The South Wins

Hi Everyone!

I hope y'all had a great time on Saturday at the big battle.  The South managed to win every engagement.  Congratulations!  Also, make sure you stop on Thursday to thank Jennifer Poyer for letting us use her home for the battle.

In our last class we covered the battles of Bull Run, Shiloh, and Antietam.  We also covered some of the Unconstitutional Acts.  Our document study was on the Emancipation Proclamation where we discovered that not all of the slaves were freed by the proclamation.

Haley, form the North, gave a fun and fabulous presentation on the Underground Railroad and is now the highest ranking officer in the class at the rank of Sergeant.  You should all remember to Salute her in class on Thursday.  :-)

Assignments:

Opinion Paper:  Is it ever wrong to follow the law and if so when and why?

Book:  Across Five Aprils  --  We're discussing it this Thursday.  Make sure you get it read.  Also, write down 2 or 3 (or more) things that jumped out at you while you were reading.  Write them in your commonplace book.  Did you look up any words?  Record those in your commonplace book as well.  Think about what you want to talk about in our discussion on Thursday.

Memory Work:  Pick something and memorize it!

Hero Report:  How's it coming?  Have you picked out your hero yet?

Presentations:

10/23 -- This Thursday -- John -- The Army (Origination, Drills, Manpower)
10/30 -- Alison -- Uniforms and clothing of the times
11/6 -- Joshua -- Life as a slave
11/20 -- Noah -- Prisons

See you all on Thursday!
~General Lisa

Upcoming Battle

Hi Everyone!

We had three more students join the rank of corporal this week!  Congrats to Alison, Haley, and Katie!  Keep up the good work!

We covered Secession and Fort Sumter with a simulation of Lincoln and his cabinet deciding what to do about Fort Sumter.  We also discussed "Uncle Tom's Cabin."  However, we were short on time for the book discussion, so we might do a little more discussion on Thursday.

Katie gave a presentation on Civil War spies and shared some fun stories about a confederate spy named Belle Boyd.

We shared some powerful quotes from President Buchanan about secession; some "colorful" quotes about what the south thought of Lincoln; and a telling quote from Francis Adam (son/grandson of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams) about what the anti-slavery folks thought about Lincoln's election.

Assignments:

• Opinion Paper:  Is Secession Constitutional?
• Keep reading "Across Five Aprils" -- due 10/23
• Memorize something -- song, scripture, Gettysburg Address
• Have you started on your Hero Report yet?
• How are the movies coming??

Presentations:  

• 10/16 (this Thursday) -- Haley -- Underground Railroad
• 10/23 -- John -- The army (origination, drills, manpower)
• 10/30 -- Alison -- Uniforms and clothing of the times

THE BATTLE!!

• Saturday the 18th -- see email sent a few days ago for location and address
• I will be sending water balloons home with everyone on Thursday.  These need to be filled and brought to the battle in coolers/buckets that we will then station around the battle field.  
• If you have eye protection/impact goggles, please bring them.  Label them with your name and bring extra if you have them so we can share.  I will try to have a bunch there as well, but I may not be able to have enough for everyone.
• If you have an airsoft gun, please bring it.  (make sure your name is on it.)

See you all on Thursday!

~General Lisa

Week 4 Recap

Hi Everyone!

Assignments:

• FINISH READING "UNCLE TOM'S CABIN"
• Keep working on passing off your other requirements.  I highly recommend that you start working on memorizing SOMETHING if you haven't already started.

MOVIE PARTY this Friday at General Lisa's House.  6pm to 10pm.  We're watching "Gettysburg".  Bring a snack or treat to share.  This is a fun way to work on passing off your movie requirements.  It's also Parents' Night Out at General Lisa's House.  Parents are welcome to come hangout any time between 6 and 10pm.

We covered the fascinating cycles of history last week.

Katie: Your presentation on Spies is this week.

See you all Thursday!

~General Lisa & General Paige

2 New Corporals

Hi Everyone!

We had an exciting class today.

• Most of the class originally had the wrong pages in their student manuals, our correct copies arrived and we updated our manuals with the correct pages.
• General Paige taught today's lecture on Bleeding Kansas and the Elections of 1860.  
• Carson, from the south, gave his presentation on medical care practices and availability during the Civil War and treated us to ginger bread which was something served in the hospitals of the Civil War because it was thought to be healthy for the patients.  It was yummy!  He also achieved the rank of corporal for doing his presentation.
• We had our first debate -- The Lincoln/Douglas Debates.  Both our north students and our south students found some great points on both sides of the debate.
• John, from the north, was our first private to memorize the Gettysburg Address and achieved the rank of corporal.

Assignments:

• Opinion Paper:  "When evil is being done is it right to react with evil?"  due next Thursday.
• We decided to move our discussion of Uncle Tom's Cabin back one week.  Privates and Corporals have until October 9th to finish reading the book and be prepared to discuss it.
• General Lisa jokingly mentioned that one of their assignments this week is to watch Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  Parents, if your student mentions it, you'll know where it came from. :-)
• We also moved our document study of the Dred Scott case to next week.  If you haven't read thru it yet, please do so before Thursday.

