AMY S GLENN
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Although this site has been created primarily for my students, everyone is welcome. In these pages you'll find many sources of information.

The Online Resources section below has numerous links that are of current interest. For more links to material on just about any topic you're looking for, use the E-Links button above. Linked off of that page are pages containing hundreds of links to sites covering a number of topics.

 Visit often ... I update frequently!  Hope you enjoy the site!

 

QUOTES

 

Quote of the Month

For Jefferson, there was one step crucial to creating a genuine natural aristocracy. The poor and rich had to have equal access to a good education. That's why, despite being something of a libertarian, he repeatedly proposed that the state pay for universal primary education as well as fund education at later stages. He was met with opposition from many quarters, mostly those wary of big government or higher taxes. Yet interestingly, one of his most ardent supporters was an old friend and political opponent, the conservative John Adams. "The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it," Adams wrote. "There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people.”

~Fareed Zakaria

 

NUMBERS

 

Numbers of the Month

Teachers across the country are striking and protesting en masse, shutting down school systems and putting pressure on state lawmakers to meet their demands. Of most concern is low pay, and pension and health care cuts. School boards and superintendents in some states have taken a highly unusual step - helping their teachers go on strike - pointing to just how awful the situation is. Many students are joining teachers in protests, expressing extreme disappointment in their legislative representatives.

Faced with crowded classrooms, budget cuts, personal spending on school supplies and what they see as a general lack of appreciation, teachers are demanding better pay and increased education funding. Education is one of the top budget items in every state, so it's not surprising that teachers want to have a say.

Teacher quality is the most important school-based determinant of student success. Recruiting, developing and retaining high-quality teachers are therefore essential to improving student achievement. School budget cuts make these tasks far more difficult. Teacher salaries make up a large share of public education spending, so funding cuts inevitably restrict districts’ ability to expand teaching staffs and supplement wages.

States play a large and increasing role in education funding. On average, some 46% of school revenues in the US come from state funds. Local governments provide another 45%. The rest comes from the national government. States that rely heavily on local property taxes instead of state funding to fund education, often have larger funding disparities between school districts in the state. Currently, most states provide less support per student for schools - in some cases, much less - than before the Great Recession and some are still cutting..

 

calendar

 

Then and Now

April is National Poetry Month.

April is Cancer Control Month.

April is Confederate History Month.

April is ASPCA month.

then and now button   04/01/1933 - Nazi Germany began persecuting Jews with a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses.

then and now button   04/01/1960 - The first weather satellite, TIROS I, was launched from Cape Canaveral.

then and now button   04/01/1970 - President Nixon signed a measure banning cigarette advertising on radio and television.

then and now button   04/01/2018 - April Fools’ Day

then and now button   04/01/2018 - Easter – Christian

then and now button   04/02/1513 - Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon landed in Florida.

then and now button   04/02/1792 - Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the US Mint.

then and now button   04/02/1846 - President James Polk appointed Nathaniel Hawthorne surveyor of the Custom House, a position that provided the fodder for his irreverent preface to The Scarlet Letter.

then and now button   04/02/1917 - President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany, saying, "The world must be made safe for democracy."

then and now button   04/02/1982 - Several thousand troops in Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain.

then and now button   04/02/2005 - Pope John Paul II died.

then and now button   04/03/1860 - The Pony Express began service between St. Joseph MO and Sacramento CA.

then and now button   04/03/1882 - Jesse James was shot to death in St. Joseph MO.

then and now button   04/03/1948 - President Truman signed The Marshall Plan, which allocated more than $5 billion in aid for 16 European countries.

then and now button   04/03/1968 - The day before he was assassinated, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "mountain" speech to a rally of striking sanitation workers.

then and now button   04/03/1996 - Unabomber Ted Kaczynski was arrested.

then and now button   04/04/1818 - Congress decided the flag of the US would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star added for every new state of the Union.

then and now button   04/04/1850 - The city of Los Angeles was incorporated.

then and now button   04/04/1949 - Twelve nations, including the US, signed the North Atlantic Treaty.

