Andrew Watt

Wikibooks:Babel

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About Me

My name is Andrew, and I teach history and English composition at a middle school. I hold two master's degrees, in Christian theology and ancient history. I'm thinking about getting a third in English literature. I'm a fencing coach, a Boy Scout, and a freelance writer.

What I'm Working On

I tried out Wikipedia, to work on the free encyclopedia. I liked it. It's cool, and interesting. Yet I discovered that I didn't have the heart to go in and do lots of editing of existing pages. I'm a history teacher, and I do a lot of editing on student papers, which I find deeply frustrating. However, I discovered this Ancient History wikibook project was nearly empty. The notion that this is something I can work on directly, in collaboration with peers and colleagues and talented amateurs, to bring the book into existence... That is a whole lot more exciting to me than constantly editing and revising, which is what I constantly do to my students' work.

After a long absence, I'm back. I'm still working on Ancient History as my principal project, especially since I think it's particularly important given the OLPC project from MIT and Nicholas Negroponte. Otherwise, this part of the study of history will likely vanish from the scene. At the moment I'm planning on working on the Mesopotamia and Rome sections.

My Goal

My goal is to provide some basic text and stubs right now for this wikibook project, Ancient History, so as to draw attention to the project and get others to contribute. I hope this is acceptable, and I look forward to working with you all.

Also, I want to finish, and get into PDF format, How to write a research paper in History, and maybe talk Fastfission back into collaborating on that project. The book is 75%-80% complete, and I'd like to get it done across the board.

I'd also like to begin, organize, and get into PDF format, How to Study because this and How to write a research paper in History would be good books for me to use in class. The existing copyright versions of such books are usually quite expensive, and having ones that I could photocopy and distribute would be useful. I wouldn't mind doing a High School Guide to English Grammar, either, but I'm going to finish my first three projects, or at least get some more people contributing to them, first.

My Contributions

1. Ancient History
   1. Introduction
   2. Ancient History/Egypt/Pharaohs
   3. Ancient History/Egypt
   4. Geography
   5. Human Origins
   6. Paleolithic Age
2. Wikijunior:Ancient Civilizations/Minoans
3. Wikijunior:Ancient Civilizations/Sumerians
4. How to write a research paper in History
   1. Organization
   2. Writing the Paper

My Projects

• Template:Bi
• Template:Bi
• How to Study
• High School Guide to English Grammar