Weekly Core Subjects Resources
Another week has gone by. Is it just me or has the first part of this school year FLOWN by? Hard to believe that there is only one more week before Christmas break.
Social Studies
1.) StreetLaw has put together a great site for Landmark Supreme Court Cases. Whether you are teaching them or students are learning them, this would be a great starting point.
2.) Virtual Middle School Library is a site that offers tons of links and resources for teaching social studies. They are broken down by subject matter. Don't let the title fool you, these will work at the high school level as well.
3.) Our Story is a site dedicated to sharing the stories of American Citizens. There are activities, books, and field trip suggestions for learning about American History.
4.) From the Library of Congress is a great map collection. There are six different categories of maps that visitors can select from to view and use. If you plan on teaching a lesson involving maps, I highly recommend examining this site first.
Resources About the Great Depression
Today marks the 81st anniversary of Black Tuesday, the day that the stock market crashed triggering the Great Depression. Below you will find some videos and links to lessons related to the Great Depression.
On YouTube I came across a playlist of 43 videos about Black Tuesday and the Great Depression. The playlist is a mix of archival film and documentary film. The list is embedded below.
Popout
From PBS Video Great Depression Stories features three women talking about their experiences during the Great Depression.
Watch the full episode. See more Nightly Business Report.
The following four links are resources that I've previously shared on Free Technology for Teachers.
The Social Security Act of 1935
FDR and the Banking System
The Farm Letters - Stories of Great Depression Life
History of the First 100 Days
PBS Series On Native Americans
We Shall Remain is a new PBS mini-series on Native American history. You can watch the episodes for free online, and it also offers anexcellent teacher’s guide.
I’m adding the link to The Best Sites For International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People.
Docs That Teach
I came across Docs That Teach this morning (Thanks to @SuzanneWisler)
Docs That TeachThe site is divided into three parts:
1) Activities
- Find and use Activities created by other educators.
- Create your own Activities
Each activity-creation tool helps students develop historical thinking skills and gets them thinking like historians. Choose one of the tools below to begin. Then find and insert primary sources and customize the activity to fit your unique students.
www.docsteach.org2) Documents- Select from 3000+ primary sources for use in classroom activities
Primary Sources
We have selected thousands of primary source documents to bring the past to life as classroom teaching tools from the billions preserved at the National Archives. Use the search field above to find written documents, images, maps, charts, graphs, audio and video in our ever-expanding collection that spans the course of American history.
3) Account- Being logged in allows you to bookmark documents and activities to access, use and create later.
The site was created by the Foundation of National Archivesand offers even more resources for teachers:
- Document Analysis
- Why Teach with Documents?
- Bloom’s Taxonomy
- Sharing Activities
- National History Standards
- Teaching with Documents and NCSS
- Additional Links
I think this site has great potential in the Social Studies and History classroom. I especially liked the CREATE area, honoring the highest level in the Bloom’s taxonomy (which the site acknowledged on their Bloom’s Taxonomy resource link).
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2010
It’s time for another year end list, this time focusing on social studies. You might also be interested in:
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2009
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2008
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2007
And, of course, there are 500 other “The Best…” lists, too.
As is the case in all my lists, some of these sites might have been around prior to 2009, but they were new to me this year.
Here are my ranked choices for The Best Social Studies Websites — 2010 (that are accessible to English Language Learners):
Number fifteen: The Lottery Of Life is a neat site from Save The Children. It gives you a chance to see how your life might have looked if you had been born in another country.
Number fourteen: Vote Easy is a very accessible interactive that lets users identify their opinion on several key public policy issues, and then compares those positions with those of local candidates. It’s probably the best site of its kind that I’ve seen, and is certainly accessible to English Language Learners.
Number thirteen: LIFE recently unveiled a neat new feature that lets you search for any photos in its archives and create an online timeline/slideshow that you can share with a unique url address. Their Photo Timeline lets you use their original captions or you can edit them and create your own, as well as writing your own description for your whole creation. After you log-in (you can do so using your Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, or Google accounts — it would be nice if they allowed on site registration, but I guess you can’t have everything!), it’s just a matter of searching and dragging the photos to your timeline/slideshow.
Number twelve: At the BBC’s Dimensions site you identify an event or object (The Great Wall Of China, a battle, etc.), then type in a zipcode, and then it will overlay the dimensions of that event or object to the zip code you picked.
Number eleven: “Finishing The Dream” is a new collection of 100 videos from NBC News related to the Civil Rights Movement.
Number ten: Numbeo shows the cost-of-living in just about every country in the world, and many cities in the United States.
Number nine: The BBC has developed what they call theNews Globe. It has a virtual globe globe that you spin, and there are points on it. When you place your cursor on the points a short introduction to a news story based on that location shows-up, and you can click on it to go to the complete report. You type in a query for the types of news you’re looking for.
Number eight: “A Moment In Time” is the compilation of photos that the New York Times organized. Thousands of people from all over the world took a picture at the same moment on May 2nd. It’s an amazing collection. The photos can certainly be used in class to have English Language Learners describe and discuss them. Also, teachers can have their students use the same idea on a smaller scale and develop their own “moments in time.”
Number seven: Earth Pulse: State Of The Earth 2010 is an impressive effort from National Geographic. It has a number of features, including a photo gallery and interactive quiz. Most impressive, though, is an interactive Vital Statistics Map that lets you compare global trends on many topics.
Number six: Critical Past is a new site that has 57,000 “historic” videos from 1893 to the 1990’s — many of them appear to be old newsreels. It seems to be designed to sell them for download, but anyone can view them online for free. It has a very nice search feature.
Number five: “Timelines: Sources From History” is a nifty interactive from the British Library that lets you explore items from its collection using text, video and images. It’s very engaging. The only negative I see is that you can save favorites, but only to a PDF that you can then print-out. There doesn’t appear to be anyway to save it online. That seems a little strange, but maybe I’m missing something.
Number four: The BBC’s “A History Of The World.” is a neat interactive timeline display of historical objects with images and commentary. Not only is it an accessible and engaging way to learn more about world history, but after a quick site registration you can contribute your own historical object choice to the collection and write about it.
Number three: Zinn Education Project: Teaching a People’s History is a collaboration between Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change! As their announcement states:
The new site features over 75 free, downloadable teaching activities for middle- and high- school students to bring a people’s history to the classroom. These are the best U.S. history-teaching articles from the Rethinking Schools archives. The site also lists hundreds of recommended books, films, and websites. The teaching activities and resources are organized by theme, time period, and grade level.
Though teachers would have to modify the materials to make them accessible to English Language Learners, the site is truly extraordinary.
Number two: Docs Teach from the U.S. National Archiveslets you easily create online activities using primary sources. Plus, you can access the interactives that others have created, too. It’s super-easy to register. Creating the interactives is not as intuitive as I would like, but it’s still pretty easy.
Number one: The Time Map Of World History is a super-cool interactive and accessible way to learn about…world history. Using a map and accessible text, it starts at 3500 BC.
Feedback is welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to considersubscribing to this blog for free.
You might also want to explore the 500 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
10 US History Google Earth Tours
America, A Narrative History is a text published by WW Norton. As a free supplement to the book, Norton has published ten Google Earth tours. These tours include major themes and events in US History. The list includes the Revolutionary War, the path to the Civil War, WWII, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, Lewis & Clark's expedition, the Indian Removal Act, Pre-Columbian North America, the national parks system, and the 20th Century power grid. All of the tours include multiple images and references. Some of the tours also have "tour questions" for students to answer.
Update for clarification: Anyone can access these tours even if you don't own a copy of the book.
Applications for EducationNorton's US History Google Earth tours could be a fantastic alternative to using slides to present a lesson on US History. These tours provide history lessons within a geographic context.
For the last few years I've had my US History students create Google Maps and Google Earth files about various events (Revolutionary War, Civil War) and themes (Manifest Destiny, Imperialism) in the course. Before they start creating their own projects I like to share some models, Norton's US History Google Earth tours are good models.
