US History Teachers Blog

Declaration of Independence Song

2012-01-27T14:52:00.001-08:00

My daughter showed me this video which has 2.7 million hits on the Declaration of Independence.

Lots of PowerPoints

2012-01-26T17:40:00.000-08:00

One thing I like to do when we hire brand new teachers is to give them as many resources as possible so that they can focus on learning the content, getting to know one's students and to grade creative assignments. Here, then, are a number of PowerPoints for world history including the Cold War, Civil Rights, Great Depression and much more.

Online Project Rubrics

2012-01-26T16:49:00.001-08:00

I have written on some rubrics, but here is another one from Effective Online Teaching and Training. There are a variety of categories including blogs, wikis, e-portfolio, Twitter, online discussion and more. I found the item from a Google+ post from Eric Sheninger.

Still Room in my Social Studies Tech Class

2012-01-26T02:05:00.001-08:00

I am teaching a technology integration course (p. 42) for 7-12th social studies grade teachers (despite the heading above) for Fairfax County, VA teachers. It will start January 31st (so sign up soon) and run for 10 Tuesdays from 4:30 to 7:30. It filled up very quickly in the fall, so please sign up early. To sign up go to MyPLT, then put "social studies" in the search box and look for the title "Enhancing the Use of Technology in the Social Studies Classroom."

WWI Animated Battle Maps & Much More

2012-01-25T18:08:00.001-08:00

Here is an animated map of each of the years in WWI that show the major movements of both sides. But there is much more on this BBC site including the human experience, international view, virtual tours of the trenches, Versailles and more. While we are at it, there is also a WWII and Cold War page.

Stickies on a Virtual Wall

2012-01-25T17:41:00.001-08:00

Just the other day I was at an in-service where the presenter suggested one technique where students could write one question on a wall and others could answer it. Then he said that during a test students could look at the wall for a minute or so. Obviously the point was that kids who are less reticent to ask a question would feel more inclined to do so. Well, while Wallwisher has been around for a few years, it allows students to put stickies on a wall and others can edit (i.e. answer it). So in the case of my kids who often take e-tests, this would be one way to get a lifeline.

The Library of Congress and Its Primary Resources

2012-01-24T17:27:00.001-08:00

One of my colleagues Cynthia Szwajkowski "retired" last year and is now working full time for the Library of Congress in their primary resources division. One of the things she does is send out a regular e-mail with pictures that match the date. For example above is one I received a few days ago on the Chinese New Year. If you want to be on her list, you can e-mail cynthia@tpsnva.org.

A Student's Constitutional Convention on Prezi

2012-01-24T17:21:00.001-08:00

Creating the Constitution on Prezi

I am starting up a new class of integrating technology into the classroom (there is still some room if you are a FCPS teacher "Enhancing the Use of Technology in the Social Studies Classroom") and one of the things they will be learning is how to make a Prezi. Above is a student's work which I found on one of my visitor's webpage - thanks Billy Shulhman.

Digital Textbooks & A Little Self Promotion

2012-01-23T17:18:00.001-08:00

Today the DC metro affiliate of NBC news came to my classroom (and one other) to talk about digital textbooks which you can guess that I have been pushing for years up until this year when our entire county (27 high schools) went digital from 6-12th grades. If you want to be an advocate I should say that it started with my getting a few teachers and 1/3 to 1/2 of their students on board, then an entire grade pilot and that led to 18 middle and high schools doing it with a great deal of help from our curriculum great teachers, curriculum specialists and other administrators.

Tremendous Study Guide

2012-01-23T15:59:00.000-08:00

We just had our January re-testing for the students who failed the state exam over the summer or last spring. I gave the kids outlines found here for US. While they are for VA tests, they are a great review for any US history class.

Tuskegee Airmen

2012-01-21T05:38:00.000-08:00

I sometimes like to use movie clips of famous movies to connect material that we are learning to my students' lives. For example above is a clip from the new George Lucas movie about the Tuskegee airmen. To show your kids that this history is still "alive," you could show them this article detailing that 100 of the original 990 are still alive (unfortunately the article is about one who just died). Here is a lesson plan on the subject from PBS. PBS will also be airing "For Love of Liberty" starting on February 1st which will look at African American service people.

Building a Student Assignment Online

2012-01-20T17:41:00.000-08:00

While I am at it one of the things I try to teach other educators is how to meld an e-textbook, its ancillaries and what you can find on the Internet. For example here is a lengthy student assignment I am presenting for a county wide in-service for our US teachers. It starts with the text (which you can also find in Wikipedia) and then goes to different ancillaries. The cool thing about most ancillaries is that unlike the text they are not locked down. So you can see such items as reading outlines for students to fill in, quizzes, summaries, etc. The assignment looks at farmers and industrial workers at the end of the 1800s and compares them to what is being said by Frank Braum in the Wizard of Oz (which always helps my students remember the concepts).

