Group items tagged

Connect people News: The management of GoSkyGo also added the features of online file storage service through which users can access data, photos, videos, music, documents and more from anywhere at any time.

Just in case you don't have your book with you, you can access this website to read the necessary chapter online.

The website for Colonial Williamsburg is in a word, sweet. Not only do they have areas for teachers and other research but they offer a ton of multimedia items. There's a daily today in the 1770's newsletter that has selections from the Virginia Gazette and that's just the beginning of the "wealth of online resources" (there words not mine) that they provide. What makes it so great is that Colonial Williamsburg is relatively speaking, so close! Using this website when teaching about 18th century life and then taking a field trip there would be a great way to tie everything together.

Lists of best sellers, publisher book-sale data, and online booksellers can tell you which books are purchased most often, but they do not know, like we do, which books students actually open and read, cover to cover. It is never a bad idea to know what kids are reading in order to connect in the classroom.

This website is a great reference page for finding resources based on historical periods.

Smithsonian's History Explorer provides a multitute of resources for teachers including lessons, activities, interactive activities, examples of artifacts, and professional development opportunities for educators. One can easily search for desired resources by selecting the grade level, type of resource desired, and the time period. A variety of American History related subjects are displayed and from that list, one can select the desired resource.

Mental Floss is a magazine that gives a very...quirky view of the world. It introduces little known facts and information that we might not have sought to find in addition to providing us well known facts and information in a new and usually very different perspective. This link is to the "Geography Challenge" an online quiz that extensively tests ones knowledge of the world and could serve as a fun way to present the world.

I will probably spend hours at a time playing map games. Save me from myself........

Apparently yesterday was World Teacher's Day. So foremost, thank you Professor Lawrence for being such a great teacher! And here is a film about South Africa that they are screening for free online this week. It's about high-stakes testing in South Africa.

As she reads this sheepishly...

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is significantly more than just a museum and it is arguably the most thorough site on the Holocaust as well as other acts of genocide. Just reviewing the website and all that it offers can take several hours. Through the education filter, teachers can find complete information on how to teach the Holocaust or other acts of genocide. For example, the site offers online lessons, teacher workshops, essential topics, teaching resources, lesson plans, activities, and a list of common student questions. USHMM site suggests 5 guidelines for teaching the Holocaust, which include defining genocide, investigating the context and dynamics that led to genocide, understanding parallels to other genocides and analyzing American and world responses. A function that I find very useful and interesting is the "Mapping Initiative" filter where one can learn how to use Google Earth to view a Darfur Layer file. This file provides comparisons of before and after views of villages impacted by the ongoing events in Darfur. There is also a section of photographs, videos, and testimonies. In addition the USHMM maintains an archive consisting of wide variety of documents including photographs and films. Lastly, if field trips are a possibility, admission is free and there is a special children's exhibit called Remember the Children: Daniel's Story.

The Valley of the Shadow (also called the Valley Project) website is a part of the Virginia Center for Digital History at the University of Virginia. The material in the site documents the lives of two communities during the Civil War period; one community from the South and one community from the North. The site is an online library or an archive filled with primary resources such as letter, diaries, census records, government records, newspapers, speeches, maps, images and other materials. The site contains thousands of documents. The archive is divided into three sections: The Eve of War (Fall 1859-Spring 1861), The War Years (Spring 1861-Spring 1865), and The Aftermath (Spring 1865-Fall 1870). An example of one such document is a letter written in August, 1864 by a young militiaman to his parents telling them that he is well and that he will be sending home his pay. I have added a few lines because I find it so interesting and compelling. The letter comes from a camp near Petersburg. Dear Parents it is with the Greatest of Pleashure that I seat My self to inform you and My Brothers and Sisters that I like it well and am well feal Hartey like ite beter now than Ever I did I hope that youens Ar all well and all the Rest about [unclear: tomstorm] ile now state to you that I Received your Letter last Knight And was Glad to here from youens And was glad to here that Youenes wasened yet dissturbed By The Johneys Rebes you Stated in your letter that tha Wes moveing every thing out Of Town now if tha wold be men tha wold take In the same document but another page, the young man writes about his pay. Read this letter we ar getting Paid off to day I draw 1.20.10 that is one hundrad 20 dollars 10 cts Ile ex press 1 hundrade 10 dollars and mebbey fifteen dollars I dont want to ceep so mutch money here I cend it to you and if you want to make youse of it whi you may get the Chirldren wat ever tha want that is in the eating line And Close but you must be A littl

I ran out of room in the box above.....anyway, I am not certain what the citation rules are regarding this but I found the letter on the website that I have bookmarked, The Valley of the Shadow. Anyway, it is a great site….there is soooo much more.

Concept to Classroom is a website sponsored by the Educational Broadcasting Corporation. It is an interactive site desinged for educatotors and provides online workshops featuring a variety of teaching strategies such as cooperative learning, inquiry based learing and teaching to multiple intelligences. Other categories include workshops on constructivism, assessment, curriculum design, and using the internet in the classroom. Clicking on any of these categories, directs one to information about that topic. For example, the inquiry based learning filter will provide a description of the teaching method, benefits for using the method, criticisms of the method, and finally lesson plans using that particular method. In the multiple intelligences section, there is a series of five lesson plans on world religions I may adapt for a 7th grade class. Check it out…it is a great resource for ideas and lesson plans.

This history channel website gives online history games (I think this could act as a fun homework assignment to reinforce a lesson already given, or to get kids excite about a unit.)

Created by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and historians, the New Deal Network is a great online resource for the era. Check out the documents sections where they have materials organized by topic. (e.g. Japanese Internment, Tennessee Valley Authority, Anti-Semitism). This could be an important resource for teachers preparing lessons as well as student research.

The Newseum site provides lesson plans for elementary, middle, and high school teachers.  The lessons focus on first amendment rights and the role of media in society.  Links to other online resources allow teachers to find supplemental materials for other lesson plans and units. The site also contains a number of primary sources.

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. "

Mapman game.

Not sure how useful this actually would be, but incidentally, I killed it! :-) Thought ya'll would enjoy it . . .

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."

A list of very good detailed lesson plans for a high school economic class related to different country and the economic policies that they pursue.