Roman reacted pretty well to the early rising (6:30) and subsequent trek to daycare. Only had an hour nap, and so was a little emotionally drained this evening. But we knew this would be a challenging week for him, getting used to longer daycare, so we gave in to his mood - a little.

This morning I participated in a lecture on the Constitutional Convention, specifically Madison vs. Hamilton, and the path to form political parties (Federalists and Anti-Federalists). Then came a "breakout" session with Dr. Paul Finkelman and Dr. Marty Hershock, who had lectured us in the morning. That was fun, I enjoy Marty and Dr. Finkelman had an opposing viewpoint to Marty (as in the electoral college, and also a wee bit of discussion on the legacy of nonslavery in the Northwest Territory, vs. "southern culture" in Southern Illinois & Indiana).

After a delicious lunch of grilled hamburgers, salad, and chocolate cake, we reconvened with Tom Sleete, who is Michigan's History Teacher of the Year. He's also a fun guy, good sense of humor. Lots of great ideas on classroom activities. He will be guiding us through a project we have to put together by Friday on 1863 Detroit draft riots. And to tell you the truth, none of us knew there was one. Or more. Hmmm. Tom led us through a classic "jigsaw" technique in the classroom, and also introduced us to a new way of being HIP: that's Historical Inquiry Procedure.

Lastly, we had a lecture on using music as a primary source by another professor, Dr. Dominic Aquila. That was pretty interesting; for the high schoolers, he used Neil Young's "Southern Man" and we discussed; then he played us the musical answer to that, Lynard Skynard's "Sweet Home Alabama" (as in, "I hope Neil Young will remember...") We talked about how they could use that to discuss music as storytelling of current events; also as a reflection of lasting prejudices in the South. Very, very cool.

Did some reading tonight on Reconstruction, some great details about the beatings of slaves and Andersonville prison. Great. So now to have some ice cream. I suppose I could have been brilliant and found you lots of links to the people and ideas I just mentioned. But I'm tired. So if you want some more details, go to the official website.