While reading the Technology Tidbits blog, I saw this awesome website that I wish I had known about before, especially while writing history papers.
How many times have you been either writing a history paper or studying for a history test and suddenly realized that you are completely confused about the order of events associated with an event in the world's past? Maybe it's a war, economic crisis, or revolution. What happened first? What caused it? Well, my friends, I have found the solution to this problem: Historyworld Timelines. With this website, you can search a particular event (don't forget to use parenthesis) and see all of the events associated with that timeline. For instance, if you type "world war I" the very first "cause" of World War I is a planned attack by Germany in 1895 against France and Russia and it goes on from there. The end of the war is on June 21, 1919. You can look at everything in between without missing any of the all to often missed facts. You can also search by year. And, if you want to, you can search from the "Big Bang" to now. Although, I think that that might be a little too much reading for one person.
The only flaw that I have with this tool is that you cannot jump ahead in a timeline. Using the World War I example I used earlier, I can not go to the year 1918 of World War I. I just have to keep clicking next until I get to where I want to go. There is a timeline on the left that lets you pick a decade, but nothing that let's you pick a specific point. Other than that. I have no issues with this website and I think it is awesome. Here it is again: Historyworld Timelines.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Historic Map Works
I am an avid history fan. I love things that are old, especially when they relate to me somehow. I especially like to show people how historic sorts of things relate to them. (whether they want to hear me say it or not) Something that is always fun for me to look at is old maps. Luckily for me, Technology Tidbits posted an awesome tool for me and for my students to use. It is called Historic Map Works. It has maps from all spans of history available to look at. There are so many uses for this type of website that I feel it almost unnecessary to talk about them all, but I shall anyways. I have nothing better to do anyway!
The first option is obvious, as a teacher. You now have a resource to get high quality historic maps to tie into your lessons. When I was younger, a map was always interesting to look at. Especially if it was of an area that I knew already. It was interesting to see how things changed and what things stayed the same.
If you are a student, it is very valuable. You now have an almost inexhaustible supply of maps to use in projects and other school work. You will be able to find interesting information that you would not have been able to find other ways, and your work will stand out for it.
A lot of the maps are extremely old, and some of them are illustrations of what the town looked like in, say, the year 1850. Student get a kick out of seeing how things change.
I highly recommend checking out this website Historic Map Works.
The first option is obvious, as a teacher. You now have a resource to get high quality historic maps to tie into your lessons. When I was younger, a map was always interesting to look at. Especially if it was of an area that I knew already. It was interesting to see how things changed and what things stayed the same.
If you are a student, it is very valuable. You now have an almost inexhaustible supply of maps to use in projects and other school work. You will be able to find interesting information that you would not have been able to find other ways, and your work will stand out for it.
A lot of the maps are extremely old, and some of them are illustrations of what the town looked like in, say, the year 1850. Student get a kick out of seeing how things change.
I highly recommend checking out this website Historic Map Works.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Cartoons for the Classroom
We all know how political cartoons have been a big part of our culture since the beginning of the American Revolution. You can look back at any major (or even minor) event in American (or World) history and there is a cartoon about it. These cartoons are very symbolic and convey a lot of truth and meaning in just one picture. It is good for history teachers to expect their students to be able to interpret the meaning of these cartoons. But how? Wonder no more! Because while I was browsing some Educational Technology blogs, I found Cartoons for the Classroom on the Free Technology for Teachers blog.
Cartoons for the Classroom has hundreds of political cartoons on it that even have lesson plans associated with them. Now, when you want to analyze a political cartoon, you can go to the cartoon that you want and click "download lesson." It opens it up in a adobe reader and it gives suggestions for how to lead conversation. It even gives you learning standards to go on. So, it leaves the guess work out of figuring out which standards you can fit into it.
Something that I think that is cool about it is that you can print out a cartoon that does not have any words in it. You can give your students the cartoon and ask them what to write. You can maybe even give them a little hint or push towards what you want them to write about. You can then show them what the cartoonist wrote and why he wrote it.
There is a Cartoon Analysis Worksheet that is also available. This lets you analyze either the cartoon provided on the website or a cartoon that you may have gotten out of your local weekly newspaper. The worksheet breaks it all down for the student to help them understand the use of symbles and metaphors in cartoons.
Cartoons for the Classroom has hundreds of political cartoons on it that even have lesson plans associated with them. Now, when you want to analyze a political cartoon, you can go to the cartoon that you want and click "download lesson." It opens it up in a adobe reader and it gives suggestions for how to lead conversation. It even gives you learning standards to go on. So, it leaves the guess work out of figuring out which standards you can fit into it.
Something that I think that is cool about it is that you can print out a cartoon that does not have any words in it. You can give your students the cartoon and ask them what to write. You can maybe even give them a little hint or push towards what you want them to write about. You can then show them what the cartoonist wrote and why he wrote it.
