Emaze....Another Interesting "Powerpoint" Online tool

  If you have students looking to do a presentation and want to do something a little more lively than powerpoint, you might want to try Emaze or have the students try it. It looks pretty simple to use and it does make nice presentations. The few that I viewed took awhile to load, so I am not sure if that is typical or was just slow internet on my end. Either way, it looks promising. Give it a try!

Emaze click here!

Geography Games Galore!

Thank you to Larry Ferlazzo and his blog site Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day, here is a list of great Geography games. I have tried some of these and others look fun to try as well. Over the summer, give these a try if you teach social studies or geography.

Geography Games list by Larry Ferlazzo

Wallwisher is Now Padlet and It Is Still Great!

First of all, Wallwisher has just recently been named Padlet. If you try going to Wallwisher via wallwisher.com, however, you will still get there for now. I used Wallwisher for 2 or 3 years with an 8th grade project, but it had some bugs to it and wasn't always perfect. Apparently this was the case for many. But over the last year, they have made several upgrades and now the site is being highly recommended again. I love the site for a way for students to post questions or comments. I also love it for students to make their own 'wall of learning' about a topic or subject. They can add videos, pictures, comments, etc. about their learning. They can then share their wall with a family member, a teacher, or other students. They can even comment on other students' walls. This could end up being a form of social learning. Lots of options. If you need help trying to use it in your class, let me know. I was once a "pro" at Wallwisher and could probably give you some tips. Have fun!

Wallwisher or Padlet, click here!


I took 3 minutes and made a quick sample wall about Bullying. Notice that I was able to add videos, upload a powerpoint that I had made previously, or simply comment. I could then share this wall with other students and parents and they could post their thoughts and questions to my wall and we could interact.

Created with Wallwisher

BrainyBox: Cube Review, Presentation, Whatever you Want it to Be!

  I used a site like BrainyBox a few years back and students loved it. But it didn't always work very well. I am hoping technology has improved and this site works much better. I made a basic cube and am going to attempt to embed it below and link to it, so you can see what you think. I did not try to add any images or video, but if it supports that pretty well, the possibilities of this site are endless. It is in Beta testing, so I can't guarantee the stableness of the site, but for now, it was pretty cool to use and could be used for review, new knowledge, note-taking, or just for students to show their true learning on a topic or book. Give it a try...I created the one you see below in 4 minutes!

BrainyBox homepage click here!

My BrainyBox attempt click here!

And I embedded it below and it looks pretty cool!

Go Social Studies Go Website!

If you teach Middle School Social Studies, this site is for you. High school teachers could use it to, but this site is built for middle school teachers and kids. It gives you lots and lots of history topics in shorter bits than a huge textbook and adds in a few fun and goofy tidbits to keep the kids reading about these key events in history. You might read them to add to your knowledge and instruction or maybe just have the kids read and review them and report to other kids. Lots of possibilities!

Go Social Studies Go! click here!

Larry Ferlazzo's Best of 2012 Blog Post Has Arrived!

Many educators and online blog readers anxiously await Larry's Best of 2012 blog post at the end of the year so they can bookmark it and take advantage of the many resources he has posted in one place. Well, the blog post is out and I have linked it to this blog post. I would suggest clicking on it and bookmarking it on your computer as you will find yourself looking at it throughout 2013 even as Larry starts his 2013 lists. Thank you Larry for this great list of resources, I know it helps many!

Best of 2012 resource list from Larry Ferlazzo click here!

Google Maps for Educators: A Resource

One last resource tonight from Richard Byrne and his great blog Free Technology for Teachers. Please visit his blog or at least bookmark it as he blogs daily and always has some great resources. This time, he has a powerpoint explaining how you could use Google Maps in your class and how the students can use it as well. If you have students do anything with maps, this is a must-see resource. Give it a look and see how you can start using it in your class this year.

Richard Byrne Google Maps for Educators click here!

