Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Afton, Chenango County, New York.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Afton, Chenango County, New York. Sanborn Map Company, Sep, 1885. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, .

For years and years I have been hauling out a piecemeal taped-composite photocopy of the Afton Historical Society's Sanborn Fire Insurance 1885 Map from Afton, Chenango County, New York.
I am delighted to report that it is online at the LOC along with similar maps from 1891 and 1897!

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Afton, Chenango County, New York.
September 1885
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn05722_001/

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Afton, Chenango County, New York.
July 1891
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn05722_002/

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Afton, Chenango County, New York.
March97
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn05722_003/

Mural mock-ups

Came across a couple folders with many of the silhouettes and research notes from our 2009 Wildlife Hallway project. Put them up on the bulletin board for another moment in the sun. #proud

Internet Archive

 

 I've been adding some ACS archive material that appears on our school website to the Internet Archive as a backup.

19th Century Afton Union School Academic Ledger (PDF)

1888-1917 ACS Board of Education Minutes (PDF)

1917-1934 ACS Board of Education Minutes (PDF)

Afton USA 8th Grade Project Folder (PDF)

Making History in the ACSLIB (video)

Springtime: ACS Softball (poem/video)

NYS School Districts

https://andyarthur.org/google-maps-ny-school-districts.html

A group of students are researching the history of our school. Yesterday they hosted the town historian to ask about our consolidation from fifteen "school houses" to our present central school. They hope to plot the location of these school houses within our current district map.

One question they hoped to resolve was the general distance a student would have had to travel to reach an available school. Which got me thinking about how that pans out today across the state.

This nifty map-mosaic at andyarthur.org does a nice job of giviing me a ballpark answer.

Allowing each other to contribute

Doing some project-brainstorming with my Period E class; can we build on a suggestion? can we visualize tasks, possibilities, outcomes? who might be a resource, stakeholder? who are we teaching with our research? what will me make to demonstrate what we are learning: videos, flash cards, exhibits, games, mock-ups, events?

And, importantly, do I sense a willingness and enthusiasm to embrace this opportunity as their own?

Book talk about a book talk

I was reading this recent book review in the New York Times; Lakota America by Pekka Hamalainen. The reviewer, Parul Sehgal, pointed out two characteristics of the book which intrigue me and draw me in as a reader of histories:

The challenge of writing this history, Hamalainen notes, was making iconic events and figures unfamiliar again, which is never more necessary than at the twilight of the Lakota empire.

I like that idea; making the iconic events unfamiliar so that we have the chance to reorient our perspective; becoming more open, hopefully to new ideas.  And then this other:

In retrospect, history often seems preordained; vulnerabilities seem garishly announced, outcomes a matter of course. Hamalainen seeks…to infuse a sense of chance and contingency in the narrative, to remain “alive to the ever-present possibility that events could have turned out differently.” He sows this feeling of uncertainty into the composition of the book, replacing a traditional arc with “a more unpredictable narrative structure that is full of triumphs, twists, reversals, victories, lulls and low points, big and small. If the book’s Lakotas — haughty and imperial at one moment, fearful and vulnerable the next, prudent and accommodating the third — seem strange and unfamiliar, this portrayal has succeeded.

Chance and contingency frame so much of our lives, it seems entirely appropriate and strategic to frame a history the same way.

Gotta get me this book.

This is News for you. I mean it.

My video introducing ad-free unlimited access to the New York Times from our school network!

A physics-based look at the Johnstown Flood

Some one had been reading about the Johnstown Flood and left David McCullough's fine book on one of our library tables. I remember being enthralled as I read it years ago. It prompted me to see if there were any 3D geographic renderings of it online.

I was delighted to find this "physics-based simulation of it: https://youtu.be/tMc9kP9q-d8

New York Times access for ACS

I have forwarded the particulars of this NYT/Verizon offer to our Tech Team. If it passes muster there and with administration, it will provide a powerful resource for teaching and learning at ACS. Exciting news.

What the poets know

This article in the NYT takes a look at the earning of STEM majors versus Liberal Arts majors over time. It states that out of the gate STEM students earn more, but that by the 40-year mark,  LA students show faster growth; nearly matching or surpassing computer and engineering majors. This is attributed to the Liberal Arts fostering "soft skills" like problem-solving, written communication, critical thinking, and the ability to work in a team; which have long-run value as workers move into higher-paying management and administrative roles.

This is an important perspective to keep in mind as we sometimes leap at the latest teaching/learning trend that appears to pipeline our students to "success."

The Times Teaches

Didn't want to loose this.

A Times Insider article about how reporters increasing rely on fluency in using datasets and spreadsheet in their research and reporting linked to further information about the Times training program.

Looked like good stuff to pass along ... act on.

Some cool datasets.

Public pride

Tickled to see that one of few menu links at the Afton Free Library home page is for Afton Historical Minutes; the database of weekly articles by Charles J. Decker that our library curated, scanned and posted at the Internet Archive. Proud.

P.S. Learned from one of their board members at our coffeehouse last night that they recently had part of their Afton Yearbook collection digitized! Cool.

ACSLIB source code?

Some of my most recent titles from Salem Press arrived with a pre-printed QR Code and URL linking to their online versions.

Wondering if my June 2017 Salem Press/QR Code mash-up inspired them?

Illustrating the print/online connection

Supplementing these swanky posters sent along by Salem Press with an insert that ties them to the print copies on the shelves (I began QR-coding the book covers a few years back to link then to the the online versions!)

9/11 Moment

This morning around 8:45 our principal paused our morning with a respectful announcement recalling the events of 9/11 and calling for a moment of silence. It was very well done. I followed up by making a small display of our original print-media from that time.

Nature App

Resurrected

They're back. Our persistent inquirer has worked past an unresponsive touch-screen and has been able to begin investigating the functionality of our archival Apple eMate! Cool beans.

Table of ideas

I put the Chronicle of Higher Education  to work today in a kind of sideways manner. A table of middle school students working in the library on a careers projects were discussing ways to present their career research. I suggested creating a composite page of ads modeled after the careers supplement of the Chronicle:

They liked the idea and added to it by deciding to present four Walmart positions; each demanding increased schooling, skills, and experience. I like it!

Cite Site

Getting the word out to students about KnightCite:

From the NEWSEUM

Great lesson plans, resources, and info-graphics from the folks at the Newseum. Many thanks to my DCMO SLS colleagues for sharing this.