DocsTeach
This one is mostly for Social Studies teachers. DocsTeachfrom the National Archives is a site all about using Primary Documents. When you visit the site you can find already created activities using various primary sources. There aren't that many yet, but the idea is for people to create and share their own. I looked at one about the New Deal and was impressed. You can also search through the various documents (3000+) and find one you are looking for.
The best feature is the ability to create your own activitiesfrom the various documents on the site. There are seven different activities that you can create using the various sources. The activities are based around seven different strategies: Finding a Sequence, Focusing on Details, Interpreting Data, Making Connections, Mapping History, Seeing the Big Picture, and Weighing the Evidence.
You can create an account and save activities for a later date. You can also bookmark documents that you will want to use in future activities. You can customize the activities for students to work on in the computer lab or even in your classroom using just your computer to start a discussion. You can provide students with a specific web address for them to visit. Man, this site does it all for History Teachers.
This has to be the most thorough example of why we no longer will need textbooks in a history classroom. They talk about the use of Primary Documents, this has to be the best I have seen. If I go back to the classroom, I have found a definite resource to use.
“The Secret Annex Online” Is Not-To-Be-Missed Anne Frank Resource
The Secret Annex Online is a 3D interactive of Anne Frank’s hiding place during World War II.
If you’re learning about Anne Frank in you class, this is a not-to-be-missed resource.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Anne Frank.
Top 10 Sites for Creating Timelines
"A timeline is a kind of graphic design showing a long bar labeled with dates alongside itself and (usually) events labeled on points where they would have happened. It is used to show events along a period of time, and are often used in education to help students and researchers with understanding events and trends for a particular subject." (Wikipedia)
Top 10 Sites for Creating Timelines
- Capzles - Quite simply one of the nicest timeline creation sites around, w/ a beautiful user interface as well as the ability to embed into a site.
- Time Rime - An excellent site w/ educational instance (great for teachers) that allows users to create multimedia timelines.
- xTimeline - Share wonderful looking timelines w/ audio, video, and pictures. Very user friendly too!!
- TimeGlider - Great site that not only lets users create multimedia timelines but legends as well. There is a "plus upgrade" in the works specifically for education!
- Dipity - Create beautiful timelines w/ the ability to add video/pictures.
- Time Toast - A bullet point centered timeline w/ text and pictures.
- Preceden - A fun easy site to use to create interactive timelines.
- Timelinr - A very simple to use timeline generator that only displays text.
- Our Timelines - Create timelines by using preexisting forms (text only).
- Read Write Think - Very similar to Our Timelines for creating text only timelines
Weekly Core Subjects Resources
Another week has gone by. Is it just me or has the first part of this school year FLOWN by? Hard to believe that there is only one more week before Christmas break.
Social Studies
1.) StreetLaw has put together a great site for Landmark Supreme Court Cases. Whether you are teaching them or students are learning them, this would be a great starting point.
2.) Virtual Middle School Library is a site that offers tons of links and resources for teaching social studies. They are broken down by subject matter. Don't let the title fool you, these will work at the high school level as well.
3.) Our Story is a site dedicated to sharing the stories of American Citizens. There are activities, books, and field trip suggestions for learning about American History.
4.) From the Library of Congress is a great map collection. There are six different categories of maps that visitors can select from to view and use. If you plan on teaching a lesson involving maps, I highly recommend examining this site first.
Resources About the Great Depression
Today marks the 81st anniversary of Black Tuesday, the day that the stock market crashed triggering the Great Depression. Below you will find some videos and links to lessons related to the Great Depression.
On YouTube I came across a playlist of 43 videos about Black Tuesday and the Great Depression. The playlist is a mix of archival film and documentary film. The list is embedded below.
Popout
From PBS Video Great Depression Stories features three women talking about their experiences during the Great Depression.
Watch the full episode. See more Nightly Business Report.
The following four links are resources that I've previously shared on Free Technology for Teachers.
The Social Security Act of 1935
FDR and the Banking System
The Farm Letters - Stories of Great Depression Life
History of the First 100 Days
PBS Series On Native Americans
We Shall Remain is a new PBS mini-series on Native American history. You can watch the episodes for free online, and it also offers anexcellent teacher’s guide.
I’m adding the link to The Best Sites For International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People.
Docs That Teach
I came across Docs That Teach this morning (Thanks to @SuzanneWisler)
Docs That TeachThe site is divided into three parts:
1) Activities
- Find and use Activities created by other educators.
- Create your own Activities
Each activity-creation tool helps students develop historical thinking skills and gets them thinking like historians. Choose one of the tools below to begin. Then find and insert primary sources and customize the activity to fit your unique students.
www.docsteach.org2) Documents- Select from 3000+ primary sources for use in classroom activities
Primary Sources
We have selected thousands of primary source documents to bring the past to life as classroom teaching tools from the billions preserved at the National Archives. Use the search field above to find written documents, images, maps, charts, graphs, audio and video in our ever-expanding collection that spans the course of American history.
3) Account- Being logged in allows you to bookmark documents and activities to access, use and create later.
The site was created by the Foundation of National Archivesand offers even more resources for teachers:
- Document Analysis
- Why Teach with Documents?
- Bloom’s Taxonomy
- Sharing Activities
- National History Standards
- Teaching with Documents and NCSS
- Additional Links
I think this site has great potential in the Social Studies and History classroom. I especially liked the CREATE area, honoring the highest level in the Bloom’s taxonomy (which the site acknowledged on their Bloom’s Taxonomy resource link).
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2010
It’s time for another year end list, this time focusing on social studies. You might also be interested in:
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2009
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2008
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2007
And, of course, there are 500 other “The Best…” lists, too.
As is the case in all my lists, some of these sites might have been around prior to 2009, but they were new to me this year.
Here are my ranked choices for The Best Social Studies Websites — 2010 (that are accessible to English Language Learners):
Number fifteen: The Lottery Of Life is a neat site from Save The Children. It gives you a chance to see how your life might have looked if you had been born in another country.
Number fourteen: Vote Easy is a very accessible interactive that lets users identify their opinion on several key public policy issues, and then compares those positions with those of local candidates. It’s probably the best site of its kind that I’ve seen, and is certainly accessible to English Language Learners.
Number thirteen: LIFE recently unveiled a neat new feature that lets you search for any photos in its archives and create an online timeline/slideshow that you can share with a unique url address. Their Photo Timeline lets you use their original captions or you can edit them and create your own, as well as writing your own description for your whole creation. After you log-in (you can do so using your Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, or Google accounts — it would be nice if they allowed on site registration, but I guess you can’t have everything!), it’s just a matter of searching and dragging the photos to your timeline/slideshow.
Number twelve: At the BBC’s Dimensions site you identify an event or object (The Great Wall Of China, a battle, etc.), then type in a zipcode, and then it will overlay the dimensions of that event or object to the zip code you picked.
Number eleven: “Finishing The Dream” is a new collection of 100 videos from NBC News related to the Civil Rights Movement.
Number ten: Numbeo shows the cost-of-living in just about every country in the world, and many cities in the United States.
Number nine: The BBC has developed what they call theNews Globe. It has a virtual globe globe that you spin, and there are points on it. When you place your cursor on the points a short introduction to a news story based on that location shows-up, and you can click on it to go to the complete report. You type in a query for the types of news you’re looking for.
Number eight: “A Moment In Time” is the compilation of photos that the New York Times organized. Thousands of people from all over the world took a picture at the same moment on May 2nd. It’s an amazing collection. The photos can certainly be used in class to have English Language Learners describe and discuss them. Also, teachers can have their students use the same idea on a smaller scale and develop their own “moments in time.”
Number seven: Earth Pulse: State Of The Earth 2010 is an impressive effort from National Geographic. It has a number of features, including a photo gallery and interactive quiz. Most impressive, though, is an interactive Vital Statistics Map that lets you compare global trends on many topics.
Number six: Critical Past is a new site that has 57,000 “historic” videos from 1893 to the 1990’s — many of them appear to be old newsreels. It seems to be designed to sell them for download, but anyone can view them online for free. It has a very nice search feature.