Living Wage Calculator

  This may be mostly for me, but I really liked how simple this website was and the basic information it gave. It will be useful in Life Skills when we talk about salary and how much you need to survive. It shows you county by county how much minimum wage is, how much the poverty wages are, and how much the average careers in that area make. Then it goes on to show how much you need each month to pay the different category of bills (rent, childcare, food, etc.) depending on how many kids you have or need to support. Very good website, definitely one I will use in my class.

Living Wage Calculator click here!

Manifest Destiny Interactive Site

Thanks to Richard Byrne and his blog site Free Technology for Teachers, this site looks pretty interesting and pretty useful. I have not tested it out, but if you are studying anything about the beginning of our country's history and how we got to our present day state and alignment, this site might be pretty useful and interesting for both you and our students. You can look at what our country looked like at any point in our country's history and see what happened to have us take that certain territory. Give it a try!

Manifest Destiny blog post by Richard Byrne click here

Trading Cards for Historical or Fictional Characters

I love ideas like this! Next time you are studying something in history, social studies, or even reading a book in literacy, have the students make a trading card of one of the historical figures or book characters. To make the cards, you would have to know lots about your person and the student would have to research the person more to add details to the card. Similar to the fake Facebook page for a historical person, but a little simpler. Would be fun to see what the students come up with. Give it a try or have some students do it for an extra credit option. Good luck!

Trading Cards of historical figures click here!

(Oh, you could do it for famous scientists too!)

Several Good Timeline Creation Sites

Thanks again to Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers for giving a quick and easy list of Timeline creation sites and a brief review of why they are some of the best. No matter what you teach, you can have students make timelines to better help understand a concept or idea and how it came to be. Using online timelines allows the students to research as they go and to gain more computer and technology skills. You may want to test a few of these out to see which would be best for your class, but if you are considering any sort of timeline project, consider using one of these or using one of these as a way to make a class timeline or allow some students to extend their learning by doing one of these online timelines.

6 great timeline creation sites click here!

Common Craft Video: Electoral College

If you are teaching anything about the election in the next week or two, you might consider using this quick Common Craft video about the Electoral College. I love Common Craft videos and have used them in my class when it comes to Biztown as they have some great ones on money, finance, the economy. This one is specifically about the Electoral College and how it determines our presidential election outcome. Hopefully you can find 4-5 minutes in the next 2 weeks to show this video if you are talking and teaching about the election.

Common Craft: Electoral College click here!

Crash Course History: Good Supplemental History Lesson Site

Crash Course History isn't going to teach students everything they need to know about a certain topic from history, but it is a good site to reference to students so they can learn about a topic in a different way or extend their learning beyond class. Might also be a good short video to supplement a class lesson. The videos are engaging with a lot going on with lots of extra information. And more and more are being added all the time, so you can keep checking back to see if they have added a topic that you are currently teaching about. I think the best use for this site would be for students to watch and use these videos on their own time in order to add to their classroom learning.

Click here to see all of the videos offered by Crash Course History

Possible Election Games Site

 As we get closer and closer to the election and as the debates start up, students may become more and more interested in the election. A site called "Play the Election" has a variety of activities and games that students may like and may learn more about the election, electoral college, and how the whole process works. If you teach social studies or civics and you are thinking about doing some lessons on the election, give this website a try and see if will work for your class.

Play the Election website click here! (Free Technology for Teachers blog site link....great blog if you are not following it yet!)

Some Neat "Make Your Own News" Sites to Try

 One of these sites I just heard about and haven't tried yet, but it sounds really easy and something that kids could really learn from. The other is one I heard about in the Spring, tried it, and loved it. Both could be very good tools to use in school, especially in social studies or science where you might be studying a topic in the news. Here are the sites:

Link TV: Know the News: This site has an interesting idea for students to try. Students can find a topic currently in the news and search for clips of it at various news services and see how similar or different the reports are. They can take each clip and cut/paste them back to back to play a string of news stories about the same idea. Or students can simply make their own newscast by cutting and pasting stories from all over the world by different news media. Either way, students will be working with the news and seeing how it gets reported. Might be a good way to talk about bias, sources, and the power of media in general.

