It is April and it is the month Titanic sank.  I thought to share some documentaries on the Titanic.  In 2021, it will be the 109th Anniversary of the sinking.  Waking the Titanic is the story about the Addergoole 14.  They wanted to seek their fortunes in America.  They were among the poorest to board the Titanic.  Fourteen young people went to America onboard the Titanic and only three survived.  It was a devastating blow to their community.  Addergoole went silent after this tragedy.  This docu-drama is narrated by Allan Leech. 

The Addergoole passengers were John and Catherine Bourke, Mary Bourke, Mary Canavan, Patrick Canavan, Bridget Donohoe, Honor Fleming, James Flynn, Anne Kelly, Bridget Mahon, Mary Mangan, Delia McDermott, Catherine McGowan, and Anna McGowan.  This documentary also reached out to the families of the fourteen to discuss the story of the Addergoole 14.  It is the first time in one hundred years that these families and the village are telling this story.

Life in 1912 Ireland was hard.  Families and communities banded together to help survive.  Half the Irish population immigrated.  However, to thrive, many Irish people left Ireland for America.  Jobs and land were limited to these poor communities and leaving was the only option.  The girls were sent to America and communicated home as often as they could.  Families would gather together to read the latest news from America.  Families would display the letters and photographs from their loved on.  The immigrants also sent money back home to bring other family members over. 

The news media pressed people to immigrate.  The shipping companies competed with each other to get people on board their ships.  The price of a third-class ticket was seven pounds sterling, which today is the equivalent of 700 pounds sterling.  Shipping companies made a majority of their profits on steerage or third-class passengers – mainly immigrants.  For Titanic, the third class was just as good as a second class on other ships.  It would take three years to save for a voyage on the Titanic.

The group was led by Catherine McGowan.  She had come back to Ireland to bring her niece back to Chicago.  She was the epitome of success to the village.  She started recruiting additional people to come with her and Annie.  Catherine could set them all up with jobs in Chicago.  Several members of the group planned on going to America, however, decided to travel with McGowan because there was safety in numbers.

Before the group went off their families had wakes.  Immigrating was like death since the families would never see their family members again.  There were fourteen wakes held in Addergole to mourn the leaving of the group.  Afterward, the group packed up for their trip and spent time with their families.  They then boarded a train for Southhampton and then onto the Titanic.  It was a journey of many firsts, the first time they left their homes.  It was the first time they had their room, let alone a bed, the first time they used silver cutlery, and the first time they saw electricity.

To learn who survived the Titanic’s sinking, continue to watch the documentary.

This documentary is worth sharing with a class when your students learn about the Titanic.  It was in third grade when I first heard about the Titanic.  You can show this documentary to a wide variety of age groups.  It tells the story of the real people who boarded the Titanic.  When April 12 comes around, then you can put this documentary up for your students.  If you need a filler for a substitute teacher, then have them show this documentary.

You can access the YouTube video here.

The series concludes with Neil Oliver exploring the impact of Metal on the ancient people of Britain.   The landscape shows the impact of metal and industry on ancient Britain.  The dips in the ground were places where flint was mined.  Flint was the life blood of the ancient world.  Then a new technology hit Britain: metal.

Metal would bring a social revolution to the ancient Briton.  Copper was discovered in Ireland and it would be shipped to Britain.  It required local knowledge of the rocks and foreign expertise to tell people what to do with what was in the rock to spur a revolution.  Prospectors came and started to take advantage of the stone.  A new knowledge was required to make rock into metal and bellows were created to make the copper metal.

A new society was brought to Britain and created different pottery: The Beaker People.  They came from outside of Britain.  They were different from the Ancient Britons.  They knew how to work metal.  They were buried in individual tombs instead of of communal terms.  Individuality came to Britain.  It was a radical thinking to Britain. 

In order to make copper useful, the ancient man had to incorporate tin.  Tin was discovered in Cornwall and mined.  When the ancient man added tin and copper together, bronze was formed.  With Bronze, ancient man could make better tools and weapons.  Bronze would launch a whole new age in Britain and they would leave behind bronze objects.  Bronze was a valuable metal and it was a metal of prestige. 

To continue to learn more, continue to watch the documentary.

For use in the classroom: just highlight, copy and paste into a word document or a google document for use in the classroom.  You can easily format these questions to your specifications.  All questions should fit onto one page after formatting.

You can find the link for the YouTube video here.

The World of Stonehenge Episode 4 Questions:

1. What was needed in vast quantities?
2. How many hallows were there?
3. What are they remains of?
4. What new technology hit Britain?
5. County Kerry is rich in what type of metal?
6. Where did the metal for Britain come from?
7. Who arrived in Britain in 2,500 BC?
8. What was the name of the Beaker man?
9. Where did he come from?
10. How was he buried?

The World of Stonehenge Episode 4 Answers: 

1. What was needed in vast quantities? - Flint
2. How many hallows were there? - 433
3. What are they remains of? - Mine shafts
4. What new technology hit Britain? - Metal
5. County Kerry is rich in what type of metal? - Copper
6. Where did the metal for Britain come from? - Ireland
7. Who arrived in Britain in 2,500 BC? - Beaker People
8. What was the name of the Beaker man? - Aimsbury Archer
9. Where did he come from? - Alps
10. How was he buried? - Buried on his own and with his possession

Episode 3, the ancient peoples' beliefs were shaped by astrology.  Our ancestors started looking to the sky.  The landscape helped facilitate the ancestors religious believe.  Neil is brought up to the top of a mountain and is shown where the Ancient Britons worked stone axes.  

