Example of student final post

Robert Mackenzie: Final Post of Civil War Project 11/12/11

My experience of the Civil War Reenactment has really boosted a lot of my skills and was really fun! As far as what I learned from setting up the tournament, I was on the Logistics Team so I got to help set up the entire battlefield with the soldiers beforehand. They showed me how they "die" in the battle. They have gunpowder cartridges that are all white, except for one of them which is red. If they pull out the red cartridge at any time, they take their final shot and then die shortly after that. Some of the Captains in the battle brought horses that they trained to ignore the loud gunshots and rode them around the field, which was awesome. They told me after the battle that the captains did that to encourage morale in the soldiers.

I learned a lot about planning and organization as well. Getting all of the tents set up, getting the battlefield ready and organizing the tickets to be sold took a lot of time management and planning ahead of time. Otherwise, the event would have been late and the spectators would not have been happy. The ticket sales also took a lot of responsibility, since our team was in charge of holding the money and making sure that the Boy Scouts representative and the Florida Museum of Natural History representative got the money at the end of the event. Mr. Panzano even helped us sell tickets when we were getting overwhelmed since there were a LOT of people that came to watch the event. I learned how to manage stress under pressure too because we had to solve some issues that came up. One of the issues was that it had rained the night before and the ground was wet, so we put down some tarp on the grass that we went and bought so that the tent vendors could set up on dry ground. It made me more confident in being resourceful since that was my idea!

I managed to learn how to post on this blog as well, seeing as I have never written in a blog and did not really care what they were. Now I think they're really cool! I know how to make one now and how to link it to my Twitter so that my friends can see as well. It is pretty awesome knowing that I can publish stuff online that anyone can read without having to be my friend on Facebook or something. I also learned how to look for credible resources online for research. Mr. Panzano taught us a bunch of tips and tricks to watch out for faulty websites with bogus information about a topic, which will really help me next year and in college.

Our Team Captain was Kelly King. Kelly really pulled us together and got us working during the tournament, even though it seemed like there were some big issues. She calmed us down and tried to stay positive the whole time, which really helped. She was a great Team Captain and I think she deserves full marks for her work.


Overall, I had an amazing time helping to plan the event with my team and I learned a lot from it. Not only did I get to watch a live Civil War Reenactment, which will now help me visualize the Civil War a lot better as a whole, but I also got to set up a really successful event from the ground up. I can definitely use this as an experience now to help me start other events later in life. I learned about organization, time management and solving problems under pressure as well, which are really important skills to have in life.

Thanks to Mr. Panzano for giving us such an awesome project!!

Example of student progress

Steven Gallows: Report on Vendors Progress 9/13/11


My progress for the Gettysburg Get-Together is going very well! My team was put in charge of communications with the vendors for the event and they voted for me to be Team Captain last week, which means that I get to write the blog for our team every week (yaaay!). We have managed to talk to a couple of food vendors already that would be willing to come out and sell their food there. Plus, the Civil War guys that will set up their tents with the weapons and armor are really interested in showing off their stuff too. They want to do a live cannon fire! I'll have to ask the principal for permission to do that, but I think it will be really cool! I'll report back in next week when we have more progress!

Posting Procedures

Hey Gang!

Alright so here are the instructions of how you will post on the blog here:

1. You will discuss your progress of setting up the Civil War Reenactment event (it doesn't have to be step by step, just a brief summary of what you did and how you did it)

2. During the event, you will study the Civil War Reenactment as it happens and remember your reaction to it for your Final Reflection.

3. Speak to at least 1 vendor at the event and ask them about their historical significance (i.e. blacksmith technology, doctors, cooks, officers in the battle.

4. Write your Final Reflections and submit them onto the blog.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me before and after class periods during the week. Remember that you have a little over two months to complete this project, but you CANNOT procrastinate. The Team Leaders should contact the Civil War Reenactment Officials as soon as possible to set the date for the event.

Good Luck Everyone!!!