Polly Lynn
In the mornings from home I do church or genealogy work. I am writing a book on my Irish Harrison ancestors and relatives. In the afternoons I instruct at a Kumon Center for math and reading.
Location Illinois, U.S.A.
Activity
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Polly Lynn made a comment
On the news radio today that a man has walked across Africa, from top to bottom, North to South, I think, this week in April 2024. It took him a year, I think. Is that right? I wondered which cultures and great nations he crossed.
Thank you for this course, Professor Hoo and artist. I wish you well too. May you reach a lot of people.
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Polly Lynn replied to Marcus Wallis
George said that he, as a history teacher, is free to include CARGo lessons and materials. So the old history will be taught, same as in the past, plus Cargo, get rid of something not so good. And then, like bread, the CARGO lessons will improve the old history lessons, which will in fact no longer be taught exactly the same as 30 years ago, but will include...
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Polly Lynn replied to Uday Deshpande
Thank you for your thoughtful import. I enjoyed reading your posts.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Bester were the cargo posters and Mr. Hoo's poems, great. Wow. So much beauty.
In order to use CARGO, I need to print these posters out. I need especially to get the poems over to my harddrive. I also need to borrow books on these people to share with kiddos (and background for me). And bring the poems to my students. I have a student who is getting a...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
“It’s okay not knowing, but once you know, it’s not okay to act like you don’t know any more.”
–Lawrence Hoo (CARGO Co-Founder)–
So true. My church says that the reason you get into trouble is that you know better. If you think, gee, they get away with making mistakes, but I get punished. No, I know better now and need to do better. No excuse.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
I was glad to see the U.S. represented, but not dominant. I was disappointed the teacher seemed to have only two students in the room. Same with this class, few voices. As usual, I talk too much.
Inspiring? U.S. Students again look engaged. I love seeing the beautiful posters in each classroom, Beth, George, and U.S. I was interested to see video,...
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Polly Lynn replied to Uday Deshpande
Nice use of the word lyrical. I had to look it up. It means (of literature, art, or music) expressing the writer's emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way. Also means powerful. All that in one word, lyrical.
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Polly Lynn replied to Polly Lynn
So, are Cargo materials free on a website to other teachers beyond this course? Just hoping to keep (bookmark?) the website, so can recommend it.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
The Three Rs.
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Polly Lynn replied to Marcus Wallis
Would you use a paper poster or an electronic image? What would you do with the image? What could the students do with the image?
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Polly Lynn replied to Sigoaluhe Kalonda
Could you explain what a Pupil Referral Unit is, please? And then could you tell how would you use Cargo material in a Pupil Referral Unit?
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Polly Lynn replied to Sarah Elliott
Imagine starting the year off talking about a woman. I liked that start to our class as well. Great hook of a poster and poem.
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Polly Lynn replied to Mari Carmen Soler
Which artist and which art work would you start with?
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Book. Well I feel bad that I returned some of my books too soon. I read about Queen N to jus tmysself and abotu Imhotep with a student. But need to do sth other than just read that. I am getting sent one more book and could do better with that.
Posters. I have not used the posters yet, need to figure out how to print them or show them.
Story or...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Yes, poem delivered very well.
I am wondering, having downloaded posters, I need to download poems too.
I think these girls, in Beth and George's videos, look more engaged than I have seen among students of African descent. They look satisfied, fed, awake, interested.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Sorry to focus on sth so superficial. I miss how teachers and students dress nicely, not slobby. They say teachers think students are smarter when dressed [in school uniforms]. OK, what was the question?
It's true. The students in video looked engaged.
Historiography. Nice to hear a teacher take teaching seriously. I like to hear that the teacher...
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Polly Lynn replied to Uday Deshpande
I am sorry. What is PPT?
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Polly Lynn made a comment
I need to listen.
"Everyone needs history." History is being cut, in the U.S., for two reasons. (1) It is increasingly seen as political and we wish to avoid that conflict. (2) There is a big movement to teach STEM or STEAM. Is STEM just a U.S. thing or do you have it in your country too? It is science technology engineering and math. The A can be...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
I don't know yet. When you say three of the scenarios, do you mean on this page?
1. I guess I could identify an African I wish my students to know more about. Senegal is a French speaking country with a number [how many?] famous writers. I could make a short list of five, tell about each one, do a matching activity. Match what one wrote to the author. ...
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Polly Lynn replied to Sarah Elliott
Can you tell me more about writing and then using a talking point? Is it what you would talk about to students or what they would discuss and write about? I am not sure what a talking point is and need help understanding.
