Netbook Pilots

Lesson plans and activities for September 17.

Free Presentations in PowerPoint format & Free Interactive Activities

This looks like a really cool game. Dreamed up by Sandra Day O'Connor

The Federal Reserve Banks around the country produce a great number of educational resources for the general public, students, and teachers. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has developed a section of their site dedicated to financial education resources specifically for teachers. Located within the "Teaching Aids" area, the site includes a curriculum unit on United States money and a link to the "What is a Dollar Worth" calculator. This interactive calculator helps people understand the relative value of a dollar, and it also provides a bit of background on how the calculator works and what it measures exactly. Additionally, the site contains a link to "The Economic Literacy Project: Seeking a Blueprint for America". Here visitors can review a report on economic literacy and also learn more about recent studies on banking failures and early childhood development.

C-SPAN offers a variety of thematic programs, and their American History TV runs every weekend for most of the day and into the late evening. The programs offer up conversations with authors and historians, along with first person accounts of American history. Visitors can use this site to view their programming, and the homepage includes a complete schedule of past and upcoming programs, along with featured interviews. Some of the recent features have included interviews with former Representative Dan Rostenkowski, Senator Bob Dole, and Frank Yamasaki, a Japanese-American who was interned at the Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho during World War II. Moving on, visitors can also take advantage of the "Web Resources" area, which includes links to the U.S. Congress homepage, the Supreme Court, and legislative bodies around the world.

The Sioux City History website is billed as "your link to the past", and it does not fail to deliver on this promise. The site offers up snippets of the town's past, drawing on historic photographs, oral histories, and other documents. On the homepage, visitors will note eight primary sections, such as "Notable People", "Transportation", and "Arts & Leisure". First-time visitors should click on the "Arts & Leisure" area to start their journey. Here they will find essays and images that tell the stories of Riverside Park, community theatre, and the local legends who performed in the Monahan Post Band after World War I. To gain a better understanding of the role played by corn in local history and culture, visitors shouldn't miss the "Corn Palace" area. It's a tribute to the five grand corn palaces that graced the city from 1887 to 1891 as a symbol of agricultural prominence and boosterism. Finally, visitors can also look over a selection of oral histories and make use of the search engine here.

The manuscript division is the oldest comprehensive presidential libray. It has in its custody the papers of twenty-three presidents.

This site contains historical material pertaining to the presidency. It supports research and provides programs to help educate and inspire future generations.

This site has the most comprehensive website about the presidents of the US and the US Presidency. Thsi site contains a wide array of subjects about the presidents.

This site has biographical information on each president. It also has amost anything yo might like to research about the White House. This is a great place to research the first ladies as well.

Background information, election results, cabinet members notabel events, and some points of interest on each of the presidents. Links to biographies, historical documents, audio and video files, and other presidential sites are als included

"Finishing The Dream" is a new collection of 100 videos from NBC News related to the Civil Rights Movement. Here's the announcement: (http://www.nbclearn.com/finishingthedream) NBC Learn and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation have partnered to draw awareness to the Civil Rights movement and jump start new dialogue among students and teachers by releasing more than 100 stories from the NBC News archives and making the content available to schools, colleges, and universities nationwide. "Finishing the Dream" chronicles the struggles and celebrates the triumphs of the Civil Rights movement over the span of 60 years. The collection includes the most significant moments of the movement including the Montgomery bus boycott, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, the Freedom Riders, and original documentaries featuring ordinary people, like Rosa Parks who risked their lives to fight for equality. I'm adding it to The Best Websites To Teach & Learn About African-American History.

This site provided information about campaign contributions to legislators and who is lobbying. Follow the money!

This is a high school level contest based on civics related questions.

A great interactive website with good games for history and civics!

Map links and virtual libraries

Teacher professional development and teacher resources across the curriculum.