Search results matching tags 'social studies' and 'resources'

Free Quality Multimedia Resources … Learn and Create In The Teachers’ Domain!

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:33:09 GMT

Welcome to the fourth in a series of summer posts dedicated to bringing you the biggest collections of national and international resources you will find anywhere. Summer is a perfect time to examine what you just might want to include in next year’s lesson plans that will engage your students. I plan to share resources that will cover all the curricular areas. Each article will give an in-depth and informative visit to one of these sites. Make sure you bookmark, copy, RSS, subscribe by email and visit my 21centuryedtech Wiki! You will want to share! If it is not summer where you are, then you can jump right in and facilitate learning with some new material tomorrow. I will announce each post on twitter at (mjgormans) so be sure to follow. – Mike

Teachers’ Domain definitley qualifies as a mega site from the people at PBS station WGBH in Boston. As described on the website it really is “an online library of more than 1,000 free media resources from the best in public television. These classroom resources, featuring media from NOVA, Frontline, Design Squad, American Experience, and other public broadcasting and content partners are easy to use and correlate to state and national standards.” Resources include video and audio segments, Flash interactives, images, documents, lesson plans for teachers, and student-oriented activities. Teachers can personalize the site using “My Folders” and “My Groups” to save resources into a folder and share them with your other teachers or their students. Some of the resources even allow downloading and remixing for teacher mash up presentations. There is a strong effort at integrating lessons with technology to engage student learning.

Educators will excited to find that the site contains even more then countless amazing and engaging videos. On entering Teachers’s Domain there is an area set up for K12 curriculum. In this area teachers can find lessons devoted to Arts, English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. The Arts reveals multiple resources and lessons exploring dance, music, theater and the visual arts. Investigate the power of language in the English Language Arts Section! This collection of video segments, activities and engaging lesson plans focuses on literacy skills for early childhood readers through high school students. Best of all these resources correlate to state and national English Language Arts standards. Students can become a math whiz with a wonderful collection of Mathematics resources! This new and expanding collection of media resources explore main concepts in elementary mathematics and correlate to educational standards. Broaden you and your students knowledge of science content and effective inquiry-based methodologies. The Science area offers over 1,500 media resources in science, engineering, and technology as well as standards-based professional development courses. This area is certainly worthy of its own blog posting by itself! The Social Studies area allows classrooms to journey back in time and around the globe! This ever growing collection of video segments, activities and lesson plans brings alive selected topics in U.S. and world history and also correlates to state and national standards.

Teacher Domain also provides avenues towards professional development. Educators can even earn continuing education credits and college credit. Check out Teachers’ Domain Professional Development area that offers K-12 teachers new ways to inspire students, broaden content knowledge, and integrate technology into classrooms. Especially interesting is an area devoted to teaching strategies. This contains awesome videos covering English Language Arts, Innovative Strategies, Integrating Technology, Science, Media Resources, Guides/Tutorials/ Workshops, and Professional Development Activities.

I believe this next paragraph could be invaluable as a free resource. I want to introduce you to some of the awesome collection of public media series filled with great videos, lessons, and activities found at Teachers’ Doman. Explore the links I have included for some great resources. You will be amazed! NOVA on Teachers’ Domain is the most popular science series on public television while podcasts about science are available from PRI’s The World . Discoverd epic stories about Americas past and present that will engage students at American Experience, and check out a collection of adventures and history lessons from Antiques Roadshow that will provide some amazing adventures in history detective work. For early readers Between The Lions has twenty great clips or engage students with Cyberchase the Emmy-winning math mystery show. You may wish to study immigration using Faces Of America or meet America’s most extraordinary young musicians aged 8 to 18 at From The Top. Any course that includes current events and debate should include Frontline, and science classes will enjoy the powerful documentaries found at Nature, along with the fast-paced, innovative, and entertaining science program featuring timely science and technology stories entitled Nova Science Now. Students can also follow the life and contributions of Percy Julian, and explore the power of language while building reading and writing skills using video segments drawn from the Poetry Everywhere series. Your students can gain awareness and understanding of the diversity of religions and religious experiences by viewing Religion and Ethics and will appreciate the workings of the US judicial system from The Supreme Court. Last, enrich the study of Global History by using contemporary examples as jumping-off points to engage students with historical themes that were as relevant in the past as they are today through the integration of Wide Angle.

