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Laura Wood

Millennium Development Goals - 0 views

    • Laura Wood
       
      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.
    • Laura Wood
       
      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!
    • Laura Wood
       
      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.
  • ...2 more annotations...
    • Laura Wood
       
      From the Millenium Campaign website: "*End poverty by 2015.* This is the historic promise 189 world leaders made at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 when they signed onto the Millennium Declaration and agreed to meet the "Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).":/goals The MDGs are an eight-point road map with measurable targets and clear deadlines for improving the lives of the world's poorest people. World leaders have agreed to achieve the MDGs by 2015."
    • Laura Wood
       
      This short (3.34) youtube video is much more enticing than the webpage. http://www.youtube.com/mcampaign Perhaps a teacher could show the video and then ask students to research one of the goals using this site. The culmination could be designing an action to participate in on the date of action. This year that is Oct 16th-18th. May be a good introductory activity to get kids to see the importance of global issues before launching into global history (or concurrently :-) Website for the event: http://www.standagainstpoverty.org/
  •  
    The UN's Millennium Goals as they have constructed them for kids. It's still a ton of information and not in the easiest or most engaging format but it might be a great place for students to get started examining world issues like Hunger, HIV/AIDS or Infant Mortality and what they can do.
Erin Power

Teacher turns 'crazy idea' into new school - CNN.com - 1 views

  • Kim Ursetta
  • Denver, Colorado'
  • want to start a new kind of school," she said, a union-sponsored public school led by teachers, not a principal
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • We've been doing schools the same way in this nation for 150 years, so if we don't step up, then nothing is going to change
  • bility ranks among the top barriers blocking the nation's children from receiving the best education possible.
  • A board-certified, 16-year teaching veteran, Ursetta, 38, believes the lack of teacher flex
  • Although they follow school board-approved curriculum and standards, instructors can easily rearrange lessons to "make better sense for the kids" -- making better connections between different subject matter, Ursetta said.
  • The lack of quality school leadership is a big reason that experienced teachers leave their schools,
  • Dubbed Race to the Top, the program is essentially a contest pitting states against each other to win a share of $4.35 billion in grant money from congressional stimulus legislation.
  • To qualify for Race to the Top, the rules call on states to create "data systems" linking student success with teacher performance.
  • National Education Association
  • members fear it opens the door to measuring teacher performance by how students score on tests.
  • "What we're really against is using a single [student ] test on a single day" to assess teacher performance, said NEA Executive Director John Wilson. "What we're more accepting of are multiple indicators," and teacher performance "observed in classroom should count as the major part of evaluation."
  • many teachers are reacting coolly to Race to the Top because they "feel like it's too much like No Child Left Behind and are looking for something different.
  • Race to the Top also aims to give a boost to charter schools -- special public schools that are given more independence in order to encourage innovation.
    • Erin Power
       
      I think this is an interesting concept that we (as future teachers) should consider. Most of the teachers I've spoken to feel that schooling is not done the most efficient or successful way. Why not consider other options? The thing I love most about this article is that this school came about someone, Ursetta, simply thinking that way - what could other options be? Then Ursetta looked at the steps she had to make and brought it into actuality.
    • Erin Power
       
      This source relies on interviews and studies conducted by CNN. A teacher could use this site to remember to be inventive in their approach to administration. This is valuable to social studies teachers so they constantly keep rethinking and questioning how to teach
  •  
    This article talks about a Colorado school which has gotten rid of administrators and is run solely by teachers
Maria Mahon

Education campaign reminds parents to "Be There" | ajc.com - 0 views

  •  
    A national media campaign is being launched to encourage parents to "be there" - or to turn everyday moments into teaching experiences even if they are not able to physically spend time at their children's schools.
jbdrury

Paul B. Weinstein | Movies as the Gateway to History: The History and Film Project | The History Teacher, 35.1 | The History Cooperative - 5 views

  • Finally, students gain an increased appreciation of the power of mass media to shape perception and to affect interpretation of the past. This heightened awareness should enable them to be more discriminating in processing the images and information bombarding them daily.
  • Finally, students gain an increased appreciation of the power of mass media to shape perception and to affect interpretation of the past. This heightened awareness should enable them to be more discriminating in processing the images and information bombarding them daily.
  • Finally, students gain an increased appreciation of the power of mass media to shape perception and to affect interpretation of the past. This heightened awareness should enable them to be more discriminating in processing the images and information bombarding them daily.
    • Adrea Lawrence
       
