Group items tagged

Following off of my lesson plan from last week, I wanted to see what kind of resources there are for the social studies teacher to introduce the discipline of anthropology in the classroom. This website, produced by the American Anthropological Association, is a treasure trove of links to other sites regarding anthropology. You could literally search for hours on this site for potential resources, divided by both region and sub-discipline.

We might be able to use this in 542 next semester when we get into the epistemologies of each social studies discipline.

Site provides activities on history and culture, straight from the Smithsonian Institute. Primarily geared toward elementary students, the Institute provides lesson plans from art to war to language.

What makes the resources "excellent"?

Main page of the UNESCO World Heritage Center website.

I absolutely love the UNESCO World Heritage Center website because it offers thousands of ideas for out-of-class exploration of cultural sites. All you have to do is click on the World Heritage List and scroll to your country's list of locations. You can visit most of these sites free of charge and they offer tours and kid-friendly information on the site. This site could also be used as a way to formulate upper-level discussion about what culture is and who gets to decide what cultures (and what parts of a specific culture) are worth saving.

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 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.

So, it's not for the dance moves...

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. :)

This Washington Post article talks about the competative hiring market for heads of private schools in the DC area, but also raises some interesting points about school culture in the process.

I couldn't resist adding this page; I consider myself fairly well-versed in American history yet I had never heard of the Gullah people until a few weeks ago. Absolutely fascinating in my opinion - and incredible that this culture still exists and is being preserved

A reference site based on the study of the history, geography and cultures of the Indian Ocean and the peoples who used it. Has an interactive map divided into different historical periods and offers lesson plans for teachers.

This is an awesome sight to use for ancient world studies. By clicking on the "new site" button, you can view a virtual tour of the La Grotte de Lascaux, in France....the site in in English and offers french and spanish as well. The tour is about 6 minutes or so. Anyway, I used this for my 7th grade class yesterday and they really got into it. They had all sorts of questions about the paintings, the lifestyle, etc.

The students were surprised to be able to see something that was written by humans nearly 17,000 years ago and 3000 miles away.

This is an article on the challenges that can occur in teachings classrooms of diverse children.

Worldology.com was conceived with the objective of making history and geopolitics (the relationship and dynamic between geography and politics) more easily digestible and understandable. As one who has long been interested in this topic, I have been intrigued by the possibility of more imaginative ways to bring this field of understanding to life. This led to the idea of graphical and interactive maps to enable myself and others to more acutely visualize the evolution of nations and cultures. As the creator of Worldology.com, I have found that maps have been very useful in simplifying and deepening my understanding of historical events, along with long-standing and on-going dynamics between various nations. However, most published content about important events throughout history are not accompanied by an event-specific map. With this in mind, I envisioned an application that provided an event-specific map for key developments throughout history, along with an expanded geographical view, in order to comprehend the region-wide context. For interactivity, mouseovers were imbedded so the visitor could access more detailed information of key events, along with added graphics for further illumination. Then, you can toggle back and forth between time frames, to gain a feel of the evolution of the geopolitical landscape over time. For example, in the Europe History Interactive Map, you can click back and forth through major time periods, gaining an overview of how tribes, kingdoms, empires and nation-states fluctuated throughout time. During the Middle Ages for instance, you can simultaneously see how the Frankish Empire (Western/Central Europe), Byzantine Empire (Greece) and Rus Principalities (Russia) evolved concurrently with one another. Then, you can mouseover the information buttons to learn more. You can even switch to the "Show Borders" view in order to see modern European borders overlayed upon long-ago political entities. I hope to eventually cover the entire

Photography project challenging mass perception of poverty

How might teachers use this site?

This is the front page of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. This website is a lot more than just the site for an art museum. Inside, you can find information about current exhibits, collections, upcoming events, teacher resources, and much more. Over the next few months there are also some special events for high school teachers, including one on October 16th titled "Teaching History through Art." I think it is easy, in most high schools, to forget the importance of art in our society and how it can give a glimpse of our cultural history.

How might teachers use this site?

Art can define elements of our history. I would probably be better able to answer this question if I could attend the seminar on October 16th. Taking a look at a few of the featured exhibitions on the main page of the site, we can already make some history connections. Consider the current Norman Rockwell exhibition. Rockwell provides excellent visualizations of idealized, traditional American society in a broad period, roughly 1913 to shortly before his death in 1978. Rockwell paintings could be used in any kind of lesson plan dealing with either of the World Wars, the Boy Scouts, or the rise of middle-class America in the 1950s. Another lead exhibit on the page is titled The Pond, by an artist whose name currently escapes me. Taking a look at the photos of a pond somewhere in Maryland in the 1980s, the pictures tell a story of forgotten parts of the American wild that are surrounded by urbanization and industry.

Organizational information for the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Personal stories aka Primary sources from middle and high school students who have visited various countries or experienced new cultures.

Meridian is great - they can arrange for someone to come to your classroom about another country. They can talk about the country's history, politics, and especially culture. They even bring lots of visuals and props that students can use. I am having someone from Meridian come to my class to talk about India when I teach about Gandhi. Check it out!