Progressive Era

2012-01-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

I love to intersperse Internet assignments with e-book ones. One site that you might want to use for the Progressive Era is the Digital History site. Here is what it has on the Progressive Era. It includes background, electoral maps, timelines and images.

WeVideo Online Editor

2012-01-16T07:51:00.000-08:00

Ever since Jaycut was bought by Blackberry, I have been looking for a cloud based editor where one can edit videos in the cloud. Finally I have found it with WeVideo. Wevideo gives you two options (see video above) to either edit it in your own youtube account or to use their editor. If you want to collaborate (think student projects) then you can have others collaborate in real time from other locations and computers. There is a limit to the space, but students could make one video and put it on youtube and then have plenty of space for others. Cloud based video editors (or any tool) have the advantage over MovieMaker as it can be done on any computer and not lost. Thanks to Freetech4teachers for the heads up.

Wizard of Oz

2012-01-13T16:37:00.000-08:00

I always wish I had been told this story when I took AP US history in high school, but alas I had to wait until I was teaching. It always helps my students tie together a bunch of facts from the time period (Jennings Bryan, workers in the industrial north, westward travel, gold and silver standards and so much more). Here is one interpretation that I like, but here are more are others.

How the Electoral College Works

2012-01-11T15:30:00.001-08:00

Reconstruction

2012-01-09T14:09:00.001-08:00

One of the things I love about running this blog site is that people e-mail me sites they like. This one about three lesson plans comes from Edsitement (run by the National Endowment for the Humanities) and it comes with links, rubrics, lesson plans and more on Reconstruction.

Qwiki

2012-01-09T14:04:00.001-08:00

Qwiki is a search engine I found about a year ago that lets one get a visual (video), written and pictoral definition. In other words, you could put this link for Antietam on your student site and have your students answer questions. Above is the embedded Qwiki search for it.

Want to Take My Course?

2012-01-03T14:20:00.001-08:00

I am teaching a technology integration course (p. 42) for social studies teachers for Fairfax County, VA teachers. It will start January 31st and run for 10 Tuesdays from 4:30 to 7:30. It filled up very quickly in the fall, so please sign up early. To sign up go to MyPLT, then put "social studies" in the search box and look for the title "Enhancing the Use of Technology in the Social Studies Classroom."

Site on the Presidents

2012-01-03T14:04:00.001-08:00

Here is a site that has a lot of review sheets about each of our 44 presidents in addition to a short bio for each. For example, here is Barack Obama. I found this link at Notanotherhistoryteacher.

Ten Tea Parties

2012-01-01T13:42:00.000-08:00

In a few days Alan Brinkley is coming to speak to your AP US students (he wrote our textbook). My question for him is how and why does he decide what is history. Take the new book (disclaimer, I received it free from the publisher) Ten Tea Parties which comes out in a few weeks. The book discussed fifteen "tea parties," one of which actually burned the ship of tea, several which collected the tea and stored it away, another which had their colonists dress as Native Americans and throw the tea overboard (sound familiar)? Indeed one "party" had Redcoats kill an American colonist and even the Boston group copied their resolved from Sons of Liberty in Philadelphia who had their own "party" three days after the one in Bean Town. In short, it's a quick short, enjoyable read and it begs the question why do we only remember Boston?

While I am on it, my wife read another book that was sent to me Destiny of the Republic about Garfield, his killer and the incompetent doctors who botched his possible recovery. My wife who normally only reads fiction found it enthralling as did the NYTimes who put it on their annual "best of"books of 2011.

The Civil War in Four Minutes

2011-12-29T16:11:00.000-08:00

I've posted this before but since this site keeps getting lots of new viewers, I wanted to put it up again. It is a great way to review the war once you are done. This video shows the battles, ongoing casualties, which side controlled which side and more.

Google Apps for Education Learning Center

2011-12-28T04:47:00.001-08:00

In October my county became a Google Apps for Education (GAE) county which means, among other things, that my students are now completely virtual. But for those who have are still making the adjustment to GAE, here is a site that might make your transition smoother.

Crossing the Delaware - Incorrect Painting

2011-12-24T21:28:00.000-08:00

It's not a new thought that the iconic painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware has fraught with mistakes, but below the original above is a new view of how the painting should have been done. Here is a new article on the subject and here is a more academic one.

East India Company

2011-12-24T18:35:00.000-08:00

This week's Economist has a nice article (and not too long for students) on the East India Company. It makes some comparisons to today's companies, but mostly it is a summary of its rise, spread (and the politics it used to do so) and demise.

