Past2Present

Dead Men Tell No Tales?

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:31:00 +0000

After spending three days at the Social Science Convention in Christchurch this week I was disappointed and generally uninspired by the range of ideas and information on offer this year...sure, I took great delight in talking to the stallholders about the latest resources available and seeing the work that many non-profit groups were doing, but I was truly only inspired by one presentation... by the Historic Cemeteries Conservation Trust.

The speaker was as passionate as I am about the wonderful value of cemeteries and demonstrated some excellent ideas for primary research in a variety of New Zealand Cemetaries. Their site includes introductory slideshows of a variety of cemeteries, as well as wonderfully clear images of a variety of sizes and designs for headstones. Even more useful, it has many premade investigations complete with worksheets/analysis tables and more!

You can check out some of the work that some students have been completeing in local cemeteries by watching this Close Up episode 'Graveyard Story'.

A Teachers Tour of Duty...

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:16:00 +0000

I've done it, I'm finally putting all the excuses aside and organising an overseas field trip. I'm armed with the Past2Present Overseas Field Trip Planning pack CD and have been getting wonderful advice from the Defining Moments Team at Stephen Gillingham's House of Travel Whangarei.

So where are we going? Vietnam! It seems great for the budget conscious traveller, has great food, involves plenty of military weapons for the boys and shopping for the girls! Add in a great cultural experience, cycling past rice paddies, visiting an orphanage, sleeping on a junk style boat and it promises to be great! So here goes.... we are planning to go in the term 1 holidays in 2011 so that students (parents!) have enough time to save up....

If anyone has travelled to Vietnam, I'd love any advice or recommendations of what to see/do! At present the one thing I am dead set on is visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels, check out this clip, it looks great!

- Aimee @ Past2Present

Not Quite History - but interesting all the same

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:04:00 +0000

Check out this artist who carves through phone books to make images of famous people including Barack Obama, Clint Eastwood and Bob Dylan.

Go to this website and scroll through the images using the arrows on the right, this guy is seriously talented!

It makes me wonder, who from History people might like him to create - I reckon it would be cool to see his interpretation of Winston Churchill!

- Aimee

Was Hitler really a bad artist?

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:01:00 +0000

Decide for yourself! Here is a site that shows you some of his paintings which went up for sale - just click to the arrows on the right of the screen to scroll through all 18 peices of art!

The Big 'Reveal'!

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 07:38:00 +0000

Well... its nearly here! There have been a lot of presales and lots of promotion at events such as the Yr 13 Schools Day, but the time has nearly arrived for the CDs to arrive in people's hot little hands! The will appear in the Resource Room shop (in Pt Chevalier) on Friday 11th September ! :tongue:

Don't forget to order yours before they sell out! You can pay online with a credit card (or a new debit card), via electronic banking, by posting a cheque or paying cash in store!

Teachers should keep an eye out for the Resource Room stall at the SOCCON Conference in Christchurch at the end of the month as Past2Present will be giving away free CDs and other promotional offers! :D

In the meantime, I'd just like to remind you that we have a Facebook Page which is regularly updated with articles about History, including news from around the world, reviews of newly released books and of course, there are plenty of discussions to share your opinions on! We have 79 members at present and are keen to get that number above 150 - if we manage that we will offer a new discount for the Level 1 Revision CDs...so get your friends to join!!!

- Aimee