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OK2Ask: 3 Cool Tools for Social Studies - TeachersFirst
Grades
5 to 12Explore, compare,...more
Explore, compare, and contrast three different online tools designed to engage students in grades 5 - 12 in meaningful civics and historical learning. Participants will learn about the features of these three free tools and then explore ways to use them in upper elementary through high school classrooms. Pairing these tools with pedagogically sound instructional strategies will provide a foundation on which to build critical thinking skills. Participants will: 1. Understand how the use of simulations and primary sources can convey difficult material in a way that's interesting and accessible; 2. Explore three free educational tools to support social studies instruction in grades 5-12; and 3. Plan for the use of one of the three tools in the educational setting. This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.
In the Classroom
The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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OK2Ask: Increase Student Achievement and Engagement in Your Classroom with Simulations - TeachersFirst
Grades
1 to 12The authentic nature...more
The authentic nature of simulations can be highly motivating for even your hardest to reach students. When used properly, instructional simulations can empower student learning, helping students to set goals, seek feedback, and demonstrate what they have learned. Learn to choose simulations that model the relationships between concepts studied. In this session, we will discuss how to best use simulations in the classroom to increase student achievement, allow students to reflect on what they have learned, and transfer their knowledge to new problems and situations. As a result of this session, teachers will: 1. Understand the value of using simulations in the classroom; 2. Explore instructional simulations; and 3. Plan for the use of simulations in the instructional setting. This session is appropriate for teachers at all technology levels.
In the Classroom
The archive of this teacher-friendly, hands-on webinar will empower and inspire you to use learning technology in the classroom and for professional productivity. As appropriate, specific classroom examples and ideas have been shared. View the session with a few of your teaching colleagues to find and share new ideas. Find additional information and links to tools at the session resource page. Learn more about OK2Ask and upcoming sessions here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Old Maps Online - Klokan Technologies GmbH
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
Bookmark this site to use as a reference during any number of social studies lessons. Use the maps available from this website to provide information for settings found in literature. Ask students to compare and contrast old maps with current maps to include with a digital storytelling project created with Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here. Have students create flyers in Adobe Express representing information from the past and then include them and other visuals to create a visual essay using the video creation tool within Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Once Upon a Roof - Virtual Museum of Canada/ Societe d'histoire du Lac-Saint-Jea
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
Include this resource during an elementary social studies unit on homes (Homes in the New World). The Prozone includes Teacher materials for Canadian elementary social studies lessons. Include it during an Art or drafting lesson on home design. If you teach about career explorations, this site would be of interest to budding architects and builders from elementary on up. Have students draw or annotate an image of a home, complete with architectural terms, and explain why it fits the location where it is built. In upper level classes, compare the homes found on this site with newer, green designs. Have physics or science students annotate a home image to show the forces upon it and the underlying structures used to keep the home standing. Share the images in a "home show" on your class wiki!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Open Course Library - Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
Grades
10 to 12In the Classroom
Use these excellent free course materials in a variety of ways. Share courses with students with specific career interests not covered by traditional curriculums such as aerospace or anthropology. Provide students the opportunity to participate in college-level learning experiences without risk by using materials found in the courses on the site. These courses are perfect for use with gifted students to offer them content at a level that challenges them. As students learn from the information found in the courses on this site, ask them to reflect and share their learning through a digital portfolio created with Pathbrite, reviewed here. Students can even include their digital portfolio as part of their college application process at many universities.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Open-Ended Social Studies - Thomas Kenning
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
This site is an excellent addition to any middle or high school social studies curriculum. Bookmark this site to include with your other lesson resources. Use individual lessons to supplement your lessons through a new viewpoint since many of the tasks encourage students to think of history through the eyes of a traveler. Each lesson begins with a series of focus questions to keep in mind throughout the article. Engage students in learning and provide support for focusing on important information using Read Ahead, reviewed here. This handy tool lets you transform any text into a guided reading activity that highlights critical components of the text. As students collaborate on learning activities, enhance learning by using Notejoy, reviewed here, as a collaborative note-taking tool. Ask students to add the preview questions listed before the lesson and any other focus points, then share ideas and responses in Notejoy throughout the reading and discussions of the content. As a final learning extension, ask students to use Open-Ended Social Studies as a model for telling history through the eyes of a storyteller or from the perspective of one location. Use Vizzio, reviewed here, to create interactive timelines using animated maps. Include text descriptions, images, and videos as part of your interactive timelines.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Panama - Country Studies - Library of Congress
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Teachers will find these summaries useful for their comprehensive scope, which frequently includes historical and cultural background information. Much of the content is 5 or more years old, so these pages are best used for historical or background information.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Paraguay - Country Studies - Library of Congress
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Teachers will find these summaries useful for their comprehensive scope, which frequently includes historical and cultural background information. Much of the content is 5 or more years old, so these pages are best used for historical or background information.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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PBS Newshour Classroom - PBS NewsHour Productions LLC
Grades
7 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Watch the news together on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Allow students to watch independently on laptops or at a learning station. Use any video or article as a current events writing prompt. Challenge students to create blog posts about them. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, replace pen and paper and have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Webnode, reviewed here. Don't forget the many free lesson plans (already aligned to Common Core standards). Click on the Lesson Plans link to explore the countless topics available (Poetry, Veterans, Elections, Ebola, Civil Rights, and more). For articles and videos about conflicts and tension, extend student learning by having your students engage in a debate using a tool such as Virtual Debate, reviewed here, which has online examples and resources for conducting virtual debates. Keep your class up-to-date on the news using this site. Provide this link on your class website for students (and families) to access both in and out of your classroom.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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PBS World Explorers - PBS Learning Media
Grades
4 to 8In the Classroom
Videos are perfect for use on an interactive whiteboard, with a projector, or create a link on classroom computers for students to view on their own. Since the videos are only four to six minutes long, students could research the era of the explorer to see what else was happening in the world and create an infographic using Snappa, reviewed here to share their findings. Have students create online movie posters to advertise the video they watched (individually, as partners, in small groups, or together as a class) using a tool such as Web Poster Wizard, reviewed here, or PicLits, reviewed here. Have students create maps using Zeemaps, reviewed here, sharing each explorer's route. Zeemaps allows students to create audio recordings AND choose various locations on a map where the routes are.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Peru - Country Studies - Library of Congress
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Teachers will find these summaries useful for their comprehensive scope, which frequently includes historical and cultural background information. Much of the content is 5 or more years old, so these pages are best used for historical or background information.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Peter Rabbit Fun and Games - Frederick Warne & Co.
