California Council for Social Studies Classroom Tech Blog

2016 Election Candidates & Where They Stand

Sat, 21 Nov 2015 22:38:39 GMT

ProCon.org has great resources for students to examine controversial topics in a balanced way. They have taken this approach and have curated a variety of resources for students for the upcoming 2016 election. They plan to continue to update the site with resources and data through October 2016. ProCon.org is a great place to have students explore past elections, take a candidate quiz to see with whom their ideas match up, examine campaign finances and more.

On their home page, students can select an issue and get an overall quick view on who is pro or con, as well as read about what the candidate has stated on the issue in their own words and view the sourcing of the statements. This is a great model for sourcing information and evaluating information from multiple sources. They also have a chart comparing candidates on a variety of topics. A possible inquiry activity would be to have students examine an article or candidate statement about an opponent and complete their own fact checking to practice being an informed citizen in the digital information age.

Analyze Political Cartoons with Google Drawing

Sun, 08 Nov 2015 23:04:35 GMT

Google Drive has a variety of tools. Personally, I tend to use and have my students use Docs, Slides, and Forms. One that I have not used is Google Drawing. I just saw the power of Google Drawing unleashed yesterday at San Diego CUE by Derek J Marshall and Raymond Lopez.

It was genius how they have their students use it to analyze cartoons. They have their students upload a political cartoon into the drawing as an image. Next, have the students draw the cartoon into quadrants. Then, break down the cartoon by quadrant using the drawing tools and comment/text boxes.

This would also be a great collaboration activity to have pair or a table group of four work on together.

Here are a couple of pics of the the samples that they shared with us in their session.

Below are the steps to using Google Drawing. You can also click HERE for a link to the steps to share with your students and peers.

Listen to Current Events with Listen Current

Sun, 20 Sep 2015 20:26:31 GMT

Sometimes getting students to read about current events takes some encouraging. Many would rather listen to their earphones. Alternatively, some may have reading difficulties or be auditory learners. Here is where Listen Current comes to the rescue. Listen Current utilizes public radio broadcasts of current events and stories related to History, ELA, and Science to help build students' listening skills. This is right in line with the Common Core. They also provide discussion questions that can be utilized as extension activities. There are a variety of topics available at the middle school and high school level to engage your students with.

Another great feature of Listen Current are there pre-made Socrative quizzes. (Socrative is a free data gathering tool that you can sign up for) You can check for understanding with your students quickly by having students go on to their electronic device whether it is a computer, tablet, or cell phone and take the quiz.

Let's get our students working on their listening and discussion skills and fostering their civic skills.

The process is rather simple to utilize the Listen Current quizzes. Just follow these steps:

Copy the code for the desired quiz and go to your Socrative account.

Go to the Manage Quizzes tab and select Create Quiz

Paste in the SOC- # in the Import a Socrative quiz from another teacher box

You can select the quiz settings to control the pace as the teacher or allow the students, as well as whether to display student names and randomize the question order.

Go to your Dashboard tab and select Start a Quiz

Have your students log in as students and give them you classroom number to have them take the quiz.

Join a KQED Education Teacher Working Group

Dr. Margaret Hill — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 20:29:33 GMT

Are you a middle or high-school teacher interested in deepening your work with media and technology? Would you like to impact the resources developed by KQED for educators? The KQED team invites you to join the KQED working groups and become part of their think tank.
KQED Education aims not only to serve the nine Bay Area counties, but has grown to a national level with the help from our recent partnerships with the National Writing Project, PBS NewsHour Extra, Youth Radio, California Academy of Sciences, and Twitter.
Why Get Involved?
·       Influence media and education content used by thousands of teachers and students
·       Engage with a network of like-minded educators. Share best practices for teaching and    learning with public media resurces.
·    Connect with KQED Education producers, and get inspired to bring new tools and practices back to your classroom.
·       Receive free professional development, including the opportunity to attend and present at local, regional and national education conferences.
·       Learn best practices for using social media and open educational resources in your classroom
·       Inspire, refresh and modernize your teaching practice.
·       Receive a cash stipend for your time and effort.

Apply for KQED Working Groups Here! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OWCaSGQhQ52eghSvUWFC_tQqHxeBUV16hGrrtI1EJNs/viewfor

Tell Your Story with Smore

Sun, 23 Aug 2015 20:51:44 GMT

We aren’t talking about the campfire treat. Smore is an online newsletter web creator that you can print out or share electronically. They have a variety of templates available and it is super easy to use. One of the great Smore features is that you can hyperlink to other sites and make your newsletter interactive. You can choose to share your newsletter on your social networks or via a mailing list. Your first five Smores are free. After that, they offer an educator license for $59 annually. This is a great way to share information. You can also have students create a newsletter to demonstrate mastery of content. So get cozy around the fire and check out your Smore.

Sample Smore on Getting Started with Twitter

Vines to Document Your Classroom

Fri, 12 Jun 2015 22:24:19 GMT

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Social media is becoming an ever growing part of our students lives. Why not show students how to you social media responsibly as digital citizens and with an educational purpose? My students are getting more and more into Vine. I took the plunge and had a student show me how to use the app. Then I had to think- what did I want to document? How can I find a purposeful way for students to use the tool? I often take pictures of our class and post them to our class Twitter and Instagram to document our growth and provide an opportunity for the parents to peek into our classroom. Vine allows me to share brief 6 second videos. In a Twitter chat a participant also mentioned having students create them for vocabulary. You can asks students a brief question to respond to. Another possibility is to have students record their analysis of a political cartoon. Get creative.

Once you have your students create them on their iPhone or Android phone, you can collect them using Google Forms. Another option is to have your students post them to their ePortfolios by embedding it onto their site if they have them. You will need to get the embed code and embed it on a computer or Chromebook. The process does not work on the smart phones or ipads to embed Vines.

Check out this Prohibition exhibit Vine from the National Constitution Center.

Proper Photo Attribution with Photos for Class

Sat, 02 May 2015 20:37:42 GMT

Last weekend I attended Edsurge in Los Angeles, where teachers can explore emerging educational technologies. While waiting for the event to start, I had a chance to catch up and chat with Jen Roberts. Roberts is a rockstar middle school English teacher in San Diego. In our discussion, I brought up researching and getting students to properly attribute sources when she shared Photos for Class. This site is FABULOUS.

Photos for Class is a free database of Creative Commons G rated images that you can download WITH proper attribution included at the bottom of the image. Let me say this is golden. I have stressed with my students the needs to give proper attribution in their work including images. Too often teachers have students just grab an image off of Google. This is wrong. We must teach our students to search for Creative Commons images to utilize and give proper attribution. See last month's Fair Use blog post for more information on the topic.

Photos for class is easy to use. Just type in the topic in the search window. My students and I found that you may need to include the general topic and a specific aspect to narrow your search to be more productive. For example, when a student was looking for images related to the fall of China to communism we entered "Communism China." Once you find an image you like, select download. You will now have a Creative Commons photo with proper attribution to use in your task. This serves as a great way to teach digital citizenship and for students to see the proper way to attribute photos that are not there own.

ipadio- Radiocast/record with cell phones

Sun, 12 Apr 2015 23:38:18 GMT

Not everyone is 1:1 with Chromebooks or ipads. Or maybe you want your students to record in an "old school" way without visuals... think Fireside Chats. One item that most of our students have is a cell phone. If not, many classes have enough where students may work in groups. You can have your students record audio with their cell phones using ipadio. ipadio is a allows you to broadcast live to the web by having your students call a phone number.

To begin, you will want to have the students who will be using their phones sign up for a FREE account. They will be given a phone number to call and a PIN number after registering. Have the students write this down, they can also retrieve this info online by logging in. It is best to have students script out their recording prior to calling- there is no pause. Once they call the number, they will be prompted to enter in their pin. Next, there will be a recorded message, at the beep students record into their phone and press # at the end to stop the recording. They will be prompted if they want to listen then. I have my students save all recordings and select the best one at the end. Having a class record in the classroom can get loud and the noise will overlap, consider taking your class outside to a common area such as the quad to record. Have the student with the account login and have them/group listen and select the recording they like. Lastly, have the students download the recording to share with you via a Google Form or they can share the selected recording embed code with you via email or a Google form as well. If you have a group that does not have access to a phone, you may consider having them use your phone. To do this, you can register an alternate phone number- I entered in my class extension to share with students. You can then share the alternate number and PIN and allow student(s) to use your phone.

There are a variety of ways in which to use this. You may consider doing this for WWI or WWII battle reports. My students really embraced this and downloaded battle sound apps on another student's phone to play in the background as they were recording their "battle reports." The class was excited to listen to their reports to review for the exam and complete their battle notes graphic organizer. You may also consider this in meeting Special Education accommodations. This is a great tool to help meet the speaking and listening requirements of the Common Core.

Fair Use & Digital Citizenship

Tue, 24 Mar 2015 17:18:12 GMT

My first session at the annual Computer Using Educators (CUE) Conference this month was a session led by Gail Desler and Jane Lofton was phenomenal- Can I Use That? Not only was it packed full of resources samples, and videos to use with students, but they began with a Constitution reference quote. Article 1, Section 8 of the US Constitution calls for the government “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries” It is incumbent upon us as teachers to show students the proper way to utilize resources and give proper attribution. One cannot just go onto Google and utilize whatever image comes up. As Desler and Lofton state on their website, “In today's media-rich world, to be truly college and career ready, our students need a strong understanding of the concepts of copyright and fair use and how to apply these concepts within and beyond the school day. And teachers need a toolkit that clarifies both the limits of copyright and the possibilities of fair use.”

The ladies have also created a Can I use that? A Guide to CreativeCommons PDF that is invaluable. You will also find image and music Fair Use resources, links to Fair Use curriculum videos to use with students and teachers, and more.

Sourcing with Whois

Sat, 14 Mar 2015 20:31:30 GMT

This year's keynote at the CCSS Conference was the amazing Sam Wineburg. He is author of "Why Historical Thinking Matters" and is the director of the Stanford History Education Group(SHEG). One of the important historical thinking skills SHEG reinforces and Wineburg spoke about was sourcing. In today's digital age this is a necessary skill to teach our students as they sort through troves of information on the internet. WhoIs is a great site Wineburg mentioned in his keynote.

