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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

This site is RAD! Current and Recent Events resource From the website: "Students can read the day's top stories using Knowledge Tools, take a news quiz about today's world, and play special crossword puzzles. . . . Teachers can access a daily lesson plan for grades 6-12, written in partnership with The Bank Street College of Education in New York City. Each lesson plan and the article it references can be printed out for classroom use. Previous lessons are available in the archive and in thematic lesson plan units. . . The site additionally provides teachers with the latest education news from the newspaper. "

SO RAD! A New York Times publication for teens. SWEET! From the website: "The New York Times Upfront is published by Scholastic in partnership with The New York Times."

This website through BBC has great information on World War II including video, picture, and interactive information. It provides teachers with credible information to use in their classrooms. 

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.

The Television News Archive is a database of nightly news broadcasts in the US from 1968. American University subscribes to the database, and it can be accessed through the library's website. At the news archive, you can search the database of nightly news programs for a specific date or topic. Then, you can watch many of these streaming videos online.

The National Portrait Gallery is one of the Smithsonian Museums in the DC area. The great thing about NPG is that it has resources available online for teachers. There are a variety of school programs and teacher programs but the best offerings are the online exhibitions. It is like having the gallery right there in your classroom. Some of those exhibits include George Washington: A national Treasure, Presidents in Waiting, and A Brush with History. The online exhibits are usable in the classroom directly from a computer or lap top. For example, the George Washington online exhibit begins with a famous portrait accompanied by an audio explanation of the portrait and the symbolic and historical items found within the portrait. Using the portrait as a starting point provides students with a visual association of that person and the historical events surrounding that person. There is also a link to biographical information about Washington and his role in our country's history. The Teacher's Guide associated with the George Washington exhibit includes lesson plans, activities and other teaching ideas; all printable and useable in class. NPG also offers two publications both of which are available on line. "The Patriot Papers," designed for students, features various historical events in an interesting and engaging fashion. For example, there is a "Special Edition on Slavery" featuring information on slavery and the key players involved. One of the articles in this publication is "A Chat with Harried: 1869" and also includes her portrait. The second publication, NPG in your Classroom, provides information to teachers on how to integrate NPG into classroom lessons. There are many more valuable tools on this site such as a "Reading Portraiture Guide for Educators." Check out the site….it is awesome!!!

This website links to thousands of newspapers worldwide. I would use this site to collect primary sources or as a research mechanism for current events.  It would be a valuable resource to students who are doing research projects on a specific country or international topic.

A spatial and temporal visualization of historical events focused primarily on the western world.

This curriculum provides various lesson plans, activities, graphic organizers, resources, and a video to have students connect world events to their own lives and others in their community, in relation to understanding global terrorism.

This web site has lesson plans that can be used in classrooms from K-12th grades. There are a variety of links that will take you directly to lessons plans that involve history, geography, government and current events.

This next post connects back to the lesson plan on interpreting political cartoons. This website - published through the Library of Congress - is nothing short of fantastic. Herbert Block's career covers an incredible span of the 20th century. Using this website as a resource, you can find insightful political cartoons of almost any event from the Great Depression to the Clinton era.

I second this - this is a great resource for incorporating economics into the lesson plans-I really dig a lesson plan here on voter turn-out.

DC voting rights are the PERFECT way to get DC students engaged with politics and government. As one student told me, "nothing gets students motivated like being pissed off." One of the teachers that I'm working with has folks from DC Vote come into her classroom and teach about the history of DC voting rights (the 23rd amendment and all) and then has students do a project on it. It gets them heated and it's critically important for them to know about - more than just a license plate! Also, you might consider using Sweet Honey in the Rock's "No Taxation Without Representation" which outlines the entire history of DC voting rights and potential avenues for action in song. ;-) As they were a crucial part of the civil rights movement this might be a nice tie in of history and current events. From the website: "Founded in 1998, DC Vote is an educational and advocacy organization dedicated to securing full voting representation in Congress and full democracy for the more than half a million residents of the District of Columbia. DC residents pay full federal taxes, fight and die in wars and serve on juries yet are denied voting representation in the House and the Senate. DC Vote is working to end this injustice."

So rad! Social Justice lesson plans on current events. AHHHHH!!! I looked through a few. Looks like they just have articles and then questions on them. So they'll pick a topic and then amass a number of readings on it and write critical thinking questions. So rad. One of the lessons is how to teach Freire to 5th graders. I'm in love! Happy Thanksgiving!

Laura, This is awesome and perfect for one lesson in my curricular unit..thanks a bunch!

Articles for kids, middle school, teens from Smithsonian | tweentribune.com | Current events, lesson plans, quizzes, assessments

Nonfiction Literacy and Current Events

This site provides a history of the events of the Civil Rights Movement. It includes many interesting features including: a time line, encyclopedia and primary source documents.