Students will become familiar with the history of flags, learn the basic parts of a flag by drawing and labeling a flag diagram, and use vexillologic terms to describe selected national flags.

As a social studies teacher with thirty years of experience, I have studied flags and used them in various classes to teach about history, geography, and culture. I have acquired a collection of miniature flags that have been both useful and popular during these lessons. Flag projects have always been very successful with students and their enthusiasm and interests in these objects led me create an on-campus Vexillology Club. This club used research, games, and other interactive tasks to introduce students to the study of flags and included national flags, U.S. historic flags, U.S. state flags, maritime flags, and more. For several years, I also served as the trainer and mentor for my school’s flag detail team, a student team who handled the school's daily ceremony of raising and lowering the American flag on campus. In this role, I trained the team in various aspects of flag etiquette and how to determine when the flag should be flown at half-staff. I am also currently a member of the North American Vexillological Association, which proudly boasts as “the world’s largest organization of flag enthusiasts and scholars.”

This class will include one YouTube video that is embedded into the lesson presentation. The video (duration 4:17) is titled “The Origin of National Flags—Flags Explained” and is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R43ww5fHWg.