This site allows you to plug in the URL to a website and it will tell you who it is registered to. It is important for all of us to learn who is behind the web pages we are visiting, site names can and often are misleading. So before you or your students reference a site, do you due diligence sourcing the information and check out who is really behind the site.

Engage in Civic Discourse with Daily Read

Thu, 19 Feb 2015 01:08:18 GMT

Civic discourse is an important activity which history teachers must provide models for our students to do so responsibly. This is even more paramount in today’s environment and given the growing concerns regarding digital literacy, social media, and digital citizenship. Daily Read offers a free and engaging way for teachers to engage students in current events and civic discourse. Daily Read articles are available in a variety of topics ranging from US news, world news, arts and culture, science, and business. Students have access to leveled readings, linked articles for further reading, a poll question to take a position on, and a thought provoking question where students take a position, defend their position and type their response.

All one needs to do is sign up for your free Daily Read teacher account. You can have all of your students in a class to interact or separate students by class period and discuss by class period. You can instruct your students which articles to read or let their curiosity guide their reading. From your dash board, you can see the most popular section of articles your students have commented on, the most popular articles, who read what article and when, top commentators, and more. Engage your students.

HSTRY- Not your ordinary timeline

Sat, 24 Jan 2015 20:40:18 GMT

My students were working on our WWI webquest this month. One of the requirement is to integrate their research into a timeline. We were having trouble with both of the websites I have used the past four years. I sent out an SOS Tweet to one of the companies. Within minutes I had received a Tweet from HSTRY to try them out. We did and I am and grateful for HSTRY’s outreach and easy to use product.

HSTRY is a free and easy to use timeline maker. The teacher signs up for a free account. As the teacher, you have a dashboard to create classes, issue a class code for students to sign up (no student email needed), control the roster with the ability to reset student passwords (I LOVE this feature), and can view and monitor student progress. One of the other great features is that if a group is presenting and the timeline creator is absent, you can still provide access to the group/class for presentation.

HSTRY is not your traditional timeline- it progresses vertically. It allows for a brief or more elaborate entry. Their template includes positions for images with image citation, incorporation of You Tube video for multimedia, topic trivia with Did you know?, and allows you to integrate questions along the way.

Again, HSTRY is easy to use for both the teacher to utilize for their presentation of info and for students to demonstrate their research and mastery of knowledge. Check out these sample timelines.

Showcase info with Piktochart

Sat, 13 Dec 2014 19:10:52 GMT

In this digital age, quick access to information and visual literacy is shaping how data is communicated. Did you know that the White House has a page dedicated to infographics and they include emoticons? Infographics are not to be discounted. They are becoming more a part of communication and require synthesizing and summary of information. Another consideration of infographics is that they can provide access to students with limited reading and language abilities.

Piktochart is an easy to use infographic maker. Teachers and students can sign up for a free account and begin creation. It is important to first conduct research and identify the key points and data to convey. Having students collaborate using a Google Doc for their research first is beneficial. Once this is known, it is easier to select a template that will work best. See Mei Chow has created a helpful layout sheet for planning and selecting the best template. You and your students can adjust color and fonts, import images from their site, or even import your own pictures or student created images from Google Drawing. Once you have created your infographic, you can share it via email, use the link to collect student work using a Google Form, or embed it on a web site.

Ashbrook CORE Docs and More

Sun, 07 Dec 2014 22:24:11 GMT

The Ashbrook Center is an independent center at the University of Ashland. They have a variety of constitutional and other educational resources for teachers and students. Their Teaching American History website has a variety of resources that teachers can use to create inquiry lessons and digital DBQs. Students will also find their resources helpful in inquiry assignments and AP exams. Three projects of note are Ashbrook’s 50 Core Documents, online exhibits, andlesson plans.

There are a variety of ways to utilize Ashbrook’s resources, both in a traditional and technological manner. When using the 50 CoreDocuments, teachers can print them off to conduct close reading or document based activities. In classes where the students have access to technology, they can copy the text into a Google Doc to annotate and collaborate in virtual discussions with their peers, the teacher may chunk the document and import it into Voice Thread to create a collaborative/interactive DBQ, the documents may be referenced as part of an inquiry lesson utilizing a web quest, and more.

The online exhibits are in and of themselves a webquest into specific topics. Teachers may want to create a Google Doc with questions for the students to respond to as they engage with the exhibits. The online exhibits could also be utilized as a jumping point for students to create their own inquiry question to drive further investigation. Another possibility would be to have students synthesize their inquiry with the exhibits by identifying key points and citing evidence with the creation of a multimedia presentation such as Prezi, a movie presentation utilizing Animoto or GoAnimate, or create an infographic using Piktochart. In a traditional classroom, the teacher can project the online exhibit with a project and guide the students through exploration. The lesson plans provide a variety of options and resources for teacher to use as they are, modify, or be the point of inspiration

Flipping for News with Flipboard

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 18:48:50 GMT

Getting students to make connections with content and current events can be a struggle. Sometimes one wishes to categorize news articles by themes. You may want your students to curate news articles or Tweets with news articles or political cartoons by topic or unit of study.Flipboard allows you to do all of this and more.

I first came to experiment with Flipboard for classroom use after struggling with my students to watch or read the news and connect it to units of study. After thinking of how I was going to support my students, I remembered the magazine feature of Flipboard. I have had positive feedback from this and even have some of my Academy students, think homeroom, reading up on current events on their smart phones.

Flipboard is a fantastic app for viewing and creating news magazines. You will need to sign up and create your account on a smartphone of tablet after you download the app. Once you do this you can create your own magazines and add articles from Flipboard or search for items on Twitter.

Additionally, you can embed an individual magazine onto your class website using their HTML Magazine Widget. To do this, you will first need to go to the Flipboard Editor web page. Select the Magazine Widget. You will need to paste in the public URL for the magazine that you wish to embed.

Next select the button to the right of the text box and the HTML embed code will appear in a box below.

Copy this code and enter into your embed code box if you are using Weebly or follow the embed/HTML protocol of the website maker you are using. Now, your magazine will be integrated into your website page.

Another feature that Flipboard offers if you are 1:1 with ipads is that you can share the magazine and students can comment on the articles while they are in the app…like a discussion board.

Additionally, you could have your students create their own Flipboard magazines. When they curate and add an article, you could require them to comment their reaction or connection to a topic of study as well. You would need to have them share their Flipboard magazine with you- this can be done easily with a Google Form.

There are so many wonderful possibilities of ways to integrate Flipboard into your history classroom…get thinking.

Web based video options for iOs and computer/Chomebooks with Animoto and GoAnimate

Tue, 21 Oct 2014 02:21:55 GMT

Students are more visual these days and all about the videos. Why not challenge them to use this interest for educational purposes. Two easy and multi-platform options are Animoto andGoAnimate. As mentioned in the previous blog post, videos are a great way to set the hook and for students to demonstrate their understanding of a concept. While the free trials/versions are limited in length, concepts can be broken down into their parts for a class to examine a topic more in depth at the teacher’s discretion.

Animoto allows you to take images to create a video. This is great to do with primary source images or student drawings. They have a selection of music options to serve as the background music. To tell the story you can add text over the images. Another option is to have students add text to the images beforehand or create a PPT and save it as a JPEG to use in Animoto. You can create your production on a computer, tablet, or even using your smart phone. Animoto is free for a 30 second shareable video. To make longer downloadable productions, a Teacher Plus account costs $30 a year.

Here is a brief video I made for a Google Docs training shred session.

Google Tools Slam 2013

Another option for video making is GoAnimate. As the name suggests, it is an animated short. It took me a bit to get going on this, however my students were quick learners and ran with it. There are a variety of settings, characters, animations, and voices that one can choose from. You can also use your own voice. Again, storyboarding prior to recording facilitates the selection and production process. Animoto offers a free 14 day trial and is a paid product after that. They also have teacher and district licenses with more options available. Again, I have found the investment worth it.

Here is one my students made for their Civil Rights case presentation.

iMovie & Trailers to Hook & Demonstrate Mastery

Sat, 11 Oct 2014 22:05:11 GMT

Hook your students with your next topic using iMovies and trailers. They are easy to create and you can set a mood of intrigue to bring your students along into historical inquiry. Not only can one introduce a topic of study, but why not yourself?

If you have an iOS device you can easily create an iMovie or trailer. Trailers are great for a minute intro and come with preset themes and templates. Even better, Learning in Hand has storyboard planning sheets that make the production easier…especially when having students create a short video demonstrating their mastery of a topic.

If you or your students have access to iOS devices, select a topic, storyboard the transcript, THEN find images to correlate/support the text, have the script typed out and images in a folder labeled, and then assemble your production. You and your students can share your videos by emailing them if the file is not to large. An easier option is to upload your movie or trailer from your device to YouTube (if you have a Gmail account, you have a YouTube channel) and share via link or embed it on your teacher site. Students can also share their YouTube video link with you by collecting them in a Google Form for easier class management.

Plicking for Understanding

Sun, 21 Sep 2014 21:20:51 GMT

Not everyone had money for class responders. Plickers has come up with a alternative for teachers using their smartphone or iPads. Download the app, print out student cards, create questions on the app question screen and you are ready to go. This is another alternative way to formative assess your students.

Collecting Data with Google Forms

Tue, 09 Sep 2014 01:31:13 GMT

Google Forms is a great tool for teachers to use. Most people rave about the utility of Docs and Presentations…. These are great too. There are so many possible uses for Forms in the classroom. One can survey a class, utilize it for “March Madness” takes on history, and create a DBQ with answer sheet for students. One of my favorite ways to use it is to collect student work. This is an especially great tool when students be presenting their work. If collecting digital products ahead of time, it makes for seamless class management. You will have all the assignments, no need for students to log in to sites to pull up their project, student groups unable to go because person x is absent, or group y can’t go because person z left their flash drive at home…You will have all products ahead of time.