There is a Cartoon Analysis Worksheet that is also available. This lets you analyze either the cartoon provided on the website or a cartoon that you may have gotten out of your local weekly newspaper. The worksheet breaks it all down for the student to help them understand the use of symbles and metaphors in cartoons.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Speakaboo... I see you!
So, today I was looking at the educational technology blogs that I've subscribed to and I discovered something that is quite awesome on the Technology Tidbits blog. It is called Speakaboos. Speakaboos brings all sorts of books, stories, songs, nursery rhymes, and folk tales to life! They have all of the memorable stories and songs that I've known since I was in diapers. Now, some of you may be saying "what does this have to do with education." Well, on the same page as the video that you are watching, there are links to things such as lesson plans, worksheets, and games. These resources allows a teacher to gain ideas on how to ensure their students are comprehending the information. The lesson plans allow the teacher to form a lesson based on the story. It has questions and discussions, the moral and theme of the story, and tells about the adapation of the story that they are using.
Not only are there these stories, there are songs. They take songs that every child knows or will soon know and put them into a video. They sometimes have successfull artists come play the music. For instance, Nick Cannon does Old MacDonald. They also have a whole section on Arthur. There is much to like about this. I even found myself spending almost an hour watching the videos and coloring the pictures (yes, there's coloring too!). It is an awesome, FREE online tool for teachers and moms at home.
Not only are there these stories, there are songs. They take songs that every child knows or will soon know and put them into a video. They sometimes have successfull artists come play the music. For instance, Nick Cannon does Old MacDonald. They also have a whole section on Arthur. There is much to like about this. I even found myself spending almost an hour watching the videos and coloring the pictures (yes, there's coloring too!). It is an awesome, FREE online tool for teachers and moms at home.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
School Circuit
I was browsing technology blogs today and on the technology tidbits blog I came across an awesome, free tool for teachers called School Circuit. This website allows you to post assignments, grades, comments, discussions, and upcoming events for you, your student, and your student's parents to see. I'll go over the basics of everything now:
You, as the teacher, create the classes that you have and everything is organized by class. Within that class, you are able to add all of your students' names and ID, if applicable. Being able to list all of your students' names allows you to do two primary things:
1) Take attendance- Not only are you able to take attendance for your own records, but parents are able to log onto the website and see if their child was present, absent, and even tardy. They can also see if their child was excused when he or she should have been.
2) Post grades- You can post the grades of each student on particular assignments. This way, a student will not be able to hide his or her bad grade from parents. Chances are, if you are fast enough at posting it and the parent is diligently checking it, the parent may know before the student even comes home.
You are also able to post assignments for your students. These assignments can range from homework and projects to quizzes and even tests. You can include the assignment details, that way a student may refer to it to clarify a question he or she may have. It also includes a dropbox for students to submit their assignment online. This could be extremely useful if a student is out of class on an assignment due date. It also allows you to annotate if the assignment was turned in on time, late, or not turned it. If you teach the same subject multiple times a day, you can choose which classes to post the assignment to. That way, you don't do the same thing over again.
The last thing that I'll talk about is the calendar. The teacher can post upcoming events such as exams, papers, and field trips. On the class's main page, it will appear when the event is upcoming. It is a great way to remind students as well as parents of what events are coming up.
I think this tool is extremely handy in keeping things organized for teachers and also for holding students accountable to parents. It is impossible for a student to hide things from their parents when their parents are getting information directly from the teacher. It also keeps the teacher accountable because everything that is posted is being scrutinized by concerned parents. I would recommend this to any teacher.
You, as the teacher, create the classes that you have and everything is organized by class. Within that class, you are able to add all of your students' names and ID, if applicable. Being able to list all of your students' names allows you to do two primary things:
1) Take attendance- Not only are you able to take attendance for your own records, but parents are able to log onto the website and see if their child was present, absent, and even tardy. They can also see if their child was excused when he or she should have been.
2) Post grades- You can post the grades of each student on particular assignments. This way, a student will not be able to hide his or her bad grade from parents. Chances are, if you are fast enough at posting it and the parent is diligently checking it, the parent may know before the student even comes home.
You are also able to post assignments for your students. These assignments can range from homework and projects to quizzes and even tests. You can include the assignment details, that way a student may refer to it to clarify a question he or she may have. It also includes a dropbox for students to submit their assignment online. This could be extremely useful if a student is out of class on an assignment due date. It also allows you to annotate if the assignment was turned in on time, late, or not turned it. If you teach the same subject multiple times a day, you can choose which classes to post the assignment to. That way, you don't do the same thing over again.
The last thing that I'll talk about is the calendar. The teacher can post upcoming events such as exams, papers, and field trips. On the class's main page, it will appear when the event is upcoming. It is a great way to remind students as well as parents of what events are coming up.
I think this tool is extremely handy in keeping things organized for teachers and also for holding students accountable to parents. It is impossible for a student to hide things from their parents when their parents are getting information directly from the teacher. It also keeps the teacher accountable because everything that is posted is being scrutinized by concerned parents. I would recommend this to any teacher.
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