Number five: “Timelines: Sources From History” is a nifty interactive from the British Library that lets you explore items from its collection using text, video and images. It’s very engaging. The only negative I see is that you can save favorites, but only to a PDF that you can then print-out. There doesn’t appear to be anyway to save it online. That seems a little strange, but maybe I’m missing something.
Number four: The BBC’s “A History Of The World.” is a neat interactive timeline display of historical objects with images and commentary. Not only is it an accessible and engaging way to learn more about world history, but after a quick site registration you can contribute your own historical object choice to the collection and write about it.
Number three: Zinn Education Project: Teaching a People’s History is a collaboration between Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change! As their announcement states:
The new site features over 75 free, downloadable teaching activities for middle- and high- school students to bring a people’s history to the classroom. These are the best U.S. history-teaching articles from the Rethinking Schools archives. The site also lists hundreds of recommended books, films, and websites. The teaching activities and resources are organized by theme, time period, and grade level.
Though teachers would have to modify the materials to make them accessible to English Language Learners, the site is truly extraordinary.
Number two: Docs Teach from the U.S. National Archiveslets you easily create online activities using primary sources. Plus, you can access the interactives that others have created, too. It’s super-easy to register. Creating the interactives is not as intuitive as I would like, but it’s still pretty easy.
Number one: The Time Map Of World History is a super-cool interactive and accessible way to learn about…world history. Using a map and accessible text, it starts at 3500 BC.
Feedback is welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to considersubscribing to this blog for free.
You might also want to explore the 500 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
10 US History Google Earth Tours
America, A Narrative History is a text published by WW Norton. As a free supplement to the book, Norton has published ten Google Earth tours. These tours include major themes and events in US History. The list includes the Revolutionary War, the path to the Civil War, WWII, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, Lewis & Clark's expedition, the Indian Removal Act, Pre-Columbian North America, the national parks system, and the 20th Century power grid. All of the tours include multiple images and references. Some of the tours also have "tour questions" for students to answer.
Update for clarification: Anyone can access these tours even if you don't own a copy of the book.
Applications for EducationNorton's US History Google Earth tours could be a fantastic alternative to using slides to present a lesson on US History. These tours provide history lessons within a geographic context.
For the last few years I've had my US History students create Google Maps and Google Earth files about various events (Revolutionary War, Civil War) and themes (Manifest Destiny, Imperialism) in the course. Before they start creating their own projects I like to share some models, Norton's US History Google Earth tours are good models.
DocsTeach
This one is mostly for Social Studies teachers. DocsTeachfrom the National Archives is a site all about using Primary Documents. When you visit the site you can find already created activities using various primary sources. There aren't that many yet, but the idea is for people to create and share their own. I looked at one about the New Deal and was impressed. You can also search through the various documents (3000+) and find one you are looking for.
The best feature is the ability to create your own activitiesfrom the various documents on the site. There are seven different activities that you can create using the various sources. The activities are based around seven different strategies: Finding a Sequence, Focusing on Details, Interpreting Data, Making Connections, Mapping History, Seeing the Big Picture, and Weighing the Evidence.
You can create an account and save activities for a later date. You can also bookmark documents that you will want to use in future activities. You can customize the activities for students to work on in the computer lab or even in your classroom using just your computer to start a discussion. You can provide students with a specific web address for them to visit. Man, this site does it all for History Teachers.
This has to be the most thorough example of why we no longer will need textbooks in a history classroom. They talk about the use of Primary Documents, this has to be the best I have seen. If I go back to the classroom, I have found a definite resource to use.
Weekly Core Subjects Resources
Another week has gone by. Is it just me or has the first part of this school year FLOWN by? Hard to believe that there is only one more week before Christmas break.
Social Studies
1.) StreetLaw has put together a great site for Landmark Supreme Court Cases. Whether you are teaching them or students are learning them, this would be a great starting point.
2.) Virtual Middle School Library is a site that offers tons of links and resources for teaching social studies. They are broken down by subject matter. Don't let the title fool you, these will work at the high school level as well.
3.) Our Story is a site dedicated to sharing the stories of American Citizens. There are activities, books, and field trip suggestions for learning about American History.
4.) From the Library of Congress is a great map collection. There are six different categories of maps that visitors can select from to view and use. If you plan on teaching a lesson involving maps, I highly recommend examining this site first.
Resources About the Great Depression
Today marks the 81st anniversary of Black Tuesday, the day that the stock market crashed triggering the Great Depression. Below you will find some videos and links to lessons related to the Great Depression.
On YouTube I came across a playlist of 43 videos about Black Tuesday and the Great Depression. The playlist is a mix of archival film and documentary film. The list is embedded below.
Popout
From PBS Video Great Depression Stories features three women talking about their experiences during the Great Depression.
Watch the full episode. See more Nightly Business Report.
The following four links are resources that I've previously shared on Free Technology for Teachers.
The Social Security Act of 1935
FDR and the Banking System
The Farm Letters - Stories of Great Depression Life
History of the First 100 Days
PBS Series On Native Americans
We Shall Remain is a new PBS mini-series on Native American history. You can watch the episodes for free online, and it also offers anexcellent teacher’s guide.
I’m adding the link to The Best Sites For International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People.
Docs That Teach
I came across Docs That Teach this morning (Thanks to @SuzanneWisler)
Docs That TeachThe site is divided into three parts:
1) Activities
- Find and use Activities created by other educators.
- Create your own Activities
Each activity-creation tool helps students develop historical thinking skills and gets them thinking like historians. Choose one of the tools below to begin. Then find and insert primary sources and customize the activity to fit your unique students.
www.docsteach.org2) Documents- Select from 3000+ primary sources for use in classroom activities
Primary Sources
We have selected thousands of primary source documents to bring the past to life as classroom teaching tools from the billions preserved at the National Archives. Use the search field above to find written documents, images, maps, charts, graphs, audio and video in our ever-expanding collection that spans the course of American history.
3) Account- Being logged in allows you to bookmark documents and activities to access, use and create later.
The site was created by the Foundation of National Archivesand offers even more resources for teachers:
- Document Analysis
- Why Teach with Documents?
- Bloom’s Taxonomy
- Sharing Activities
- National History Standards
- Teaching with Documents and NCSS
- Additional Links
I think this site has great potential in the Social Studies and History classroom. I especially liked the CREATE area, honoring the highest level in the Bloom’s taxonomy (which the site acknowledged on their Bloom’s Taxonomy resource link).
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2010
It’s time for another year end list, this time focusing on social studies. You might also be interested in:
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2009
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2008
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2007
And, of course, there are 500 other “The Best…” lists, too.
As is the case in all my lists, some of these sites might have been around prior to 2009, but they were new to me this year.
Here are my ranked choices for The Best Social Studies Websites — 2010 (that are accessible to English Language Learners):
Number fifteen: The Lottery Of Life is a neat site from Save The Children. It gives you a chance to see how your life might have looked if you had been born in another country.
Number fourteen: Vote Easy is a very accessible interactive that lets users identify their opinion on several key public policy issues, and then compares those positions with those of local candidates. It’s probably the best site of its kind that I’ve seen, and is certainly accessible to English Language Learners.
Number thirteen: LIFE recently unveiled a neat new feature that lets you search for any photos in its archives and create an online timeline/slideshow that you can share with a unique url address. Their Photo Timeline lets you use their original captions or you can edit them and create your own, as well as writing your own description for your whole creation. After you log-in (you can do so using your Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, or Google accounts — it would be nice if they allowed on site registration, but I guess you can’t have everything!), it’s just a matter of searching and dragging the photos to your timeline/slideshow.
Number twelve: At the BBC’s Dimensions site you identify an event or object (The Great Wall Of China, a battle, etc.), then type in a zipcode, and then it will overlay the dimensions of that event or object to the zip code you picked.
Number eleven: “Finishing The Dream” is a new collection of 100 videos from NBC News related to the Civil Rights Movement.
Number ten: Numbeo shows the cost-of-living in just about every country in the world, and many cities in the United States.
Number nine: The BBC has developed what they call theNews Globe. It has a virtual globe globe that you spin, and there are points on it. When you place your cursor on the points a short introduction to a news story based on that location shows-up, and you can click on it to go to the complete report. You type in a query for the types of news you’re looking for.