then and now button   04/04/1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. There had already been two attempts on King's life and, just the day before he had said, "Like anybody, I would like to live a long life, but I'm not concerned about that now."

then and now button   04/04/1969 - The original Star Trek was cancelled. It lives for eternity, however, in reruns.

then and now button   04/05/1614 - Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.

then and now button   04/05/1621 - The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth MA on a return trip to England.

then and now button   04/05/1792 - President Washington cast the first presidential veto.

then and now button   04/05/1887 - British historian Lord Acton wrote, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

then and now button   04/06/1830 - Joseph Smith organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fayette NY.

then and now button   04/06/1896 - The first modern Olympic Games formally opened in Athens.

then and now button   04/06/1909 - Robert Peary and Matthew Henson became the first men to reach the North Pole.

then and now button   04/06/1917 - Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany.

then and now button   04/07/1862 - The Battle of Shiloh ended.

then and now button   04/07/1948 - The World Health Organization was founded.

then and now button   04/07/1966 - The US recovered a hydrogen bomb it had lost off the coast of Spain.

then and now button   04/07/1969 - The Supreme Court unanimously struck down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material.

then and now button   04/07/2018 - World Health Day

then and now button   04/08/1513 - Explorer Juan Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain.

then and now button   04/08/1946 - The League of Nations assembled in Geneva for the last time.

then and now button   04/08/2018 - Hanamatsuri (Flower Festival) – Buddhism

then and now button   04/09/1682 - French explorer Robert La Salle reached the Mississippi River.

then and now button   04/09/1895 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

then and now button   04/09/1963 - British statesman Winston Churchill became an honorary US citizen.

then and now button   04/09/1996 - President Clinton signed a line-item veto bill into law.

then and now button   04/10/1866 - The American SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) was incorporated.

then and now button   04/10/1912 - The RMS Titanic Set sail from Southampton, England, on its ill-fated maiden voyage.

then and now button   04/10/1925 - F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was first published.

then and now button   04/10/1974 - Golda Meir announced her resignation as prime minister of Israel.

then and now button   04/11/1846 - Smith County was founded as a county in Texas.

then and now button   04/11/1921 - Iowa became the first state to impose a cigarette tax.

then and now button   04/11/1945 - During WWII, American soldiers liberated the notorious Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in Germany.

then and now button   04/11/1968 - President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968, one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

then and now button   04/11/2018 - Yom HaSho’ah begins at sunset – Judaism

then and now button   04/12/1606 - England adopted as its flag the original version of the Union Jack.

then and now button   04/12/1861 - The American Civil War began as Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

then and now button   04/12/1961 - Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to fly in space, orbiting the earth once before making a safe landing.

then and now button   04/12/1992 - Euro Disneyland opened in France.

then and now button   04/12/2018 - Bun Pi Mai through the 14th – Buddhism

then and now button   04/12/2018 - Lailat al Miraj (The Prophet's Night Journey to Jerusalem and Ascension) begins at sunset – Muslim

then and now button   04/13/1598 - King Henry IV of France endorsed the Edict of Nantes, which granted rights to the Protestant Huguenots. The edict was abrogated in 1685 by King Louis XIV who declared France entirely Catholic again.

then and now button   04/13/1742 - Handel's Messiah was first performed publicly in Dublin.

then and now button   04/13/1943 - President Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial.

then and now button   04/13/1964 - Sidney Poitier became the first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award for Lilies of the Field.

then and now button   04/13/2018 - Thomas Jefferson’s birthday

then and now button   04/13/2018 - Vaisakhi (New Year) – Sikh

then and now button   04/13/2018 - Isra and Mi'raj – Muslim

then and now button   04/14/1828 - The first edition of Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language was published.

then and now button   04/14/1865 - John Wilkes Booth shot and mortally wounded President Lincoln while attending a play at Ford's Theater.

then and now button   04/14/1939 - John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath was first published.

then and now button   04/15/1865 - President Lincoln died several hours after the shooting by John Wilkes Booth.