It was not the Age of Cosmology where instead of looking to the ground, the ancestors looked to the sky for worship.  It was a new way of thinking for the ancestors.  It made them build stone circles.  Stone circles are unknown outside of Britain and Ireland and they were set in dramatic landscapes.  They were places where the ancestors could make spiritual connections.

Oliver travels to Orkney to show the best preserved stone age monuments.  Orkeny is made of stone and the people built with stones.  Skara Brae is a site that shows how life was lived in the Stone Age.  It was occupied for 600 years and contained 8 houses.  Everything was made of stone, the hearth, bed, toilet, and dresser.  It was designed to keep the drafts out.  It gives a picture of what life was like.

The ancestors started building monumental architecture and tied it to both the landscape and the sky.  The sky was the biggest different in the new building.  It helped the ancestors understand their place in the world.  Stonehenge was one of the monuments that the ancestors built.  Today it has different meanings to different people, but to the ancestors Stonehenge was made up of special rocks.  Over the decades, Stonehenge undergone changes, the blue stones were moved from out of the circle to in the circle, inside the Saracens.  They marked the spring and autumn.  It was a place that marked the land of the living and the land of the dead.

To continue to learn more, continue to watch the documentary.

For use in the classroom: just highlight, copy and paste into a word document or a google document for use in the classroom.  You can easily format these questions to your specifications.  All questions should fit onto one page after formatting.

You can find the link for the YouTube video here.

The World of Stonehenge Episode 3 Questions:

1. What were the people looking for?
2. What is called a “roughout?”
3. Where did these people focus their beliefs?
4. How did they manifest their beliefs?
5. Where are stone circles exclusive to?
6. What happened to the trees on Orkney Island?
7. What is Orkney Island rich in?
8. The stone helped preserve what?
9. What was built in stone in the house?
10. What did the archaeologist find in one of the houses?  How did they know?

The World of Stonehenge Episode 3 Answers:

1. What were the people looking for? - Green Stone
2. What is called a “roughout?” - Unfinished axe
3. Where did these people focus their beliefs? - Astrology
4. How did they manifest their beliefs? - Building stone monuments
5. Where are stone circles exclusive to? - Britain and Ireland
6. What happened to the trees on Orkney Island? - Cut down by farmers
7. What is Orkney Island rich in? - Sandstone
8. The stone helped preserve what? - houses
9. What was built in stone in the house? - Bed, Hearth, Dresser
10. What did the archaeologist find in one of the houses?  How did they know? - Toilet, poo in it

Episode 2 Neil Oliver explores how farming made an impact on Britain.  A social revolution came with the advent of farming in Britain.  The Ice Age was over and Britain was covered in trees.  Our ancestors worked with the land, they knew how to be a part of nature.  Britain was still attached to Europe, however sea levels were rising which meant people couldn't travel easily back and forth any more.

The Isle of Wright was still attached to Britain and underneath the waters shows the world before the rising sea levels turned Britain into an island.  It was the world of the Stone Age.  An old long boat was discovered on the site.  There was a discovery of seeds of barley, they came from Syria.  The Society of Britain went from hunter and gatherers to farming.   Families could grow their own food and support larger families.  They slowly started to get away from the natural world.  Our ancestors no longer needed to be a part of nature to survive.

Britain's farming revolution started slow, the channel proving to be a barrier to a quick revolution.  The first farmers came to Britain came over by boat.  They came to Kent first where the soil was fertile and could provide well for the first farming families.  Even today, Kent has excellent soil.  However, there is little evidence of how the early farmers lived.  Neil travels to Ireland in order to find the evidence to show how the early farmers live.  Neil helps uncover a wall while harvesting peat.

In Ireland, in a bog, stone walls made by farmers from the early farmers.  The walls are extensive, they are also finding a huge field system set up by the farmers.  There are fields for growing crops and for separating animals.  Peat is another history book that documents what went on in the past.  It shows the history of the forest before it became farmland.

To continue to learn more, continue to watch the documentary.

For use in the classroom: just highlight, copy and paste into a word document or a google document for use in the classroom.  You can easily format these questions to your specifications.  All questions should fit onto one page after formatting.

You can find the link for the YouTube video here.

World of Stonehenge Episode 2 Questions:

1. The people weren’t just close to nature but they were what?
2. What happened to the land as the sea rose?
3. What was discovered underneath the sea?
4. How old was the piece of timber?
5. What did the find on the site?
6. What seeds did Neil old in the tube?  Where did they come from?
7. How did that change civilization?
8. What age was ushered in by the seeds?
9. Who erected the stone circles?
10. How did the first farmers get to Britain?

World of Stonehenge Episode 2 Answers:

1. The people weren’t just close to nature but they were what? - Part of nature
2. What happened to the land as the sea rose? - Became marsh
3. What was discovered underneath the sea? - Boat building yard and hunting camp
4. How old was the piece of timber? - 8,000 years old
5. What did they find on the site? - Logboat
6. What seeds did Neil old in the tube?  Where did they come from? - Barley, Syria
7. How did that change civilization? - Going from hunter/gathererers to farmers
8. What age was ushered in by the seeds? - Neolithic
9. Who erected the stone circles? - Hunter and Gatherers
10. How did the first farmers get to Britain? - By boat