Social Studies

An honest and (sometimes) brutal look at soldiers' lives during the Vietnam War. There is a haunting collection of war photography and an overview of the war itself. It should be noted that this site is highly biased with a Western sphere of knowledge and should be used with that understanding. Note: pictures on this site may not be used due to copyright law.

This website provides students with historical and contemporary information about 266 countries in the world as well as a variety of maps to help with building geography skills.

Google Earth is a fantastic way to take students to any country in the world! As long as you have a computer and a projector, students can have amazing images of different countries. They also have features to help you study topography and maps.

This is a highly useful source, a derivative of the Internet History Sourcebook series, which focuses on African history. It is particularly helpful as it's full of difficult to locate sources for periods that are often dependent on oral histories and secondary sources.

While this is not directly a lesson planning website. I think it's really important for social studies educators to understand the issues that students, teachers and schools are facing. In order to be informed and powerful in our work, we must understand the entire context.

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.

An excellent resource for teachers who are looking for resources on global education. The collaborative has resources for lesson plans but also features to let educators interact with each other and collaborate on curriculum.

This site has links to the NCSS, as well as standards and curriculum frameworks. It also has a plethora of lesson plans and suggestions for teaching strategies

This is a great lesson for a middle school geography class that would get students thinking about peoples' motivations for migrating from one place to another. The lesson plan includes objectives and standards as well as the lesson procedure. There are also ideas for extension activities.

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.

Website with infinite information on the First and Second Napoleonic Empires.

Even though Napoleon's empires often get skimmed over in world or European history courses, this website makes the subject worth an extra day or two. There are easily comprehended histories, research databases, pictures, and even a "kids' corner" that is accessible to even the most reluctant student.

This site provides teachers with lesson plans and other resources for teaching about the supreme court and other facets of law.