then and now button   04/15/1912 - The Titanic sank in the North Atlantic less than three hours after striking an iceberg. About 1500 people died.

then and now button   04/15/2018 - Rubber Eraser Day

then and now button   04/15/2018 - Equal Pay Day ... This is the day when women's wages catch up to men's wages from the year before. It’s later this year than in the past several years.

then and now button   04/16/1862 - A bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia became law.

then and now button   04/16/2001 - Israel launched an air strike against a strategic Syrian radar station in Lebanon.

then and now button   04/17/1492 - Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella gave Columbus a commission to seek a westward passage to Asia.

then and now button   04/17/1521 - Martin Luther went before the Diet of Worms to face charges stemming from his religious writings.

then and now button   04/17/1961 - About 1500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.

then and now button   04/17/1975 - Phnom Penh fell to communist insurgents, ending Cambodia's five-year war.

then and now button   04/17/2018 - National Theft Day (Income taxes are due.)

then and now button   04/18/1775 - Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Massachusetts, warning American colonists that the British were coming.

then and now button   04/18/1946 - The League of Nations went out of business.

then and now button   04/18/1978 - The US Senate voted 68 to 32 to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999.

then and now button   04/18/2018 - Paul Revere Day

then and now button   04/18/2018 - Yom Ha'atzmaut begins at sunset through April 19th – Judaism

then and now button   04/19/1775 - The American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

then and now button   04/19/1933 - The US went off the Gold Standard.

then and now button   04/19/1993 - The 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco TX ended as a fire destroyed the structure after federal agents began smashing their way in.

then and now button   04/19/1995 - A truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

then and now button   04/20/1971 - The Supreme Court upheld the use of busing to achieve racial desegregation in schools.

then and now button   04/20/1999 - The Columbine High School massacre took place in Littleton CO.

then and now button   04/20/2018 - Feast of Ridvan (through May 1st) – Baha’i

then and now button   04/21/1836 - An army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, assuring Texas independence.

then and now button   04/21/1910 - At the age of 75, Mark Twain died in Redding, Connecticut, on the reappearance of Haley's Comet ... which had last appeared in the year he was born.

then and now button   04/21/2018 - San Jacinto Day

then and now button   04/21/2018 - The Annual Aggie Muster (The Aggie Muster began on June 26, 1883. By 1902, it had evolved into a celebration of Texas’ Independence on San Jacinto Day and the two became officially linked in 1922.)

then and now button   04/22/1590 - Henry VIII took over the throne of England after the death of his father, Henry VII.

then and now button   04/22/1864 - Congress authorized the use of the phrase "In God We Trust" on US coins.

then and now button   04/22/1952 - An atomic test conducted in Nevada became the first nuclear explosion shown on live network TV.

then and now button   04/22/2018 - Earth Day

then and now button   04/23/1564 - The supposed birthday and, 52 years later, the date of death for William Shakespeare.

then and now button   04/23/1985 - Coca-Cola announced it was changing the secret formula for Coke.

then and now button   04/23/1992 - McDonald's opened its first fast food restaurant in Beijing.

then and now button   04/23/2018 - St. George's Day

then and now button   04/24/1800 - Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress.

then and now button   04/24/1877 - Federal troops left New Orleans, ending the North's post-Civil War rule in the South.

then and now button   04/24/1898 - Spain declared war on the US after rejecting America's ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.

then and now button   04/24/1970 - China launched its first satellite, which kept transmitting a song, The East is Red.

then and now button   04/24/1980 - The US launched an abortive attempt to free the American hostages in Iran, a mission that resulted in the deaths of 8 US servicemen.

then and now button   04/23/2018 - Tax Freedom Day … the day on which Americans have earned enough money to pay this year's tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels, meaning the average American will work 113 of 365 days this year just to pay their varied taxes.

then and now button   04/25/1859 - Ground was broken for the Suez Canal.

then and now button   04/25/1945 - Delegates from some 50 countries met in San Francisco to organize the United Nations.