      It looks like the same highlight is repeated...repeatedly.
  • ...47 more annotations...
  •  Finally, students gain an increased appreciation of the power of mass media to shape perception and to affect interpretation of the past. This heightened awareness should enable them to be more discriminating in processing the images and information bombarding them daily.
  •  Finally, students gain an increased appreciation of the power of mass media to shape perception and to affect interpretation of the past. This heightened awareness should enable them to be more discriminating in processing the images and information bombarding them daily.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • , a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
  • , a study of over one thousand Americans representing a cross-section of the population found that over forty percent of the participants cited movies and TV programs among the most cited means of connecting with the past.
    • jbdrury
       
      I am adding this sticky note at the top to make certain anyone looking at this post checks out "Appendix B" at the bottom of the page.
    • jbdrury
       
      The main idea is to join primary sources to the film.
  • These shortcomings, however, can actually be turned to advantages when students and instructors utilize film as a gateway to history.
    • jbdrury
       
      This is a rundown of the technique Weinstein uses for his undergrad students. It involves a wide variety of film choices, which may be unrealistic for a social studies class. However, the principle remains the same even if it were for just one film.
    • jbdrury
       
      This pamphlet, found at the bottom of the page in Appendix B, could be very useful.
  • Every student receives a pamphlet I have developed, "History Written With Lightning," outlining the rationale for using commercial film as a historical tool and describing specific elements to be examined for accuracy, such as costumes, sets, chronology, and behaviors (see Appendix B).
    • jbdrury
       
      This is a common argument made by those advocating the use of film or TV in the classroom; however I feel it is an extremely valid point. I hope I don't offend anyone here, but FOX news is a great example of why students should be provided with critical thinking skills that are applicable to moving images.
    • jbdrury
       
      I must admit my jaw dropped at this comment. For those unfamiliar with Griffith or his "The Birth of a Nation", wikipedia him/it. We should all be comforted that his statement did not come true.
  • This assignment I have outlined can be adapted to suit the specific goals of any instructor at college or secondary level. For example, students could be required to consult one or more primary sources as part of their research, or the instructor could assign one or more specific readings to be studied in conjunction with a film. At one time, I matched films with chapters in the course's anthology reader as the starting point for research.
    • jbdrury
       
      Weinstein provides a list of potential films and matches them to specific time periods, which is useful, but in my opinion a bit dated. This list could definitely be expanded upon by some more recent films.
  • HISTORY WRITTEN WITH LIGHTNING
    • jbdrury
       
      This is the handout that he provides to his students at the beginning of the semester - I think sharing this with the social studies classroom before using films would set students up for the rest of the year to critically analyze films.
  • Because we are so accustomed to the moving image, we sometimes become indifferent to the hidden messages, social content, and meaning of what we watch. In other words, we do not view from a critical perspective.
  • filmmaking pioneer D. W. Griffith
  • One wide-eyed reviewer consequently greeted Griffith's Civil War epic, The Birth of a Nation (1915)
  • Facts can be twisted, timelines conflated, endings revised for perceived audience satisfaction.
  • Griffith confidently predicted that "in less than ten years...the children in the public schools will be taught practically everything by moving pictures. Certainly they will never be obliged to read history again."
    • jbdrury
       
      These "what to look for" subheadings could form the basis of any number of in-class and out-of-class activities for students to engage with the film.
  • What to Look for in Historical Films
  • 1. The History
  • 2. Setting, Details, and Design
  • 3. Behavior
    • jbdrury
       
      Important point on the dangers of presentism in a historical film.
  •  Beware of one of film's greatest—at least to the historian—sins: presentism.
  • Presentism is a serious flaw in any film that seriously aspires to present a believable picture of the past.
  • 4. Agenda, Values, Effects
  •  
    Paul Weinstein wrote this article primarily geared towards undergraduate history professors, and how they might use film in their classroom. However, much of this is still applicable for us as secondary social studies teachers. In particular, his Appendix B has a sort of study guide he provides for each of his students at the beginning of the semester to get them thinking about how to analyze film for its historical perspective.
Laura Wood

What Kids Can Do - 4 views

  • stay informed
    • Laura Wood
       
      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."
  • Youth in Policy: Civics2
    • Laura Wood
       
      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.
  • Want to bring public attentionto your work? WKCD invitessubmissions from youth andeducators worldwide.
    • Laura Wood
       