Number eight: “A Moment In Time” is the compilation of photos that the New York Times organized. Thousands of people from all over the world took a picture at the same moment on May 2nd. It’s an amazing collection. The photos can certainly be used in class to have English Language Learners describe and discuss them. Also, teachers can have their students use the same idea on a smaller scale and develop their own “moments in time.”
Number seven: Earth Pulse: State Of The Earth 2010 is an impressive effort from National Geographic. It has a number of features, including a photo gallery and interactive quiz. Most impressive, though, is an interactive Vital Statistics Map that lets you compare global trends on many topics.
Number six: Critical Past is a new site that has 57,000 “historic” videos from 1893 to the 1990’s — many of them appear to be old newsreels. It seems to be designed to sell them for download, but anyone can view them online for free. It has a very nice search feature.
Number five: “Timelines: Sources From History” is a nifty interactive from the British Library that lets you explore items from its collection using text, video and images. It’s very engaging. The only negative I see is that you can save favorites, but only to a PDF that you can then print-out. There doesn’t appear to be anyway to save it online. That seems a little strange, but maybe I’m missing something.
Number four: The BBC’s “A History Of The World.” is a neat interactive timeline display of historical objects with images and commentary. Not only is it an accessible and engaging way to learn more about world history, but after a quick site registration you can contribute your own historical object choice to the collection and write about it.
Number three: Zinn Education Project: Teaching a People’s History is a collaboration between Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change! As their announcement states:
The new site features over 75 free, downloadable teaching activities for middle- and high- school students to bring a people’s history to the classroom. These are the best U.S. history-teaching articles from the Rethinking Schools archives. The site also lists hundreds of recommended books, films, and websites. The teaching activities and resources are organized by theme, time period, and grade level.
Though teachers would have to modify the materials to make them accessible to English Language Learners, the site is truly extraordinary.
Number two: Docs Teach from the U.S. National Archiveslets you easily create online activities using primary sources. Plus, you can access the interactives that others have created, too. It’s super-easy to register. Creating the interactives is not as intuitive as I would like, but it’s still pretty easy.
Number one: The Time Map Of World History is a super-cool interactive and accessible way to learn about…world history. Using a map and accessible text, it starts at 3500 BC.
Feedback is welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to considersubscribing to this blog for free.
You might also want to explore the 500 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
Weekly Core Subjects Resources
Another week has gone by. Is it just me or has the first part of this school year FLOWN by? Hard to believe that there is only one more week before Christmas break.
Social Studies
1.) StreetLaw has put together a great site for Landmark Supreme Court Cases. Whether you are teaching them or students are learning them, this would be a great starting point.
2.) Virtual Middle School Library is a site that offers tons of links and resources for teaching social studies. They are broken down by subject matter. Don't let the title fool you, these will work at the high school level as well.
3.) Our Story is a site dedicated to sharing the stories of American Citizens. There are activities, books, and field trip suggestions for learning about American History.
4.) From the Library of Congress is a great map collection. There are six different categories of maps that visitors can select from to view and use. If you plan on teaching a lesson involving maps, I highly recommend examining this site first.
Resources About the Great Depression
Today marks the 81st anniversary of Black Tuesday, the day that the stock market crashed triggering the Great Depression. Below you will find some videos and links to lessons related to the Great Depression.
On YouTube I came across a playlist of 43 videos about Black Tuesday and the Great Depression. The playlist is a mix of archival film and documentary film. The list is embedded below.
Popout
From PBS Video Great Depression Stories features three women talking about their experiences during the Great Depression.
Watch the full episode. See more Nightly Business Report.
The following four links are resources that I've previously shared on Free Technology for Teachers.
The Social Security Act of 1935
FDR and the Banking System
The Farm Letters - Stories of Great Depression Life
History of the First 100 Days
PBS Series On Native Americans
We Shall Remain is a new PBS mini-series on Native American history. You can watch the episodes for free online, and it also offers anexcellent teacher’s guide.
I’m adding the link to The Best Sites For International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People.
Weekly Core Subjects Resources
Another week has gone by. Is it just me or has the first part of this school year FLOWN by? Hard to believe that there is only one more week before Christmas break.
Social Studies
1.) StreetLaw has put together a great site for Landmark Supreme Court Cases. Whether you are teaching them or students are learning them, this would be a great starting point.
2.) Virtual Middle School Library is a site that offers tons of links and resources for teaching social studies. They are broken down by subject matter. Don't let the title fool you, these will work at the high school level as well.
3.) Our Story is a site dedicated to sharing the stories of American Citizens. There are activities, books, and field trip suggestions for learning about American History.
4.) From the Library of Congress is a great map collection. There are six different categories of maps that visitors can select from to view and use. If you plan on teaching a lesson involving maps, I highly recommend examining this site first.
Another week has gone by. Is it just me or has the first part of this school year FLOWN by? Hard to believe that there is only one more week before Christmas break.
Social Studies
1.) StreetLaw has put together a great site for Landmark Supreme Court Cases. Whether you are teaching them or students are learning them, this would be a great starting point.
2.) Virtual Middle School Library is a site that offers tons of links and resources for teaching social studies. They are broken down by subject matter. Don't let the title fool you, these will work at the high school level as well.
3.) Our Story is a site dedicated to sharing the stories of American Citizens. There are activities, books, and field trip suggestions for learning about American History.
4.) From the Library of Congress is a great map collection. There are six different categories of maps that visitors can select from to view and use. If you plan on teaching a lesson involving maps, I highly recommend examining this site first.
1.) StreetLaw has put together a great site for Landmark Supreme Court Cases. Whether you are teaching them or students are learning them, this would be a great starting point.
2.) Virtual Middle School Library is a site that offers tons of links and resources for teaching social studies. They are broken down by subject matter. Don't let the title fool you, these will work at the high school level as well.
3.) Our Story is a site dedicated to sharing the stories of American Citizens. There are activities, books, and field trip suggestions for learning about American History.
4.) From the Library of Congress is a great map collection. There are six different categories of maps that visitors can select from to view and use. If you plan on teaching a lesson involving maps, I highly recommend examining this site first.
Resources About the Great Depression
Today marks the 81st anniversary of Black Tuesday, the day that the stock market crashed triggering the Great Depression. Below you will find some videos and links to lessons related to the Great Depression.
On YouTube I came across a playlist of 43 videos about Black Tuesday and the Great Depression. The playlist is a mix of archival film and documentary film. The list is embedded below.
Popout
From PBS Video Great Depression Stories features three women talking about their experiences during the Great Depression.
The following four links are resources that I've previously shared on Free Technology for Teachers.
The Social Security Act of 1935
FDR and the Banking System
The Farm Letters - Stories of Great Depression Life
History of the First 100 Days
On YouTube I came across a playlist of 43 videos about Black Tuesday and the Great Depression. The playlist is a mix of archival film and documentary film. The list is embedded below.
Popout
From PBS Video Great Depression Stories features three women talking about their experiences during the Great Depression.
Watch the full episode. See more Nightly Business Report.
The following four links are resources that I've previously shared on Free Technology for Teachers.
The Social Security Act of 1935
FDR and the Banking System
The Farm Letters - Stories of Great Depression Life
History of the First 100 Days
We Shall Remain is a new PBS mini-series on Native American history. You can watch the episodes for free online, and it also offers anexcellent teacher’s guide.
I’m adding the link to The Best Sites For International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People.
I’m adding the link to The Best Sites For International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People.
Docs That Teach
I came across Docs That Teach this morning (Thanks to @SuzanneWisler)
Docs That TeachThe site is divided into three parts:
1) Activities
www.docsteach.org2) Documents- Select from 3000+ primary sources for use in classroom activities
Primary Sources
The site was created by the Foundation of National Archivesand offers even more resources for teachers:
Docs That Teach1) Activities
- Find and use Activities created by other educators.