then and now button   04/25/1990 - The space shuttle Discovery deployed the Hubble Space Telescope.

then and now button   04/25/2018 - Administrative Professionals Day

then and now button   04/25/2018 - World Penguin Day

then and now button   04/26/1607 - An expedition of English colonists, including Captain John Smith, went ashore at Cape Henry, Virginia, to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.

then and now button   04/26/1964 - The African nations of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.

then and now button   04/26/1986 - The world's worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union.

then and now button   04/27/1805 - A force led by US Marines captured the North African city of Derna on the shores of Tripoli.

then and now button   04/27/1937 - The nation's first Social Security checks were distributed. And, we've been increasingly more dependent since then!

then and now button   04/27/2018 - Arbor Day

then and now button   04/27/2018 - Dan Wè Zo, alias St Louis Cleimeille – Voudon

then and now button   04/28/1789 - There was a mutiny on the HMS Bounty as the crew of the British ship set Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific.

then and now button   04/28/1926 - Harper Lee was born in Monroeville AL. She would soon befriend Truman Capote, her model for Dill in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.

then and now button   04/28/1945 - Italian partisans executed Dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, as they attempted to flee the country.

then and now button   04/28/1952 - War with Japan officially ended as a treaty signed by the US and 47 other nations took effect.

then and now button   04/29/1429 - Joan of Arc entered the city of Orleans to lead a victory over the English.

then and now button   04/29/1862 - New Orleans fell to Union forces during the Civil War.

then and now button   04/29/1945 - Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun.

then and now button   04/29/2018 - Cassé Canari ou Wèt mô nan d'lo – Voudon

then and now button   04/29/2018 - Ninth day of Ridvan – Baha’i

then and now button   04/30/1789 - George Washington took office in NY as the first president of the US.

then and now button   04/30/1803 - The US purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for about $15 million.

then and now button   04/30/1975 - The South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces.

then and now button   04/30/2018 - Mangé les Morts – Voudon

then and now button   04/30/2018 - Theravada New Year – Buddhism

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LINKS

 

Online Resource Links

then and now button   What ISIS Really Wants: The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy and for how to stop it  |  ISIS Claims Responsibility, Calling Paris Attacks First of the Storm  |  Syria Iraq: The Islamic State Militant Group  |  Isis: The Inside Story  |  Frontline: The Rise of ISIS  |  Council on Foreign Relations: A Primer on ISIS Iraq  |  Cracks in ISIS Are Becoming More Clear  |  How ISIS’ Attacks Harm the Middle East

then and now button   What it’s like to live on $2 a day in the United States (PDF)

then and now button   Check out Today's Front Pages. Each day, you can see the front pages of more than 800 newspapers from around the world in their original, unedited form.

then and now button   Whether or not you noticed, the earth's population passed 7 billion a while back. You might enjoy NPR's wonderful video, Visualizing How a Population Grows to 7 Billion.

then and now button   Check out the St. Louis Fed's presentation The Financial Crisis: What Happened?. The original video is no longer available but you can view the power point presentation.

then and now button   Want to take a survey but not sure how many responses to collect? This Survey Calculator gives you the number for any given population size and desired confidence level. A reverse calculator lets you enter characteristics of an existing survey and gives the confidence interval (±X%) to apply to the results. The Survey System site, sponsored by a survey software company, also gives clear explanations of statistical significance, survey design and related concepts. Also check out 20 Questions a Journalist (and You, too!) Should Ask About Poll Results.

then and now button   PBS's 30 Second Candidate allows you to view more political ads than you ever knew existed. Choose the Historical Timeline link to see how political ads have changed over the years. Start with the infamous Daisy Ad that Lyndon Johnson used against Barry Goldwater. Click on Watch Johnson ads. Then click on either the QuickTime link or the Real Video link next to Daisy.

then and now button   Check out Political Compass. The site does a good job of explaining political ideologies (although with definitions different from those I use) and gives you a chance to discover your own political philosophy.

