#us monuments

Monumental Learning

As a second grade teacher at Southlake Elementary in Oklahoma City, Shannon Cross is charged with teaching events, symbols, landmarks, holidays and historical figures associated with American History. She scoured the web, library books and You Tube for interesting resources, but found little age-appropriate information that would also interest a fidgety seven year old. After completing her fellowship/road trip this summer investigating major landmarks across the northeastern United States, Shannon decided to let her students become the primary sources.

She started the school year by sharing from her itinerary artifacts and videos of her at landmarks discussing the symbols, reading the signs and telling stories about what she was learning in

Washington DC at:

the U.S. Capitol Building

the White House

the Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington Memorials

Ford Theater

the Smithsonian American History Museum

the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum

the Newseum

Philadelphia at:

Independence National Historic Park

the Liberty Bell Center

Independence Hall

Congress Hall

the National Constitution Center

One Liberty Observation Deck

and Boston at:

the Old North Church

Paul Revere's home

the Old State House

the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, and

the John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum and Library.

Then, she invited students to research one of the sites or symbols and present their findings to the school community.

"My students loved seeing, touching, experiencing and even becoming history during my lessons by dressing up as different monuments and symbols," said Shannon. "By acting out their research, they compared and contrasted stories and were inspired to write pieces about their own version of history based on my fellowship research and our new curriculum."

Shannon is passionate about teaching young students American history and believes that by going to these sites and researching them first-hand during her fellowship, that passion "revolutionized" how she taught the subject.

"History is not just stories in a book, it is real people and real events, which my students are learning through non-fiction texts," said Shannon. "On my fellowship, I learned about the history of these famous historical figures, however, the most important thing I learned is that we have all come together to form this great country and create it as our life and culture evolve."

I found the top 5 most bizarre US Monuments.  I was quite shocked when I found #1, especially since it was a short drive from my apartment.