      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.
    • Laura Wood
       
      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.
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    • Laura Wood
       
      Similarly, one of the links on this page is to news articles from around the country where kids are making a difference. A teacher might assign students to check out some of the ways that students are getting things done and getting noticed in order to inspire kids, get their creative juices flowing, etc.
  •  
    Articles on what kids in the US have done politically, with pictures! Collected by a journalist and an educator.
  •  
    This is the organization run by the author of "Fires in the High School Bathroom." As the only permanent staff are journalists and web designers (and the staff is tiny!). I believe they just collect and make available student stories (as well as apparently offering grants!) rather than actually participating or spearheading any projects themselves. They do publish works every so often - I believe collections of the things students have done.
Debbie Moore

Center for Civic Education Home - 3 views

  •  
    The Center for Civic Education is website designed to educate students in citizenry, the constitution and democratic constitutionalism. The Center offers a full curriculum at all three learning levels: elementary, middle school and high school. Their materials include full lesson plans and textbooks that support their program. The lesson plans include critical thinking exercises, vocabulary lists, problem solving activities and cooperative learning activities. The program is designed so that teachers can use it to supplement an existing curriculum or as the foundation of their curriculum. My cooperating teacher is going to use parts of the program to supplement her curriculum. The lessons focus on life in American, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, political traditions and institutions, different levels of government (local, state and federal), constitutionalism and the rights and responsibilities of citizens. The center also offers professional development seminars that are often free of charge to DC teachers. For example, on October 27th, there is a free seminar for DC teachers on "We the People Through Primary Sources and Documents" being held at the National Archives….they even provide a free lunch! Here is the direct link to the professional development page: http://www.civiced.org/index.php?page=state_programs&&p=101&&st=DC.
  •  
    Haha, I love this site! I posted on it the week before last. I reeeeeeaally want to get a job working for them! :-)
  •  
    Laura, that is funny....we seem to like the same sites. It is an awesome sight...and the program is awesome too. Do you have a set of the books? Good luck...I hope that works out for you!!
Laura Wood

Virtual Jamestown - 0 views

  • Newest Timelines
    • Laura Wood
       
      Has timelines arranged around the following: "a) Jamestown in the Global Context b) Journey to Jamestown - the Voyage of the Susan Constant and the first 90 days at the fort c) Jamestown, 1606-1608 d) Virginia, 1608-1612 e) New England, 1602-1620"
  • Chesapeake Indians
    • Laura Wood
       
      Includes contemporary interviews with Native American descendants of Jamestown as well as maps of the Native American towns that predated Jamestown in this area. Also contains a Google Earth map based on the original drawings of John Smith. "Dr. Julie Solometo researched and organized the entry on the Paspahegh Indians. What the English called Jamestown, the Indians called Paspahegh territory.. Interviews and videotaping of contemporary Indians was done by Phyannon Berkowitz, Jeffery Dalton, and Crandall Shifflett."
  • Complete Works of John Smith
    • Laura Wood
       
      From the Site: "Letters and first-hand accounts allow us to see seventeenth-century society as no other record can. . . . They are best approached with the questions: what are the authors trying to tell us and what are their agendas? These materials do give us a sense of the contingencies, uncertainties,and dilemmas that surrounded choices and when read critically should lead to a better understanding of what factors shaped individual decisions. newspapers A full-text searchable database (XML) gives us a powerful tool for tracing and comparing topics, ideas, concepts, motivations, and much more from vantage points of time, space, power, authority, race, class, gender, and ethnicity"
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Teaching Materials
    • Laura Wood
       
      LESSON PLANS!!!! Some of these are even in our exact format!!! All are on Jamestown. Lots about runaway slaves and indentured servants, some on Native American relationships. Most make use of primary documents. Check em out! :-)
  • Virginia
    • Laura Wood
       
      MAP!! Okay so sort of hard to read but here is a map based on John Smith's records. It's interesting to note how the water lines have changed. hmmmmm.
  •  
    From the website: "The Virtual Jamestown Archive is a digital research, teaching and learning project that explores the legacies of the Jamestown settlement and "the Virginia experiment." As a work in progress, Virtual Jamestown aims to shape the national dialogue on the occasion of the four hundred-year anniversary observance in 2007 of the founding of the Jamestown colony."
Lindsay Andreas