Forms are quite simple to use. Select Form from the Google Drive Create button. Select the theme you would like to use, you can always go back and change this later on. I would suggest labeling the form with template at the end. I have found that creating a folder with your templates allows you to easily make copies for additional class periods and the years to follow. Select the type of question you want to ask and type away. If you want a question to be required, check the required box and students MUST answer this before submitting the form. You can even embed an image or video into your form. If you decide that you want to move questions around or copy a question to make minor modifications you can easily do this as well.

Once you are finished creating the Form, select how you want to issue it. As mentioned earlier, it is easy to select Make a Copy under file to copy a form and add the class period at the end if you wish. Make sure you select Accepting Responses to make the form live. Select the blue Send button to share the form. You can email the form, get a link to hyperlink to on your own class website, or get an embed code to embed on your class website. Once you have responses, you can go to your responses spreadsheet of select view responses. Responses will be time stamped. You can also select view Summary of Responses to view responses in a graph format for easy visualization.

Here are some sample Google Forms as a semester survey, to collect student work, and as a DBQ.

Text Students Reminders with Remind!

Mon, 04 Aug 2014 23:11:56 GMT

If your students are like mine, they often forget to write down the homework and are glued to their devices. Why not use their cell phone in a positive manner...text them homework reminders! Remind (formerly Remind 101) is a great communication tool that protects the teacher and student privacy while being connected. Once you, the teacher sign up, Remind issues you a "phone number". You can create a class group/code or you can do it by periods... It is also great for clubs and activities as well (I use it for Academic

Decathlon too). Remind allows you to personalize your sign up code. They have a very student friendly PDF to display on your projector or to email to parents and students. Students and parents can then sign up to receive text message or email reminders. You can now also upload files (great to include the homework PDF or other important documents). Another great feature of Remind is that you can schedule texts in advance. It is a great way to communicate with students and for student clubs to remain in contact with their members. They even have an app for teachers and students. Learn more here:

Motivate & Engage with Big Huge Labs

Sun, 20 Jul 2014 20:38:12 GMT

With the Common Core, we need to get our students thinking critically and writing for various lengths of time. Big Huge Labs has a variety of tools to help teachers achieve this. Of particular interest for the history classroom are Motivator posters, magazine covers, badge makers, trading cards, and billboard makers. The Motivator poster is great for warm ups/do-nows/bellringers and visual literacy. You can insert an image, political cartoon, chart, or graph and type in a question or thought for the students to respond to. The magazine tool is great for students briefly demonstrating their understanding of a concept with article tag lines. This can be further extended by having students type up the actual article. If your looking for a way to refresh historical biographies, why not try having your students create a historical badge or trading card? Another tool is the billboard for students to come up with a summative thought or sentence on a theme, content, or primary source. Let's get our students thinking and creating!

Google Maps Engine- A Goldmine of Possibilities!

Sat, 12 Jul 2014 20:03:00 GMT

When most people hear Google, they think of a search engine. However, Google has some AMAZING sites and tools for the history classroom (Google Cultural Institute is an example). I recently learned about Google Maps Engine Lite from Moss Pike. My jaw dropped when I learned how I can not only pin news articles, websites, videos, and images, but I can also use Google Forms to pin information on to a map.

There are so many ways to use Google Maps Engine in the classroom. Teachers and students can pin regional resources, link presentations to the location where events took place, annotate a map of a battle, or pin current event articles. You can create a map and pin current event articles to see a visual of what regions have been examined and show proximity. However, an even BETTER feature is that you can collect data in a Google Form and upload the spreadsheet of information and Google Maps Engine will pin the information in the city/county specified.

My idea was to try using Google Forms to collect student Cold War projects and upload the data collected and pin their digital product in the location of their topic...It worked! I learned a few things along the way. When creating a Google Form to collect student data use first names only to protect student identity (I had originally asked students for first and last names), DO NOT include punctuation marks (,.?:), they will make the cell of information invalid, indicate that students need to identify a city and country or country, and make sure student projects are set to public view before sharing. I have included step by step instructions on creating a Google Map...ENJOY!

100 Years Later, the Legacies of WWI

Sat, 28 Jun 2014 18:45:05 GMT

History is more than the details of the event. We want our students to also understand significance and legacy of history while engaging in historical inquiry. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has created an engaging and very user friendly interactive called 100 Years Legacies: The Lasting Impact of WWI. One can navigate the legacies by their Politics, Culture, Countries, Armaments, Economy, Medicine, and Tactics categories.

Each legacy has an image and an informative entry posting- some also have videos. You may notice that the legacy box has a box on the lower right with some red in it. This is the visual for how viewers have voted for that item and it’s legacy. If you or your students find something missing, you can let the WSJ know. Another feature they have is a quiz, where you can test your WWI knowledge,

Once you find a legacy of interest, you may share it from the WSJ on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. The share options also include a link, which is useful if you or your students want to connect it to a blog post or other type of mastery project. This site also serves as a great reference point for teaching and demonstrating legacy with students. With this year’s National History Day theme being Leadership and Legacy in History, this may be particularly helpful.

This Day In History

Sat, 21 Jun 2014 22:33:25 GMT

If you have an iPad, this is a great FREE app to download. This Day in History is an interactive calendar. For each day, there are a variety of people, places, and events profiled and noted by categorical icons. Select the desired entry and view the details in text, photos, illustrations, music, or speeches. Whether you are looking to stump your students with a historical daily fact, completing This Day In History warm-ups, or looking to spark your students interest or brainstorming of historical events, This Day In History has a variety of uses, including a place to brainstorm for possible ideas for National History Day.

Kahoots! for Formative Student Data

Sun, 01 Jun 2014 01:56:19 GMT

Today was the Think.Create.Share Conference at California State University Fullerton. I was excited to attend the sessions with some of the AMAZING Huntington Beach teachers and the opening AND closing keynotes were delivered by Amy Burvall. One tool that caught my eye in particular was Kahoots! Ted Lai, Educational Development Executive at Apple, used it as a formative assessment tool at the end of his Effective Technology Integration session. As I sat in my seat, I was thinking I have to blog about this and am DEFINITELY going to use this next year (school is over already).

Mr. Lai flashed up the url and game-pin on the screen, Next, we followed instructions and created a player name. He flashed a question before the screen, then the correct answer was displayed, the leader board appeared, and then the process repeated until our “quiz” was finished. As we played, teachers were getting excited and you could hear MULTIPLE conversations about what a great tool this was and how the teachers’ students would enjoy this!

Kahoots! is an online blended learning and classroom tool that students can use with their smart phones or tablet devices. Teachers can create quizzes, surveys, or discussions with their platform. Additionally, you may embed an image or video in your question! You can choose to set a time limit on the questions, but may also advance the slides quicker in class if needed. Students will gain more points the quicker they answer the questions. Once you create a quiz, you may publish it privately for your own use or publicly to share with others. The ability to publish publicly is a nice feature if you and your grade level, subject, or department are implementing common formative assessments or data teams.

This a great tool to use at the end of a class period as a formative assessment. You are in control and can reteach or clarify misunderstandings on the spot. Again, as many schools are developing and implementing CCSS lessons, Kahoots! facilitates the use of formative data to identify areas of student need to focus on for mastery. Another feature of Kahoots! is the ability to download results- another great feature for collaboration and data team analysis. But my school is not 1:1…. Not to worry. You can still use Kahoots! by pairing/grouping students up with those with smart phones and using a group name or table number.

Explore the World with Google Cultural Institute

Sun, 18 May 2014 00:38:16 GMT

If your school is like mine, you do not have funds for field trips to museums or historic sites. Thanks to the Google Cultural Institute, you can bring museums and historical sites into your classroom virtually. The ability to bring in art pieces and visit historical sites can lead to some GREAT discussions. This is an especially great opportunity for those shy and artistic students to be engaged, demonstrate their understanding of the content and feel empowered. You may want to plan additional time for using these pieces, at least I have always found this to be true… the students are SOOO engaged! Upon arriving at the site, there are three projects; Art Project, Historic Moments, and World Wonders. There are many possible uses of the Google Cultural Institute by teachers and students.

Once you are in the Art Project, you may explore by collections, artists, and artworks. Once you find an art piece of interest you can zoom in to amazing clarity and view the colors, textures, and brush strokes- this is great for discussing art movements. In addition to the zoom factor, you may select on details located to the left of the image to learn more about the art piece.

In the Historic Moments collection one will encounter monuments, collections, and videos. Select a moment and explore the slideshow. This is a great resource for inquiry and examination of primary sources. The format is very student friendly and similar to a museum exhibit. Select Discover on the bottom left to find other similar exhibits. Students and teachers can also save exhibits to return to later on.

Then there is World Wonders where you will find locations, places, art, and street views in some instances. This is a great tool to explore historical places and examine the architecture and landscape. Simply select locations to bring up a map and select a blue dot of the location you wish to explore. Once you find a location, simply select it to access available street views, items, and videos.

If this was not enough, you or your students can also curate your own gallery (think student creating a multimedia presentation for CCSS). The possibilities of what one can do are only limited by one’s imagination. Teachers can take students on virtual field trips or curate resources for class discussions on cultural or historic sites. Collections or your own curated gallery can also be shared with students in webquests, as part of a PBL unit, or via Google+, Twitter, or email with the share icon. This also has potential for students researching topics for class assignments, projects, or history day. Additionally, the curation tool lends Google Cultural Institute to be utilized by students to curate their own multimedia presentations for classroom presentations, digital portfolios, or blog entries.Students may carry out their curiosity outside the classroom in exploring the world, even creating their own bucket list of places to explore.

Extra, Extra Read All About It... NEWS!!!

