Social Studies

This website shows what the world's population would look like if there were only 100 people (keeping proportions the same.)

This website connects teachers who need money for their classrooms with donors.

The author mentions the book "Three Cups of Tea." It is a really awesome book. I own it, if anyone wants to borrow it.

Aljazeera is news organization based in the Arab gulf. Their coverage spans world-wide, and they are a great opportunity to study the news from a non-western perspective.

This website on Mesopotamia and early civilizations is maintained by The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. It provides a wealth of information about the early civilization between the two rivers and includes great photos of artifacts, teaching materials, and interviews with archaeologists. For students, it might be fun to use this site as a webquest, where they would have to explore the site to answer questions.

The National Archives and Records Administration created this site for teachers who want to incorporate documents into the classroom. They offer lesson plans and ideas for teaching the texts.

In looking for primary sources and documents for lesson plans, I have noticed that most of the search results center on U.S. history and its related documents. I wanted to find a website that might provide links to a broader collection of documents on world history. This website has links to European historical documents, broken down by country as well as time period. Each link leads to a collection of other links where one can search for primary documents. It's admittedly a bit curious that this website is the product of an employee of Brigham Young University; I cannot tell if this bears any reflection on websites that are linked here, but the collection is extensive.

This is the official website of the Tenement Museum in NYC. I LOVE this museum, and if you have yet to have seen it, I highly recommend visiting the next time you are in the city. I have added this page mostly because of the "virtual tour" you can take of one of their tenements, which could be used as a resource for teachers who cannot take students there in person. They also have a number of primary document lesson plans available for different age ranges. Their exhibits are revealing of the lives led by immigrants in late 19th and early 20th century New York City.

I discovered this website while looking for information on Chinese and Japanese immigration. This website supports the newspaper Harper's Weekly that was published from 1857 to 1912. The publication reported on the relevant issues of the day such as immigration, slavery and presidential elections. Not only do they have the actual papers in their archive, they also provide summaries of some of the articles. There is a section dedicated to Immigration and Ethnic America. While there is a great deal of information on the site that is fee to all, one must subscribe to gain access to the entire site. The site also provides links to many other websites that support learning such as lessons, activities, and games. Some of their links are oriented around subjects that were relevant during the time the papers were published. There is also a featured "cartoon" of the day that is taken from the period of 1857 to 1912. It is a great resource for teachers!

Densho is an organization that is dedicated to "preserving the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during WWII before their memories are extinguished." The website does offer a great deal of information and document to support this mission; however, there is much more! There is a huge archive with photographs, newspaper articles from around the country, immigration documents, proof of citizenship documents, photographs of artifacts, and videotapings of interviews with the grandchildren of the first generation of immigrants. Many of these archived documents date back to the late 1800s.
There is also a filter with a timeline and a glossary that is useful in understanding the events during the period of immigration through WWII and the period of incarceration.
The site is a great resources for teachers and students alike!

So I got this link from a friend of mine and I had no idea what he was sending me. It didn't make any sense until he told me that the artist is an Italian singer who sang this song in an American accent and so the song is basically what English sounds like to people who don't speak it. And then I had a light bulb moment-- what a FANTASTIC way to illustrate cross cultural differences. Show this video and ask the students to comment on it and then tell them that this is what songs sound like to people who don't speak the same language as us. That's just ONE possibility...there are so many more!

I have NO idea what this guy is saying. Seriously. So over my head. What is prisencolinensinainciusol? I can't figure it out!!! I feel dumb. ;-)

I have no idea either! Which I guess is what it sounds like to Italian people when they listen to like Britney Spears or something like that. I think it would be a cool thing to use to teach about cross cultural communications or something like that.

Great lesson plans!

"EDSITEment is a partnership among the National Endowment for the Humanities, Verizon Foundation, and the National Trust for the Humanities.

EDSITEment offers a treasure trove for teachers, students, and parents searching for high-quality material on the Internet in the subject areas of literature and language arts, foreign languages, art and culture, and history and social studies.

All websites linked to EDSITEment have been reviewed for content, design, and educational impact in the classroom. They cover a wide range of humanities subjects, from American history to literature, world history and culture, language, art, and archaeology, and have been judged by humanities specialists to be of high intellectual quality. EDSITEment is not intended to represent a complete curriculum in the humanities, nor does it prescribe any specific course of study."

The AP section was very helpful. Thanks for keeping me in mind. :)

From the website:

"The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools is a coalition of over forty partner organizations working to improve civic education in America's schools. The Campaign's goal is to increase and improve civic learning in grades K-12 by working for policies that implement the recommendations of the Civic Mission of Schools report. This includes efforts to bring about changes in national, state, and local education policy."

They also have civic lesson plans under resources and a toolkit for advocating for the civic mission of schools which I, personally, think is critically important in this age of education for economy, and such.

This website contains a great list of Historic Sites in DC - for example, I have bookmarked the page for the Old Stone House in Georgetown. If you select, "List of Sites" - you will be taken to a listing by neighborhoods of other historic sites in the DC area. This could allow you to search for places near your school that could be a great resource to incorporate into your lessons. Many, including the Old Stone House, offer tours throughout the day. The Old Stone House is also staffed by well-informed Park Rangers who are eager to share their knowledge.

This is the second part of my Angel Island posting. I find this document fascinating; it is a complete reproduction of a 1917 pamphlet produced by The Women's American Baptist Home
Missionary Society, and includes interesting - and sometimes offensive - first hand accounts of immigrants coming through Angel Island at the time. The non-secular language cannot be denied as well, but it still makes for a fascinating glimpse into the perceptions of asian immigrants during this period of our history.