Share Your Computer Screen or Take Over Someone Else's

2011-12-23T05:58:00.001-08:00

Sometimes my students need help with something technical we are doing. Well now I can take over their screen or they can see mine. Well now I can easily take over their computer screen. From the same makers of Screencastomatic (which I've blogged about before), you can now use Quick Screen Share to let someone else see what you are doing or even to take over their computer screen. As with Screencastomatic you do not need to set up an account and only need to let a small java file run to be able to do it. A big thanks to Notanotherhistoryteacher for this heads up.

Edusitement

2011-12-22T05:26:00.001-08:00

Edusitement is a webpage that has hundreds of lesson plans and resources to go along with them for US history. Here are three that go along with my post below on Reconstruction. Finally here is a page dedicated to teaching just AP US history.

A Little Fun

2011-12-21T08:37:00.001-08:00

I am one of those teachers who actually teach all the way up to winter break, but I do allow kids to bring in "learning food" so that we can relax a bit, but still learn. Being a techie we spent a few minutes with "tech fun" as well. For example if you go to Google, type in "let it snow" and after your screen has fogged up, use the cursor to write as if it were a fogged up window. Other fun can come from writing "do a barrel roll" in a Google search engine or even seeing what you get when you write "where is Chuck Norris" in the search engine. Have fun and know that I will continue putting up updates over the winter break.

Prezi's New Features

2011-12-21T08:34:00.001-08:00

Perhaps capitalizing on the growing popularity of the +1 button on Google, Prezi has made it easier (and it was fairly easy to begin with) to create a Prezi as they too have a "+" button to add in the new features in your presentations. Here is what I have posted in the past on Prezi.

Reconstruction

2011-12-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

Here is an pictoral outline of the Reconstruction period. If you look at it there is a picture for each part of the timeline, but if you click on each picture, there are a bunch more under it. There are also nice explanations of each.

How To Download Everything At Once in Google Docs

2011-12-14T15:03:00.001-08:00

This year my county has introduced Google Apps, but due to our interpretation of COPPA, we are not letting our students (and since they can not be separated out, our teachers & administrators) share with someone outside of our domain. If you have the same issue where you teach, it might be a concern for students who are graduating or leaving your school system. Well a bunch of engineers at Google have a site explaining how to download any of their products in batch download. Here is how you can do it for Google Docs. Then, of course, you could tell your students (or fellow teacher) to turn around and re-upload it in a free Google Docs, so they take it with them to their next school.

Calling Long Distance Parents

2011-12-14T02:33:00.001-08:00

Increasingly my students' parents have long distance numbers that I need to call to reach them. While my school will provide me with a long distance calling card, it is much quicker to just go into my gmail and call from there. As you can see in the picture above, you need to download a small file and then simply hit the "call" button and a dial pad appears. Then you dial in the number and call from your computer. Google just announced that they are allowing free calls (they keep extending it) through 2012.

Youtube Blocked At Your School? - Here's a Solution

2011-12-13T16:32:00.000-08:00

Thankfully my principal has finally agreed to unblock youtube at my school, but if that is not the case for you, then you should watch the video above. Youtube has tagged (so far) about 200,000 videos that they deem educational which you can see here. Additionally there are no other videos to see afterwards. Youtube allows you to see short video clips that back help the students visualize what you have just been teaching.

Give Google Docs a Try

2011-12-09T18:28:00.001-08:00

Have you been reading this blog a while and wondered why I talk so much about the virtues of Google Docs. Well without even getting a free account, you can go here and see of the great tools that come with Google Documents, Presentations (PowerPoints), Spreadsheets and Drawings. The great thing is that you can do most of what you pay for with Windows and you can do it on any smart phone, tablet or laptop and collaborate with up to 100 people anywhere, instantly for FREE.

Another Free e-book

2011-12-09T13:58:00.001-08:00

The state of Texas has two e-books online for US history. They are not as long as the ones you have for your students, but they cover many of the basic points. Here is the regular one and here is the advanced one. If their AP book is any indication the FlatWorldKnowledge one coming out in February will be amazing (as their government one has great pictures, video and a very comprehensive text).

Exam Review ipad App

2011-12-07T08:05:00.001-08:00

In Virginia our end of the year exams are interestingly enough titled the SOL tests (Standards of Learning). Here is an ipad app for reviewing material on the SOL exam. Since our test is similar to most other states (in terms of coverage) this might be a useful app for any students. There is US history as well as World History I (prehistory - Renaissance) and World History II (Renaissance - present).

Archie Bunker Learns About Manifest Destiny

2011-12-05T06:38:00.001-08:00

This is a great video on the definition of manifest destiny from All in the Family. It goes from 1:30 to 4:00. You can also use the video to teach something about Americana. Thanks to Maggie Tran for the heads up on the video.