Class Struggle: Term papers are worth the time and trouble - washingtonpost.com - 2 views

  •  
    According to this article, long term papers in English and History classes are being shoved out because of standards limitations. Low income, middle class, upper class students all cannot write an essay to save their lives in college and beyond. Joellen and I were highly disturbed that the undergraduates in our Civil War class couldn't deal with footnotes and basic principles of writing. Professor Kraut was also infuriated. If there is anything more risking to our nation, it's poor writing!
  •  
    I agree with you on the importance of writing longer research essays in high school. The process of writing a long essay is a thorough exercise in understanding something in your own way, and it can be so satisfying upon completion. (like that student in the piece that was GLoWing...i like that feeling)
Laura Wood

Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools - 1 views

  • Civic Education on the Daily Show!
    • Laura Wood
       
      "In early March, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart featured former Supreme Court Justice (and current CMS co-chair) Sandra Day O'Connor discussing the importance of the civic mission of schools. Click to watch the video."
  • Civic Mission of Schools Report
    • Laura Wood
       
      My thesis draws heavily from this report. It's fantastic. "Written and endorsed by more than 50 scholars and education practitioners, The Civic Mission of Schools report summarizes the status of and need for civic learning in schools, kindergarten through 12th grade. It analyzes trends in American political and civic engagement; identifies promising approaches to educating students for democracy; and offers recommendations to educators, policymakers, government officials and funders."
  •  
    From the website: "The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools is a coalition of over forty partner organizations working to improve civic education in America's schools. The Campaign's goal is to increase and improve civic learning in grades K-12 by working for policies that implement the recommendations of the Civic Mission of Schools report. This includes efforts to bring about changes in national, state, and local education policy."
  •  
    They also have civic lesson plans under resources and a toolkit for advocating for the civic mission of schools which I, personally, think is critically important in this age of education for economy, and such.
tcornett

The Civil War era (1844-1877) | US history | Khan Academy - 0 views

  •  
    A house divided against itself cannot stand. The United States could no longer remain half-slave and half-free, and the ensuing war over the fate of slavery ripped apart the nation.
Sarah Franquemont

12,000 Online Newspapers - Newspapers 24.com - 3 views

    • Sarah Franquemont
       
      Many of the newspapers from other countries are also in other languages, however; most countries also have at least one English paper.
    • Sarah Franquemont
       
      Notice that papers can be browsed by language.
    • Sarah Franquemont
       
      The United States section of the site also allows browsing of newspapers by state, so this site would be useful for a lesson or unit on national media; for projects on specific states; or lessons on national current events.
    • Sarah Franquemont
       
      Clicking on a country also gives basic, factual information on that country; like population and a picture of the country's flag.
  •  
    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.
Kenneth O'Regan

History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web - 2 views

    • Laura Wood
       
      "contains 1,000 primary documents in text, image, and audio that emphasize the experiences of "ordinary" Americans throughout U.S. history. All of the documents have been screened by historians and are accompanied by annotations that address their larger historical significance and context. Browse a list of documents sorted by time period, beginning with the earliest. Or visit the Advanced Search to quickly locate documents by topic, time period, keyword, or type of document."
    • Laura Wood
       
      "helps students and teachers make effective use of primary sources. "Making Sense of Documents" provide detailed strategies for analyzing online primary materials (including film, music, numbers, photographs, advertisements, oral history, and letters and diaries) with interactive exercises and a guide to traditional and online sources. "Scholars in Action" segments show how scholars puzzle out the meaning of different kinds of primary sources (from cartoons to house inventories), allowing you to try to make sense of a document yourself and then providing audio clips in which leading scholars interpret the document and discuss strategies for overall analysis."
    • Laura Wood
       
      "is our annotated guide to more than 850 useful websites for teaching U.S. history and social studies. We have carefully selected and screened each site for quality and provide a 1-paragraph annotation that summarizes its content, its strengths and weaknesses, and its utility for teachers. Information is provided on the type of resource (text, images, audio, and video) available. Browse sites by topic and time period or look through a list of some of our favorite sites. Or visit the Advanced Search to quickly locate WWW.History sites by topic, time period, keyword, kind of primary source, or type of resource. We also include extended scholarly web reviews as a regular feature of History Matters. In collaboration with the Journal of American History (JAH) we review approximately 25 websites per year. The reviews are co-published by the JAH and History Matters and appear in both venues. The archive page offers all featured web reviews."
  • ...3 more annotations...
    • Laura Wood
       
