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With Liberty and Justice for All - The Henry Ford Museum
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
While the site is focused on preparing students for a visit to the Henry Ford Museum, the site provides good resources and lesson plans for the study of both the Women's Suffrage Movement and the Civil Rights Movement. The video tour of the exhibit also provides a "virtual field trip" experience.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? - PBS - Frontline
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Students are often fascinated by conspiracy theories, and the mystery of whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone or was part of a larger plot to kill the President represents one of US history's most enduring. Certainly the site will be useful in a discussion of the event itself. However, it can be used more generally as a springboard for discussion of conspiracy theories themselves. See the lesson ideas in the Teachers Guide section. What evidence do we require to decide if something is true or not? Who can be trusted to tell the story of an emotional event? Is "seeing" always "believing"? How can resolve the fact that eyewitnesses do not all have the same recollection of the event? Have your gifted and highly able students do a special project investigating conspiracy theories in history and sharing them as a role play or video for the rest of the class.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Literacy Design Collaborative - Literacy Design Collaborative
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
This site is an excellent resource for schools implementing Common Core Standards. Share this site during professional development sessions to view and learn how to use the templates and modules in the classroom. Share the videos on an interactive whiteboard and have groups discuss afterwards. View videos from the site during these sessions to understand the framework behind the templates. Download templates and modules for use in your classroom for any content or use templates as a model for creating your own templates.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Georgia Virtual Learning Shared Resources - Georgia Virtual Learning
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site as a supplemental resource for your current lessons, as a resource for students to learn about subjects not covered in their current courses, and to differentiate learning for students. For example, provide remediation to high school students by sharing the 9th or 10th-grade literature and composition courses as a review activity or enhance your British Literature unit by assigning a module that focuses specifically on 17th, 18th, or 19th-century British literature. Consider assigning different activities to groups of students to present to their peers. Ask them to use an infographic creator such as the Canva Infographic Creator, reviewed here, as a tool for sharing important information. As a final learning extension, create a digital class book using Ourboox, reviewed here, to share understanding of the content learned. Include text, images, maps, and more in the student-created books.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Highlighting Our History: Colonial Times Read-alouds PLUS for the Common Core - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 6In the Classroom
Mark this article in your Favorites and take the book suggestions with you to the library (or search for interlibrary loans) to help "fit" social studies into your read-alouds, making every minute count! Consider using them as part of a "Then and Now" or "Past and Present" focus in kindergarten or first grade, or with middle elementary students as part of a unit related to early settlements or the thirteen colonies. Be sure to look at the suggestions for connecting the read-alouds to CCSS-aligned writing prompts or for short, focused research projects to include as follow-up.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum - 2012 Seminole Tribe of Florida
Grades
2 to 10This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Explore the Seminole Tribe through the online collections and museums. Use the sources as primary and secondary to supplement other class materials. Use the Seminole Tribe to compare and contrast the native American tribes found in your area. Explore the Seminole Tribe in your unit on Civil Rights. Use this site to discover the leadership that lead to the Seminole Tribe of today. Be sure to begin your study with an anticipation guide. End your unit with a post assessment dispelling the myths in the anticipation guide.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Tesla - Master of Lightning - PBS
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Add intrigue and mystery, to your science unit on electricity, motion, or inventors as you study the life and accomplishments of Nikola Tesla. Excellent lesson plans include a concrete understanding of potential energy, mechanical energy to electrical energy. Use on an interactive white board to begin your unit or create a "Who Dunnit" with electricity or radio. Follow the structure of ideas presented to create an online "famous scientist" wiki, blog or PowerPoint to add to your class website. Use a Socratic seminar to debate which scientist should get credit for the induction motor, radio, and even the Industrial Revolution. Use the readings for older students, advanced readers, or gifted students, as they are far above the reading level of elementary and early middle school students. In language arts, writing topics could include "What a shock electricity is in my life" and "Will the true inventor of electricity please stand up?" The ideas and resources are electrifying!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Independence National Historic Park - NPS.gov