Annotate Any Videos on Youtube

2011-11-29T08:39:00.001-08:00

From time to time I have my students build simple PowerPoint projects (naturally using Google Docs). I always like them to insert a video as part of it, but I have never been able to know if they actually viewed the video (short of putting comments in another slide). Now students can annotate any video on youtube and even decide where the video will start and end by using EmbedPlus. For example above is the video from the Apollo 11 video (post below). I have added four comments in the first 20 seconds. Also here is a link to the video. Additionally here is a video I just made on how to use Embedplus.

High Def Video Montage of Photos from Apollo 11

2011-11-27T17:39:00.001-08:00

I found this at OpenCulture. They are photos taken by the Apollo 11 astronauts which are remarkable. They take me back in time as I was not quite six and living in Tehran. Later that year the three Apollo 11 astronauts visited the US embassy there.

Consulting for Your Department, School or District

2011-11-27T07:12:00.001-08:00

Have led 15 district-wide, in-services for Fairfax County, VA (12th largest district in the US), as well as international conferences such as the Global Education Conference. Initiated, piloted and implemented e-books for Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) district. Teach a technology integration course which is applicable to all content areas. Advise school districts regarding converting to teaching entirely online, including network requirements, preferred interface (laptops v. tablets) for student use and best websites to enhance online learning. Featured in the Washington Post (here and here), in Education Week and cable television. Worked with e-book companies, created an online course, am a national board certified teacher and have a Ph.D. in my primary content area (full C.V). For consultation services for your department, school or district, e-mail me at kenhalla@gmail.com.

Civil War Photos

2011-11-27T03:31:00.001-08:00

I found these great Civil War pictures from a tweet from KevinLevin. To see them all, go here.

US and AP US SIte

2011-11-25T15:05:00.001-08:00

This site is well known to NewYorkers for its PowerPoints for regular and AP US classes. If you teach using the Americans (for regular US) or Brinkley for APUS, then it is a great site to visit as it has the previously mentioned PowerPoints as well as organizing questions, quizzes and a tremendous number of weblinks including ones for DBQs.

Qwiki

2011-11-22T19:33:00.001-08:00

I love Qwikis as they give your students a short video, pictorial and written definition of a word. Above is a Qwiki on Marbury v. Madison.

Gadsden Purchase

2011-11-22T19:18:00.001-08:00

Gadsden Purchase from Michael G on Vimeo.

For some reason a lot of people like to search for my old post on the Gadsden Purchase which was done on the Jimmy Fallon show. It is well done and will help you teach it.

App for the American Revolution

2011-11-21T02:16:00.001-08:00

I received an e-mail from a UPenn frosh who developed an app last year as a high school senior for the American Revolution. Any student who loves technology and history is worth listening to! Since I do not have a tablet, would some readers please try it out and tell me how well it works for them.

Teaching with Documents

2011-11-18T19:06:00.001-08:00

If you are ever in need of some primary documents for your class, the National Archives has done a nice job of finding documents and labeling them by eras. They also have analysis sheets for such items as written documents, artifacts, cartoons, movies, and more.

Comprehensive Site of Presidents

2011-11-18T18:49:00.001-08:00

This is an amazing site that has found a ton of sites about US presidents from the expected things such as biographies, first ladies, pictures, but also cabinet members, presidents of the Continental Congress, presidential libraries, recordings from Cleveland to the present and so much more.

Election of 1800 in their own words

2011-11-18T05:11:00.001-08:00

Thanks to the great US team in my school for this and the two videos below it. People think that today's campaigns are hard, but the early US ones were more harsh especially with the two New York City newspapers dueling it out (and not even trying to be unbiased). Above is what Adams and Jefferson said about each other.

Alien and Sedition Acts/XYZ Affair

2011-11-18T04:50:00.001-08:00

Sorry to have so many videos in a row, but there are some good ones out there. Here is one from the movie John Adams on the Alien and Sedition Acts. The one on the bottom is cheesy, but it will get the kids to watch.

Classtools to Make Learning Fun

2011-11-17T18:09:00.001-08:00

Just a week or so ago I posted on Fakebook which is built by "Classtools." Well I finally got around to looking at that site and was impressed as there are a number of games (most of which I had not heard of - but that will make it even more interesting for your students). There are also more traditional items such as a Venn diagram which you can write upon the computer screen and then turn into the teacher. Above is a video explaining how to use the site.

Smart Song Raps

2011-11-17T07:11:00.001-08:00

Tim Busch, one of the teachers in my department, just told me about SmartSongs which has a bunch of raps on US history and government. Above is one on the three branches of government.