then and now button   Law Library of Congress: North Korea: Collection of links to websites on North Korean government, politics and law. Includes legal guides, country studies and links to constitutions and branches of government (where available). Council on Foreign Relations: North Korea: Background, articles and opinion pieces about North Korea government and politics. Many of the articles focus on North Korea's nuclear program. From the Council on Foreign Relations, "an independent membership organization and a nonpartisan think tank and publisher."

then and now button   State of the Union (SOTU): The site uses an interactive timeline to provide a visual representation of prominent words in presidential State of the Union addresses by displaying significant words as "determined by comparing how frequently the word occurs in the document to how frequently it appears throughout the entire body of SOTU addresses." The Appendices section describes the statistical methods used. Also includes the full text of addresses.

then and now button   Small Town Papers: This site provides access to scanned images of recent issues of dozens of small town newspapers from throughout the United States. Newspapers are updated periodically, 2-3 weeks after publication. The site also includes a searchable archive (of articles, photos and advertisements), which covers different periods for each paper, some as far back as the 1890s. Access to the archives requires free registration.

then and now button   This website serves as a centralized location to learn about the Congressional Research Service and search for CRS reports that have been released to the public by members of Congress. (CRS Reports do not become public until a member of Congress releases the report.) Features a searchable database with more than 8,000 reports, a list of recently released reports, other collections of CRS reports and a FAQ about CRS.

then and now button   Stem Cell Research: See the official NIH resource for Stem Cell Research. In 2005, NOVA aired an overview of The Stem Cell Issue.

then and now button   Instances of the Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798 - 2004: This report lists hundreds of instances in which the United States has used its armed forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict or for other than normal peacetime purposes. It was compiled in part from various older lists and is intended primarily to provide a rough survey of past US military ventures abroad, without reference to the magnitude of the given instance noted.

then and now button   Government Product Recalls

then and now button   Homeland Security Knowledge Base

then and now button   If you're worried about retirement, try some of the following sites.
        IRS Tax Information for Retirement Plans
        Social Security Retirement Planner
        Retirement Planning Resources from Smart Money

then and now button   Keeping the Shi'ites Straight Based on the opinion that no story has been more confusing for the Western news media to cover in postwar Iraq than the politics of the country's Shi'ite majority, this article provides a basic outline of Shi'ite religious history. Discusses the Sadr family (Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr, Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, and Muqtada as-Sadr), Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim and other figures.

then and now button   This commercial site presents brief information about dozens of Black Inventors from the United States. Some entries include portraits and images. Also includes a searchable timeline covering 1721-1988. Does not include bibliographic information.

then and now button   Annenberg Political Fact Check: This site describes itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit, consumer advocate for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in US politics. The site provides original articles, with summaries and sources, analyzing factual accuracy in TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Searchable. From the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

then and now button   White House Tapes: The President Calling: Three of America's most compelling presidents -- Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon -- bugged their White House offices and tapped their telephones. In this documentary project, American Radio Works eavesdrops on presidential telephone calls to hear how each man used one-on-one politics to shape history. Includes audio, a transcript of the documentary and background information on each president and the tapes.

then and now button   The State of State and Local Finances: New studies afford a state-by-state or city-by-city analysis of fiscal well being. The Year of Living Dangerously: While leaders in a growing number of states appear to believe they're serving the public good by squeezing government dry, there's little question that minimizing management carries a host of dangers that directly affect the lives of citizens.

then and now button   Government Debt by Country Map: Shows countries' general government gross debt as a percentage of GDP in 2012.

then and now button   First Amendment Library: Provides info on Supreme Court First Amendment jurisprudence,  including rulings, arguments, briefs, historical material, commentary and press coverage.

 

A Public School Infographic

 

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SPOTLIGHTS

Community Service

If you need a presentation or workshop for your group,

use this Community link or the link at the top of the page.
The link will take you to a list of the topics I currently have available.
To schedule a date or for more information, feel free to contact me at dramyglenn@gmail.com

 

 

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Copyright © 1996 Amy S Glenn
Last updated:   04/01/2018   0630

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