Sun, 27 Apr 2014 22:51:11 GMT

Literacy in history/social studies is expressed through critical thinking, communication of ideas,civic engagement, and global understanding. To this end, the state of California is moving forward with its Civic Education Initiative. One of the 6 Proven Practices of Civic Education is discussion of current events and controversial issues. Reading the news helps our students to meet these goals and those of the Reading Informational Text strand of the Common Core. We are living in an age where media is at our fingertips...whether at the touch of a keystroke on a computer, tablet or cell phone these days. Four engaging opportunities for our students to access current events are Newsela, Newseum, Newsmap, and Vox. All of these news outlets provide news in an engaging manner to make the content focused and accessible to today's students on their website and through Twitter.

Newsela

Newsela opens up many opportunities for the news and our students with their FREE high interest news articles. Have you had to deal with students in your class at different reading levels? They take news articles from major publications and adapt them to five different reading lexiles. News articles are categorized into seven categories: war and peace, science, kids, money, law, health, and arts. Additionally, some of the articles come with quizzes to check the student's reading comprehension. These articles lend themselves to close reading activities to facilitate reading comprehension.

Newseum

Newseum is more than an amazing museum to visit in DC. They also have a host of educational resources in their Digital Classroom, program archives, and their Front Pages is invaluable for current events. Having taught International Relations and World History, the Newseum's Front Pages is a site to keep bookmarked and get your students familiar with. Using their Sort Papers by Region link, you can customize what part of the world to have your students explore. What I loved is for them to see the front pages of different countries. If there was a major international news story played out here in the US, was it positioned so in other countries? This led to some great conversations. In every region they have, we were always able to find at least one newspaper in English. Have your students click on the newspaper and then the blue website hyperlink on the top right of the newspaper front page to see more in that publication--- this can be so eye opening for students. This is also a great resource for students whom English is not their first language and foreign exchange students. Another feature is to search the US headlines to show students how news can be regionalized and illustrate bias.

Newsmap

Newsmap is a great aggregate tool to visualize trending stories. Newsmap categorizes the news into seven color coded categories: world, national, business, technology, sports, entertainment, and health. You can select which categories you wish to display on the bottom right to customize your screen. The larger the box, the more the topic is trending. Again, this is a great visual tool for students. Hover over of click on the box to read the article. You can also select region and language options on the top toolbar. This is a great website to use with students when you are wanting them to research or select news stories related to a particular category.

Vox

Vox is a general news site with a mission to EXPLAIN the news. This is the project of journalist and blogger Ezra Kline launched this month. So far it looks great. The home page lists current news articles, Understand the News with related articles and fact cards to help one better understand the topic, videos, and conversations. The articles sometimes contain highlights of key items and include hyperlinks to provide contextual information for portions of the articles. What myself and some of the students have found useful are the fact cards. Theses are great for helping students understand the context and key points, especially in world events. The cards are also easy to share as a deck on Twitter or print out for a classroom jigsaw activity. Vox is looking like a resource to keep our eyes on and I'm looking forward to using this with my students. Again, another great source for close reading activities with students.

Concept Mapping with InstaGrok

Sat, 05 Apr 2014 22:09:06 GMT

These days, our students are coming to us as overwhelmingly visual learners. With all the time they spend on their devices it is no wonder. Additionally, there is much research behind the benefit of mind mapping to assist student learning. InstaGrok is a great tool for both teachers and students. As a teacher, it is great to introduce students to a topic and show relationships. As you map out your unit topic, you can select from InstaGrok's key facts with source attribution or hyperlink to websites with additional information. The latter is great for teachers to share their InstaGrok and provide links for further inquiry with their students. One may also add videos, pictures, and additional concepts from InstaGrok or add in your own note. The addition of your own notes is great for teachers to add additional video and images (InstaGrok has a limited selection at this point in time) as well as additional facts and primary sources!

My students were amazed and engaged when I first introduced them to InstaGrok. Beyond this, we found it to be a great tool for them to use to engage in historical inquiry. Students can enter a topic and use the web to further their inquiry and research into a topic. Some of the English teachers have also began to use it in their common Common Core lessons at my site. There are also other cross-curricular uses. When it came time for my students to begin their Cold War project, which includes a multimedia presentation, a few asked to use InstaGrok as their presentation tool.

There are many ways to individualize your InstaGrok with the background and concept colors, Again, the notes option allows one to type in their information and/or hyperlink to an outside item of interest. Once complete, you may share your InstaGrok with students or have them share their InstaGrok with you via FaceBook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, embedding it onto a website/electronic portfilio, or share it via a link in an email. They also provide the ability to view the InstaGrok in a journal mode and ability to quiz the students based on the key facts included to check for understanding.

Flip Your History Classroom

Sun, 16 Mar 2014 23:04:23 GMT

Image: sites.google.com/site/profhackerimg/continuum.png

If you are reading current articles and journals on education, you've probably heard of the flipped classroom. Jon Bergmann, one of the pioneers of the flipped classroom, lead a session at International Society for Technology in Education, ISTE, last summer. In his session he discussed flipping one's classroom is NOT about the use of videos but it IS about creating a STUDNET-CENTERED classroom. Without knowing it was called flipping, I was in one of the latter stages as his presentation continued. With the Common Core, it is even more important to create a student-centered classroom and give students the opportunity to engage with the content.
Many people have a misconception of it being about students watching the videos and doing homework in the classroom. I was delighted to catch

At this year's CCSS Conference, I presented Flipping the History Classroom. In my presentation I provided the why and how, including ways to structure student activities with and without the use of technology. You can flip your classroom and not be a 1:1 school- I did. Here you will find the resources forFlipping the History Classroom. In the link you will find the Prezi, sample student activities, session handouts, activity resources which include links to primary source and activity repositories, and some tech tools that I have used to engage my students in historical inquiry- particularly with visual literacy. The sample Lino board and Voicethread that we did not get to are also still live in case you would like to try the resource. You will need to sign up for a free Voicethread account before you post.

World History Primary Source Resources

Thu, 13 Mar 2014 00:08:00 GMT

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_history

Sometimes it can be an arduous task collating primary sources for the World History classroom. At my Flipped History Classroom presentation and the CCSS Publications Committee session I mentioned a few repositories for World History primary sources that I have stumbled upon and have been very helpful. Participants asked for a blog entry on World History primary resources for activities and here we are. The repositories below will help you to select World History artifacts to engage your students in inquiry and meet the Common Core. I have also included Merlot II which is a database of not only primary source materials but also topic specific sites with activities and primary sources in many cases. Enjoy!

World HistoryDigital Library The World Digital Library makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. The principal objectives of the WDL are to promote international and intercultural understanding, expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet, provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences, and build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries. You can search the repository by regions and eras, as well as by a few languages including Spanish.

Universityof San Diego Library Guides I was ecstatic to come across this one on my Twitter feed from Chris Long (@clonghb). The University of San Diego has compiled subject listings of primary sources available online: free web collections as well as UCSD subscription-based resources. It includes a custom Google search engine to key word search across many of the listed sites. As a teacher, if you take a public school letter head note from your administrator verifying that you are a teacher at a public institution you can recieve a UC library card and gain access to their resources- a tip I learned two summers ago at UC Berkeley.

Internet History SourceBooks Project Fordham University has created a collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts for educational use. They have divided the collections into three eras: Ancient History, Medieval History, and Modern History. Each collection has been further broken down. Fordham has also enabled search of their collections by topic and region.

Merlot II Merlot is a free and open peer reviewed collection of online teaching and learning materials contributed and used by an international education community. Select an are from the left scroll bar and let the browsing begin.

Class Cards to Spark Student Conversations

Sat, 08 Feb 2014 22:53:20 GMT

Too often our students go through the school day without speaking in class. Communication and Speaking are elements of the classroom addressed in CCSS. Often as teachers we find it difficult to keep track of student participation and randomizing our student selection for participation. Class Cards is an android and iPhone app that makes tracking student participation easier. Utilize Class Cards to randomly generate a list to call on students, select a student of your choosing to respond, rate the quality of the student response instantly in your hand, view student response scores individually or as an entire class, email yourself student scores, and archive scores to view, print grade sheets, or download the data into an Excel spreadsheet. I love the idea of being able to quickly note the quality of student responses', especially for Socratic Seminars. Also, many students sit passively in a class because it has no "worth" to speak. Class Cards makes it easier for teachers to give purpose to

Create a Mini-movie by Just Typing!

Sun, 26 Jan 2014 02:23:51 GMT

Google keeps turning out tools for students to practice the Creativity in the CCSS 4Cs. Their newest tool is Google Story Builder. It is as simple as typing in the characters, type in the script, and select music....REALLY! Making a "movie" couldn't be easier. You can add up to 10 characters. Next you type in the script for each character and select music, and then play the film. It is a great tool to also work on literacy because the students will need to read it. You, the teacher, can make brief films to intro a topic or pose a dilemma in history for students to consider. Another possible use would be for students to create a brief historical dialogue.

Reflect your iPad with your Projector

Sat, 11 Jan 2014 19:05:09 GMT

If you have a projector hooked up to you computer or laptop, you can easily use it to mirror your iPad! Have you ever found an app that you want to use in your classroom? Use Reflector to wirelessly mirror your iPad through your MAC or PC. Relector is a cheap $12.99 download that opens your classroom to the app world. If you are like me, you find great apps for content and classroom management that are only on an iOS device. Problem is now solved. If your school is like mine, you may need to have a school administrator or computer tech download the program onto your work computer. Another work around is to download Reflector onto your laptop and connect that to your classroom projector and enjoy!

Comics & History to set the Hook

Tue, 03 Dec 2013 23:38:47 GMT

Setting the hook is an important part of a unit and lesson. One of the ways teachers may think of doing this is through comics. Comics are a great way to peak students curiosity. Pixton allows teachers to create comics to introduce topics and convey information in an engaging manner. Teachers can sign up for a free trial and pay to extend beyond that. Students can also create their own comics to demonstrate their understanding of concepts, meeting the multimedia component of the Common Core. Pixton is easy to use. Users can select settings, characters, move and position characters, select from a variety of text boxes, and create their own dialogue. Multiple comics can be created together to form a book as well- great for the sections of a unit or chapter. In a few hours one can create multiple comics to use in the classroom!

