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I find this particularly important after seeing how some race dynamics play out in my practicum. Specifically I find myself asking "Why are all the White kids sitting together in the classroom?" This article might give one reason.

Highlights the importance of being specific with kids. I'm not sure why our modesty makes us, as teachers, code and shy away from just being real with our students. One of the goals that I have set for myself this semester is to get real with students, just tell them the truth (for example saying, "That's disrespectful. Stop.") instead of playing games (for example feeling flustered and walking away or saying something vague like, "behave").

And here's the gold. Kids are not color blind. Adult embarrassment to speak about race does not mean we're not communicating messages to our children about race and prejudice, it just means that we're also communicating that it's something to be embarrassed about and/or hush up. I really recommend reading this article in full. It's fantastic.

From the website: "Based in Providence, R.I., What Kids Can Do (WKCD) is a national nonprofit founded in January 2001 by an educator and journalist . . . they felt an urgent need to promote perceptions of young people as valued resources, not problems, and to advocate for learning that engages students as knowledge creators and not simply test takers. Just as urgent, they believed, was the need to bring youth voices to policy debates about school, society, and world affairs. Using the Internet, print, and broadcast media, WKCD presses before the broadest audience possible a dual message: the power of what young people can accomplish when given the opportunities and supports they need and what they can contribute when we take their voices and ideas seriously. The youth who concern WKCD most are those marginalized by poverty, race, and language. On this website, WKCD presents young people's lives, learning, and work, and their partnerships with adults both in and out of school. Our community of readers stretches from youth organizers in some of this country's toughest urban areas to policy makers at the national level. We believe that a good story well told crosses geographies, generations, class and race, and position. Our publishing arm, Next Generation Press, honors the power of youth as social documenters, knowledge creators, and advisors to educators, peers, and parents. WKCD is a grant maker, too, collaborating with youth on multimedia, curricula, and research that expand current views of what constitutes challenging learning and achievement. Starting in 2006, WKCD began working with youth worldwide. WKCD has become an international leader in bringing the promise of young people to the attention of the adults whose encouragement can make all the difference."

Here they have collected various articles about how youth around the country and around the globe have been actively involved in policy making and shaping. This may be great to get teachers and students started thinking about project ideas or to inspire students (and teachers!) that students really can make a difference.

ARG! My diigo isn't working at all. Very frustrating. I have to highlight stuff four times and then add the comments in on this page. Technology is not my friend this week.

So if you do a rad civics project with your students, students can then write an article about what they did and send it in to WKCD. They will then put it up on this cite and your students will have something to be uber proud of. This is another reason to make sure you photo document rad projects.

Each button at the top stands for one of the development goals. Each page contains video clips, a short web game (very simple) and information about what that goal is, what students around the world are doing to make a difference and suggestions for actions more students can take.

The "Add your voice" portion has a place where students can send in videos that they have made about the Millenium development goals. There's also a Youth Action Guide that you can download and print for your classes!

For each goal there is: * Information about the goal * Information on how much progress has been made towards that goal * Projects that other students have done * What still needs to be done * Links to more information This information is not particularly engaging but it is condensed in an easy to find location. It's certainly not a game or anything and kids won't be tricked into learning by any cool effects or anything.

So clearly the coolest link on this webpage is the "History" link. This will link you to the history of the FBI which is interesting in and of itself BUT also contains some links to primary documents. For example there is a link in 1966 called "six civil rights activists murdered" that takes you to the FBI file of the murder investigation. It might be really neat to have students look at this file and look at other accounts of this incident to understand how police/FBI officers interact with communities and crime. There's another neat account under June 1933 of the Kansas City Massacre!

The "FBI Investigates" tab is a little like the spy museum. It takes you through two cases, what happened and how investigators solved the crime. For any CSI - philes this might be some great info.

"FBI Adventures" is a little not as cool as I'd hoped. While they do give brief snapshots of country profiles, students don't get to actually investigate anything on their own. What they Could do is begin to see how even crime is globalized and how countries now have to work together to protect citizens - an interesting angle on globalization/global studies.

There are videos to watch so that students can know that they are not alone and learn from the experiences of others.

There are many resources collected on this site, from financial aid and scholarship options to programs that might give students an admissions boost to checklists on what to do before you go.

The teachers at Takoma Education Center told me about the protests and I think it really emphasizes how much of an impact the lay-offs have on the students themselves and the level of personal investment they must feel in their education.

I thought our classmates doing their placements at McKinley would be interested in this!

Some notable audio/mp3/ipod selections from the DC Public Library that I feel would be great for Social Studies, specifically. The Civil War (Shelby Foote) He is considered a top scholar, along with James Mcphereson. If there are two names you should be familiar with for Civil War scholarship, they are it! My Brother Sam is Dead. You may have read this when studying the American Revolution, a great way to incorporate literature into the study of history. Thomas Jefferson & His Time (Multiple Volumes) TJ, enough said!

For the visual learners of your class. Some PBS Home video selections, a very reputable education source.

This doesn't relate to Social Studies directly but I think it is a pretty cool feature, language tapes can be really expensive, why not utilize a free library membership?

I wouldn't use this one, for example.

My favorite one! For example, you could use it to explain the Gettysburgh Address, I never learned what four scores and seven years ago actually meant until recently, a score is 20 years, thus 87 years, 87 years from when? The Declaration of Independence. This could be a fun transition into comparing the DOI and the G. Address, because Lincoln had the DOI in mind when he wrote it.

Curricula with information for teachers and lesson plan ideas. For example the "Peace Education" section has 5 units which each contain suggested activities for class, suggested reading, links to more resources, and projects and activities. I like that there are both background readings for teachers AND activities and lesson plans for classrooms.

The Community page has lots of projects that youth around the world have completed - art, video, writing, etc. This may be inspiring for students or may help to give faces to kids in other countries and places.

Sweet! Games! Definitely play any of these before you pass them on to your students, the Flag Tag game would be great for Global Studies and the Water Quiz might be an interesting introduction to a lesson on world problems. The "Against All Odds" game is SO intense, why does everyone put it up? Anyway lots of games . . .