Are you specific about what oppression each historical person faced? And who the oppressor(s) were?
Are you asking students to...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
How CARGO Classroom frames its lessons to be inclusive for all.
This phrase includes two of my questions. What does frame mean and how does one frame a lesson or frame a question?
By including great African diaspora leaders, am I including, what in the U.S. has become the Republican party? And if so do I risk alienating the parents of half my...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Classroom’s pedagogical principles, for how to deliver a more inclusive education?
Where are these again? I'll look back at beginning.
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Polly Lynn replied to Sigoaluhe Kalonda
Create material of my own. Hmm. When I am interviewed by school (human resources), I am usually asked how to include students of color. I give my best answer and I can tell by the silence in the interviewing room that my answer is a wrong answer. I am beginning but have not finished seeing why yet. I think one thing I could say is that all the children...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
What do we mean by inclusive? Is it only seeing a variety of faces? Or is it including all the students we can? There was a question a few numbers back and the person asked whether he would be welcome in the classroom? Well how do we do that, include the previously un-included and include the white male too? To answer that I have seen that we don't...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
From video:
I like the word "duty to share."
Is there a Cargo website?
"The here and now." A balance, teaching good history AND walking with children while keeping them out of the street. Teaching good material and maintaining a positive well-flowing classroom.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Thank you. Kudos to our professors.
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Polly Lynn replied to Polly Lynn
6. I am inspired by hymns at church. I have written and am publishing a book. I listened to hymns, with the lyrics or voices off, just the music. But I know the hymns, so the words, the message, a feeling for those words were still going through my head as a I wrote or edited or particularly transcribed my edits, which took a little less thinking than...
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Polly Lynn replied to Polly Lynn
5. Who would benefit from a lesson given in poetry? I think an English class or history class. A French class would benefit from a shorter simpler poem in French. The week my country was attacked on September 11, 2001, we read a poem by Jacques Prevert about a family in which the son went to war, and the son died ("familiale"). And we read an anti-war...
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Polly Lynn replied to Polly Lynn
4. The next day, once the poem is on the wall, I would ask students to find two facts from poem and tell us them. Or I would have everyone tell a partner ("pair share") one fact and the partner tell another fact. Then I would ask the whole class to share facts, until many or most from the poem were covered. For example, once four facts of covered, I might...
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Polly Lynn replied to Polly Lynn
3. What strategy could you use to teach this poem about Marcus Garvey. Students would receive a copy of the poem and I would play this reading of it aloud to them. I would write each line of the poem on card stock (thick colored paper strips). In a class of 30 students, I would pair students, give them each a line of the poem, and ask them to illustrate it...
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Polly Lynn replied to Polly Lynn
2. What are the advantages of a poem v prose in classroom? First, a major benefit of poetry is that it is short. An essay, a Wikipedia page, a book on Marcus Garvey might have similar facts, but would be longer. A student, a class, can attack a poem in one class period, rather than in two days, a week, or a month. Then, a poem selects information and...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Duh, I had heard and read the name Marcus Garvey but had assumed he was white and also did not know what he was doing beyond his being a labor leader. Thanks for the specificity in this poem.
1. How much precise knowledge is there in the poem? A great deal.
a) He was self-taught and his books were from his father's library.
b) Although a printer's... -
Polly Lynn replied to Marcus Wallis
What do you mean by "welcome"? You are free to attend. You don't mean red carpet and tea do you?
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Specifically, what did white Jamaicans [British citizens?] do to keep political power when [all men, including freedmen and Native Americans] were able to vote?
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Wow. I feel so good to have this information share with me. Gotta go out the door to work.
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Polly Lynn replied to Sigoaluhe Kalonda
Good answer.
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Polly Lynn replied to Uday Deshpande
Please, explain to me how she was British? Is that Mary Seacole was born in Jamaica in 1805, in 1805 Britain owned Jamaica, and women were considered citizens?
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Polly Lynn made a comment
In her healing work, did she use fruit and spices? Did she help people with broken bones?
Mary Seacole had ancestors in Africa?
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Mary Seacole: summarizing each paragraph in about three words.
1. Jamaica = Redware & Arawak. OR
Jamaica = Caribs & Taino.
2. (1494) Xaynaca becomes Jamaica.