Tagging for Visual Literacy with Thinglink

Sat, 02 Nov 2013 23:07:00 GMT

I came across a tweet from Sean Ziebarth (@MrZiebarth) on Twitter about his students using Thinglink. I was curious...What is it? WOW...is is a great tool to annotate an image with uses for the teacher and students. Thinglink is a website that lets you add 'tags to an uploaded image to annotate. You may type in info, link to an image, link to a video, link a Google Document, or hyperlink to an additional website. This is a great presentation tool for teachers and students alike to utilize. Additionally, it meets the criteria for students presenting their findings in a multimedia format for the Common Core.

Here's how to use it:

Collaborating with Google Docs

Sat, 12 Oct 2013 17:22:28 GMT

Google Docs, housed on Google Drive, have a limitless possibility in the ways teachers can utilize them to meet the 4C's of the Common Core (creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication). Additionally, using Google Docs eliminates the need for costly Microsoft software and formatting issues. How many times has a student told you their computer crashed, they lost their flash drive, student x is absent with the PPT/doc, they forgot to save the file, or the computer will not open the file? Google Drive eliminates all of this! It automatically saves the document, students can share the document and work on it at the SAME time ( I have had a whole class of 37 students working on 1 CST PPT for review at the SAME time), it is stored in the cloud, and eliminates the cannot open file issue with different formats. As long as you are connected to the internet, you can access the file. It is also available as an app on android and ios devices.

To begin, have students create a Google Drive account. When in Drive, you can create a document (similar to a doc), presentation (similar to a PPT), spreadsheet (similar to excel), form, drawing, or folders. Once students get used to the sharing and privacy settings, Google Documents are transformational and students generally will gravitate to them. They also allow you to see the revision history so you can see exactly when and who was active on the document. Students can create a Doc and you can have them share it with you and/or another student enabled to comment. This can be used as an exercise to write , collaborate for revision, and then have the student revise the Doc for final submission. If you are completing a group project in class or for National History Day, multiple students may edit a document. Teachers may also have students create a folder with their writings/inquiry throughout the year to serve as an electronic portfolio.

Here are the steps to creating a Google Document and sharing it:

Note-Taking Tools

Mon, 23 Sep 2013 22:42:39 GMT

With teachers having multiple devices and students using tech tools in class and a different device at home, note taking platforms are in demand. Two options, which many teachers are using themselves and with students for portfolios, are Evernote and Notability.

Evernote works on a variety of platforms and syncs on multiple devices (android and ios). You can take notes on Evernote, insert images, and record audio with text notes. It is great for students who begin research in class at school and continue it later on. They can resume where they left off and retain links they saved earlier with Evernote's webclipper tool. Teachers and students can even save tweets too. Evernote provides a variety of tutorial videos to support its product.

Another product for note-taking is Notability. This is an ios app compatible with the ipod, iphone, and ipad. It is a $2.99 download from the Apple Store. While taking notes in Notability you can type, use touch screen with your finger or stylus, add images, capture a webpage, and record audio. Users may export their files in PDF or email and may back them up to Google Drive or Drop Box. Cnet has provided a guide for getting started with Notability.

Giving students a voice in visual literacy with Voice Thread

Sat, 14 Sep 2013 23:29:59 GMT

Examining primary sources and evaluating data is an important skill in history. This skill is also explicitly addressed in the Common Core State Standards across the grade levels. Teachers are called upon to engage students in historical inquiry. Often times students are weary of speaking in class. Additionally, more schools are gaining access to technology and looking for ways to leverage their devices in meaningful ways. Voice Thread is a collaborative conversation tool to foster inquiry with text and visuals.

Voice Thread is easy to use and provides versatility. They have included a vast number of images one may select from their media options. Teachers can also upload images, insert a video, or convert a PPT for students to engage with. A teacher may insert part of a primary source text, image, or chart into a PPT and type a question(s) for student analysis/reflection. If using a PPT, the teacher/user must first convert the file into a JPEG. Students have found the tool engaging. There are a variety of response options available. A student may type a response, circle part of the image of text with the writing tool, use the writing tool to focus on part of the image and type a response, text a response, or record a video response. Students must create an account for free using an email address before they can post. Once a teacher has created a Voice Thread, they may share with with the students via email, sharing a link in class, or they may embed the voice thread on a website. It is also available as an app.

The following instructions walk you through creating a Voice Thread, including how to convert a PPT to use it in the program.

Get the best PD for Free & When You Want

Wed, 28 Aug 2013 22:58:08 GMT

Many people think of Twitter as something the Hollywood types use. Twitter is actually a powerful tool for educators. Teachers across the US and other countries are leveraging Twitter to collaborate and provide the best PD for free! There are Twitter chats for every topic imaginable. Looking for some useful information, just follow a hash tag (#). Cybraryman.com is a website full of educational resources. Among this pot of gold are multiple pages dedicated to Twitter. Check out the Twitter page for beginners, learn educational hashtags, find a chat to participate in, and then participate in a chat.

You may be leary like me. However, Twitter has become such a powerful tool in my teaching arsenal. It is not just about having a PLC anymore. As educators, we are talking about the Common Core and 21st Century skills. These include collaboration and integration of technology. It is important that we model for our students and be life long learners. Today it is about developing you PLN- Professional Learning Network. Educators on Twitter are collaborators looking to learn, share, and build up each other. Initally, I was what is referred to as a "lurker." I followed people and would watch the stream on my computer for chats. Then I was brave one day and participated. Seriously, I look back and what was I thinking. Don't be afraid to just jump in. The people on Twitter are very supportive and embrace newbies. Even better, find someone on Twitter and meet up to watch how they participate in a chat. Don't worry if the chat goes too fast. You can always go back through the archives of the chat.

There are a few things you will want to know as you begin. Change the egghead profile picture and write a profile. Some people are leary to follow people without an image, it does not have to be you, or some biographical information on their profile. When you find people you like, check out who they follow as possible people to build your PLN. Fridays have become Follow Friday's (#FF). People will recommend people to follow using #FF, use these to build your PLN too. Branch out outside of your subject matter. I have learned immensely by following other teachers outside of Social Studies. When you tweet about a topic, include the hash tag for that topic. For example, include #sschat for Social Studies, #wrldchat for World History, #edtech for educational technology, #ccss for Common Core, and #HSGovChat for Government Tweets. Find a chat or two to get started. Some particular helpful ones for history are #HSGovChat Sundays at 6pm, #sschat Mondays at 4pm, and #wrldchat Tuesdays at 5pm. Other chats of interest may be #ccsschat Sundays at 6pm, #tlap Mondays at 5pm, #flipclass Mondays at 5pm, and #caedchat Sundays at 8pm. Lastly, utilizing a Twitter client such as Tweet Deck will make following hash tags and chats MUCH easier.

That's a brief overview. Still not convinced? Google Twitter for professional development. Over 200 MILLION results come up. Read an article or blog post and come on board!

Student Bloggers to meet the CCSS Writing Challenge

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 23:28:22 GMT

Many students are reluctant writers. As educators, we sometimes need to hook or "gamify" tasks to engage our students. Blogging has done just that for many educators. Students start to become more engaged when they know their writing is public, even more so when collaborating with students outside of their own school site. Blogging provides a powerful medium for students to reflect on their learning, re-purpose gained knowledge to demonstrate mastery, and engage in historical conversation with their peers. All of this is supported in the CCSS Writing standards which call upon students to produce and distribute, utilize technology, write routinely, and write to inform and argue.

Last weekend I met with some educators for a Coffee Cue in Pasadena. Among the topics we discussed was blogging. Alice Chen, a middle school teacher, shared her experiences in having her students blog. She noted the power in her students writing and the connections they were making by being compelled to reflect. Also, she noted that it was a great medium for the shy students to use their voice and that her students were excited to converse with other classes including international ones. She mentioned a young writer in particular and the introspective examination she wrote about. She also shared a management tool for the blogs. Students are required to blog a number of times in the semester. To help manage this, students complete a Google form where they list the dates they blogged and copy their blog entry and this is done for extra blog posts for additional points as well.

There are a number of blog hosting websites for teachers to utilize. Many offer teachers the opportunity to keep the blogs private, select classes to collaborate with, moderate comment before publishing, and eliminate ads. Edublogs, Kidblog, and Class Press may be particularly more suited for the needs and concerns of the lower grades. When it comes to high school students, the ability of students to modify and personalize the template, integrate media, and share on their social media networks becomes of more importance. In these cases, Blogger andWeebly offer students more customization. These are just a few options for educators to utilize in their classroom

Photo Apps for the 2.0 Classroom

Thu, 30 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

While most people think of text when they think of literacy, visual literacy is just as important. This clearly comes across when one looks into CCSS. At a recent Discovery DENin in Irvine, teachers from across the country spent time examining the CCSS and tech integration. One of the sessions was APP Hour. I had never participated in one before. Teachers went up and shared an app that they used in the classroom. There were teachers, tech coordinators, and librarians from both public and private schools servicing Special Education, general, and GATE students. I was blown away by the photo apps being utilized by the lower grade teachers and how they were using them to demonstrate visual literacy, by themselves as well as by the students.

Photos give students a creative way to demonstrate their knowledge of a concept. In fact, it can be more challenging at times to select the correct images to tell the story. Teachers would sometimes use the images as collages for intro of a unit, do now to connect to the night prior's reading or previous day's material, or have the students create one for a given topic. Photos are a powerful way to tell a story, especially given the visual nature of today's students. Below are a few of the photo apps shared.

Pic Collage

PicCollage lets you instantly arrange your photos into frames - or get creative with freeform collages, cutouts, filters, borders, stickers, and text. Your friends will be amazed with what you can create. It's like photoshop with your fingers!

Instapicframe
Instapic frame helps you combine multiple photos into amazing looking shells/frames/collage and share them with world via Instagram, Facebook, Email, Twitter. With 55 fully adjustable frames, rounded corners, photo effects, shadows, plenty of patterns and an easy color picker you will always have a unique and distinctive look.