Just when you may think you have discovered all of the resources there are other amazing links which I know you will find valuable. Students can explore 21st Century careers at ATE or discover a unique Alaska’s Native perspective on earth and climate. There is also an area devoted to Native American perspective on global warming at Where Worlds Touch The Earth. There are resources on Biotechnology, and students can explore Cool Careers in Science, or study impacts of Global Climate Change and Warming. Watch participants in the National Science Foundation’s Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers program, (ITEST), as they learn science by doing it. Check out some early age literacy at Literacy 360 or take a moment to inspire some Middle School Literacy. Explore themes in science, literacy and language arts, fine arts, and social studies through the perspective of culturally diverse communities in these resources from the Education Through Art, Culture, and History (ECHO) initiative. The Civil Rights Collection provides archival news footage, primary sources, and interview segments filmed for Eyes on the Prize, this collection captures the voices, images, and events of the Civil Rights movement and the ongoing struggle for racial equality in America. Learn about the Arctic, the Antarctic, and why scientists are so interested in studying Earth’s polar regions by visiting Polar Sciences Collection. Students can learn about personal finance with this collection of video resources, interactive games and lesson plans at the The Citi Collection for Financial Capability. My favorite, encourages students to create their own multimedia using Building Blocks,which are short downloadable video segments that students can edit and embed into their own presentations.

While you are at Teachers’ Domain check out some of their local links. You will find great resources such as Keystone eMedia, an outstanding KQED Science Media Collection, resources from the Ohio Collection Of Digital Media, and this Teacher’s Guide designed to help you make optimum use of video in your classroom. Teachers’ Domain is currently converting video to full screen. They also offer tutorials for teachers using Teachers’ Domain in the classroom. They include topics such as Introduction to TD, Using TD in the Classroom,Technology Guide to Using TD, Using Folders and Groups, andCreating User-Generated Media. You may also wish to check out this promotional video to learn even more, then register for your free account! Be sure to read more about Teachers’ Domain including its mission, contributors, and usage policy. Possibly the best feature of Teachers’ Domain is that it has been constructed to integrate in and across curriculum while allowing teachers to use the important video segments for teachable moments. It incorporates lessons that are engaging and provides opportunities to not just consume the technology but to also create. It really is time for you to explore and incorporate Teachers’ Domain as part of your 21st Century Classroom!

Thus, my focus, to share with you vast resources such as Teachers’ Domain this summer! Take some time to investigate and possibly implement in the school year, or tomorrow! I will continue to bring thought, reflection, and amazing web apps along with this summer series. Please share with others, visit the 21centuryedtech Wiki, follow on me twitter (mjgormans), and subscribe to this blog by RSS or email . If you have resources that you feel need to be included please leave a reply! Enjoy, relax, play, and smile…. also take a moment to transform education toward 21st Century Learning! – Mike

Famous Failures

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:49:00 GMT

From the excellent Learning in Maine blog, a look at Famous Failures. Not bad company to keep!

Class Tools

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:08:00 GMT

Just this morning I had an excellent experience using an exciting interactive site called Class Tools which allows you to create games, activities, and diagrams in Flash (without knowing a thing about Flash!).

While covering an eighth grade social studies class, I informed students that they would be creating review games for an upcoming test. They were less than enthusiastic (and those of you who are familiar with the typical enthusiasm level of eighth graders will know that causing them to be even less excited was something of a real feat).

Hoping to rescue the moment, I asked if some of them would like to create a game online. Even this was met with grudging acceptance, but they agreed, perhaps considering it at least a momentary reprieve from creating another stale board game with markers and construction paper).

Well, in about twenty minutes time, I had some very excited eighth graders on my hands. Not only were they pleased with what they produced, but one exclaimed, "Wow, I actually know this stuff now that I had to type it in to create the game."

While I can't show you what they created, I'll show you one of the sample files from those posted on the site:

Click here for full screen version

As you can see, a Dustbin game requires you to sort words into their appropriate categories; this morning, for example, the students created a Dustbin about the Middle and Southern Colonies.

Another pair of students created an arcade game, which is playable in five formats (again, this links you to a sample at the site). I'd recommend you try several levels of the game option called Word Shoot.

In addition to the games functions, the site features several clever and adaptable utilities for creating other study aids. Teaching suggestions are provided for each, just in case you find yourself wondering, "Cool, but what can I actually do with this?"

Class Tools is well worth a look! Just one word of warning: be sure to save the game you've created before you play it! We learned that lesson the hard way.