3. Mountaneous Arawaks survive.
4. Enslaved make sugar.
5. Mary Seacole nurse & entrepreneur.I'm sorry, the mother became a nurse or did Mary Seacole become a nurse, or both? What kind of...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Not sure what framing is. I do recall we were to focus on positive and not put down other or compare two people.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
This poetry is so powerful. My stupid comment is that I love seeing rhymes that are not spelled like rhymes: like, bike. I love brothers, colors; themselves, hell. etc. If I were smart I would print this out, can't access it once course is over.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Timely. Haiti is once again in the news, often is.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
I found the illustration of Queen Nzinga helpful. I wondered right away how to use it. Can I download it? I very easily recall Queen Nzinga and have gone on to read two books about her.
FYI, the book Brazen is for teachers and I would recommend the teacher read it to herself and not necessarily give the whole book to students. I live in a Puritanical...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Are you kidding that we can have access to these? Wonderful.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Dutty Boukman.
1. I would want students to know Haiti saw the most famous, most effective slave uprising; that whites were little to no help; that is was successful; and that success took 13 years. The uprising scared North American enslavers into becoming more strict, vigilant, and paranoid.
2. I could ask students what do you see in image? I could... -
Polly Lynn made a comment
1. Abolitionists were ineffective.
2. No credit shared.
3. Threats of lynching.
4. Self-worth present.
5. Enslaved fighting always.
6. Haiti's successful war.
7. Dutty Boukman inspired.
8. J.F., Biassou, Louverture, Dessalines.
9. Independence; Brits abolish slave trade.
10. Haiti first, others last.
11-14. Violence undiscussed... -
Polly Lynn made a comment
Sum Step 2.10
1. Haiti houses Taino.
2. Once many languages.
3. Decimated; Africans arrive.
4. "Haiti" honors Amer-Indians.
5. Sugar 'n coffee.
6. Forced labor unsurvivable.
7. Life expectancy 7-16. -
Polly Lynn made a comment
1. I found the striking image of Nzinga less helpful in understanding her contributions than I did the image of Imhotep, which presented some of his many contributions. Queen Nzinga's silhouette has [her looking at] ships with Portuguese sails.
2. Yes. She dealt primarily against the Portuguese. She was a [proud] queen.
3. This image of Nzinga as... -
Polly Lynn made a comment
What is the impact of Queen Nzinga's life? Nzinga continued the reign of her Ndongo family over western Angola. After losing her son at the hands of her brother, she watched that brother rule. Under his rule, she negotiated with a strong hand with the Portuguese. Although the Portuguese signed a treaty, they broke it. Against the Portuguese, she sicced...
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Polly Lynn replied to Polly Lynn
Thank you.
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Polly Lynn replied to Martin Nelson
It can be challenging to read material, comprehend a video (with a transcript, good), study a poem, and post an answer in English. Evaluation requires more than just understanding it literally. Perhaps people will answer more later when more comfortable with the materials and after seeing other comments they like.
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Polly Lynn replied to Marcus Wallis
I wish we had more debate in my country, real debate.
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Polly Lynn replied to Marcus Wallis
Here are three sources about Queen Nzinga, whereas I typically find only one or two about women in my family. The large number for Queen Nzinga reflect her power. Queen Nzinga did not take a king, had a son, and had lovers. In the U.S. after a woman gets married she can "disappear" from the public record under her husband's name, or vice versa, a well-known...
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Good explanation of Boudica.
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Good example for #3 because yours was a military leader.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
1. I don't know that I had pre-conceptions of an African woman? Women in Senegal lived in huts. In African countries, particularly with northern parts that touch Muslim areas, a man who can afford to support them might have a second, up to four wives, on in each hut. So perhaps I imagined a woman living in her own hut, one of two or more wives of her...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Thank you for that poem. I don't see a children's book entirely about Queen Nzinga, but do see her story in three collections of stories about women. The collections are:
1. Political Leaders, an e-book. I don't read e-books yet.
2. Penelope Bagieu, Brazen. This fun cartoon (graphic novel?) and, in six pages of images and four of text, tells how she... -
Polly Lynn replied to Martin Nelson
Not every culture has practiced valuing what students think. Some class/courses are lecture rather than discussion. To improve a student discussion, how about asking a student to elaborate. The discipline of a class is the teacher's responsibility and s/he can pull a student aside and make a private suggestion on how to improve, rather than embarrass the...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Why did trade strengthen Alkebulan? Meeting all your own needs is like survival. Meeting half your own needs and buying things from me to meet the other half is flourishing. That trade frees you and free me to do something else that we would rather do. Trade also allows you to do what you do best and me to do what I do best, specialization. You gave the...