Requirement clarifications:  Memorize what your core book has to say about government.

Some ideas from common core books/documents:

• US Constitution:  Amendments 1 - 6 (from the Bill of Rights)
• Bible:  5 - 6 verses.  Needs to be the rough equivalent, in length, as the first 6 amendments of the Constitution.  Will probably need to choose verses from several different books/chapters of the bible.  Here are a few to get you started.    **1 Peter 2:13-16**    **Matthew 22:21**    **1 Timothy 2:1-2**
• Doctrine & Covenants 134:1-5

Hope to see you at the Movie Night -- Friday, September 26th.  

~General Lisa

Public Virtue

Hi Everyone!

Yesterday we talked about Public Virtue, the beginnings of slavery in America, and some of the history leading up to the Civil War.

The entire South showed up to class early, stole the North's flag and hid it.  The first battle of the Civil War went something like that.  :-)

Assignments for this week:

1. Opinion Paper:  "Is compromise a good thing?  Why or why not?"  Please remember to use the checklist that was handed out in class.  
2. Read the Dred Scott Decision before class next week.  It's in the "Documents" section in your binder.
3. Read thru the Lincoln/Douglas Debates.  North, you'll be debating from Lincoln's position.  South, you'll be debating from Douglas' position.  Click here for a copy of the debate.  It's posted on the FILA website for our Sword class.
4. Keep reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin."  We'll be discussing it in class on October 2nd.

We also chose presentation topics and dates:

9/25     Carson   Doctors/hospitals/Red Cross
10/2
10/9     Katie     Spies
10/16   Haley    Underground Railroad
10/23    John     The army (origination, drills, manpower)
10/30    Allison     Uniforms and clothing of the times
11/6      Joshua     Life as a slave
11/13
11/20    Noah     Prisons

Some ideas for your presentation:  dress up, visual aids, power point presentations, hand outs, game, puppet show, props, etc.

GOOD NEWS!!
The student manual pages have arrived!!  I think this affects everyone but Joshua.  (He purchased his binder later and got a correct one.)  I will bring the pages to class next Thursday.

Next week:
Carson will be presenting.
We'll be doing a document study on the Dred Scott case.
We'll be debating from the Lincoln/Douglas debates.
The cycles of history, Bleeding Kansas, and the Elections of 1860

9/26  MOVIE NIGHT -- 6pm at General Lisa's House -- We're watching "Gods & Generals."  Parents are welcome to come hang out for Parent's Night Out.  Please bring a snack or treat to share.

Parents:  If you could help your student sign up to receive the blog updates, that would be great!  It will help them to know what's going on and help them be more responsible for their own education.

Fabulous quote from this week:  "Virtue is nothing but voluntary obedience to truth."  ~Timothy Dwight (early 1800's)

See you all next week!
~General Lisa

Writing Checklist

Hi Everyone!

I promised I would send out a basic writing checklist this week. Please note that some of it is REQUIRED and some of it is SUGGESTED.

Most of the REQUIRED tasks are so that I know who wrote the paper and which assignment it is for.

Please make use of the checklist for all Sword writing assignments unless I send out an updated one. (The Hero Report will have it's own checklist.)

The checklist is on the website:  http://www.filacommonwealth.com/sword-of-freedom.html

Thanks!
~General Lisa

http://www.filacommonwealth.com/sword-of-freedom.html

1st Week

Hi Everyone!

I'm so excited for Sword of Freedom this year!  We are going to learn a ton and have a blast!

This week we covered the concept of Allegiance.  We talked about the four main categories of Allegiance -- Self, Others, Evil, and Good/God.

The writing assignment for this week is to answer the question:  Where is my allegiance and why?

We also talked about one way to set up and use a commonplace book.  Students can "decorate" their commonplace books at home or in class if we have time and if they want to.  They are welcome to use their commonplace book as a true commonplace book -- they can put more in it than just Sword of Freedom.  We will be using our commonplace books every week so make sure that you bring them.  This is also how we'll be practicing our note taking skills.

The class has been divided into North and South.  At the moment, all of the students are at the rank of Private.  As students pass off requirements, they will move up in rank.  The class requirements are in their binders and on the FILA website:  http://www.filacommonwealth.com/sword-of-freedom.html

Speaking of binders.  I need to check with Genevieve to see when the correct pages for the student manuals will be arriving.  For now, I think everyone has the teacher's manual.  The info the students need is in there, but it will be easier to find when they have the correct pages.  Hopefully, this coming week.

We will be signing up for presentation topics and presentation dates next week.  Please take a look at your calendar and make sure that you don't sign up for days that are inconvenient for you.  :-)

Students will also be writing a Hero Report this semester.  They can choose anyone from the Civil War time period including ancestors (especially ancestors) if they know about them.  Start thinking about who you might want to write about.

See you next week!
General Lisa & General Paige