The Library of Congress - Thanksgiving Pictures

2011-11-17T06:25:00.001-08:00

The Library of Congress has a rich number of pictures in their online files. Here, for example, are all the ones that they have pertaining to Thanksgiving.

Want to Blog?

2011-11-16T14:53:00.001-08:00

Two weeks ago, creating a blog came up in tech integration course and it made me think that I have never had a post on how to create a blog such as this one. The real question is what could you use it for. It would be a great place if you do want to put up current assignments in a very easy way. The only thing that is not on the blog entry is how to embed a video in it which means I will have to do another post on that soon.

We Didn't Start the Fire

2011-11-16T14:42:00.001-08:00

Every once in a while I like to see where people who come to my site are coming from (site and country wise). One person clicked on this link I did a few years ago, so I thought I'd show it again since so many people like using "We didn't start the fire" by Billy Joel as a lesson plan. Here is an outline of everything he discussed. Also if you do a search for "Billy Joel we didn't start the fire lesson plans," you will see a ton of them out there.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-16T10:01:00.001-08:00

There are many myths out there about Thanksgiving such as it was not officially celebrated until 1863 when it was the last Thursday in November thanks to Sarah Hale (who also wrote "Mary Had A Little Lamb"). FDR moved it back a week to help boost spending by giving people an extra week for their Christmas shopping.

I'm Presenting at the Global Education Conference

2011-11-15T18:59:00.001-08:00

At 7 AM EST (on Wed) I am making an hour presentation on the the Global Education Conference. Here is what I will be attempting to show the participants. I will be covering splitting your laptop screen, igoogle, Google Docs, Screencastomatic and Remind101. It is overly ambitious, but if you want to know how to do any of those things you can either go on Elluminate by clicking here to join the free class or go to my link and look at the how to sessions.

Ideas For Using Google Docs

2011-11-12T13:12:00.001-08:00

My county is switching to Google Apps so I made a short video cast above to show our social studies teachers some ways they can incorporate Google Docs in the classroom and with fellow collaborators. If you want to know how to do each of the items go here, here and here for written how to sheets. Here are videos explaining how to use Google Docs. I made the above video "on the cloud" using Screencastomatic.

Tripline for Mapping With Students

2011-11-11T14:14:00.001-08:00

I just found Tripline where you can put pictures on a map (from History and Geography in the 21st Century) and have it follow from one place to another. The above clip is about a 16th century Spanish explorer who came to the Americas. Here is a great video on how to make one and include slideshows, videos, etc.

Slave Codes

2011-11-11T06:15:00.001-08:00

Here is an excerpt on slave codes from the US history e-book I posted on below and here is an actual one from South Carolina. Here is another resource that talks about the history of the laws in the US.

Screencasts To Help In The Classroom

2011-11-09T18:30:00.000-08:00

I love Screencastomatic as it allows you to record and very quickly upload into Youtube a screencast of up to 15 minutes. Thursday one of my colleagues will be at a meeting and so he actually recorded two fifteen minute lectures where we spoke while showing the screen to his students. So the kids will bring in their ear buds and once they are done presenting their projects, they will not miss a beat without their teacher.

As if that is not enough above is a video detailing how a friend/colleague can record their screen and send you a link to see what problem they might be having. The site is called "show me what is wrong." For me this is perfect for students who are having problems accessing their e-books or really any problem they are having. I found this video along with a bunch of other ways to create screencasts on FreeTech4Teachers.

Are You Adjusting Your Teaching?

2011-11-09T17:57:00.001-08:00

This video is quite excellent and leads me to ask how you are adjusting your teaching in the 21st century. It is a take off on the very popular Shift Happens videos. Yes, a baby did really Tweet as you can see here.

Stopwatch and Slitting Your Computer and LCD Screens

2011-11-09T17:53:00.001-08:00

I learned a trick from a 7th grade teacher in my building that if you want students to work more quickly - esp. using technology, give them a clock and break the assignment up into parts. My favorite clock is this one. It both counts up and down. Also, if you have the new Windows on your computer, you can go here for an explanation of how to put one thing on you LCD monitor (the clock, perhaps) and another on your computer. That way you could help a student with his/her work while the clock was on the LCD.

PBS' War of 1812

2011-11-08T09:36:00.001-08:00

I just received an e-mail from PBS telling me that their entire new movie, "The War of 1812," is now online. Additionally there are lesson plans here. Have at it!

Jamestown Interactive

2011-11-06T12:03:00.000-08:00

Well this marks a milestone as I found this interactive on Jamestown from work my 9 year old daughters had done for their class. But don't let their age deter you from using this great site for your class as it is from the National Geographic and is great. It includes a magnifying glass that you can move around the Jamestown site to get close-ups as well as videos, maps, etc. and has information on the Powhatan - which is what my daughters were using to prepare for the quiz they had this past Thursday.

