Group items tagged

The Effects Of The California Gold Rush California was rich in resources, minerals and metals. When America bought California from Mexico after the American Mexican War, the

"As early as the fourth grade, girls perform better than boys on standardised tests in reading and writing, and as they get older that achievement gap widens even more, according to research published by the American Psychological Association."

Stealing Theme Ideas

"This essay will explain why I label various technologies as winners, losers, and magic bullets in the table below. My opinions are not based on exhaustive research. They are based on my experience both as a high school teacher and as an entrepreneur." My evaluations are based on whether I view these technologies as supporting a model of education that is one-to-many or a model that is many-to-one. The latter is the model I prefer, as will become clear in the rest of this essay.

What are our assumptions about how students get research done in the humanities? How do those assumptions affect our instruction, and what really is our students' approach to research?

Americans must learn other languages! Pick one to learn, any one! Pick one that interests you. Pick one from your community, your family history... Just pick one and enlarge your mind, your connections, your world! Support others learning as well, especially your own children if you have any. 

American exceptionalism and climate change

issue of history of racism, American exceptionalism

This essay is an attempt to provide an overview of evaluations and reforms in American education since the 1983 report, "A Nation at Risk". It goes on to point to directions that have largely been unexplored here, and ways that, in the author's opinion would facilitate more meaningful reform, reform that begets improvement.   

"Guns are on the minds of Americans. We're not sure if we should ban them, control them or give them away for free. Politicians are debating what we should do with them. Teachers are worrying how to keep them out of schools or how to train kids to respond. And architects wonder if they can design gunman-proof buildings. "

An extensive video collects of TV opening themes from the 1950's to the 2000's. Good for teaching how American culture changes.

The Digital Comic Museum features comics from the 1930's to the 1950's. They can be used to show American culture from that period and many comics from that era are good examples of propaganda from WWII and the Cold War

interactive and animated site to illustrate historical events.  Currently features maps, modules, other  material on American, European, Latin American, and African history.

Interactive and animated representations of fundamental historical problems and illustrations of historical events.

1. OWNERSHIP is key. For this project, the students were not listening to me on why Twain was or was not a racist, they were showing me and the rest of class what they thought. They were invested in winning their argument. They knew that their work was going to determine if he was guilty or not. Although I gave the assignment, the students were in charge the rest of the way. It was their project and they wanted to do it win. When students feel they own what they are doing, they will work harder. When the audience is larger, they want to impress everyone. These are not crazy ideas, they are the results of owning the work they are doing. OWNERSHIP is a major factor in the value of PBL. 2. CREATIVITY is the another major part of the PBL and is closely linked with OWNERSHIP. Students were allowed to be creative in their work as a lawyer or witness. Witnesses needed to stay within character, but could add their own elements on the witness stand. Allowing the students to create gives them a bigger sense of OWNERSHIP. 3. Another part of the PBL is the COLLABORATION. Students were working with each other trying to decide the best plan of attack. Witnesses would meet with their lawyers and discuss how the questions they were going to ask and how they should dress. The Jury worked on group projects researching the previous public opinions on Twain and his writing. Students were sharing ideas freely with one another. I had three sections of American Lit at the time, so I had three trails running. Lawyers would help others in the other classes and trash talk the opposing lawyers as well. It was all in good fun, but the collaboration had students working hard with one another to accomplish this goal. 4. Depending on how you set up your project, CRITICAL THINKING, is also an important part of PBL. With my Twain Trail, students needed to think about both sides of the argument. Students needed to prepare their witnesses for potential cross-examination questions. They needed to

Digital Promise is a bipartisan independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation authorized by Congress "to support a comprehensive research and development program to harness the increasing capacity of advanced information and digital technologies to improve all levels of learning and education, formal and informal, in order to provide Americans with the knowledge and skills needed to compete in the global economy."