- Create your own Activities
Each activity-creation tool helps students develop historical thinking skills and gets them thinking like historians. Choose one of the tools below to begin. Then find and insert primary sources and customize the activity to fit your unique students.
www.docsteach.orgPrimary SourcesWe have selected thousands of primary source documents to bring the past to life as classroom teaching tools from the billions preserved at the National Archives. Use the search field above to find written documents, images, maps, charts, graphs, audio and video in our ever-expanding collection that spans the course of American history.3) Account- Being logged in allows you to bookmark documents and activities to access, use and create later.
The site was created by the Foundation of National Archivesand offers even more resources for teachers:
- Document Analysis
- Why Teach with Documents?
- Bloom’s Taxonomy
- Sharing Activities
- National History Standards
- Teaching with Documents and NCSS
- Additional Links
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2009
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2008
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2007
And, of course, there are 500 other “The Best…” lists, too.
As is the case in all my lists, some of these sites might have been around prior to 2009, but they were new to me this year.
Here are my ranked choices for The Best Social Studies Websites — 2010 (that are accessible to English Language Learners):
Number fifteen: The Lottery Of Life is a neat site from Save The Children. It gives you a chance to see how your life might have looked if you had been born in another country.
Number fourteen: Vote Easy is a very accessible interactive that lets users identify their opinion on several key public policy issues, and then compares those positions with those of local candidates. It’s probably the best site of its kind that I’ve seen, and is certainly accessible to English Language Learners.
Number thirteen: LIFE recently unveiled a neat new feature that lets you search for any photos in its archives and create an online timeline/slideshow that you can share with a unique url address. Their Photo Timeline lets you use their original captions or you can edit them and create your own, as well as writing your own description for your whole creation. After you log-in (you can do so using your Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, or Google accounts — it would be nice if they allowed on site registration, but I guess you can’t have everything!), it’s just a matter of searching and dragging the photos to your timeline/slideshow.
Number twelve: At the BBC’s Dimensions site you identify an event or object (The Great Wall Of China, a battle, etc.), then type in a zipcode, and then it will overlay the dimensions of that event or object to the zip code you picked.
Number eleven: “Finishing The Dream” is a new collection of 100 videos from NBC News related to the Civil Rights Movement.
Number ten: Numbeo shows the cost-of-living in just about every country in the world, and many cities in the United States.
Number nine: The BBC has developed what they call theNews Globe. It has a virtual globe globe that you spin, and there are points on it. When you place your cursor on the points a short introduction to a news story based on that location shows-up, and you can click on it to go to the complete report. You type in a query for the types of news you’re looking for.
Number eight: “A Moment In Time” is the compilation of photos that the New York Times organized. Thousands of people from all over the world took a picture at the same moment on May 2nd. It’s an amazing collection. The photos can certainly be used in class to have English Language Learners describe and discuss them. Also, teachers can have their students use the same idea on a smaller scale and develop their own “moments in time.”
Number seven: Earth Pulse: State Of The Earth 2010 is an impressive effort from National Geographic. It has a number of features, including a photo gallery and interactive quiz. Most impressive, though, is an interactive Vital Statistics Map that lets you compare global trends on many topics.
Number six: Critical Past is a new site that has 57,000 “historic” videos from 1893 to the 1990’s — many of them appear to be old newsreels. It seems to be designed to sell them for download, but anyone can view them online for free. It has a very nice search feature.
Number five: “Timelines: Sources From History” is a nifty interactive from the British Library that lets you explore items from its collection using text, video and images. It’s very engaging. The only negative I see is that you can save favorites, but only to a PDF that you can then print-out. There doesn’t appear to be anyway to save it online. That seems a little strange, but maybe I’m missing something.
Number four: The BBC’s “A History Of The World.” is a neat interactive timeline display of historical objects with images and commentary. Not only is it an accessible and engaging way to learn more about world history, but after a quick site registration you can contribute your own historical object choice to the collection and write about it.
Number three: Zinn Education Project: Teaching a People’s History is a collaboration between Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change! As their announcement states:
The new site features over 75 free, downloadable teaching activities for middle- and high- school students to bring a people’s history to the classroom. These are the best U.S. history-teaching articles from the Rethinking Schools archives. The site also lists hundreds of recommended books, films, and websites. The teaching activities and resources are organized by theme, time period, and grade level.
Though teachers would have to modify the materials to make them accessible to English Language Learners, the site is truly extraordinary.
Number two: Docs Teach from the U.S. National Archiveslets you easily create online activities using primary sources. Plus, you can access the interactives that others have created, too. It’s super-easy to register. Creating the interactives is not as intuitive as I would like, but it’s still pretty easy.
Number one: The Time Map Of World History is a super-cool interactive and accessible way to learn about…world history. Using a map and accessible text, it starts at 3500 BC.
Feedback is welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to considersubscribing to this blog for free.
You might also want to explore the 500 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
10 US History Google Earth Tours
Update for clarification: Anyone can access these tours even if you don't own a copy of the book.
Applications for Education
Norton's US History Google Earth tours could be a fantastic alternative to using slides to present a lesson on US History. These tours provide history lessons within a geographic context.For the last few years I've had my US History students create Google Maps and Google Earth files about various events (Revolutionary War, Civil War) and themes (Manifest Destiny, Imperialism) in the course. Before they start creating their own projects I like to share some models, Norton's US History Google Earth tours are good models.
This one is mostly for Social Studies teachers. DocsTeachfrom the National Archives is a site all about using Primary Documents. When you visit the site you can find already created activities using various primary sources. There aren't that many yet, but the idea is for people to create and share their own. I looked at one about the New Deal and was impressed. You can also search through the various documents (3000+) and find one you are looking for.
The best feature is the ability to create your own activitiesfrom the various documents on the site. There are seven different activities that you can create using the various sources. The activities are based around seven different strategies: Finding a Sequence, Focusing on Details, Interpreting Data, Making Connections, Mapping History, Seeing the Big Picture, and Weighing the Evidence.
You can create an account and save activities for a later date. You can also bookmark documents that you will want to use in future activities. You can customize the activities for students to work on in the computer lab or even in your classroom using just your computer to start a discussion. You can provide students with a specific web address for them to visit. Man, this site does it all for History Teachers.
This has to be the most thorough example of why we no longer will need textbooks in a history classroom. They talk about the use of Primary Documents, this has to be the best I have seen. If I go back to the classroom, I have found a definite resource to use.
“The Secret Annex Online” Is Not-To-Be-Missed Anne Frank Resource
The Secret Annex Online is a 3D interactive of Anne Frank’s hiding place during World War II.
If you’re learning about Anne Frank in you class, this is a not-to-be-missed resource.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Anne Frank.
If you’re learning about Anne Frank in you class, this is a not-to-be-missed resource.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Anne Frank.
"A timeline is a kind of graphic design showing a long bar labeled with dates alongside itself and (usually) events labeled on points where they would have happened. It is used to show events along a period of time, and are often used in education to help students and researchers with understanding events and trends for a particular subject." (Wikipedia)Top 10 Sites for Creating Timelines
- Capzles - Quite simply one of the nicest timeline creation sites around, w/ a beautiful user interface as well as the ability to embed into a site.
- Time Rime - An excellent site w/ educational instance (great for teachers) that allows users to create multimedia timelines.
- xTimeline - Share wonderful looking timelines w/ audio, video, and pictures. Very user friendly too!!
- TimeGlider - Great site that not only lets users create multimedia timelines but legends as well. There is a "plus upgrade" in the works specifically for education!
- Dipity - Create beautiful timelines w/ the ability to add video/pictures.
- Time Toast - A bullet point centered timeline w/ text and pictures.
- Preceden - A fun easy site to use to create interactive timelines.
- Timelinr - A very simple to use timeline generator that only displays text.
- Our Timelines - Create timelines by using preexisting forms (text only).
- Read Write Think - Very similar to Our Timelines for creating text only timelines
Five Ways Students Can Build Multimedia Timelines
The end of the school year is quickly approaching for many of us in the teaching profession. In fact, my last day of school is 27 days from now. Like many other high school classes, my classes will soon begin reviewing for final exams. One of the review activities that I've had students do in the past is create multimedia timelines containing key events and concepts from the year. Last year my students used XTimeline to do this, but there are other good options available. Here are five ways students can create multimedia timelines.