Presidential Election of 1800

2011-11-06T11:35:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting site on showing the actual tally sheet from the US Senate for the election of 1800. Here is a nice electoral map showing the where the 73-73 electoral votes came from. The site 270 to win from where it came is a great resource for electoral college results.

Hippo Campus Free e-textbook for US and AP US

2011-11-04T14:43:00.001-07:00

While we are at it, Hippo Campus has both US and APUS history e-books online and are completely free. The e-books have both video and audio files.

Online e-book

2011-11-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

Fortunately my school district adopted an online e-textbook this year, but if it is ever down we go to this free online e-book. It was made in the 1990s so has most of US history and is in a very easy to follow format.

Instant Quiz for Your Students Online and on the Smart Phone

2011-11-02T14:40:00.001-07:00

I am teaching a technology integration course right now for teachers (and will be again in the spring if you work in Fairfax County, VA). One of my students, George Coe, found this new site which is similar to PollEverywhere.com. Both all teachers to pre-make questions and have the students answer questions using their cell phones and computers. So using Socrative or Polleverywhere.com, if a student has an ipad or a laptop, but no smart phone, then they can still take the quizzes. Now if a student has an ipad or a laptop, but no smart phone, then they can still take the quizzes. These are a great way to start or end a class and they also allow the teacher to instantly (either company) see what percentage of students selected each other for immediate feedback for the teacher.

Recording Using Your Cell Phone

2011-10-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

It used to be that we had our students get a video camera from the library to take movies for their projects. With Qik.com (yes it has been out a while), students can record (and even stream live) to the Qik site and instantly download it onto Youtube.com. (here is a post on how you can download from youtube) so you can use it as part of a presentation. Qik is compatible with 200 types of phones and probably many of your students already have the app.

Constitution Game

2011-10-29T06:37:00.001-07:00

This will allow students to draw parts of the to the different parts of the Constitution such as preamble, articles, etc.

Primary Resources for the Constitution

2011-10-29T06:36:00.001-07:00

Here are a bunch of primary resources such as a picture drawn of the Philadelphia state house at the time, newspaper articles from the time, diary entries of George Washington,

Spark Notes

2011-10-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

Spark Notes has a nice overview of most of US history. It is broken up into the standard units you would cover such as revolution, building a state - two you might be doing right now. Within each unit is an overview, a timeline and then notes on each subsection of the era.

DIgital US History

2011-10-23T06:21:00.001-07:00

This site has a ton of pictures as well as a description of the era that each is from. One example is the Reconstruction period which is broken up into six sections, with pictures and descriptions.

Screencast-o-matic.com

2011-10-19T14:53:00.001-07:00

I like making screencasts to show my students what they should do and/or teachers I am working with for in-services. Above is a how to video I made for Screencast-o-matic.com which allows you to make up to 15 minute screencasts (movies of what you are doing on the computer screen) and instantly upload them into Youtube. Since you do not first need to download onto your computer (as you might do for Snagit) and then upload, it can all be done very quickly. Finally it is entirely free which makes the price just perfect.

Prezi and Bloom's

2011-10-18T07:48:00.001-07:00

Here is a great way to get teachers to think of all the levels of Bloom's taxonomy and a super example of how you can use Prezi.

2011-10-14T03:13:00.001-07:00

The Library of Congress has tons of political cartoons online which you might find useful in your classroom.

150 Civil War Anniversary Extravaganza

2011-10-09T08:20:00.000-07:00

The WashPost has an amazing Civil War supplement in today's paper. There is an endless supply of items you can use in your digital classroom. As a start, here is the main page and here are the timelines of the battles and casualties of the war which you can stop and start (picture above). For each major point,

here is an explanation as you can see in the picture above. Other treasures include a Civil War app for the battlefields. There are also quizzes and a ton of essays on every aspect of the Civil War.

Readapting Our Learning

2011-10-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

Because I have been pushing e-books for four years now, I get lots of good and some negative comments (the positives have greatly increased with this article from the WashPost on my classroom). One negative comments is that it is harder to focus using online books. Of course I point out that the kids' cell phones are never far away and that they already do so much of their work online anyway. But the temptation is still there for sure. Well I just read this post on FreeTech4Teachers for the site StayFocused which allows students to set a time limit for how much a person can be on a site before they will get kicked off and not allowed back until tomorrow. If the kids are sure that it is a serious problem, then they will use it or perhaps their parents will have them do so or I could just be dreaming! Above is a video explaining it.

