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.

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.