I've written about XTimeline in the past because I find it to be a great service that is very accessible to high school students. Using XTimelinestudents can collaborate, just as they would when making a wiki, to build a multimedia timeline. Timelines built using XTimeline can include text, images, and video. XTimeline will accept dates in A.D./B.C. format.
TimeGlider offers some nicer layout features compared to XTimeline, but is not quite as intuitive to use as XTimeline. The layout features that I like about TimeGlider is the ability to stagger or indent events below each other in a sequence. TimeGlider also makes it easy to display the relative importance of an event by increasing its size in comparison to other events on the timeline. Like XTimeline, TimeGlider accepts dates in A.D./B.C. format.
Time Toast is quiet easy to learn to use. To add events to a timeline simply click on the inconspicuous "add an event" button and a simple event box pops up in which you can enter enter text, place a link, or add a picture. Time Toast does not have the more advanced editing options that XTimeline and TimeGlider offer. What it offers instead is ease of use which makes it a suitable choice for students in elementary school or middle school.
TimeRime allows users to create timelines that include text, images, audio, and video. One of the better features of TimeRime is that you can have more than one type of media for each event on your timeline. TimeRime users can also select which media type they want as the feature piece of each event. As we've come to expect with any web 2.0 tool of this type, you can embed the timeline in a blog or share it via email.
Dipity is a great timeline creation tool that allows users to incorporate text, images, and videos into each entry on their timeline. Dipity also incorporates a mapping feature which allows users to place a Google Maps bookmark related to the topics the timeline covers. Like most good web tools,Dipity has a collaboration option and has multiple options for sharing products publicly or privately. Each entry to a Dipity timeline can include multiple types of media which allows users to add more detail and information than can be included in a traditional timeline.
All National Anthems
All National Anthems is a map, built on Yahoo Maps, that makes it easy to find the national anthem of almost every country in the world. Along with each country's national anthem, users will find some basic almanac-style information. Each national anthem is played via a Youtube video.
Applications for EducationThe fact that the anthems found on All National Anthems are played via Youtube limits the utility of the website for schools where Youtube is blocked. If you're in a school where Youtube is blocked then I recommend visiting the BBC News website where you can find country profiles that include a short audio recording of each country's national anthem.
All National Anthems is a good example of how maps can display information. If you're looking to try a similar project with your students try having them create a map of state or province anthems.
Five Ways Students Can Build Multimedia Timelines
The end of the school year is quickly approaching for many of us in the teaching profession. In fact, my last day of school is 27 days from now. Like many other high school classes, my classes will soon begin reviewing for final exams. One of the review activities that I've had students do in the past is create multimedia timelines containing key events and concepts from the year. Last year my students used XTimeline to do this, but there are other good options available. Here are five ways students can create multimedia timelines.
I've written about XTimeline in the past because I find it to be a great service that is very accessible to high school students. Using XTimelinestudents can collaborate, just as they would when making a wiki, to build a multimedia timeline. Timelines built using XTimeline can include text, images, and video. XTimeline will accept dates in A.D./B.C. format.
TimeGlider offers some nicer layout features compared to XTimeline, but is not quite as intuitive to use as XTimeline. The layout features that I like about TimeGlider is the ability to stagger or indent events below each other in a sequence. TimeGlider also makes it easy to display the relative importance of an event by increasing its size in comparison to other events on the timeline. Like XTimeline, TimeGlider accepts dates in A.D./B.C. format.
Time Toast is quiet easy to learn to use. To add events to a timeline simply click on the inconspicuous "add an event" button and a simple event box pops up in which you can enter enter text, place a link, or add a picture. Time Toast does not have the more advanced editing options that XTimeline and TimeGlider offer. What it offers instead is ease of use which makes it a suitable choice for students in elementary school or middle school.
TimeRime allows users to create timelines that include text, images, audio, and video. One of the better features of TimeRime is that you can have more than one type of media for each event on your timeline. TimeRime users can also select which media type they want as the feature piece of each event. As we've come to expect with any web 2.0 tool of this type, you can embed the timeline in a blog or share it via email.
Dipity is a great timeline creation tool that allows users to incorporate text, images, and videos into each entry on their timeline. Dipity also incorporates a mapping feature which allows users to place a Google Maps bookmark related to the topics the timeline covers. Like most good web tools,Dipity has a collaboration option and has multiple options for sharing products publicly or privately. Each entry to a Dipity timeline can include multiple types of media which allows users to add more detail and information than can be included in a traditional timeline.
I've written about XTimeline in the past because I find it to be a great service that is very accessible to high school students. Using XTimelinestudents can collaborate, just as they would when making a wiki, to build a multimedia timeline. Timelines built using XTimeline can include text, images, and video. XTimeline will accept dates in A.D./B.C. format.
TimeGlider offers some nicer layout features compared to XTimeline, but is not quite as intuitive to use as XTimeline. The layout features that I like about TimeGlider is the ability to stagger or indent events below each other in a sequence. TimeGlider also makes it easy to display the relative importance of an event by increasing its size in comparison to other events on the timeline. Like XTimeline, TimeGlider accepts dates in A.D./B.C. format.Time Toast is quiet easy to learn to use. To add events to a timeline simply click on the inconspicuous "add an event" button and a simple event box pops up in which you can enter enter text, place a link, or add a picture. Time Toast does not have the more advanced editing options that XTimeline and TimeGlider offer. What it offers instead is ease of use which makes it a suitable choice for students in elementary school or middle school.TimeRime allows users to create timelines that include text, images, audio, and video. One of the better features of TimeRime is that you can have more than one type of media for each event on your timeline. TimeRime users can also select which media type they want as the feature piece of each event. As we've come to expect with any web 2.0 tool of this type, you can embed the timeline in a blog or share it via email.
Dipity is a great timeline creation tool that allows users to incorporate text, images, and videos into each entry on their timeline. Dipity also incorporates a mapping feature which allows users to place a Google Maps bookmark related to the topics the timeline covers. Like most good web tools,Dipity has a collaboration option and has multiple options for sharing products publicly or privately. Each entry to a Dipity timeline can include multiple types of media which allows users to add more detail and information than can be included in a traditional timeline.All National Anthems is a map, built on Yahoo Maps, that makes it easy to find the national anthem of almost every country in the world. Along with each country's national anthem, users will find some basic almanac-style information. Each national anthem is played via a Youtube video.Applications for EducationThe fact that the anthems found on All National Anthems are played via Youtube limits the utility of the website for schools where Youtube is blocked. If you're in a school where Youtube is blocked then I recommend visiting the BBC News website where you can find country profiles that include a short audio recording of each country's national anthem.
All National Anthems is a good example of how maps can display information. If you're looking to try a similar project with your students try having them create a map of state or province anthems.
“Oral History Of The U.S. House Of Representatives”
“Oral History Of The U.S. House Of Representatives” appears to be a surprisingly engaging and accessible site about….the U.S. House of Representatives.
It has tons of multimedia features, lesson plans, the videos have accessible transcripts and an interactive timeline.
One of My Favorite US History Resources
Last summer I learned about History Animated from the excellent blogTeaching the Civil War With Technology. I thought the animations might be a bit too simplistic for today's students, but I liked the concept so I tried it out with one of my classes last fall. To my surprise, my students absolutely loved the animations complete with their sound effects and marching visuals.
History Animated provides animations of the American Revolution, the US Civil War, and the US Pacific Campaign in WWII. In each of the three series of animations you will see the animated movement of armies displayed on a map. Each animation is accompanied by captions describing the strategies of the armies as well as the results and consequences of each battle.
“Oral History Of The U.S. House Of Representatives”
“Oral History Of The U.S. House Of Representatives” appears to be a surprisingly engaging and accessible site about….the U.S. House of Representatives.
It has tons of multimedia features, lesson plans, the videos have accessible transcripts and an interactive timeline.
It has tons of multimedia features, lesson plans, the videos have accessible transcripts and an interactive timeline.