Transitional Books: The Best of Both Worlds

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:40:00 GMT

It's not a bad place to be: stuck between the vast and varied worlds of the picture books and the worlds of the novel. That's where many children find themselves at age eight (give or take), when they're trying to make the independent reading leap from picture books to more difficult chapter books. Is the language in chapter books that much more complex? Not necessarily. But gone are the beautiful contextual clues provided by picture books' illustrations. Fortunately for these readers, we have what can be called transitional books.

Transitional books may, in fact, be chapter books, but chapter books which are liberally illustrated. One of the finest examples I've seen in recent days is Rosemary Wells' Lincoln and His Boys. Historically factual yet unswervingly human, the short and easy to follow chapters are punctuated by detailed full-color paintings (by P.J. Lynch, the talented artist behind The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey). The life of Lincoln and the terrible costs of the Civil War are skillfully interwoven as the years of Lincoln's election and presidency are viewed through the eyes of his sons (read an excerpt here). This is a apt choice for any classroom study of our 16th president, the Civil War, or the universal theme of perspectives (see a recent post on universal themes at my How to Teach a Novel blog).

Be sure to visit Candlewick for additional print and video resources and activities on some of your students' favorite books. My favorite: popular authors such as Kate DiCamillo discussing and reading from their upcoming books.

Okay Gals, Play Ball!

Anonymous — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:06:00 GMT

I received a couple enthusiastic emails about my Women in Baseball post, so when I ran across this newsreel footage of the Racine Belles, thought I'd drop it in hear for my readers to get a good laugh. Not at the women, of course, but at the sexism of the era.

Can't we get through a 90 second newsreel without showing some leg? And I love the announcer's comment: "Better a bruise than long pants, eh gals?" Trust me, they weren't too excited about playing in those skirts!

Check out more great archival clips by clicking on the original video at Google video. You'll find dozens of additional videos (Arrival of the Beatles, Atomic Bomb, How to Be Popular) by clicking on More From User in the upper right corner of the window.

Lee & Low Books: Globally Aware

Anonymous — Sun, 17 May 2009 00:30:00 GMT

Here in New Jersey and in many other states across the nation, educators are encouraged to focus on 21st Century Skills, and with them, global awareness.

Teachers often lament, "How can I teach students about the world when they barely know about themselves, their families, and their own community?" I think this is answered beautifully through multicultural books, and one of the preeminent publishers of multicultural titles is Lee & Low.

I've been a fan for a while now; Ken Mochizuki, author of Heroes, Baseball Saved Us, and Be Water, My Friend publishes with Lee and Low. I recommend those three titles highly, but a fourth, Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story, is especially recommended to those readers of this blog who wrote in to thank me for the Holocaust books featured in a recent post. In this little-known true tale, Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara makes the difficult decision to help thousands of Jews escape the Holocaust through Japan, against his government's orders. This books truly speaks to children about doing "the right thing" for others, no matter how little we seem to share in common with them.

What I didn't realize (until visiting their website and reviewing other titles) was that Lee & Low's specialty is multicultural children's books. Once again my job as a teacher (and a blogger of picture books) is made easy because the site features well-written and very in-depth teaching guides for their titles. For the above-mentioned Passage to Freedom you'll find an Author Talk as well as a Teacher's Guide available either at the site or as a separate pdf download. The Guide features readability information, themes, a summary, before and after reading questions, writing activities, and extension ideas across the curriculum. So even if you're not studying the Holocaust or World War II, this Guide would help you understand how to use in the book in several other ways with your class.

What else will you find at their site? Homeschoolers will find several project ideas as well as fundraising programs. Teachers and homeschoolers alike will get some good ideas for teaching current events by visiting the Calendar page. And finally, unpublished writers of color can enter to win the New Voices Award, which recognizes promising new authors.

I look forward to including Lee & Low titles in my future posts, but for now, do yourself a favor and head to their site. You'll be impressed by the diversity of their titles, as well as the resources they offer teachers and parents.

Tough Teaching Topic: Holocaust Remembrance Days

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:53:00 GMT

In a recent press release I suggest the use of picture books when teachers are faced with the challenge of teaching an important current event such as National Holocaust Remembrance Days, observed this week.

As my readers know, this is a topic about which I feel strongly. See my post on Holocaust picture books, which I recently updated to include a review of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit at Daphne Lee's The Places You Will Go blog.