I've been having some fun creating Animoto videos since receiving my free educator account last week. I'm inviting my students to join a book club next week in which we'll be reading "Guns for General Washington" by Seymour Reit. I wanted to create some excitement about joining the History Geeks for the book club so I put together this little video.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Always Remember
Always remember. The 8th grade American history students in my classroom today were only in kindergarten when this day changed our country forever. It is our duty to remember, we owe them this at the very least.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Obama Speech to Students Wordle
The text for the speech President Obama will deliver to students across America tomorrow was released tonight so I thought I would make a Worlde out of it. (Click to enlarge) What do you think?
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Podcast #199 - Students Listening to President Obama's Speech on September 8th, Your Thoughts
Hello. The topic of today's podcast is the upcoming speech President Obama will be making to the students of the United States on September 8th, 2009 (11:00 AM central time) on the Internet and C-Span. This is the first time a sitting President will specifically address students across the United States.
The White House released the following information about the topic of the speech : "The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning." Some have expressed concern over the president speaking directly to students and the amount of influence the speech could have on a group of young people.
Some thoughts as I try to wrap my head around the issue (or non-issue). Please leave a comment on this blog post. I'm very interested to see what teachers across the country are thinking about this topic.
- Does it surprise anyone else that this is the first time a sitting president has specifically addressed the students of the United States?
- At what point does a speech from a president become more "political" than "educational"?
- How is this situation different than the inauguration speech that many students watched across the country several months ago? Was that speech considered more "historic" and therefore not as controversial when aired in classrooms across the country?
- Is your school planning on showing the speech to all students, none of the students, or based on the decision of each teacher?
(Note : I just read on the Department of Education website that the length of the speech is to be 15-20 minutes. In the podcast I mentioned that I was not sure how long the speech would last.)
Podcast #198 - Resources for Teaching About the Jamestown Settlement
Hello. We begin our curriculum each year with an awesome topic - the Jamestown settlement. There are a ton of great resources to use when teaching this unit and today in the podcast I discuss six resources which I have found to be very successful in my 8th grade American history classroom. Links below provide more information to each of the resources mentioned in the podcast.
I would also enjoy hearing about what resources you use to teach about Jamestown. Please leave a comment on this blog post to share your discovery with everyone. Thanks.
History Channel's Online Jamestown Exhibit
Handout for Jamestown Leadership Activity - Handout for Graphic Organizer used in Jamestown Leadership Activity
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Podcast #197 - Brainstorming Ideas for Constitutional Convention Activity
Hello. We will be starting our unit on the Constitutional Convention in about two months and for the past two years I've had an idea that I think would work well with my students but I have yet to flesh it out. I would like to match each of my students with a delegate at the convention and then as we study about the issues and debates at the convention they would look at the issue through the eye of "their" delegate. Each student would become personally connected to that delegate during the unit.
Today's podcast discusses how this project might look in an 8th grade classroom, what resources could be used to build this activity, and (probably most importantly) does this activity already exist in some format?
After you listen to the podcast I'd love to hear what you think. If you any thoughts or suggestions please leave a comment on this blog post. Thanks.
Win "We Shall Remain" DVD Set from PBS
PBS is giving away 20 DVD sets of their recent American Experience series "We Shall Remain".
Register here for the random drawing. Hurry, you must be registered by September 1, 2009.
"We Shall Remain" is an award winning documentary series describing the Native American experience in America. I hosted the PBS blog "Media Infusion" in April 2009 and wrote about this series.
I highly recommend the series for use in the classroom and hope you register to win one of the DVD sets.
Podcast #196 - Visual Timeline Activity to Start the Year
Hello. Today I would like to describe an activity that I recently did with my 8th grade American history class and I think is a fun way to start off the school year. This past summer I attended a session at the Project Zero Classroom workshop at Harvard with Mary McFarland - a former NCSS President. She described some routines to use with students in terms of visual time lines. I really liked the idea and decided it would be a great way introduce the curriculum to my students the first full week of school.
The podcast gives an overview of the project and some tips if you would like to replicate this activity in your own classroom. I have also included the PowerPoint presentations (links below) I used to create my visuals for the activity - please use and modify to your needs. If you have any suggestions or ideas about activity please share them by posting a comment to this blog post. Thanks.
Link to Visual Timeline PowerPoint Presentation
Direct link to Podcast #196 - Visual Timeline Activity
Direct link to Podcast #196 - Visual Timeline Activity
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Podcast #195 - Project Zero Classroom 2009 at Harvard University
Hello. Today's podcast is a summary of a professional development workshop I attended this summer at Harvard University. I attended the Project Zero Classroom workshop on the campus of Harvard from July 27 to August 1, 2009. I have recently worked with the educational department of the Smithsonian and I was fortunate to be invited to attend along with staff members from the Smithsonian.
It was an excited week full of rich learning experiences. I was curious if a workshop that focused on multiple intelligences would incorporate the essence of the MI or be a standard "sit and get" like so many educational conferences. I was very impressed that Project Zero walked the talk and the organization of the entire workshop was unique and incorporated MI.
A highlight of the week was listening to Howard Gardner speak on several occasions about his MI theory and the impact his theory has had, and not had, on education in the United States and around the world. I was also thrilled to have an opportunity to speak with him individually at a reception on night later in the week. I asked him specifically about his views on the incorporation of social media and technology in education. He told me he felt it had great potential, if used correctly, to engage students who might otherwise not feel engaged by curriculum in schools. I also was able to get a quick picture with Dr. Gardner when he signed a copy of his book for me.
The podcast describes my experiences from the Project Zero Classroom workshop as I sat on the campus afternoon of the last day before I left for home. I have included a couple of pictures from the week with the blog post. Harvard is such a beautiful and historic campus (Washington was first given command of the Continental Army on the campus) and I took my share of pictures of classic buildings. I have created a Flickr set of pictures from the Harvard campus if anyone is interested.
I would love to hear from anyone else who has attended a Project Zero Classroom workshop in the past. I am letting the ideas marinate a little in my head and I'm slowly incorporating some of the concepts and routines into my teaching as a start the new school year. I would love to hear how former participants have incorporated the PZ ideas in their classroom and if they experienced any resistance due to high stakes testing, pressures from administration, etc. Please leave a comment on this blog post if you would like to share your experiences.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Podcast #194 - Tips and Suggestions for Walking Boston's Historic Freedom Trail
Hello. Today I did something that I've always wanted to do as an 8th grade teacher who starts off each school year by teaching the American Revolution - walk Boston's historic Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail is a walking tour in Boston which covers roughly 23 historic locations over the distance of around 3.5 miles. I walked the length of the trail today and then doubled back to walk much of it again. I had a great time, learned a lot, took a ton of pictures and got my exercise by walking about 6 miles - what a day.
Instead of doing a site by site review of the trail, (there are plenty of places you can go online to learn about each location, like this one) I decide to offer a few tips and suggestions from my experience today.
I have included some pictures with this blog entry but have posted even more pictures as a set on Flickr here. Please feel free to use any of these photos in your class when you teach the Revolutionary War. Also, if you have any tips or suggestions for walking the Freedom Trail please share them here so that everyone can benefit from it.
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