Smiley in the Sky

Venus (left), Jupiter (right), and the crescent moon form a heavenly smile

Maybe you’ve noticed it in the sky also…Two bright “stars” right near the crescent moon. To us here in Virginia, it looks like a frown, but in the southern hemisphere they see a smile. The two “stars” are actually planets. Venus is the brighter one on the left, Jupiter is on the right, and the moon is a waxing crescent. If you’d like to learn more about the moon check out my Moon Site. There you can watch an animated Flash video about the moon and play a couple of moon games. Teachers, you can download a Keynote lesson to use with your students on my Downloads Page.

Seven Hills of Richmond

Richmond has been compared to Rome because it, too, is a “city of seven hills.” Yet which hills are the “official” seven and where are they located? According to these websites, which quote a 1937 ordinance, [1, 2, 3, 4] the seven official hills of Richmond are:

1. Shockoe Hill (According to the National Park Service, the Capitol was built on Shockoe Hill, and the MCV VCU Campus is commonly referred to as being located on Shockoe Hill)

2. Union Hill (according to old maps of Richmond, and the Historic Richmond Foundation, Union Hill is located between Mosby, Jefferson, 25th, and Venable Streets)

3. Council Chamber Hill (the NPS website locates this hill east of the Governor St and this site puts it around 14th Street)

4. French Garden Hill (Mary Wingfield Scott’s book “Old Richmond Neighborhoods” locates this hill north of Leigh St between 8th and 10th streets and this site puts it around 9th Street)

5. Navy Hill (this blog locates Navy Hill between 3rd, 10th, and Leigh Streets and an article in the VCU library locates it in the same general area, north of Leigh Street between 3rd and 10th Streets)

6. Church Hill (according to old maps of Richmond Church Hill is the hill on which stands the famous St.John’s Episcopal Church, site of Patrick Henry’s famous, “Give me liberty or give me death!” speech)

7. Gambles Hill can be located on old maps of Richmond as the hill just east of Oregon Hill overlooking the James River.

Special thanks to Andrew Bain, a very knowledgeable librarian at VCU, who gave me a lot of help with my research. Here’s a Google map showing the general location of these seven hills. Let me know if you find a discrepancy.

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Trekker Trip to Pocahontas

The Trekkers will be visiting the Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine on Dec 5-6.   This was the first exhibition coal mine in the United States and it is the only exhibition coal mine designated as a National Historic Landmark.  It opened in 1882 and produced over 44 million tons of coal during its 73 years of operation.  Since this is the Trekkers first visit to the Appalachian Plateau Region of Virginia, we also plan on visiting some of the other interesting sites that are out there, such as the Cumberland Gap, the Wilderness Trail, the Wolf Creek Indian Village, and Breaks Interstate Park, one of two interstate parks in America and home to the “Grand Canyon of the South” the deepest gorge east of the Mississippi. We might also try to get a glimpse of four out of the five bordering states of Virginia by climbing the 183 steps up Birch Knob Tower where you can see Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and North Carolina on a clear day! The map below shows the places we would like to visit. Check back to see if we actually made it to any of these places!

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Introduction

Hi everyone, in this blog I will be posting summaries of my lessons with screenshots and downloadable files.  You can search for lessons by date, tags, categories, or just type what you’re looking for in the search box.  I will also post my training videos as I make them.  My link to this blog is found in my email signature so be sure to check back often.  Thanks!