Strip Designer

Add photos from your photo album or draw your own sketches. Apply simple image filters to increase the impact of photos, and add speech balloons Add advanced textual elements and stickers to get that genuine comic book feel. When you are done, save the resulting image to the iPhone's photo album, email it to friends and family or share it with Flickr, Facebook, or twitter.

Type Drawing
TypeDrawing is a really easy app to use, but it's perfect for creating TYPOGRAPHY ART and UNIQUE WATERMARK over your photos. If you love typography, this poetic visual art app is absolutely yours. Start by typing a sentence you want to say, and then just draw with your finger. This simple action leads you to make stunning typography arts and wallpapers

Word Salad
Make great wordsalads out of documents that matter (or not) to you! With WordSalad you can make beautiful word clouds, super customized with different fonts, colors and words layouts.

Lino...A Sticky Note Canvas for the Classroom

Fri, 10 May 2013 23:30:00 GMT

Do you like using sticky notes to jot ideas down and rearrange? Use sticky notes to note resources and post them in the appropriate lesson plan? Sticky notes have electronic! I mentioned Padlet, formerly Wallwisher, in a previous post. Recently, I came across another electronic sticky note...Lino. Lino appears to be Padlet 2.0. One feature I enjoy about Lino is the ability to color code the posts. As I played with the site, I enjoy the idea of noting resources or having students create boards with entries color coded by SPEC (social, political, economic, and cultural). Sicky notes may contain text, video, images, or files from your computer.

Lino has a variety of helpful features for students and teachers. Accessibility is certainly at the top- it is mobile app downloadfor the iPhone, iPad, and android devices, in addition to being accessible on the good old fashion internet. Settings is another feature, as canvases may be set to public or private. You are also able to set a due date in Lino. Other helpful features include the ability to duplicate stickies, email stickies, move stickies to another canvas, favorite stickies, and embed a canvas onto a website or blog. Lino has created a variety of how-to stickies for new users.
available as a

The possibilities are far on how to utilize this in the classroom for both teachers/educators and students. Lino can be used to brainstorm knowledge on a topic with students in a computer lab or via their smart devices. This can be taken further by going back and color coding the stickies according to SPEC and possibly arranging again chronologically and/or into paragraph development as a pre-writing activity. Teachers can collate resources foe a unit and share them with the class, or have students collate unit resources. Lino is also supportive of the CCSS task for students to collaborate in a group research project or think History Day.

Just as it makes for the sharing of resources in class easy, the same can be facilitated with your peers as teachers collaborate in curating and designing lessons with multiple sources and rigor to meet the CCSS transition. Warm ups or primary source examination can also be completed with students or table groups posting their answers on a sticky. The possibilities are endless.

Twitter Power

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:36:18 GMT

Twitter is a powerful tool. Do not underestimate its potential for teachers and students! Those in the know are harvesting the many benefits. Twitter is a source of constant information regarding education pedagogy, Common Core, flipped classroom, educational technology, content specific connections, and more. In a recent Twitter chat I commented that I wish I had joined in sooner- no joke!

Twitter is also a way to connect with our students. One of my students forgot what time we were meeting yesterday for out practice AP exam and Tweeted me to find out the info. They will tweet me articles or info they find. Sadly, I just started using it with them...watch out next year. Just the other day I saw another teacher, Tara Becker-Utess (@t_becker10) conducting a review session via Twitter- yes on Twitter.

Also, by connecting with other teachers and following Twitter chats you can collaborate outside of you site and subject. I am constantly amazed by my Twitter peers and wanting to challenge myself and students more. So come on and join the Twitter community. The steps are below along with a tutorial video. Please forgive the video, it is my first attempt- they will get better.

Step 1: Go to Twitter. Enter your name, email, and create a password. I would suggest not using your district email, but rather a alternate email account. Also, I would suggest creating a Twitter account to use with students and another to network with educators (PLN).

Step 2: Create a username. Twitter will automatically generate a username- don't be afraid to change it. Try to create a username with your last name and school/subject/mascot to make it easy for the students to remember. When creating a user name to use with educators keep it classy. Scroll down to create and hit the button to go on to the next step.

Step 3: Add people and groups/organizations to follow. You can add people by name, Twitter handle (@username), or type in a topic. Select organizations by category or select Skip (it's in very light font under the selection menu) to continue.

Step 4: Create your profile biography and insert an image. Select an image from your pictures folder to use. It does not need to be an image of yourself- use a school image, animated image, etc...anything is better than the generic Twitter egg. Type in a little background info about yourself and include a link to your website or blog if you have one.

Step 5: Congrats your on Twitter. Send out a Tweet and explore!

US History Review Resources

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:31:50 GMT

It is that time of year again...race against the calendar and testing. At the same time, it is getting warmer and the students are getting more excited about the prospect of summer vacation. With this excitement comes the restlessness and lack of focus sometimes, along with fatigue. This can create anxiety and stress for both teacher and students. State testing is here and AP testing is around the corner. For me, I'm setting up review resources for my AP US History class that can hit the different learning styles, be engaging, and provide access on the go for our mobile and sometimes over scheduled students. I came across some great resources for my students and to share with my fellow teachers.Some are general review videos and some include practice quizzes. You could also use them with middle school and for CST prep.

Education Portal (review movie and short quiz)

bubbabrain (online practice quizzes- multiple grade levels & subjects)

US Key Dates & Eras (You Tube video)

Hippo Campus (video review with transcript & more)

Crash Course US History (You Tube videos)

Tech & History Join Forces at Presidential Timeline Institute

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 17:37:53 GMT

With the emphasis on primary sources and using multiple texts, along with the call for student collaboration and use of technology teachers can feel overwhelmed by the Common Core. However, technology has some powerful uses and integration with literacy and writing in the history classroom.

Presidential Timeline has just announced their summer teacher institutes which take place in conjunction with presidential libraries and the National Archive resources. Southern California via the Nixon Presidential Library will be hosting their Energy and Environmental Policies: Historical Thinking, digital Archives, and Web-based Tools for the Social Studies Classroom July 11th through the 14th. Having attended one a couple of years back, I can attest to the depth and quality of primary sources, technology, and speakers. Presidential timeline uncovers great readings and walks you through the process of breaking them down with your students. They will provide you with access to a wide variety of primary resources beyond the topic, and show you how to integrate primary sources with a 21st century touch.

Presidential Timeline has a vast arsenal of resources for the history classroom such as an interactive presidential timeline, primary resources, and lesson activities.

Review Session via Twitter

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 17:08:45 GMT

The other day I was going through my Twitter feed and I came upon Tara Becker-Utess (@t_becker10) conducting a review session. My jaw dropped...SUCH AN AMAZING IDEA! I have used Twitter to communicate with my students for a variety of reasons and events, but I had not thought of conducting a review session. This is such a great idea, especially when you have students involved in after school activities. I am most definitely going to be doing this in the future. What was even better was that her students were also answering questions...EDUAWESOME!

To help my self remember and to give you an idea, I created a Storify of the review chat. By using Storify you will create a "story" archive of a discussion based on the hashtag used. The archive flows from the most recent post. Scroll to the bottom and move upward to view the great review session.

Here are the steps you will want to take:

Set up a Twitter account to use with your students. Try to make the username related to your name, school, and or class- this will make it easier for the students.
Show your students you Twitter account in class and encourage them to follow you. You may also want to create a student account randomly or have a student volunteer to do this in class.

Create a hashtag (#word) to use for the class. Be sure to practice searching for it in the search bar. If you are getting hits, select something else. You will want a unique hashtag for your students to follow during a chat. Again, best to create a hashtag related to your name, school, and or class- this will make it easier for the students.
Practice Tweeting a few to model for the students with your hashtag at the end. Then follow it in the search bar.
Create an account with Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or another Twitter management system.
Model creating a column/following a hashtag for your students.

For Tweetdeck:

Type your class hashtag into the search bar and search.
Once your results come up, select add column to follow tweets with that hashtag.

Blogging 2.0

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 04:58:35 GMT

I started blogging at the urging of Debbie Granger as a way to share resources and ways to integrate technology with history in the classroom and was asked to do so for CCSS. This week I participated in the #flipclass Twitter chat. The topic was blogging. It was in this chat that I realized I was just scratching the surface. I reflect on my teaching, but wasn't using the blog to its full potential. There is so much to gain by writing our reflections from class down as educators for ourselves, other teachers, and our students. Blogging gives an opportunity to reflect, grow, learn, inspire, and much more.

Writing about our adventures in the classroom gives support to other teachers, ideas, allows a platform for assistance and development, models good teaching practice of evaluation to our peers and those entering our profession. More and more teachers and administrators are joining the charge of blogging.

Additionally, and more importantly, it serves as a model to our students. What better way to encourage and model lifelong learning than for our students to see us as "students" in life as well? Students sometimes dismiss what a teacher says as be irrelevant or "do as I say." Blogging serves as an authentic piece of evidence that we are not just "talk" and are in the journey of learning along with them. I know I am constantly learning and being inspired by my students. This helps to build rapport and builds a safe learning environment.

However, blogging is just not for teachers, why not have your students blog? Blogging is a great way for students to reflect on their learning and share their voice. There are a variety of ways to set this up- exit pass, a weekly recap, answer an essential question, reflect on a or set of primary sources, relate a topic of study to a current event...and on and on. Also, blogging supports the Common Core. Why not take it a step further and comment/connect with another class on your site or off site. If you are looking to go off site, go on Twitter. With a mention of wanting to connect with another class, I found three teachers in ten minutes. The possibilities are endless!

This blog was established to provide a venue to communicate ways to integrate technology into the classroom. It will continue to do so, along with highlight resources- Common Core and history related as well. I encourage you to set up a blog. I will also be posting on my classroom experiences/reflections on a personal blog if you would like to join.

Flipping March Madness

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:22:44 GMT

Why should basket ball have all the March fun? I decided to flip March Madness for my AP US history class for a review.While surfing the internet, I came across a political March Madness at In the Capital and came up with the idea. Why not turn this into a review activity? I enjoyed the fact that they grouped key US political figures by eras.

