More on Map Drawing

My students today were working on map skills for ancient Rome and they (as you can see below) were working on "free hand" drawing using Google Drawing.  I had them split their screen so they could look at a map and draw it, but one of my students figured out how to essentially trace a picture and then delete when he was done. I loved it and have made a video on how to do it above. 

Drawing Maps

After my in-service yesterday I was contacted by one of the teachers who pointed out that drawing maps (as opposed to labeling ones given to you) is a better way to learn.  My kids always have to label two maps (once at the beginning of the unit and once for review). Now I am going to change that to they have to free hand draw it in Google Drawing the second time. Above is a video that shows you how. Basically you go to "insert," "line" and "scribble" to be able to do it (see picture above).  I partially drew above by splitting the computer screen and laying my drawing and the picture side by side.

The US Melting Pot Map

While you have probably passed it this year, everyone teaches immigration in US history. Well now Bloomberg News has a great interactive map based on the 2010 census that lets you see where 20 different groups of immigrants are in the US. While I could not find my father's (the CzechRepublic), it did include all of the bigger immigrant groups. For examples, above is a picture of where the Dutch descendants are located.  I found the link at Chart Porn. Now for those of you who use Google Docs (see below) and another delivery device for your students (we are mandated to use Blackboard),  you can just go to an assignment where you have information on immigration, add the map above and not have to re-upload it into Blackboard.  

How to Integrate Google Docs Into The Classroom

Today I am presenting at Lake Braddock High School (Burke, VA) on how to integrate Google Docs into the social studies classroom.  As part of the discussion I will start with the slideshow above.  Can you answer the questions and imagine if so much has happened so recently, how quickly your classroom will be changing in the next few years.  Then I will essentially (live, not on youtube) show how my department and I use Google Docs/Apps and finally we will use this document to have have everyone learn by doing doing for Google Docs/Apps.  

National Jukebox from the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has put online over 10,000 recordings made between 1910 and 1925 that cover all eras of US history.  Here is the outline of the recordings, here is the search engine, music from the Civil War eras, old frontier and lyrical music.  For more information you can go to their blog that details how to integrate the Library of Congress resources into your classroom.

Creating the United States - Interactives

This is a very interesting collection of three resources, how the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights were made. It includes both original language of each part as well as the background for the different sections.   

Amazing Collection of Webpages on The 1920s

Occasionally I like to look and see how people got to this page. One person was looking for information on the 1920 and that led me to do some searches.  One page I found is this one which is a collection of pages that you can use to teach about the 1920s.  It includes the movie above from 1920 on Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as an entire page on the Jazz Age (it's is a companion to Ken Burns' for his documentary), a site for Charles Lindbergh,  the Scopes Monkey Trial,  the Harlem Renaissance, Henry Ford, primary source documents on the period and a lot of other categories. 

Search our Blogs

We have a lot of new visitors coming to the site now so it probably is wise to mention that between the three teacher sites (US, world and US government), there are now over 2500 posts going back four years.   So go to the upper left side of the page and put in a topic and see what you get.  You can do it for both content as well as technology.  

Khan Academy Apps

Admittedly there are few Khan Academy videos relating to history (about 20), but if one is inclined there is now an Android, and iPhone (as well as iPad).  

Containerization of the World & Ted Talks Education

Thanks to a message on Google+ from Larry Ferlazzo for telling me that Ted Talks has now started an education channel.  Ted Talks are usually less than 15 minutes (fits nicely into the flipping the classroom concept) and on some innovation.  Above is one on the innovation of putting supplies that need to be shipped into containers. It is fascinating and can be useful in both US and world history class. 

Sal Khan on 60 Minutes (Flipping the classroom)

Sal Khan was on 60 minutes tonight talking about his Khan Academy which discusses the philosophy of flipping the classroom which essentially espouses watching 10 minute videos at home and working on assignments in class where the teachers can help the students.  

Depression era Photographs

The Denver Post has this marvelous collection of depression era photographs from the Farm Security Administration Office of War Information and according to the Post "are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs and captions are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color."

Copy and Paste on Your Cell Phone

Another new skill!  The two videos above tell you how to copy and paste - a necessary skill to know. 

Splicd For Showing Parts of Youtube Videos

If you want to show a portion of a Youtube video, all you need to do is to go to Splicd and enter in the url as well as the starting and ending point and you can omit the rest of the video.  For example if wanted to start the video below on the definition of social studies at :20 seconds and finish it at 1:50, this is what you would get with Splicd. 

How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis

The bottom video is a collection of a number of Jacob Riis' pictures narrated with the writing by a reading of his writing (by teacher "Mr. Holt.").  If you would prefer short snippets of his pictures, you can go to NPR and Picture History for individual photos.   The video on top is from the History Channel and tells the story of the impact of the pictures.