gathering primary sources

September 12, 1962. John F. Kennedy's speech at Rice University: "I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency. "

You can hear these famous words (immortalized in Countdown's first scrapbook, too!): "We choose to go to the moon!" You can hear the entire 19-minute speech here, at the NASA website, and read the transcript here, at the JFK Library (you can watch the video at this link as well). Finally, here is a list at NASA of various ways to see and hear the speech that launched the race to the moon.

Here is a 2-minute clip of said speech, on YouTube, complete with stirring sound track, for heaven's sake... but that could lend itself to a discussion of primary source material vs what we do to/with it!
So. For those of you working with Countdown and looking for primary source/Common Core material, here's some, on a 50th anniversary, no less. I'll be posting more Countdown resources here, and will also link them to a board I've called "Countdown Resources" on my Pinterest page.

There are and will continue to be far more resources at Pinterest, just fyi, for all my books, and they'll be gathered in one place. I'm experimenting with moving resources off my website, which I find clunky and hard to find and navigate, and onto Pinterest, where they seem much, much easier to manage.

I've just started this Countdown board, but it will grow, as will the playlist for Countdown (which I will put together as soon as I'm done with 1964's book two playlist) so you can use the music with the book as well.

Whew. Resources. They are important. More and more I am seeing how the images and the sounds of the sixties are telling the story of the sixties every bit as much as words are telling the tale. It's how we live, isn't it? We use all our faculties. It's how we learn -- with all our senses. It's how we experience story. It's exciting to have public places to gather research and so easily share it.

I also kinda like my Pinterest page. hee. I've done some surfing on Pinterest, and I've decided you can tell a lot about a person from what she pins and how she arranges what she pins.  Ahem.

As Franny Chapman would say, "Heavens to Murgatroyd."