ALL the burping and nonsense.


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