Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Story written with Ben Franklin School: Uniontown, PA

This is a story I wrote with the third grade of the Ben Franklin School in Uniontown, Pensylvania during a videoconference called "Easy Steps to Story Writing." The students were very creative, and came up with such interesting characters as "Bob Dickinson the flying elephant" and "Al the Walking Worm." Without any further ado, here is the story:

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Bob Dickinson, the amazing flying elephant, waddled onto the warm sands of Sun Grove Beach with his friend, a walking worm named Al. It was an unusually hot day, and Bob Dickinson had shed his bright pink sweater, walking around without any clothes. Al was mortified.
“Surely you’ll be seen!” Al said. “You’re already used to wearing clothes. It’s not that hot here.”
Bob glanced disdainfully at Al, who was inching along at slow worm-pace.
“Not that hot to you, maybe,” Bob said in his best snooty tone. Seeing that Al was not at all convinced, Bob ran, launching off with his back feet into the air. His long, purple wings attracted attention from many viewers on the ground, so Bob went even higher, until the clouds covered him completely. But it was cold up in the air, and Bob soon grew tired.
“I wonder how far I’ve flown,” Bob thought to himself, and decided to circle back to the beach. He heard a mysterious noise behind him, however, just as he was turning. Bob jumped (or jumped as best as he could without anything beneath him) and dropped about fifteen feet—just as a small airplane passed above him.
“Whew!” Bob said, relieved. “That was very close.” He dropped down even further, although this time it was purposeful. Soon he could see Al on the beach.
“Hello, Al!” Bob shouted. “I was nearly hit by an airplane!”
“Hahaha,” Al said with a malevolent grin on his small worm-face.
“What do you mean, hahaha?” Bob asked, crestfallen. “I thought you would be all excited.”
“Never mind,” Al sighed. “Let’s go swimming.”
And that was exactly what they did.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Things I've Learned: Feudal Society

Apologies for the belated new blog post. I need to post another "Things I've Learned" directly after this one, since this is only the post that was due last week, and I need one for this week.

Today I'll talk about European feudal society. The basic feudal society was made up of a social diagram. The king came first, then barons, knights, and laborers, or freemen and serfs. The Church also held a lot of power during feudal times.
Barons or other lords (counts, etc.) owned most of the land. They would give parcels of land to knights in return for their allegiance and protection. Peasants worked their lord's land, planting crops for their families. In return for that land, the lord demanded a share of the peasants' crops. What did the peasants get? The land, food, protection, and security a small feudal manor offered.
Life was very hard for the bottom of the social triangle, the poor peasants called serfs. Serfs were virtually slaves. They could not move off the feudal land, marry, or enter the clergy without their lord's permission. It was not easy to rise up; if you were born a serf, you stayed a serf.
Laws in feudal societies could be very harsh. If you committed a crime, you could be tied behind galloping horses and dragged through the streets. Sometimes, your innocence or guilt in a crime would be determined by whether you floated or sunk in a body of water; other times, you might be put to trial by combat. Eventually, strong monarchs came to the throne and began establishing uniform systems of law.
The feudal system established the importance of land and the power of nobility. The beginning of the feudal system marked a turning point in civilization, from the shadows of the broken Roman empire into the new Middle Ages.