Short Videos on the American Revolution

2011-10-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

Today I tossed my last movie that I could still hold (and it was old as it was a DVD). Now every snippet I use is on the cloud. Above is one example of a history of the American Revolution. At the end of it, or here, are a bunch of others you might like to use.

Tweeting the American Revolution

2011-10-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

Most kids now know about Twitter as they like to use it to communicate with their friends. Well one of the teachers in my department is using that fact to her advantage. She found out about FakeTweetBuilder which allows the kids to create characters, add images and Tweet what they would have said. So you could take an historical figure and have them Tweeting back and forth with someone else. The nicest thing is that there is not login, password or e-mail needed to do the exercise and at the end you have a url to send the teacher. Here are some great directions she wrote up to help out her students - and you. The one limitation is that you can only do six Tweets per time, but you could have your kids each do it twice. Here is actually a very nice site that has built its own historical examples which you could show your students before asking them to do the project.

Audio and Written Notes in an e-book

2011-10-02T06:07:00.001-07:00

Kno is a start-up that is just about two years old, but is already working with tons of e-books to make them even better. If you are toying with buying e-books, you can see what is starting to be out there. In the above video, one sees how a journal is kept of pictures and notes the student takes so that one does not need to go back to each page. Additionally a new feature allows students to quiz themselves on any picture that includes text. As I tell my students and their parents e-books do not equal textbooks. Above is proof.

US History e-books

2011-10-02T05:15:00.001-07:00

For those of you who do not yet have e-books, Hippo Campus has a complete AP and standard US history book. Each e-book has both video and written parts and is broken into the normal sections one would expect to find in a textbook.

NOTA Student Posters

2011-10-01T10:20:00.001-07:00

NOTA is a new collaborative poster maker similar to Glogster. The added benefit is that it can add Google Maps in addition to pictures, video, words, etc. Here is a video showing how to make a post. One disadvantage is that it does not come (yet) with a way for teachers to create their own page for their students which Glogster does. I found out about this a Tweet from "HPTeacherExchange."

How to Create a Quiz in Google Survey

2011-10-01T10:04:00.001-07:00

This week or next I am showing my students how to make a simple quiz in Google Survey. Above is a short video explaining how to create a Google Survey (quiz) which I found using a simple search on Youtube. Below is a video that tells you how to correct it automatically. It is only 4 minutes long. I know social studies teachers tend to recoil when they see math formulas, but it is an easy one and might save you a lot of time in the long run. I found it by using the search engine on FreeTech4Teachers.

Diigo (or Goodby Delicious)

2011-09-28T17:22:00.001-07:00

Diigo V5: Collect and Highlight, Then Remember! from diigobuzz on Vimeo.

After three years with Delicious.com I am leaving. Two days ago Delicious announced their changes. I initially didn't want to change and even taught my teacher students last night in my class with them about it. But after getting some time today to look at the changes, I am finally going to Diigo. Diigo is a much more intuitive way to put your bookmarks on the Internet. It also allows you to take pictures of websites and write on them and/or put digital sticky notes on them. Also if you are a Delicious user you can import all of your sites (locks and all) and can do the same if you have been storing them on a browser on your laptop. Above is a video showing you the features and below this is another that shows you how to use it.

AP US History Multiple Choice Question of the Dat

2011-09-27T06:11:00.000-07:00

If you go here, you can have your students sign up for a multiple choice question of the day. There are also quizzes from each era of US history that they can take to prepare for you own tests.

Sharing Google+ Circles

2011-09-26T18:47:00.001-07:00

Google+ finally went public last week and has already gone up to about 40 million members. If you want to share your circles with others, above is how you can do it.

Online Maps for Your US Class

2011-09-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

This fall one of the new (albeit experienced) teachers in our department came to me asking for some new maps. I told him to here (among other places) to get his US maps (physical, expansion, political, etc. Since we all have a LCD, I figured it was reasonable to save the $ and use the free ones online! By the way different people (depending if you have a cookie for the site) will see different things on this link. You may have to input your state and grade and then look for the book titled The Americans. When you get to the ancillaries' page you will see much more than maps as there are quizzes, reviews, etc.

US Energy Consumption Versus the World

2011-09-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

So I am here at our Google National Geographic institute and we are learning Google Earth. One of cool features is that you can see energy consumption in the world. Above is a youtube video on it. I always tell my kids that the US is 1/25th of the world's population, but consumes 1/4 of the world's products as the video above graphically shows.