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Polly Lynn replied to Polly Lynn
What do I consider about images before showing most of them to students? The images need to work in the culture we are studying. For example is it a French coffee cup and saucer or an American coffee mug? Are there plastic packets of half and half (cream and milk) or a little pitcher of cream? I try to use images that appear more French and Latin American...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Images in my classroom?
In our French and Spanish classroom, we have illustrated new vocabulary words, so we do not use English. For extra credit, kids grab images off the internet, print them at home, I laminate the images, and show them to class as flash cards. I also write on thick paper strips--in the U.S. called tag board, sometimes--the words and we...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Hi, George.
I would like to speak less and the children speak more.
I would like to either be inspired for a lesson and polish the lesson before working us through it.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Hi, Beth,
You saw progress and you gave us the example of teaching reading. From now on those children can read.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
What my thinking holds is the two poems by Professor Hoo, one about what the boy grown to a man misses in his education and that of his children: history of his heritage, which is our fuller history. And the second poem was about Imhotep. Could he really have invented the pyramid and could we know someone's thinking this far in time? It seems so. I don't...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Here are two examples of not studying Africa. In about 1978, we were memorizing country names and their capitals. The teacher told us that we would not do Africa because it was changing so often. I find this to be a cop out because we should have studied the names of African countries, in part because they were changing. We could have become leaders in any...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
I need help with the word frame. What does it mean and how do you use it? Thank you.
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Polly Lynn replied to Polly Lynn
Agree. The teacher can see what to take out and what to keep in, if passionate about military tactics. Passion aside, teachers could work to bring in and understand and learn themselves from cultural lessons about Maori, and in this case, peoples from the African disapora.
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Polly Lynn replied to Marcus Wallis
Why?
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Just as we were not to compare Florence with Mary (but to let Mary shine), we should not compare the historical Imhotep to a [Disney-like] mummy (but let Imhotep shine). The students might find the cartoon or movie character-- with its bright colors, blue light, and emotional music, and sexy friend--the more memorable Imhotep. There is only one hour per...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Wow, so cool to see Imhotope in objects. Three things the objects can tell us. First, historians and archaeologists can date the items, using carbon dating and also date other objects found in the same place. Second, archivists can link the objects to Imhotope, say, here is his name. Historians can say, these are all the things that the object itself says....
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Polly Lynn made a comment
In the image of Imhotep by ___, I see a wealthy leader (gold hat and necklace, yet we know he was generous) and an inventor or architect of a step pyramid with a square base. Imhotep stands on pillars that are not Greek, maybe Egyptian. He is in this way elevated above mankind as a writer. On the right hand pillars is a golden P; I don't know what that...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Imhotep was worshipped by the early Christians? How about by some early Christians?
I am interested in evidence or a source for some early Christians worshipping Imhotep. Here's one. The early Christian leader Paul, in a letter, wrote that he saw people worshipping [gods and among them] an unknown god. People were hedging their bets; don't miss praying...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
My goal is to find children's books of high quality to read with students, who are ages 9 and 10. Through World-Cat, a local library has access to these children's titles. But I don't know yet which ones are history (possibly 1-4) v. using Imhotep as a character for non-fiction (5-6)?
1. By Marion McKenney. The Genius of Egypt.
2. By Hezzy. Afro Pick... -
Polly Lynn replied to Marcus Wallis
I am glad you learned about Maori early history. What is a good source that someone living not in New Zealand could use to learn about Maori? My Harrison relative sold sugar to a Maori, asked that he pay, next time he had a debt and instead of paying killed her. I wonder his view about money and food, how she might have treated him with more respect. I...
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Polly Lynn replied to Marcus Wallis
I need to ask a better question. And rather than defining Mary as the African Florence Nightingale, just tell, show, work through, what Mary Seacole did. Say and recall and write and display her name, for one.
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Polly Lynn replied to Sarah Elliott
I name the country or group of people. Instead of saying Africa, I try to say Senegal or Ghana. Instead of Native American, I try to say Cahokian (etc.) If I don't know the country or group, I look it up and ask.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
We all are from the African diaspora, unless living in Africa.
"African and African Heritage Diaspora" and "European Heritage" is long. I know these words have already been decided, but I hope usage shortens them. For white I have heard Anglos/anglos, which is short.
Other than length, new vocabulary has been worthwhile because it is making me see the...
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Polly Lynn replied to lakew tarekegn
How interesting. I am sorry that funding was not available. Medicine is not my field; what was the funding needed for? Can you transfer the article without funding? Can you submit it to a medical journal? Can you contact someone attending a world conference and ask him or her to present the material, with you as first author?
