National Portrait Gallery: The Phoenix and the Pelican
“The Phoenix and The Pelican: Two Portraits of Elizabeth I, c. 1575″ describes two remarkable portraits by Nicholas Hilliard. You will learn how the portraits are related and some of the ways the portraits were changed from their original sketches. By studying these paintings, you can learn about Elizabeth I and her reign as well as learning about the artist and how he worked.
Extreme Weather
A cardinal seeks shelter from the cold during the Winter Storm 2011 in Cummings, GA. Photo by netTrekker user, Jill Hobson.
I was supposed to fly out on Monday to conduct our Teach to Inspire Integration Workshop for our top small district user, Morehouse Parish School District in Louisiana. This is one of my favorite trainings, so of course I was seriously disappointed when my flight was grounded due to weather.
All across Facebook and Twitter I’m reading about how people moved to the south to get away from the nasty cold weather, and here it is. My friends in SC and GA are complaining about the snow, since there are probably only 15 snow plows in the entire state and they are tired of being stuck at home. Many have had school canceled and will now have to make up school days. And while Florida is the only state in the continental US without snow, we are a lot colder than usual. Farms are having to deal with the cold snap, trying to protect their crops for a healthy harvest. Animals that are not used to the “extreme cold” will also have reports coming in soon of tails snapping off, being so lethargic from the cold that they appear dead, or worse.
But winter is not the only time of extreme weather. Those same people that moved south for the warmth will have to deal with hurricanes and heat waves.
I’ve always wanted to do a map of extreme weather, along with a database. I think it would be a great project for students to map the extreme weather across the United States and create a database to correspond to the map with data such as the type of weather, the last year it was experienced, how many times the state was declared in a state of emergency, and the consequences of the weather. If you do a search for extreme weather in the middle school tab, there are several great sites to help you start this activity on your own.
What are some of your favorite extreme weather lessons?