I have a secret.

I. Love. Historical. Documents.

OK, so maybe this doesn't come as much of a surprise to those who know that I was a Social Studies teacher, or to my former high school students who endured many a "story time" session read from the archives of the WWI/WWII documents.  I mean really, who doesn't get excited at getting a glimpse into the life of a person from many years ago, via their diary entries, letters to loved ones, or quotes in a newspaper? I love the look of aged, yellow newspaper and waterstained letters written in ink and the smell of 'olden days' memorabilia?

So...it's just me?

At any rate, today's Fresh Look Fridays post is focused on a fantastic, interactive website featuring historical documents.  Letters From the Trunk is, and I quote, "an exciting opportunity to learn about the men and women who settled in the Canadian West in the first half of the twentieth century."

Students can enter the train station from long ago, and explore the contents of various primary and secondary resources from people who made the journey to Western Canada.

I love this site for many reasons:

    1. It gives 'real life' context for events in history that are discussed in the classroom.

    2. It supports inquisitiveness, inquiry and exploration.

    3. It's a fantastic site for a small group of students to navigate through together on a SMART Board.  Think of the discussions that might come from some of their findings!

    4. It introduces students to the concept of primary and secondary documents.

    5. It's Canadian with an emphasis on Alberta.  For students in Alberta, this helps provide a small connection to the 3 immigrants' stories from 100 years ago.

    6. The items in this train station are completely varied -- posters, newspapers, photographs, diaries, maps, letters, audio clips and more.

This site definitely rates high on my list of websites to check out and introduce to your students!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone.  Go Riders! :)

Vanessa