Grades
K to 4This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Invite your students to star in their own puppet show. Each show will be unique as students make decisions about what will happen to their characters. Share the activities and stories on your projector or interactive whiteboard. Allow students to view each other's puppet shows. After reading through character descriptions, students can write their own Peter Rabbit tale, staying true to the character traits they read about on the site. Create a class book of the students stories (each student contributing 1-2 pages). Use an online tool such as Bookemon, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Picturing US History - American Social History Project at CUNY
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
The site offers several "lessons in looking." Project the site on an interactive whiteboard and use the discussion questions to guide students through a look at history. The site provides a way for you to zoom into the artwork so students can get up and personal as if they were in a museum. Use the zoom tool to assist you with your classroom discussion.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Plimoth Plantation - Plimoth Plantation
Grades
3 to 8This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Change the commercial traditions of tradition and bring on a study of history. Fascinating worlds of primary resources are at your computer! Virtual field trips, historical sleuthing, genealogy, and so much more. Challenge your students to take a closer look and decide for themselves. Debate information lines the pages of this website. Have students keep a virtual journal about what they are learning (that is new to them) from Plimoth Plantation. Use an easy virtual journaling tool such as Penzu, reviewed here. With Penzu you can add images or your own artwork as illustrations. Study history not false information. 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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Poetry and Music of the War Between the States - civilwarpoetry.org
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
Include this site with your Civil War unit resources. Have students upload a photo they have taken and add voice bubbles to explain what they learned using a tool such as Phrase.it, reviewed here. Or challenge cooperative learning groups to use one of the many other multimedia presentation TeachersFirst Edge tools found here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Polar Husky - NOMADS
Grades
1 to 12In the Classroom
Use the GoNorth! adventures to supplement a unit on Geography or Climate changes. Make sure to save the site as a favorite to allow for easy retrieval later.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Presidential Classroom - Miller Center, University of Virgina
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
If your students do Presidential biographies or projects, this is a perfect site to share. Have students explore the exhibits while doing research on presidents and historical events. Enhance student learning by having students create an annotated image including text boxes and related links using a tool such as Google Drawings, reviewed here. Google Drawings allows you to annotate an image with links to videos, text, websites, and more. Not familiar with Google Drawings? Watch an archived OK2Ask session to learn how to use: OK2Ask Google Drawings, here. Have students use Fakebook,reviewed here, to create a "fake" page similar in style to Facebook about a president.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Promethean Planet - Promethean, Inc
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Before you try any of these activities, think about how you can make the lesson more student-centered. Find ideas in TeachersFirst's Hands off, Vanna! Giving Students Control of Interactive Whiteboard Learning . Browse the site for interactive whiteboard resources to download for classroom use. Bookmark and save favorites for later use. Download any resource, then tweak it to your individual needs. Have questions about creating Promethean Flipcharts? Post your question on the technical board to receive helpful replies. If you have a SmartBoard, be sure to check out the SmartBoard lessons and resources page located here. You will need to download the ActivInspire software (free).Comments
This is the go-to site for Promethean flipchart downloads. Most files were created by teachers. The only downside is that the files are hit-or-miss. There are many gems, but you might have to browse some not-so-great files to find them.Tim, , Grades: 0 - 6
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Pulitzer Center Lesson Plans - Pulitzer Center
Grades
3 to 12In the Classroom
Use the lesson plans on the site as a resource for discussing and debating global issues. If there is no time to complete a full unit, explore resources from each topic for ideas to use in your classroom. For example, try the ideas on interviewing individuals who migrated to the United States offered in the How Did I Become the Person That I Am unit. Share this site with students interested in journalism careers as a resource for learning more about the profession and some of its members.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Quatr.us - Dr. Karen Carr
Grades
8 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Bookmark Quatr.us as a resource for history articles and "on this date" information to share with students. Instead of creating links to bookmarked sites on your class webpage or computer, use Padlet, reviewed here to create an interactive resource for students. Within your Padlet create columns to add websites, videos, or other student resources. Consider using Quatr.us along with other history sites as a resource for students to use and create a weekly or monthly podcast discussing historic events using a site like Podcast Generator, reviewed here. Instead of just learning about historic events, different time periods, or the history of a country enhance student knowledge by having individual students or groups of students use Google My Maps reviewed here to create a virtual field trip to tell the story. Enhance student learning by asking students to use a timeline creation tool like Time Graphics Timeline Maker, reviewed here, to create an interactive timeline using images, maps, and video.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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