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Photo Credit: Jennifer Boyer-Switala (2009) - Omaha Beach, Normandy, France It is not by chance that I chose to wait until today to make my  first summer 2012 blog post. It was sixty-eight years ago today that my grandfather, PFC Charles "Butch" Boyer, along with hundreds of thousands of brave Allied soldiers stormed the beaches and skies of Normandy in the Allied invasion known the world over as D-Day. Operation Overlord was a combined air and amphibious landing under the supreme command of US General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Calais Machiavelli once said, " Although the use of fraud in any action is detestable...in the combat of war it is praiseworthy and glorious. And a man who uses fraud to overcome his enemy is praised, just as much as he who overcomes his enemy by force." Especially if you're on the winning side, I suppose! I use this quote  with my students when I introduce the Deception at Calais.  The reality is that Hitl...

Salut, mes amis ! It has been far too long since I have blogged. The school year picked up for me in February and it was literally full steam ahead until today. Between February and today I did the following: Taught and prepped 36 tenth-graders for the AP Euro exam (I did this all year, but the Feb-May part was home stretch stuff) Planned our 2013 trip to London, Normandy & Paris (29 kids going!) Took two graduate courses (for my MA Program for Holocaust and Genocide Studies...am taking two more now!) Took a student field trip to the USHMM & organized a survivor to speak to my class Drank some wine  Organized/met a Polish-Jewish WWII Partisan (Resistance fighter - think Bielski Bros in Defiance ) to come to our school and talk to our 10th graders Organized and ran our regional NHD (National History Day) competition Coached my fab four in NHD...they took 2nd in the state and will compete next week for the national title!  Finished my duties as co-coordinator of ...