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Share this and other sections of the TeachersFirst Colonial America tour as part of your study of the colonies so students can see what these historic locations look like today.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Reading Like a Historian - Digital Inquiry Group
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark and save this site as a resource for American history lessons throughout the year. The final segment of each lesson, the "Central Historical Question," has been noted as the most important part. If you don't have time for the full lesson, incorporate the historical question into your lesson plans as part of your classroom discussion, or journal activities. Perhaps you can use it as an essential question for your unit. Challenge students to create a talking avatar using a photo or other image (legally permitted to be reproduced). The avatars can be used to explain the central historical question. Use a site such as Blabberize, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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YouTube Play: Live from the Guggenheim - Youtube Play
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Capture your students' interest in the modern world of technology. Share this video on your interactive whiteboard or projector (be sure to use full screen mode). YouTube Play can be used in a variety of classroom settings; art, music, technology, language art, drama, science, or political science.In the art classroom, explore the emerging world of creative video. Determine elements of design, technology, photography, and movement. Discover the integration of music, sound, and movement in video in many creative ways. Use the site to demonstrate how to convey a message through creative animation. Express a creative editorial on a current events or important issues that challenge our world such as over-population, fossil fuels, or pollution. Have students create innovative political campaign videos. Take your technology classes to a new level of excellence. Add a visual component to poems, prose, or narratives as an additional interpretation device. Introduce storyboarding techniques to create videos with a tool like online sticky notes that can be move around such as Webnote, reviewed here, easily share Webnote using the URL. Have your students make their own videos using a tool such as Adobe Express Video Maker, reviewed here, and then share them via TeacherTube, reviewed here.
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Adobe Education Khan + Create Activities - Adobe Education and Khan Academy
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark this excellent site to use as a resource for finding and developing lessons for both in-person and online learning. Lessons found on this site includes links to videos and articles found on the Khan Academy website, use bookmarking and collaborative resources such as Symbaloo EDU, reviewed here, or Padlet, reviewed here, to share the Khan Academy links along with other helpful resources for students. Use a word cloud tool like WordClouds, reviewed here, to motivate and encourage students to think about the topics shared at the beginning of your activities. If you prefer to use additional multimedia resources in addition to the Adobe products shared in the lessons, browse through the TeachersFirst Edge Tools, reviewed here, to find additional tools for creating videos, webpages, collaboration, and much more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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American Archive of Public Broadcasting - Library of Congress & WGBH
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark the American Archive of Public Broadcasting for use as primary source material for classroom lessons. Browse by topic or keywords to find videos to share on your interactive whiteboard or share a link on your class website for students to view at home. Enhance students' learning and have them use Fakebook, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about an important figure from America's recent past. Transform student learning by having students create timelines (with music, photos, videos, and more) using Timeline JS, reviewed here, to demonstrate what they learned from one of the radio programs, videos, or exhibits.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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World History TimeMap - TimeMaps Ltd
Grades
5 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Explore time periods together on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Find the time period you are teaching then explore pins to view more information about different civilizations during that time. Assign students different civilizations to research during a time period using TimeMaps as a starting point. Have students create their own comics to explain a civilization using comic-creation tools from this collection.Comments
Excellent interactive and visual timeline for students!! It's free!!Jackson, MD, Grades: 6 - 12
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STEM in 30 - Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Grades
5 to 10In the Classroom
For your blended or flipped classroom, share webinars on your class website for students to view at home. Replace pen and paper writing journals by writeing a blog entry that shares their learning and understanding. Use a tool like Telegra.ph, reviewed here. This blog creator requires no registration. If you are teaching younger students and looking for an easy way to integrate technology and check for understanding, challenge your students to create a blog using edublog, reviewed here. Check the site's homepage for upcoming webinars, then participate with your class. Check X (formerly Twitter) to see if your class can follow any of the presenting scientists. If you are lucky enough to live in the Washington, DC area, contact the museum to attend a live taping. After viewing a webinar, have students enhance their learning by creating a multimedia presentation using Visme, reviewed here. Visme allows you to narrate slides. Challenge students to find a photo (legally permitted to be reproduced), and then narrate the photo as if it is a news report. STEM in 30 is also a great resource for gifted students to get involved with their own challenges and pursuits.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Junior Rangers Online - National Park Service