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Polly Lynn replied to Marcus Wallis
You are right that choices need to be made, choices by the teacher, textbook authors, history department chairs. I just looked up Mary Seacole and think that she and Florence Nightingale could be read about then discussed, together, since Mary did not consider herself a nurse. They both worked during the Crimea War. What to take out? With wars, one could...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
OK, so teach the biography and contributions of a person. Not, compare and contrast one African with one European.
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Polly Lynn replied to lakew tarekegn
I like your first paragraph. Being in the majority rulers, did Amhara dominate minorities in Ethiopia? And would this domination be part of the history you wish to teach? In teaching about Amhara to a diverse group of students, could you teach sharing, debate, and democracy, correcting that sense of domination?
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Polly Lynn made a comment
It seems to me that some nations colonized others, allowed schools but did not allow local history to be taught. Specifically, children in former French colonies were in the 20th century taught only French history, kings, never--I am told--about their people's history.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
I loved hearing Mr. Woo read his poem. Amazing how educated adult teachers--with a BA or MA--seemed unable to find a single book or object or guest speaker who could have inspired the child, Mr. Woo.
I am here, as a genealogist because I need to read, research, and write about one or two or three of my relatives who enslaved people. And as a teacher, I...
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Polly Lynn replied to SITHUMINA DINIL RAVISHAN
Hi, Dinil.
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Polly Lynn replied to lakew tarekegn
Thank you for the opportunity to learn about the Amhara people who ruled Ethiopia.
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Polly Lynn replied to زياد المهدي
Best wishes.
I hope to select a children's book with a strong girl or boy of African descent. If a character is a secondary sidekick, that book does not count for towards my goal of reading about historic characters of th African diaspora. And I hope to research and write about people my U.S. relatives enslaved.
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Polly Lynn replied to kavishka chethana
Hi, Kavishka.
Me too. I wish to learn how to teach better than I do.
I tutor three children in reading and wish to rotate in good books that have African-American characters. By rotate I mean one in three books to be about an African-American; one in three classic good literature; and one in three a book that the child has shown interest in, a book of... -
Polly Lynn made a comment
Linnaean Society (1788)? In St. Louis, U.S., at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, there is a Linnean House, a hot house filled with citrus trees. Those gardens were founded by Henry Shaw (born about 1800 or 1801). Is there any connection between the Linnaean Society and the Linnean House? Did they both house botanical species?
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Has the link died?
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Polly Lynn replied to Louise Curtis
An accident or disease can draw observers and relatives to work against future accidents and disease. A relative was motivated by ships' sinking to track ships and receive their signals, signals that were required to be sent but that no one was equipped to receive, if you can believe it.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
I am excited to try this out.
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Polly Lynn replied to Wendy H
Did the obnoxious oxide have a permanent effect on his brain?
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Polly Lynn replied to john ramm
As a girl at a school having the best chemistry teacher in the state, I was advised to take cooking and sewing.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
In addition to watching a teacher perform experiments, secondary school students, in the last 100 years, work through experiments.
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Li, Na, K. Those are elements on the far left of the element chart in science classrooms. When I attended a high school in Belgium, our science teacher demonstrating that as we move from top to bottom the elements have a stronger and stronger reaction to water. Li when tossed into a beaker of water said, Zzz. Na said, ZZZZZ and ran around in the glass. ...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
In the cartoon, the person taking the gas is drawn like a turkey. He inhales gas and farts the gas, with his pants flying to the wind; his tail resembles a turkey's feathers. There are as many women as men watching the experiment. The cartoon makes fun of the experiment, but I don't think is harsh enough to hurt the scientists' feelings, if they have a...
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Are you shocked that Davy tested this gas on himself when it was thought to be fatal?
When something is thought to be fatal, it is more polite to test it on yourself than on your friend. -
Polly Lynn made a comment
Robert Southey writes of his own poetry: "to write it irregularly, without rhymes. for this I could you give you reasons in plenty, but as you cannot lend me your ear, we will defer it till you hear the poem." This quotation shows that Mr. Southey's poetry was meant to be heard. Many English-speakers in the 1800s wrote first for the ears second for the eyes....
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Where?
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Polly Lynn made a comment
Among pain killers, would these for child birth resemble nitrous oxide? Ether and chloroform became popular in the 1800s. Queen Victoria, despite medical and religious advice not to take it, took chloroform when giving birth to her last two of nine children. Gibson, in Early History of Anesthesia in Labor, JOGNN, writes in 2017, "She wore a metal mask, with...