Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Sites for Social Studies Teachers
Thanks again to Richard Byrne and his Free Technology for Teachers, here is a list of 12 sites every social studies teacher should know about. If you don't follow Byrne's blog, you need to. If you don't read blogs or follow blogs at all, then start with his and go from there. This blog entry is just one example of the many helpful resources he has found and shared with everyone else. If you teach social studies, give this list a review over break and try a few of them and see how you might use them in your class. Happy Holidays!
ZooBurst Making Some "Best" Lists
Catching up on some blog reading and research, I have found that ZooBurst has made some people's "Best of 2010" lists. I took a quick look to see what it was all about and did find it interesting and fun. I did not try to make my own pop-up book, but it appears to be fairly easy. The downside is how you would use it in class and have upwards of 150 students make a pop-up book. I could see students making pop-up books to explain science or social studies to a younger student. We did similar things at the high school level where students made little kid books for elementary kids and explained science content to them along the way. I think you could do this or even re-create/summarize a book from reading class. The question is how to do all this easily and for free. Students might have to register for the site using an email so they can store their own pop-up book. Other than that, this site looks pretty fun and right up middle school kids' alleys. Give it a look and make sure to view a book or two already made in their gallery.
NY Times Maps Census County By County, City by City
One quick note however, this does not apparently use the 2010 Census data, but a combination of census data from 2005-2009. But I realize some social studies classes may be talking about the 2010 Census data and trying to help students understand how a census can be important and provide key information, so I figured this site might get the students exploring. I put in Carlisle's zipcode and was able to see some interesting things about Carlisle. When comparing to Des Moines or New York City, I could see ideas such as diversity, population density, and education jump out at me. Fun site to explore a little and possibly useful in class as well. Have fun!
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Best of 2010 By Subject
As always, a huge Thank you to Larry Ferlazzo and his Websites of the Day. As 2010 winds down, he has published blog entries that are basically one-stop shopping for certain subjects. Want some good tools or websites for teaching science and science activities? Got it. Looking for more health resources? Yep, it's here too. I will post the links to his blog entries by subjects below. Use what you can and make sure to follow Larry and his blog as it always has some great stuff and updates daily, many times multiple times a day! As more pop up, I will edit this entry and post the new ones.
2010....A Year in Review
Well, the end of the year is here and thanks to Larry Ferlazzo and his Websites of the Day, here is a blog entry of his that puts several "2010 Year in Review" websites in one source. One reason I am posting it is simple: I need to print some of these for my time capsule for Quinn who was born in 2010. But I also know that some teachers like to use these type of year in review sites for different purposes. Whatever the reason, read and enjoy! Also, check out Larry Ferlazzo's blog, an award-winning blog that I follow daily!
IPhone App....I Wonder How We Could Get This in our School?
Maybe the coolest educational app ever and can you imagine how useful it could be in schools? Instead of typing and talking about it, just watch the video. Could we get an Iphone to some of our students? How long until it becomes and IPad App and could we get that? Interesting....
100 Best Youtube Videos....for a Teacher
Thanks to Dave the "Educational Technology Guy" and his blog, I can now pass along the top 100 Youtube videos for teachers or classrooms. This site breaks them down by topics like history, science, and the arts. There are also videos for technology, classroom management, and just plain humorous videos. With our laptops allowing Youtube, there might be some videos on here that you can use to further educate yourself or that you can show to your students. Give the website a try, likely some good stuff in there!
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