Jack the News is a very cool and fun site. I have to admit that I have played around with it several times, one time even recreating the Des Moines Register online news to show only my family's latest news. I even added my family's picture to the front page picture! But, you can use it for education too by having students re-make a website about a topic, the current news, or their book they are reading. The possibilities are endless. And it is fairly easy to use as well. Give it a try!

Add Test Review to Your Class Blog...Amazing Ideas!

Wow, I love a couple of these ideas! Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers blog had a guest blogger, Dan Klumper, a 6th grade social studies teacher, post some wonderful ideas. I wish I taught high school science again and could do a couple reviews like his "Silent Video Review". At our middle school, I could see tons of courses/teachers take advantage of it. You don't have to have a class blog to do the idea, but it would be helpful as you could just embed the video to your blog. The 2nd idea is one that I have thought about doing for my counseling/life skills class sometime. Have a designated date/time for online chat/forum in the evening. Parents, students, whoever could join. I also think the Wallwisher idea (Especially since WallWisher has now been updated and many of the bugs from the past year or two fixed) would be super for any class/class review. Either way, please click on Richard Byrne's blog entry and click on the ideas, especially the first one. These are definitely ideas we could use and the students would really benefit from. (If you have an IPad....the first idea is even easier as you can video and upload in a matter of minutes!)

Ideas on how to Use Your Blog for Review Purposes by Richard Byrne (written by guest blogger Dan Klumper)

Two Great "Best Of" Lists from Larry Ferlazzo

  I have shared one of these lists before, but it is always good this time of the year. The 2nd list is a new list based on our current on-going drought, something that is talked about daily here in Iowa. If you are looking for a current event that will get the kids talking, learning, and sharing outside of our school, the drought might be a good topic to start the year with. As for the other list, the Best Resources for Planning The First Day of School, I get something new from that list almost every year. The one caution I would suggest is to talk with your team about the idea you might use so that you are not all using the same idea. And they don't all have to occur on the first day I have learned as well. Lots of great ideas to try at some point. Enjoy the lists and thank you to Larry Ferlazzo and his Websites of the Day blog

Best Resources to learn about our current Drought

Best resources to plan for the first day of school

TIME's 20 Most Influential Americans

Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo and his blog "Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day", I learned of a recent online interactive from TIME magazine about their ranking of the top 20 most influential Americans of all time. This list might be a good way to start a history or social studies class this year. To get students linked and hooked on history for the year, you could have them view the list, debate the list, re-write the list, or even argue for others not on the list and write their own big and persuasive essay. Either way, it will get them talking about history and debating and arguing their historical point. Great list, have fun!

TIME's top 20 most influential Americans of all time

FakeBook Adds Animate Feature and Even Easier to Use

 I'm a huge fan of the fun site called "FakeBook" as I think it would be a great way for students to show their knowledge of a historical figure or event or even their knowledge of a story or book that they have read. And now they have added an "animate" feature where a student could animate their entire creation and show how their page was created and how the events happened in order. Students knowledge of facebook should make proving their knowledge fun, easy, and applicable. And as students show off their learning, other students will enjoy their presentations. Not to mention the many already made Fakebook pages that you could browse and possibly use to better explain how an event or book unfolded. Give it a try this summer and see how you might be able to use it during the school year!

Fakebook Tool click here!

Good Blog for Social Studies Teachers

  If you teach social studies and need extra ideas and motivation, you need to add this blog! Not every post is directly related to social studies, but many are. Plus, if you look to the right hand side, there are two other blogs to follow (World History blog and Government blog). Great resource and a great way to spend your summer....a little blog reading every day and reading back through some of the best posts on this blog. Give it a read, you won't be disappointed!

U.S. History blog click here!