      "Between 1997 and 2003, History Matters presented historical puzzles and quizzes. We are no longer adding new puzzles, but we include here an archive of 20 past puzzles that can be used in classrooms to inspire creative thinking and challenge assumptions."
  • more on this site)
    • Laura Wood
       
      This link has fantastic descriptions of what you can find in each of the sections of the site. I've posted some of the more exciting ones below but this site has a ton of useful history information . . .
  • Designed for high school and college teachers and students,
    • Kenneth O'Regan
       
      I dont know how to undo or ignore the sticky notes of the previous user of this site...Ill post my own and I guess they will all just get mixed up.
  •  
    From the website: History Matters is "a project of the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning of the City University of New York and the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Visible Knowledge Project. . . . Designed for high school and college teachers and students of U.S. history survey courses, this site serves as a gateway to web resources and offers unique teaching materials, first-person primary documents, and guides to analyzing historical evidence. We emphasize materials that focus on the lives of ordinary Americans and actively involve students in analyzing and interpreting evidence."
  •  
    Well, it looks like a student in this group shared this in the past, but what a great website! I'll put up some more sticky notes. This website features a large number of primary source material of different media and is strong in its content. Beyond that, this site features information about the methods historians use (interesting to high school students, applicable to college students), a database of reviewed websites, lesson plans, syllabi, and teaching tips. A pretty comprehensive resource.
Laura Wood

Upfront - 0 views

    • Laura Wood
       
      The teacher that I'm observing for my thesis research (let's call her Teacher 2) gets tons of these every month and distributes them to all of her students. They use some of the articles, cartoons and pictures for their class but I've also heard other teachers say that the kids just read them in their down time. SWEET!
    • Laura Wood
       
      Oops, sorry, they're biweekly. That means twice month, right?
    • Laura Wood
       
      Each issue contains a cover story, International story, national Story, Technology story, Environment story, History portion, Columns and Cartoons (and more!). The content is designed for teens. They also newly have an Ethics column, where teens can exercise critical thinking, opinion forming and values exploration.
    • Laura Wood
       
      OKAY! So "Times Past" has historical events framed in a modern context. Each issue a different historic event is featured. If you were collecting these things, pretty soon you'd have a whole curricular arsenal of articles written for teens, framed in a contemporary lens, about history. It might be interesting to contrast these against newspaper articles from say the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
  • ...2 more annotations...
    • Laura Wood
       
      "Teacher Tools" - sorry my friends. While you can read all the Upfront articles online, you can't access the "Teacher Tools" unless you buy a subscription. Who knows what "Teacher Tools" could mean. Could be curricula . . . or games! . . . or account management tools.
    • Laura Wood
       
      Lastly, there appear to be more cool pages at the top here, including: "Computer Lab Favorites," "Word Wizard Dictionary," "Write and Publish," "Reading Responses," and "Research Projects" All of these sound promising and worth exploring. Yay for current events and technology!
  •  
    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."
Alan Edwards

D.C. Launches Rigorous Teacher Evaluation System - 0 views

    • Alan Edwards
       
      Bill Turque's article in yesterday's Washington Post feels like a balanced view about a controversial plan. It definitely relates to some of the issues we've been chatting about in and out of our classes. These issues of teacher evaluation, standardized tests, teaching methods, and unions is important for anyone teaching in DC.
    • Alan Edwards
       
      So this year, it appears that the folks downtown will be testing a new method of teacher evaluation based on five in-class evaluations and the teacher's students grades and test scores. The program will only apply to about 20% of the teachers in D.C.
    • Alan Edwards
       