Last summer I learned about History Animated from the excellent blogTeaching the Civil War With Technology. I thought the animations might be a bit too simplistic for today's students, but I liked the concept so I tried it out with one of my classes last fall. To my surprise, my students absolutely loved the animations complete with their sound effects and marching visuals.History Animated provides animations of the American Revolution, the US Civil War, and the US Pacific Campaign in WWII. In each of the three series of animations you will see the animated movement of armies displayed on a map. Each animation is accompanied by captions describing the strategies of the armies as well as the results and consequences of each battle.
Inspirational & Historic Moments on YouTube
YouTube can be a good source of material for lessons and activities in many content areas. This is particularly true for Social Studies teachers. Mashable recently published a list of ten inspirational moments on YouTube. Most of the videos in their list are not only inspirational, but also historic events. I've included one of the videos from the list below.
The Best Sites For Learning About The Constitution Of The United States
Federal legislation requires schools in the United States to offer lessons related to the U.S. Constitution on U.S. Constitution Day — September 17th of each year.
Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning About The Constitution Of The United States:
The Constitution Center has to be everybody’s first stop. It has a ton of resources. They are particularly known for their Interactive Constitution and lots of other online interactives and games.
Here are collections of the online lessons I used in my United States History classes last year on the Bill of Rights and on the Constitution.
The Constitution For Kids has three “levels” of explanations about the U.S. Constitution. An English Language Learner — from high Beginning to Advanced — can choose which one he/she finds most accessible.
The History Channel has many multimedia features related to the Constitution.
How Stuff Works has many videos related to the Constitution.
Here’s an interactive “learning object” from the Wisconsin Online Resource Center on Amendments To The Constitution.
The Henry Ford Museum has a short Constitution I.Q. test that would be accessible to English Language Learners after they have studied about the United States government.
Here’s a bilingual (English/Spanish) glossary for the Constitution.
The American Bar Association has a Constitution that you can virtually sign.
Quiz Tree has some interactive quizzes on the Constitution.
Celebrate The Constitution comes from Scholastic.
Here’s an interactive on the Bill of Rights.
Feedback is welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 480 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free.
Inspirational & Historic Moments on YouTube
YouTube can be a good source of material for lessons and activities in many content areas. This is particularly true for Social Studies teachers. Mashable recently published a list of ten inspirational moments on YouTube. Most of the videos in their list are not only inspirational, but also historic events. I've included one of the videos from the list below.
Federal legislation requires schools in the United States to offer lessons related to the U.S. Constitution on U.S. Constitution Day — September 17th of each year.
Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning About The Constitution Of The United States:
The Constitution Center has to be everybody’s first stop. It has a ton of resources. They are particularly known for their Interactive Constitution and lots of other online interactives and games.
Here are collections of the online lessons I used in my United States History classes last year on the Bill of Rights and on the Constitution.
The Constitution For Kids has three “levels” of explanations about the U.S. Constitution. An English Language Learner — from high Beginning to Advanced — can choose which one he/she finds most accessible.
The History Channel has many multimedia features related to the Constitution.
How Stuff Works has many videos related to the Constitution.
Here’s an interactive “learning object” from the Wisconsin Online Resource Center on Amendments To The Constitution.
The Henry Ford Museum has a short Constitution I.Q. test that would be accessible to English Language Learners after they have studied about the United States government.
Here’s a bilingual (English/Spanish) glossary for the Constitution.
The American Bar Association has a Constitution that you can virtually sign.
Quiz Tree has some interactive quizzes on the Constitution.
Celebrate The Constitution comes from Scholastic.
Here’s an interactive on the Bill of Rights.
Feedback is welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 480 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free.
Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning About The Constitution Of The United States:
The Constitution Center has to be everybody’s first stop. It has a ton of resources. They are particularly known for their Interactive Constitution and lots of other online interactives and games.
Here are collections of the online lessons I used in my United States History classes last year on the Bill of Rights and on the Constitution.
The Constitution For Kids has three “levels” of explanations about the U.S. Constitution. An English Language Learner — from high Beginning to Advanced — can choose which one he/she finds most accessible.
The History Channel has many multimedia features related to the Constitution.
How Stuff Works has many videos related to the Constitution.
Here’s an interactive “learning object” from the Wisconsin Online Resource Center on Amendments To The Constitution.
The Henry Ford Museum has a short Constitution I.Q. test that would be accessible to English Language Learners after they have studied about the United States government.
Here’s a bilingual (English/Spanish) glossary for the Constitution.
The American Bar Association has a Constitution that you can virtually sign.
Quiz Tree has some interactive quizzes on the Constitution.
Celebrate The Constitution comes from Scholastic.
Here’s an interactive on the Bill of Rights.
Feedback is welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 480 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free.
60+ Virtual Tours & Webcams for Social Studies
Angela Cunningham is a high school school Social Studies teacher in Kentucky that I've had the pleasure of meeting at the last two ISTE conferences. Through her blog ChangeED Angela has shared some great ideas and resources for teaching history, civics, and geography. Yesterday,Angela posted a Google Map on which she's made placemarks representing more than 60 webcams and virtual tours. Click any placemark on the map to find a link to a virtual tour or webcam for that location. The map is embedded below.
Videos for Learning About Congress
Yesterday, my post about 47 Alternatives to YouTube started with the statement that some excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. And right on que, this morning I discovered that the Center on Congress at Indiana University has a YouTube channel containing 25 short educational videos. The videos cover topics like Federalism, Checks & Balances, and the legislative process. The video below contains a short lesson on how a bill becomes law.
60+ Virtual Tours & Webcams for Social Studies
Angela Cunningham is a high school school Social Studies teacher in Kentucky that I've had the pleasure of meeting at the last two ISTE conferences. Through her blog ChangeED Angela has shared some great ideas and resources for teaching history, civics, and geography. Yesterday,Angela posted a Google Map on which she's made placemarks representing more than 60 webcams and virtual tours. Click any placemark on the map to find a link to a virtual tour or webcam for that location. The map is embedded below.Yesterday, my post about 47 Alternatives to YouTube started with the statement that some excellent educational content can be found on YouTube. And right on que, this morning I discovered that the Center on Congress at Indiana University has a YouTube channel containing 25 short educational videos. The videos cover topics like Federalism, Checks & Balances, and the legislative process. The video below contains a short lesson on how a bill becomes law.
How to Use C-Span's Video Library in Your Classroom
C-Span Classroom has created some new resources and updated some old resources for teachers for the 2010/2011 school year. C-Span's video library includes a section called Constitution Clips. Constitution Clips is comprised of videos of members of Congress and Presidents giving speeches that relate to sections of the US Constitution. For each section of the Constitution there is a selection of videos ready for you to use in your classroom. The videos can be embedded into your class blog or website.Atlas of the Biosphere
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
The Atlas of the Biosphere is a series of maps about land use, human impacts on the environment, eco systems, and water resources. Click on any of the four map categories to see a series of maps related to each topic. You will find maps depicting data for the whole world as well as maps depicting data by continent. In addition to the maps, you can also download the data sets from which the maps were created.
National Geographic Maps: Tools for Adventure is the best everything-map site I have seen. The site was created by the Children’s museum of Indianapolis. Maps are presented as the keys to adventure. Students learn to use maps to find their way, share information, look at patterns, and solve problems. There are six excellent interactive games for students to practice putting their math skills to use. Students can explore a pyramid by guiding a robot to hieroglyphs, find sunken treasure, explore Mars, go on an adventure, see GIS in action, and visit Adventure Island. I love the realistic feel of these games, as students explore and guide robots, they get a “live” video feed of where they are navigating. On the National Geographic Maps: Tools for Adventures site, you will find information about the Indianapolis exhibit, how to use maps, related map links, and lesson plans. This is one of those websites that my description just won’t do justice to, be sure to check it out! From http://www.ilearntechnology.com/
Learn About Emancipation
from Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... by Larry Ferlazzo
http://www.lincolncottage.org/lcstage/player.swf
Debating Emancipation is an excellent interactive for students to learn about and debate the issue of slavery prior to the Civil War. It’s very engaging
http://www.enchantedpalace.org/
Enchanted Palace
from Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... by Larry Ferlazzo
Enchanted Palace is a pretty neat and accessible game that helps players learn about the history of Kensington Palace in England.
