findingEducation’s Digital Teachers’ LoungeTips and insights from the findingEducation team.

As the founder of the Global Coalition Project, Bill Reilly has united classrooms around the globe through his vision to promote peace and global understanding. A social studies teacher at Bethlehem Central Middle School in Delmar, N.Y., for the last 16 years, Reilly was named one of Disney’s Educators of the Year in 2006 for his exceptional ability to teach “real world” lessons. Two years prior to that, he was chosen by the American Councils for International Education to represent the United States in a Eurasian/American teacher exchange in Azerbaijan.

FindingEducation met Reilly while attending the New York State Council for the Social Studies (NYSCSS) conference last week. Reilly described watching his students meet another group of students in Belize for the first time through an online video conference. “It was like two groups meeting aliens for the first time,” he said. “They were such different and diverse cultures, and they had such an interest in learning about each other.”

fE: What made you become a teacher?

BR: I was an archeologist for a few years and then an owner of a rare coin store. So I always had a love for history. I then walked into a children’s home one summer, thinking that I would work with kids for a summer until I decided what business to go into, and I never left working with children after that. I teach ancient history to sixth graders.

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Subject: History, Social Studies
Tags: Educator Profiles

Did you take the Quiztory last week? Now it’s time to check your answers:

1. Who acted as an intermediary between the Charles Lindbergh family and their child’s kidnapper in 1932?  John F. Condon

2. When was Winston Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech published in Russia?  1998

3. After Berlin’s Reichstag was burned down in 1933, what did German President Paul von Hindenburg sign “for the Protection of the People and the State”? The Reichstag Fire Decree

4. When did Britain relinquish Rhodesia as a colony?  February 1980

5. Who videotaped the beating of Rodney King by a group of white Los Angeles police officers in 1991? George Holliday

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory, The Answer Sheet

Test your students’ knowledge of the notable events covered in findingDulcinea’s “On This Day” column this week with Quiztory. It makes a fun extra credit assignment.

1. Who acted as an intermediary between the Charles Lindbergh family and their child’s kidnapper in 1932?

2. When was Winston Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech published in Russia?

3. After Berlin’s Reichstag was burned down in 1933, what did German President Paul von Hindenburg sign “for the Protection of the People and the State”?

4. When did Britain relinquish Rhodesia as a colony?

5. Who videotaped the beating of Rodney King by a group of white Los Angeles police officers in 1991?

What’s Coming Up?

Next week, “On This Day” will examine Dred Scott’s Supreme Court case, Daniel Webster and Russia’s February revolution. We’ll also take a look at ‘Axis Sally,’ the founding of the Girl Scouts of America and the Hanafi Muslim Siege of 1977.

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory

Did you take the Quiztory last week? Now it’s time to check your answers:

1. Suspects arrested in the 1993 car bombing in the World Trade Center’s basement garage were linked to which Islamic spiritual leader? Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman

2. What is the name of the most famous collection of rules governing duels? Code Duello

3. When was the Republic of Texas admitted to the United States? 1845

4. What was President Andrew Johnson impeached for? Violating the Tenure of Office Act

5. After his trip to Mecca, what did Malcolm X change his name to? el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory, The Answer Sheet

Test your students’ knowledge of the notable events covered in findingDulcinea’s “On This Day” column this week with Quiztory. It makes a fun extra credit assignment.

1. Suspects arrested in the 1993 car bombing in the World Trade Center’s basement garage were linked to which Islamic spiritual leader?

2. What is the name of the most famous collection of rules governing duels?

3. When was the Republic of Texas admitted to the United States?

4. What was President Andrew Johnson impeached for?

5. After his trip to Mecca, what did Malcolm X change his name to?

What’s Coming Up?

Next week, “On This Day” will examine the arson of the Reichstag, the federal raid of the Waco compound, Puerto Rican nationalists and their assault on Congress, and Rhodesia. We’ll also take a look at the beating of Rodney King, England’s King Henry VI and Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech.

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory

Did you take the Quiztory last week? Now it’s time to check your answers:

1. A new era of diplomacy between the United States and China dawned on April 6, 1971, when China invited nine Americans to play what sport in China? Ping-pong

2. When was the last Japanese-American internment camp in the United States closed? 1946

3. What was the name of Galileo’s book, published in 1632, in which he explained the Copernican theory? “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems”

4. What document did the Soviet Union, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States sign in 1988, creating a timetable for the Soviets to withdraw from Afghanistan? Geneva Accords

5. When was Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s citizenship in the former Soviet Union restored? 1990

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory, The Answer Sheet

Test your students’ knowledge of the notable events covered in findingDulcinea’s “On This Day” column this week with Quiztory. It makes a fun extra credit assignment.

1. A new era of diplomacy between the United States and China dawned on April 6, 1971, when China invited nine Americans to play what sport in China?

2. When was the last Japanese-American internment camp in the United States closed?

3. What was the name of Galileo’s book, published in 1632, in which he explained the Copernican theory?

4. What document did the Soviet Union, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States sign in 1988, creating a timetable for the Soviets to withdraw from Afghanistan?

5. When was Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s citizenship in the former Soviet Union restored?

What’s Coming Up?

Next week, “On This Day” will examine dueling in Washington, D.C., the assassination of Malcolm X and the “Miracle on Ice.” We’ll also take a look at Mexican Gen. Santa Anna’s siege of the Alamo, the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, Muhammad Ali’s heavyweight title and the 1993 car bombing of the World Trade Center.

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory

Did you take the Quiztory last week? Now it’s time to check your answers:

1. In 1815, what African-American Quaker led a group of freed slaves to Sierra Leone? Paul Cuffee

2. U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was released from a Soviet prison in exchange for whom? Soviet spy Rudolf Abel

3. In what Scottish prison was Mary Stuart, Catholic queen of Scotland, imprisoned? Loch Leven Castle

4. Who led an international movement to free Mandela in the 1980s? Oliver Tambo

5. During the presidential election of 1824, what was the United States’ only political party? Democratic-Republican

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory, The Answer Sheet

Test your students’ knowledge of the notable events covered in findingDulcinea’s “On This Day” column this week with Quiztory. It makes a fun extra credit assignment.

1. In 1815, what African-American Quaker led a group of freed slaves to Sierra Leone?

2. U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was released from a Soviet prison in exchange for whom?

3. In what Scottish prison was Mary Stuart, Catholic queen of Scotland, imprisoned?

4. Who led an international movement to free Mandela in the 1980s?

5. During the presidential election of 1824, what was the United States’ only political party?

What’s Coming Up?

Next week, “On This Day” will examine Galileo and the Inquisition, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Soviet troops leaving Afghanistan and King Tut’s Tomb. We’ll also take a look at President Nixon’s trip to China, the Chicago Seven and the internment of Japanese-Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory

Did you take the Quiztory last week? Now it’s time to check your answers:

1. When did Iran’s military declare itself neutral, allowing revolutionaries to take control? Feb. 11, 1979

2. After Patty Hearst was arrested for participating in Symbionese Liberation Army robberies, what did she list as her occupation? Urban guerilla

3. The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association planned a march on Jan. 30, 1972, in protest of what? Internment and mistreatment of prisoners

4. When Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts voted with the liberal block in West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish in 1937, what did his decision become known as? “the switch in time that saved nine”

5. The date of Groundhog Day—Feb. 2—is derived from which Christian holiday? Candlemas or the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin

Subject: History, Other History, Social Studies, U.S. Government, U.S. History, World History
Tags: Quiztory, The Answer Sheet