      DCPS will use a team of expert teachers to evaluate the teachers in 2 of the 5 evaluation sessions. They will look for active student engagement, diverse teaching methods, and teachers who work to create a safe learning environment for their students. I think that it's great that teachers will be a part of this evaluation process because great teachers have opportunities to give the best advice for these teachers. Moreover, the experts would have a degree of independence from the school's administration and union influence.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Rhee is investing $4 million in the system, called IMPACT, which will also assess teachers against an elaborate new framework of requirements and guidelines that cover a range of factors, including classroom presence and how carefully they check for student understanding of the material. But IMPACT is likely to be another flash point in Rhee's turbulent relationship with local and national teachers union leaders. They say that growth statistics are too unreliable to include in performance evaluations and that the new assessment system -- which the District can legally impose without union consent -- is an instrument to identify and remove struggling teachers, not a means to help them improve.
  • This year only reading and math teachers in grades 4 through 8 -- fewer than 20 percent of the District's 3,800 classroom instructors -- will be evaluated on the basis of growth on the annual District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System, or DC-CAS. Student value-added will account for half of their evaluation.
  • To allay teacher concerns that assessments will be tainted by personality clashes with principals, IMPACT will employ a corps of third-party "master educators" to conduct two of the classroom observations. The District's old system, like those in most other cities, required fewer classroom visits and left them largely to school administrators, who often had neither the time nor the expertise in subject matter to render fair evaluations, educators say. The master educators, who do not report to the principals, have backgrounds in the teachers' subjects.
  • IMPACT documents suggest that no nuance will be left unexamined in the 30-minute classroom visits. Observers are expected to check every five minutes for the fraction of students paying attention. Teachers are supposed to show that they can tailor instruction to at least three "learning styles" (auditory, visual or tactile, for example). They can lower their scores by "using sarcasm that visibly hurts or decreases the comfort of one or more students." Among the ways instructors can demonstrate that they are instilling student belief in success is through "affirmation chants, poems and cheers."
Kenneth O'Regan

Lesson Plan: Historical Perspectives: Coming Home from War. PBS Teachers - Resources For The Classroom - 0 views

    • Kenneth O'Regan
       
      The homecoming experiences of soldiers in World War II, Vietnam, and our current wars are very reflective and telling of national attitudes toward each respective war/conflict. This can help students put these events into a larger historical context.
    • Kenneth O'Regan
       
      The phrase "Support the Troops" was everywhere a few years ago. Its usage has disappeared a little bit now, but what it really means is still very open for interpretation.
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    As another tough topic to tackle in the high school social studies classroom, this multimedia-based PBS lesson plan aims to help students grades 9-12 understand the difficulties encountered by US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Television, internet, and many other factors have changed the way we view war and receive our veterans. The lesson plan examines the conditions faced by troops returning from not just Iraq and Afghanistan today, but also from Vietnam and World War II. Like the other collection of lesson plans I posted earlier, this is material that can be a little bit emotional, especially for students who have a family or friend connection to veterans.
kyleassad

Worldmapper: The world as you've never seen it before - 1 views

    • kyleassad
       
      Data is sourced from the United Nations: the UNDP, Conference on Trade and Development Trade Tables, and Angus Maddison's World Economy: Historical Statistics.  At first glance, the data from which the maps are created is credible because it is from the UN with the exception of the maps sources from Angus Maddison.  The website is also a product of Sheffield University in the United Kingdom, which lends credibility.
    • kyleassad
       
      The maps are divided into categories, and provide a great visual aid when talking about how different countries, regions, and continents utilize resources, have different birth and death rates, and other factors based on geography that can help to be visualized.
    • kyleassad
       
      This website is very credible, especially based on the standards from the UC Berkeley website.  They cite their sources on their "Data" page, include credits to those who helped them, and include the sources that assisted in the formation of the maps.  They include contacts, who created the web page, and statistics on how they update errors, etc. Overall, not only is this website interesting to me because I am a map nerd, but I think this would be very useful in geography, economics, and other social studies classes.
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    Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.
Samantha Greenwald

Bill of Rights: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress) - 2 views

    • Samantha Greenwald
       
      This can be used especially on Constitution Day (September 17th).
    • Samantha Greenwald
       
      A bibliography is provides as well as other external resources for students and teachers to explore.
    • Samantha Greenwald
       
      This site provides exhibitions and primary source documents which provide more detailed descriptions of certain events/people which teachers can use to expand student learning.
    • Samantha Greenwald
       
      This is one site of three that provides primary documents. The other two discuss national expansion and reform and the civil war and reconstruction.
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    This Library of Congress website provides access to primary documents including letters, notes, papers, Washington's inaugural address, and copies of the amendments to the US Constitution.
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    Any other ways in which teachers might use this site?
Margit Nahra

ThisNation.com--Rights of the Accused - 1 views

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    This site features an online textbook of Amercian Government and Politics. It was created by a single individual who works for a university, but in a business and not an academic background. Despite its origins, site has a lot of information and links to primary sources.
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    Given that the author of the site is an individual, materials should be scrutinized for accuracy and bias. No obvious weaknesses in this regard on surface review.
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