The First Map of America

2011-09-23T18:36:00.001-07:00

I am in the midst of a Google National Geographic institute here in D.C. this weekend. Besides getting to do Google Earth and Sketch Up we have been given a bag of goodies. One of them is a book called "The Fourth Part of the World" by Toby Lester. Perhaps I had been living too much under my "tech rock," but it is a fascinating story (so far) of the Waldseemueller map which gave us the name of America (Amerigo Vespucci). Certainly we all teach that in world and US history, but the book starts off recounting how while Columbus made it to the islands first, Vespucci said he made it to the mainland one year before Columbus - and now I'm hooked. If you are interested in a short (3 page history of this map - see above) summary of the map, click here. I also included a very short video by the author on the map. Finally here is a Google Literature link which includes a Google Earth view of the trip.

Online Study Groups For Your Students

2011-09-21T13:07:00.001-07:00

My students are not old enough to use Google+ (18 years old), but TinyChat will allow them to create chat rooms and have as many people as they want in it. Then kids can set up a room and then get to work on their project or studying for a test.

Alternatively your students can use a 12 person free room called Oovoo (which may be their answer to G+ since they just jumped to two more).

Google Plus Huddles

2011-09-21T03:35:00.001-07:00

If you have been following the changes to your Facebook page closely recently, you might have noticed that many of the new changes have been to mirror what one can do in Google+. Of course Facebook has 750 million people and after just 90 days G+ is some where around 20 million. One thing Facebook can't touch though is the "hangout" feature where you can have a video chat with up to 9 others. Soon it is going to be doubled to 20 and I've even noticed that one Google person I follow had a huddle with 31 others. But if you go here you can see some other additions. For example if you are a school that wants to stream an event you can be both in a huddle and stream it online. You can also stream with others and be looking at Google Docs. Best of all you no longer need an invitation, but simply can go here to sign up.

2011-09-20T16:45:00.001-07:00

This spring a colleague in my department and I collaborated on a project for our AP US and AP Government students who were in different days and periods to turn in an amazing project on Medicare, Social Security and the debt. The kids who an amazing array of digital tools and put it all together using Google Docs. George Mason University just wrote about it on their Teaching History.org Digital Classroom site which you might want to visit as there are many lessons showing how teachers have integrated technology into the classroom. Our write-up has links to our actual assignment as well as much of the student work product.

Deliberating Democracy

2011-09-20T14:32:00.001-07:00

One of the teachers in my department just did a demonstration for all of us on "deliberating democracy" that has been around, I believe, for about a year. The point is to have kids discuss differences on a wide variety of subjects and come to a consensus. The technique involved all kids in the classroom as opposed to a debate which only involves a few outspoken students. The methodology can be used to say compare two leaders in US history or an issue in government. Above is an explanation of it.

List Sync Btw Phone, Tablet and Computer

2011-09-18T12:35:00.001-07:00

If you are a regular visitor to this blog, you know I like delicious. But if you aren't saving codes or want visuals, a new site to try is Springpad which allows you to save links (and icons of the webpages which you can move around), keep lists (don't we always think of something we need to do when we are out and about). You can also get the items on your tablet, phone and webpage as they are all synched together. The video above gives you a nice short overview.

What is cloud computing?

2011-09-17T09:28:00.001-07:00

I do a bunch of in-services a year (and if your district is interested in having me, please e-mail me) and one of the first questions I get is "What is cloud computing?" If you don't know (and I believe it is too important not to), then the above video might be helpful to you.

iGoogle

2011-09-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

I like to go to one place to find all of the websites I use. For that purpose I used igoogle which allows me to see both a RSS feed as well as the top three titles of each recent article from the blog or website that I am following. Since I look at it before my morning run, I also have the weather embedded as well as my Twitter feed. Above is a video I made a year ago detailing how you use iGoogle.

History of Colonial America 1497 - 1763

2011-09-16T02:46:00.000-07:00

This is a short video on US history from 1497 to 1763. If you are using Google Docs' Presentation mode, you can go to "insert" and then "video." Type in the name of the video and it will appear. Double click on it and then you can drag it around your page or even grab a corner and stretch it.

2011-09-15T19:01:00.001-07:00

Since I am getting new viewers all the time I will soon repost my video on igoogle which is where I get my RSS feeds (i.e. I look at my choice of blogs). If you are a regular viewer of blogs, you probably are like me where you see lots of things you like in a short period and then go a few days or weeks where you do not use something. At any rate, I have found several items recently from FreeTech4Teachers such as the editing additions to Youtube. What I am hoping youtube will do one day is to make it so that one can record screencasts (such as Jaycut used to do before it was bought out). For now, please see the wonderful ways you can edit your video in youtube above.

2011-09-15T18:32:00.001-07:00

I like Timerime as a timeline as it allows students to put in both a short description as well as a date. The hardest part (which I like) for the kids is that they have to be concise on what they say. Above is an example of what the timeline looks like. Click on the dates and the full pictures and descriptions will appear.