Putting US History in Context

If you follow my blogs you know I have been working with a group called ContextU that is putting history in context. Right now we have this great page which covers US history from the causes of the American Revolution through all of US history.   As we move to standards based learning it is becoming that much more important that students be able to connect their facts (we call them "nodes") together.  On our site for each node you will see:

• 150 word description
• shown on a timeline so students can see other items across time
• the item on a map
• its cause and effects
• other similar nodes (facts)

As we head towards midterms, ContextU is a great way for your students to review.  

The History Behind Thanksgiving

This is a great video you can share with your students to give them the history of Thanksgiving.

How to Set up Chromebooks for Secure Exam Taking

For those of you investing in Chromebooks the video above show you how to use them for secure test taking.  We use TestNav (Pearson) and fortunately this is one of the ones that can be used.   When you secure a Chromebook, the kids cannot get to any other sites except the one you are using for the exam.  

Life in Japanese-American Internment Camps

We think in images rather than words.  This is one of the reasons why I have flipped all of my classes and thrown out our textbooks (there are others too such as the videos offer different modalities if done correctly and it gives teachers much more flexibility in class). 

But I like to show as many images as possible to my history students.  Thus this series of Ansel Adams pictures from a Japanese-American internment camp is very powerful for me.  It also includes a short description of the FDR's executive order 9066 which allowed this.   Of course when you teach it, you need to go over Korematsu v. US.  

Below is a short clip about George Takei who was one of those interned in camps as "an enemy non alien."  Here is the full length video from PBS about the subject.  Below the Takei video is another one is one that combines images and personal stories. 

Doctoring Our View of the US Constitution

I like to tell my students that a textbook is a point of view both in what it says as well as what it leaves out.  Of course, it is based on essential knowledge developed by key states such as CA and TX.  This brings me to this excellent WashPost article based on a new book, Madison's Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention.   The book argues that Madison's Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 (here is a great site that breaks down each day's events as well as giving you teacher resources and giving you information on all of the delegates) that Madison changed his notes over time as his political needs changed.  Since we have few documents other than Madison's notes, his changes have a profound influence on how we view the Constitution.

Above is a long discussion of the new book or again, you could read the WashPost article. 

Personalized Urls

We normally start my classes with a five question quiz where my students can use their notes from their flipped video to answer the questions.  It serves a few purposes.  First I won't count the quiz grade if the notes aren't good enough as I want the kids to have a repository they can use later (which is easy with the search function in Google Drive).  Secondly the questions are the main points for the day so it tells the kids what their exercise is going to be about.

But to the point.  I very rarely use the LCD in my classroom other than for when I am giving our opening quiz.  But the other day the my LCD lightbulb went kaput.  So I had to improvise by taking the url from the Google Drive document into a Tinyurl which I also personalized.  For example I am doing the fifth and sixth units in my for AP microeconomics called tinyurl.com/apmicro56.  So I wrote the url on the board and didn't worry that we didn't have a LCD.  It also is nice when kids want to redo a quiz, I just give them the url and we are all set.

In addition there is bitly.com that allows you to keep a repository or your shortenings as well as Google's shortening.  

My Education Week Column

Along with the interview I did with Larry Ferlazzo last week, he had me write a column in June which he just published in his Education Week column.  Above is a summary of my thoughts, but here is the entire article.  Of course if you want my detailed thoughts and how to implement them, they are in my book: Deeper Learning Through Technology: Using the Cloud to Individualize Instruction. 

How Does the Cloud Work?

Most people now have heard about the cloud, but few understand it.  The top video above shows where the actual cables are in the oceans that transport our messages across the Internet.  The bottom one shows how webpages are broken up and transported.  

Force Fitting Technology into the Classroom

Last week Larry Ferlazzo interviewed me and Susie Boss for his radio show.  Ferlazzo is a leading innovator in tech education, a writer for Education Week and a classroom teacher.  We discussed the topic of which comes first, technology or content.  Perhaps you would be surprised with my answer.   Here is the interview. 

Video Tutorials for AP US History Writing

These are three tremendous videos on how to write the three different type of free response questions on the new revised Advanced Placement US History exam.