First, I got busy on Google Docs and Prezi. To introduce Political Madness to the students I created a Political Madness Prezi. Students were given time to work in their table groups of three to select a winner. While discussing their selections, the groups had a peer serve as a recorder to record the historical evidence/justification for their selection. This compelled them to review and give a purpose to their "madness." Students were given time the next day to share out their responses.

Then, I created a Google form to survey the students for each pair in the brackets. When I went over this and introduced it, students were given some time to enter their selections on their smart phones in class.

Later, we returned to view the results-they enjoyed the immediate results. The remainder were able to complete the survey for homework or in the computer lab the next day.

The next step was to create a Google drawing to enter in the winners as we progressed. Also, a new survey was needed for the next bracket. This repeats until we come to the winner. So far, the students have been

engaged and this has been a "fun" way to review- perfect timing for the California STAR test and pre-AP/End of Course review.

iPads in the Classroom: Embedding Technology in the Curriculum

Dr. Margaret Hill — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 18:45:57 GMT

British educational blogger David Andrews provides some creative suggestions for teachers to use iPads in their classrooms and makes the recommendation to use one per group in order to build collaboration (and I would add language development) opportunities. The only confusing issue in the blog is how the grade level relates to the American system. In Great Britain, the primary school year six would be either fifth or sixth grade in America. Hope you find the blog of value for your clasroom: iPads in the classroom: embedding technology in the primary curriculum http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/mar/06/ipad-ipod-technology-primary-curriculum

US Supreme Court Comes Alive

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 13:30:00 GMT

Studying the Supreme Court can be challenging for students. They may read about the landmark cases and Chief Justices and say so what? C-SPAN has an excellent resource to bring the Supreme Court alive in your classroom...an Interactive Timeline. The timeline has profiles on the Chief Justices, changes in the Court, and profiles on major cases that have come before the US Supreme Court. Another benefit to utilizing the Interactive Timeline in the classroom is to practice Common Core skills of identifying evidence in responses and practicing sample tasks of utilizing video in performance tasks.

The Interactive Timeline provides many options for teachers and students. In many cases, the timeline has also included video and a few questions for the timeline entries. The video may consist of interviews with scholars, experts, or more recently- audio of arguments before the Court. The questions lend themselves to many uses. Highlighted video and questions may be used as a warm-up to set the stage for day's lesson. Another possible use would be to have students view the video and questions as an anticipatory set to a unit review where students connect the case to events in a unit or theme in American history or government. Additionally, the timeline has a variety of formats that it may be viewed in. One may view it in the traditional timeline configuration, as well as in a flip book, list or map.

Beyond the timeline uses in the classroom, it may also serve as an idea for student extensions. Perhaps, you may show the timeline as an example and jigsaw your class to create timelines on landmark cases related to themes such as civil rights, federalism, or SPEC (social, political, economic, cultural). A detailed posting on how to create an interactive timeline on Capzles coming soon. Another possible extension would be for students to use the timeline to create their top 10 list with biographical info. Yet another would be to connect your desired case or number of cases to relevance in the United States today based on current events. The possibilities are endless.

Extra, Extra Read All About It...Newspaper Clipping Generator

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 03:30:00 GMT

One of the areas of focus in the Common Core History ELA standards addresses expository writing. Additionally, this is a great formative and summative assessment to use with students. As we are requiring more writing, why not make it fun and creative. Fodey has created aNewspaper Clipping Generator online. Students can work independently or collaboratively to create an informative article and "publish" their work. In doing such an activity, teachers will be hitting multiple Common Core Tasks (Writing 2, 4, 7 Language 1, 2). Students have the opportunity to name their newspaper, date it, create a headline, and create their article. Once complete, the website generates an article clipping like the one to the side. This would be great to do periodically, as a class activity with unit material jigsawed, or as a CST review and post them around the class or hallway for a gallery walk

Women's History Month Resources

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

March is Women's History Month. The Library Of Congress has a wealth of resources for teacher to create their own lessons or utilize a lesson and materials ready to go. Better yet, the lessons include primary sources which are great to use in the classroom and support the Common Core State Standards. Women's History has a variety of material on Women's History.Women Pioneers in American History has a variety of information and primary sources related to the Westward Movement, Suffrage, Struggle for Equality, On the Job, and Women Today. This site also allows you to search for material and lessons by Common Core, State Standards, and Organizations. Women's Words of Wisdom is another great project. The page has a variety of pictures of women. Just click on one to bring up information and a quote from the woman This is a great short and quick way to examine a primary source. One could examine different ladies throughout the month in discussion or use the quote for a warm-up activity.

Periodic Tables Are Not Just For Science Anymore

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:30:00 GMT

You may remember having to learn the periodic table in Chemistry class in high school. There were so many elements to remember...kind of like all the New Deal programs. It made sense in Chemistry class, why not do the same for the New Deal. This is exactly what the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum has done.

We now have the Interactive PeriodicTable of the New Deal. You can use it on their site or email them for a cd disk or color poster. As the site states, The table presents major programs, players and events surrounding the New Deal and includes brief definitions or descriptions. The table is designed to be used in a number of ways: as a visual depiction of the complexity and scope of these events; as a way introduce students to specific players and events; or as comprehensive list from which teachers and students can select a topic for further in-depth investigation.

Wallwisher evolves to a more teacher friendly tool…Padlet

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 18:14:58 GMT

Wallwisher was a site where students and teachers could brain storm and move the text box of ideas around into categories or chronological order. Many teachers also wanted to do more. Apparently Wallwisher has listened to comments and their vision for a “tablet” like site has evolved. Wallwisher is now Padlet.

There are a variety of ways to use this in your classroom beyond an in class brainstorming activity. They have included a streams, which places the postings/notes in chronological order with a timestamp. This allows teachers to easily use this as an extension activity beyond the classroom. Padlet can easily be used as a notice board, brainstorm, make lists of activity/unit/class resources, watch and share videos, and more. I really like the idea of it becoming a different discussion board.

One way that I have used in the classroom is to brainstorm ideas on a topic. I had a student type in the responses students shared and I have also had students post their responses from their smart phones or in the computer lab. As a class, we then discuss ways of categorizing them, you could also categorize them based on SPEC (social, political, economic, cultural) categories. This can be done as an end of unit review, DBQ outside info review, or CST review prep.

Pinterest in the Classroom!

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:50:40 GMT

You may have heard of Pinterest. It is big in social media sites at the moment. It is an electronic bulletin board to “pin” websites and images of interest. Not only is it great for personal use, but there are creative ways to use it in your classroom.

If you are like me, you are constantly coming across things that stand out and you want to remember to use in your classroom at a later point. Pinterest is a great place to put these items. For example, you could create boards for your different units and “pin” items that you want to use later on. A quick search of a particular history subject or topic can bring up many items. If you find a teacher or board you like, you can follow them and gain more potential items to use in your classroom…a great way to develop you personal learning network.

Another idea is to use it with your students. You would need to create boards with multiple users. Pinterest tells you how to set up a multiple user board in their help page and there is a You Tube tutorial video. Here are some possible ways to use it in class:

Reference Materials: You may want to create a board with different sites for students to use for research projects categorized by topic or a variety for them to brainstorm. You may also want to set it up for students to post sites that they find useful.

Group Collaboration: You may want to organize end of the year review into chunks. Why not have small groups find helpful review material for collaboration with other students. It may be that they find informative sites and/or sites with review material such as Quizlet, Study Blue, Capzles, or others.

Student Presentations: If you assign group presentations, why not make them accessible to all students by pinning them. Student Glogsters, Weeblys, Prazis, or other electronic presentations can be “pinned.” Mine just asked me to do this today after our Gilded Age presentations for review.

Decades Project: Students can create a board for an assigned decade and curate information pertinent to the time for a visual collection. You expand it to websites or other relevant info to meet your instructional needs.

Music DBQ: Students love music. Why not have them find music of a given era and “pin” samples? Or if you play in music in class while students enter or work in class, they could “pin” possible selections to be played in class.

Image/Political Cartoon Gallery: Images are powerful. Why not create a board for students to “pin” powerful images of a given time frame or from history. Political cartons would be great to be included. Students could contribute and you could rank them in order at the end of a unit or semester and have a great discussion/Socratic seminar. They could also be used for a random warm-up discussion/analysis activity or end of the year review.

The possibilities of Pinterest go on. Hope you and your students can have a creative and engaging experience. Pinterest also has secret boards for teachers of lower grades where posting student work/name may be more difficult due to school policy. Also, as a teacher, you may want to create a class account and “pin” items as a class activity with different students at the computer.

Engaging Technology Resources to Promote Common Core Critical Thinking

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 04:02:25 GMT

Today's students are facing an ever changing world and future workplace. The Common Core aims to help prepare students for career and college readiness. The 21st century is here in all aspects of our lives and challenges teachers and students to utilize it in the classroom as well. Additionally, as teachers we want to challenge the young historians in our classes to engage with the content and become critical thinkers. The tools below provide an engaging way to introduce content and have students work with history. Better yet, the tools below will also be a "fun" way to get your students to work and publish their writing, meeting the Production and Distribution of Writing Common Core Standards.

VoiceThread

This was a FAVORITE of many of my students. I wanted a way to spark my student’s interests in working with primary sources. VoiceThread allows you to upload images, movies/video clips, and PPTs into the program. There are some nice ones online that teachers of Special Needs students have been using to show their students progress. You can pose questions for the students or have them annotate on their own. Students like it for the animation and “fun” value…they stopped dragging their feet to work with primary sources. The writing tool is great for annotating text and political cartoons. Hint: to have students work with documents or text, copy or type the text into a PPT, save the PPT as a JPEG, upload the PPT JPEGS into VoiceThread.Here is a sample from high school students where I digitized and modified a Teaching with Documents lesson from the National Archieves. App available

Prezi

Your presentations will come alive. You can import a PPT and modify it here. Alternately, you can type your text in directly and import video and images. Prezi allows you to set a motion path and rotate you text/images. This is great for uploading an image, political carton, or map and “hiding” your text (questions or notes). There a variety of teacher and student samples online. Students or other groups can also work on a Prezi collaboratively…Carreer Readiness. Hint: do not leave the Prezi open for others to edit out of the group. I had a student group working on a great Prezi and someone “vandalized” it overnight. We were so disappointed…they had done nice work in the computer lab. iPad app available

Glogster

Create electronic posters with Glogster. Teachers can create a Glogster to introduce a unit topic or detail a main concept. Students can also create a Glogster to demonstrate mastery and/or use as their visual in a presentation. Student creation of Glogsters is also a way to meet the Common Core Literacy Standards and Technology Integration.