Grades
3 to 8In the Classroom
Use the Educator's resources to find many curriculum connections and alignment to Common Core. Introduce one of the WebRangers' multimedia resources to your class on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this site as a precursor activity to an actual trip to one of the parks or as you study states and their major landmarks. Use this in science class as you study animals and habitats. Explore the landmarks in your own city or town and create multimedia presentations about them like the ones shown here. In the Teacher's Resource Guide, find the link to their Twitter account. Even if students are unable to physically visit and explore parks, use the virtual visits to learn about the National Parks around the country and offer students the opportunity to earn Junior Ranger certificates. Create a map using Google My Maps, reviewed here, and add places visited by your class throughout the school year. In addition to labeling locations, add images, videos, and student text to share information about each location.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Civil War - Tale of Two Titans - War History Online
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Use the provided embed code to insert the infographic into your class website. Have students use this as a starting point for further research on Civil War leaders. Enhance learning and use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare and contrast information. Challenge students to redefine their learning by creating Civil War timelines (with music, photos, videos, and more) using Timeline JS, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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America's Heritage: A History of Immigration - immigrationcouncil
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share this timeline on your interactive whiteboard as an introduction to your unit on immigration. You could show the history of immigration and discuss the U.S. as a nation of immigrants. Use a tool such as Thinkalong, reviewed here, for students to debate about this topic, or any hot topic. It is interesting to note that there are many more events for the most recent twenty-five years than there are for all the previous years. Use this as a starting point for students to research and find additional information to add. Have students transform their learning and create their own timelines (with music, photos, videos, and more) using Timeline JS, reviewed here.Comments
This is a comprehensive, yet kid-friendly, overview of US immigration policy in an interactive timeline. It ends with an Executive Order in November 2014. I hope the Heritage foundation continues to update this resource.Patricia, NJ, Grades: 6 - 12
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Free School - YouTube Channel - FreeSchool
Grades
K to 8This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use as a way to introduce new topics or subjects to establish background knowledge. Share these videos on your projector or interactive whiteboard to provide an introduction (or review) on various topics. If you allow students to explore on their own, take caution since they could click and go elsewhere on YouTube. Share a link to this site with parents through your classroom website or newsletter for students to view at home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Indigenous Peoples of the Americas - The Kennedy Center
Grades
K to 8In the Classroom
Print lesson plans during Native American Month, as a supplement to social studies lessons about cultures and states, or during geography lessons. Lesson plans are available in PDF format or as Google Documents; save any lesson to your Google Drive as a copy of the original document and edit it to fit your curriculum or adapt it as desired to fit current lessons. Use any or all materials found on this site as a personalized learning lesson for students to complete in person or remotely. For example, add a video, poem, and reflective activity, and additional materials to a SchoolStack, reviewed here, an activity that offers students a choice of learning materials and activities. Consider asking students to work in collaborative groups to research indigenous people based on their interests. For example, have a group explore dance, another their art and sculpture, and a group that researches geographic locations of the different tribes. Ask each group to share their learning by creating simple websites made with Telegra.ph, reviewed here. Telegra.ph provides simple website creation tools without all the distractions of backgrounds, templates, and other distractions. Easily add text, images, and links to any Telegra.ph site.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Cuban Missile Crisis - Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark this site (or save it in your favorites). Use the resources for any unit that includes the Cuban Missile Crisis, presidents, or John F. Kennedy. Watch videos on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Share a link on your class website for students to view at home. Have students use Fakebook, reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about any of the characters involved with the crisis. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to compare the point of view of the U.S. vs Cuba or to compare outcomes based on possible decisions made during the crisis.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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