Even if students are not interested in English history, it provides engaging English language-learning opportunities.
National Archives Digital Vault
http://www.digitalvaults.org/#
..."browse through the hundreds of photographs, documents, and film clips and discover the connection between some of the National Archives' most treasured records." This Flash-based site (also available in HTML) allows you to collect assets, track your path, search, and create a poster, movie, or your own pathway. from Nancy Schrock
National Archives Our Documents Source Book
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
http://ourdocuments.gov/index.php?flash=true
I've mentioned the daily document feed from the National Archives in the past. The daily feed is a way for US History teachers to collect primary documents they can use in their lesson plans. Our Documents.gov is built from primary documents in the National Archives collection. One of the good, free offerings from Our Documents is the Our Documents Teacher Source Book. This free 76 page document is available for download. The book contains many primary documents as well as ideas for teaching with those documents. The book includes lesson plans and handouts that you can reproduce. The documents in the Our Documents Teacher Source Book cover events from 1776 through the end of the 20th Century. Download the book here. You may also be interested in the Our Documents list of 100 Milestone Documents.
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/12/03/the-best-map-making-sites-on-the-web/
MapAList
http://mapalist.com/
•addresses come from your own Google spreadsheets
•modify your address list and maps are automatically updated; done so daily, or on demand
•privately be the only viewer of your maps, or publish them and show them on any website
•access the address lists and maps from anywhere
•it's easy, no code required
•it's free
•download KML of your maps / export them to Google earth
Footnote
from Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyber Hero by dkapuler
http://www.footnote.com/
Footnote is an excellent site for finding and sharing historical documents. What makes FN such a great site is the ability to search by either keyword or via timeline which is essential for any historical site.
WorldHistory.com - Maps, Timelines, and More
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
http://www.worldhistory.com/
At its core WorldHistory.com is a mash-up of timelines and maps. The map allows visitors to search by location and date for people, events, and artifacts (images). To use the map first find a location then choose a range of dates on the timeline. Icons then appear on the map to represent people, events, and artifacts. Click on any of the icons to learn more about each person, event, or artifact.
If you don't want to use the map, you can simply choose to individually search the categories of people, events, and artifacts. Select a category from the top menu on WorldHistory.com then use the timeline slider to search or simply enter a search term in the search box.
http://www.timeforkids.com/
Time for Kids
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/us/politics/20090717_HEALTH_TIMELINE.html
Interactive - A History of Overhauling Health Care
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
A History of Overhauling Health Care begins in 1912 with Teddy Roosevelt's plan, proposed while campaigning as the "Bull Moose" candidate, for national health insurance, women's suffrage, and other social welfare improvements. The timeline eventually ends on March 21, 2010. Along with each summary on the timeline there are links to New York Times articles about each event on the timeline.
http://www.popsci.com/archives
Search 137 Years of Popular Science
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
Popular Science has recently made available online every issue of its 137 year history. The archived issues are hosted by Google Books. Use the search function to find issues related to your search topic. Each issue can be read on the Popular Science website.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/picamer/toc.html
Pictorial Americana
from Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... by Larry Ferlazzo
Pictorial Americana is a collection of prints and photographs from the Library of Congress. They’re divided into chronological chapters of American history.
12 Resources All Social Studies Teachers Should Tryf
rom Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
1. http://earth.google.com/ . The possibilities for using Google Earth in a social studies classroom are almost limitless. In Google Earth students can tour ancient Rome, explore WWI and WWII battle sites, learn about contemporary news stories such as events in Afghanistan, or use Google Earth as an almanac of facts. Students, of course, can use Google Earth to create digital stories. Students can create tours of military campaigns, trace the lives of famous people, or map the expansions and contractions of political borders. If you're looking for some directions to get started with Google Earth, please see Google Earth Across the Curriculum.
2. http://maps.google.com/ Google Maps. While Google Maps doesn't offer nearly as many features as Google Earth, it is much easier to start using. Google Maps is completely web-based so students can create placemarks and tours from any Internet connected computer. For directions on creating placemarks on Google Maps, please see pages 25-32 of Google for Teachers.
3. Google Books. http://books.google.com/ Google has scanned and put online thousands of books and documents that are in the public domain. For history teachers this means there is an abundance of books about famous battles, biographies, and other works that your students can access for research.
4. Google Scholar. http://scholar.google.com/ Teaching lessons about notable US Supreme court cases? Need scholarly works to supplement the information in your students' textbooks? Google Scholar is great place to start that search.
5. National Archives Daily Document. http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/ Every day the RSS feed from the National Archives serves up a new primary document corresponding to that day in history. Along with the document teachers will find suggested classroom resources and suggested research links. The National Archives has also made available on Google Video hundreds of films from their records. US History teachers will find a use for just about everything in the National Archives' collection of films.
6. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/default.asp The Avalon Project is a free resource produced by Yale University. The Avalon Project provides digital copies of hundreds of original documents from a myriad of topics in US History. The Avalon Project is a good resource for students that need to find digital copies of original documents. For example, all of The Federalist Papers are available on the Avalon Project website.
7. http://xtimeline.com/ X Timeline. Using X Timeline students can collaborate, just as they would when making a wiki, to build a multimedia timeline. Timelines built using X Timeline can include text, images, and video. X Timeline will accept dates in A.D./B.C. format.
8. http://www.kidspast.com/world-history/index.php For teachers of elementary school students Kids Past has an easy to read online World History "textbook" for kids. Kids Past also offers five history games to which students can apply the knowledge the find in the textbook. The textbook and games correspond to each other.
9. http://historyanimated.com/newhistoryanimated/ History Animated provides animations of the American Revolution, the US Civil War, and the US Pacific Campaign in WWII. In each of the three series of animations you will see the animated movement of armies displayed on a map. Each animation is accompanied by captions describing the strategies of the armies as well as the results and consequences of each battle.
10. http://www.bized.co.uk/educators/index.htm BizEd is a great resource for economics lessons and virtual field trips. I started using BizEd a few years ago and it has been a valuable resource to me ever since. BizEd is a UK based website so some of the lessons and activities have to be manipulated a little bit for use in US classrooms, but the overall value of activities is fantastic. Some of the highlights for teachers are frequently updated lesson plans, a comprehensive glossary of terms, slide shows available for download, and fantastic virtual field trips.
11. http://playinghistory.org/ Playing History is a collection of more than 100 games related to topics in US and World History as well as civics and geography. The games come from a variety of sources across the web. Feedback on every game and suggestions for future additions are welcomed by the hosts of the site. Visitors to Playing History can search for games by using the tag cloud, by using the search box, or just browse through the entire list.
12. http://www.cnn.com/studentnews/ Everyday CNN Student News releases ten minute news programs covering news stories around the world. To accompany your use of the video, CNN provides maps and discussion guides.
Video - WWII Map, Europe & North Africa
from Free Technology for Teachers by noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Byrne)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut7N74svHlk
World War Two: Europe and North Africa 1939-1945 Map is a narrated overview of the main events in those areas. What I like about this video is that it provides visual, geographic context for the events discussed by the narrator.
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/05/26/the-best-sites-to-learn-about-the-us-supreme-court/
http://www.weeklyreader.com/womenshistory/ Women's History info
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/02/24/the-best-sites-for-learning-about-womens-history/
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/default.asp (from Free Technology for Teachers - digital copies of hundreds of original documents from a myriad of topics in US History)
http://kids.clerk.house.gov/index.html (from Free Technology for Teachers)
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news.topic__ss_categories_ss_on-this-day.html
On This Day: Beyond the Headlines features one historical event each day; includes what happened, what led up to it, what has happened since, and places the event in today's context including links to the best research on the subject
http://www.the-map-as-history.com/
Interactive maps
http://web.wm.edu/hsi/
Historical Scene Investigation allows students to choose from one of 13 cases to go through and solve.
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