I just wrapped up another set of lesson plans for PBS. This time they support a great film called When Worlds Collide.
The film was produced by KCET in Los Angeles. They asked me to write a blog post about the lesson materials:
There are few absolutes in history. Yet, we often try to boil down events and ideas to a simple explanation.
When I was in elementary school, I remember learning about the brave conquistadors who braved long voyages across the Atlantic Ocean only to be confronted by hordes of half-naked savages. Victory was inevitable and ordained by God. Years later, I read another version of this confrontation that painted the Spanish as murderers and the ensuing events as one tragedy after another.
Read the rest at the KCET website.
danmcdowell.net 
What an incredible documentary! I look forward to the lesson plans that I can use for my classroom. I have already incorporated my educational backyard…as an expatriate who lived in Mexico and South America for fourteen years and finally an M.A. in Anthropology…So, this documentary and your lesson plans will add one more visual experience for the children who will learn not only about “…the brave conquistadores” but also the indigenous people who were exploited and changed by this phenomenal collision of cultures.
Thank you!
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