Zunal

Create web quests with this easy to use website. Basically a web quest is an inquiry based lesson students complete online. You can sign up and create a free web quest. For a small fee you can create additional web quest. There is also a search feature to find web quests ready to go and use in your class. Students are given an introduction to the topic, performance task(s), resources, and a rubric for evaluation.

Scoop It

I LOVE this site. You become the curator of your own electronic magazine. Search for items online and Scoop then onto you topic page. You can add multiple pages to curate by topic, class, and more. Scoop it suggests articles based on the tags you give your topic page or you can add your own from the internet. The site also allows you to comment on the article/item and others can too. Not only is this great for teachers to use with their students, but students can also create their own magazine/journal and reflect on their article they’ve chosen. Other students in the class can comment too. This a great way for students to integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information, evaluate different points of view, produce clear and coherent writing, and use technology to produce and publish…all part of the Common Core Standards. A suggestion in using this in a global context is to have students use Newseum to find articles from around the world to curate. App available

Capzles

Create a visual timeline online with this tool. Add image(s) of an event, tag the date, and provide a description. There is also a comment feature to use with students…great for teachers and students to use. Another application would be to use it thematically such as a collection of Native American Art, photosynthesis process, characters in a piece of literature and so forth. App available

Study Blue

Students can create flash cards online. Very user friendly for the students. Study Blue allows students to have their flashcards in there hands anywhere they are if they have a smart phone. They can also be accessed online. App available

Photostory

Photostory is a free download for PCs to make movies. You can add images, save a PPT as a JPEG and import the slides, and upload music into your own movie. Editing options include transitions, adding text in color, setting motion paths in the Ken Burns manner, and setting the timing. It is a basic movie making program…easy for students to use. A teacher friend of mine was making one and then her early elementary grandson did his own. Great for students to create a mini documentary or content trailer. Here is an online tutorial.

Weebly

This is a free and easy to use website maker. Also, if your students participate in History Day, this is the platform students must complete their websites in. They have a variety of themes and page design to choose from. You can pay to upgrade your site for more advanced features. Great for teachers and students to create an electronic portfolio or use for unit or topic assignments. Click here for a PDF of step-by-step instructions with screen shots. App available

Google Docs

Ever had the problem of student work in a format that doesn’t open on your computer? Tired of emailing docs back and forth the collaborating remotely? Google Docs is your answer. Create documents, presentations, and more in Google docs and share…no more format issues. This also facilitates collaboration between peers and students in group projects. Teachers can also comment on student work and view when students have contributed. Sharing files between department members, PLNs, and students is made as simple as hitting the share button. You will need to have a gmail account to use, but that’s free. App available

Edmodo

Edmodo is a free class management system that functions like Facebook… student like this and have little problem navigating it. This is a great tool to post comments or question of the day and continue the dialog outside of the classroom. Teachers can separate students by subject, class period, or club. It is a closed site. Upon creation of your group, you are given an access code for your students to use when registering. Edmodo provides a variety of tools such as the ability to poll, quiz, continue discussions, and share information and resources. App available

Xtranormal

Choose from a variety of sets, music, and characters to create your 3D animation to share or download. There is a free version and ones for purchase. Xtranormal allows teachers to set up classes, issue a class registration code, and manage assignments.You or the student creates the script… I suggest having the students complete a story board before moving to the computer. Students generally are very apt to navigating the program and think this is fun…a nice way to trick them into working. This has a variety of ELA Common Core and content area applications… colleges are using this too.

Animoto

Turn your photos, video clips, and music into a video. Animoto allows you to create free 30 second videos, longer videos are available for $30 a year. App Available

Blabberize

Turn a photo into a talking image. Blabberize can be used as a hook or student assignment. Ideas for the classroom include having students select a figure and recording a speech, creating a song, poem, or narrative about a key figure, or having students research a person and then having them give their biography. App available

Tagxedo

Take famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes and turn them into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text...a more creative Wordle.

Election Resources

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 03:52:12 GMT

It's election season again! If your students are like mine, they have lots of questions regarding the election. Often , I get questions about how do I know what I am? Which candidate? With so much to cover in the curriculum, it's hard to take time out to discuss the 2012 election outside of a government class...but there are ways.

A few colleagues and awesome teachers asked me if I knew of quizzes students could take. But of course! However they were linked school. This is the inspiration for this posting. Below I have linked three online quizzes you can use with your students to see where they fit on the political spectrum by candidate, party, and more.

This posting ends with BINGO. Yes, BINGO for the presidential debate. This is a fun way to have your students watch the debate.

I Side With

Students can take an election quiz with questions regarding social, environmental, economic, domestic policy, healthcare, foreign policy, immigration, and science issues. The quiz will let you know how well you match up with the presidential candidates, California voters, and American Voters. Also, it will give you a percentage of how you side with the Democratic, Green, Republican, and Libertarian Parties.

Party Match Quiz

Students can take a quiz based on questions relating to individual rights, domestic issues, economic issues, and defense issues. It will let you know how the user ranks in agreement with the political parties and political leaders by personal and economic percentages.

Where do you fit?- PEW Political Quiz

Answer 12 questions that were part of a national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center , and find out where you fit on the partisan political spectrum. You can also compare results to how you compare with others by age, sex, race, religion and candidate.

Debate BINGO

Print these out and have your students stay engaged in the conversation. Debrief in class. You can also use these as a lead into an extension activity where you have the students write on the issues and the candidate's position.

History and Common Core Resources for Your Tool Box

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 03:16:41 GMT

Welcome to the California Council for the Social Studies Classroom Tech Blog! You will find a variety of tools to add to your arsenal for an engaging classroom. The websites below contain a variety of resources and lesson plans aligned to history and the Common Core Standards. Additional resources and lesson ideas will be posted here as well. Enjoy!

America in Class

Collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards undefined historical documents, literary texts, and works of art undefined thematically organized with notes and discussion questions.

Teaching History

Designed to help teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the classroom, Teachinghistory.org has a wealth of history content, teaching strategies, resources, and research accessible available by grade level. Each grade level page also has material on thinking like a historian and using technology. Going Beyond the Textbook has thematic lessons with What does the text say? What do historians say?, What do the sources say?...great in meeting the Common Core performance tasks.

Library of Congress

The library of Congress has classroom materials ready to go for teachers. You can search for material by state standards, lesson plans, themed resources, primary source sets, presentations and activities, or collection connections. The American Memory Timeline is great for students to use for class activities, lesson extensions, or projects.

Teaching the Common Core

The Gilder Lehrman Institute has created ten Common Core units in American History. Each unit has an overview, lesson plans, objectives, and materials. The lessons span Columbusto Martin Luther King Jr.

History by Era

This is another great collection by the Gilder Lehrman Institute. It is a collection of fifty individual introductions written by some of the most distinguished scholars of our day… historiography and the Common Core. It thus speaks to the reader not in one voice, but in fifty different, unique voices as each of these scholars interprets the developments, movements, events, and ideas of a particular era.

Each Era follows the same template so that readers can move easily from one to another. An introduction to the time period is followed by essays by leading scholars; primary sources with images, transcripts, and a historical introduction; multimedia presentations by historians and master teachers; interactive presentations; and lesson plans and other classroom resources.

EDSITEment

The National Endowment for the Humanities has a collection of AP level lessons based on primary source documents that cover the most frequently taught topics and themes in American history.

Reading Like a Historian

Reading Like a Historian is a project of the Stanford History Education Group. It is high school history curriculum that is literacy-rich and document-based. The focus is on core content, critical thinking, and improving reading comprehension.

Exploration in American History

The Huntington Library examines three struggles in American history; independence, rights, and equality. Each topic has a timeline and a series of primary sources and explanations/context organized by subtopic.

American Democracy in Word and Deed
This TAH project worked with the UC Berkely History project to create a variety of history lessons aligned with California's grade 4, 5, 8, and 11 curriculum. They also have Common Core literacy resources targeted at reading and writing that can be used with various grade levels and across the curriculum.

Content Trailers

WOW! West Baton Rouge Parish Schools have created content trailers for grades pre-K through secondary and all subjects. "A Content Trailer is a short, 2- to 3-minute, media-rich experience from which a point of inquiry can begin. The vehicle is unimportant in the relationship to the concept. Providing students with the images and sounds that can be attached to the textual information that they will be exploring can provide a profound shift in the way learning is engaged. Content Trailers can be one tool to help the process of inquiry begin.

Engage NY

What is this Common Core educators are talking about? Engage NY has a wealth of Common Core resources that is helpful regardless of what state you are in- I’m in California.

LiteracyTA

Literacy TA has Common Core materials. They break the Common Core down toReading in Action, Writing in Action, and Speaking in Action. For each of these they identify the standard with the appropriate literacy skills and application ideas and worksheets. While you do need to pay for the worksheets, if you hover you mouse over the image you get an idea of the handout…most teachers have something like these already. Many teachers are already teaching the Common Core, seeing the handouts help you to identify your activities/lessons to the Common Core.

Planbook

Planbook is an online planbook where you can input your lesson, notes, homework assignment, and select what state and Common Core standards apply to your lesson. You can give it a free trial and after that it is $12 a year. When selecting your standards, you can add state and Common separately. In doing this, most teachers will realize they are already integrating Common Core in the classroom. As states move into implementation of the Common Core, this is a great school for leaders of PD and teachers in identifying what they are doing in the classroom. If desired, you can create a teacher key to share lessons with other teachers or a student key to allow others (principals, parents, students, etc) to view your lesson plan.