TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Jan 16, 2022
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
Benny Goodman: The Official Website of The King of Swing - CMG Worldwide
Grades
6 to 12
tag(s): biographies (93), black history (124), music theory (45), musical instruments (46)
In the Classroom
Introduce your students to Benny Goodman using the information found on this website. The site does not include recordings of Benny Goodman, find those on YouTube at Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, concert Carnegie Hall 1934, reviewed here, or on Spotify at Benny Goodman. Engage students in learning about Benny Goodman using Padlet, reviewed here, to share and organize resources. On Padlet create columns with links to books and articles, videos, audio recordings, and interviews for students to explore. Have students experiment with music using Chrome Music Maker, reviewed here. Select the Song Maker, then change the instrument type to woodwind and start creating! Enhance student learning by asking them to research and share information on favorite musicians or different types of instruments. Use Genially, reviewed here, to create interactive presentations and images that include links to audio and videos related to their topic.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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20th Century America (1900-1945) Resources - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): 20th century (59), great depression (28), holocaust (41), immigration (64), japanese (47), segregation (18), stock market (9), world war 1 (72), world war 2 (149)
In the Classroom
Find resources to educate yourself and your students about various topics related to American history during the years of 1900-1945. This collection includes lesson plans and interactives too. Share these resources with your colleagues and families.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Ken Burns in the Classroom - PBS Learning Media
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): 1700s (36), 1800s (72), 1900s (73), 20th century (59), authors (103), blues (22), civil rights (194), civil war (134), history day (40), industrial revolution (20), jazz (17), sports (77), vietnam (35), westward expansion (38), womens suffrage (44)
In the Classroom
Use this resource as a starting point to find many primary sources and videos of historical importance. Take advantage of the lesson ideas and activities to include with your current lessons and activities. Engage students in learning by asking them to watch videos and browse through images before teaching your lesson. Ask them to post their thoughts and questions on Google Jamboard, reviewed here, to help guide the focus of your lesson. Extend learning and help students visualize the order of events by creating a digital timeline using Knights' Lab Timeline JS, reviewed here. Add media from online sites to your timeline from YouTube, Vimeo, Google Maps, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Carnegie Hall - Education - Carnegie Hall
Grades
K to 12tag(s): black history (124), cross cultural understanding (157), cultures (132), music theory (45), musical instruments (46)
In the Classroom
Use the Carnegie Hall free resources to provide music education to students as part of your music education curriculum or within your role as a classroom teacher. For example, as part of social studies lessons about countries worldwide, be sure to see the activity for learning about countries through song. Many resources feature videos; engage and enhance instruction by adding questions and comments to videos using MoocNote, reviewed here. If your district blocks YouTube, flip your classroom and have students watch the MoocNote/Youtube videos at home. Include activities as part of a larger learning unit that includes online information, quizzes, and additional videos using a learning delivery platform such as Curipod, reviewed here. Curipod provides simple to use tools that make it easy to share a variety of resources with students and differentiate instruction.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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American Experience - PBS
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): 1800s (72), 1900s (73), blues (22), civil rights (194), great depression (28), heroes (22), jazz (17), medicine (55), presidents (121), weather (164), womens suffrage (44)
In the Classroom
The films, videos, and articles provided on this site offer many opportunities to include primary sources within any American or world history unit. Bookmark this site to share first-hand information on world events with your students. Enhance learning by asking students to create video timelines using Timelinely, reviewed here, that includes maps, videos, and links to relevant information as a way to understand the complete picture of world events. For students who enjoy drama or journalism, ask them to produce podcasts using Buzzsprout, reviewed here. Use podcasts for students to role-play events throughout history as told from a variety of perspectives.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Perfect Blues:1920s, 30s and 40s Vintage Blues; Duke Ellington; Leadbelly (Past Perfect) - Past Perfect Vintage Music
Grades
K to 12tag(s): 1920s (7), 1930s (20), 1940s (14), 1950s (9), blues (22), harlem (8), jazz (17)
In the Classroom
Play musical selections for students to talk about musical elements and styles in music class. Scroll down the page to find links to other Past Perfect sites, or use the search bar and type in Past Perfect Vintage Music to get only that selection. Have partners explore the sites to find examples of different rhythms or styles they prefer. Enhance learning by having a class Padlet, reviewed here, where students share their favorites and listen to others' favorites. In social studies or history classes, use this Perfect Blues music as an introduction to any unit of study from the 1920s - 1950s in your classroom. Share with students for use in multimedia presentations (with proper attribution, of course). Try sharing this resource with students when they are creating podcasts, slideshows, and other media projects. Make sure students realize that "royalty-free" does not dismiss the need to give proper credit for their source!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Open Learning Initiative - Carnegie Mellon University
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): chinese (44), classroom management (128), design (82), engineering (119), french (74), logic (164), OER (43), Online Learning (40), probability (96), psychology (67), statistics (114), STEM (263)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of content in courses to supplement your current lessons. No registration is required to access and view course information. Share this site with gifted students or students with interests in specific academic areas not covered in your current curriculum. Create a course and offer it to your students for greater interaction and learning through community building. Find great ideas from other existing courses. Teachers of gifted can use courses to challenge students in their areas of interest. You can also have gifted students create or collaborate on a student-made "course." Explore the topics for some new, engaging topics to round out your own expertise. Allow students to enroll in a course that would fit into their career goals as an exploratory opportunity in that field. The Open Learning Initiative would also be perfect for setting up directions and steps for any projects you require students to do for your class. The program will integrate with some learning management systems.Edge Features:
Includes an education-only area for teachers and students
Parent permission advised before posting student work created using this tool
Premium version (not free) includes additional features or storage
Products can be shared by URL
Multiple users can collaborate on the same project
Includes teacher tools for registering and/or monitoring students
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Take Me Back To - takemeback.to
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): 1900s (73), 1910s (7), 1920s (15), 1930s (20), 1940s (14), 1950s (9), 1960s (27), 1970s (10), 1980s (7), 20th century (59), decades (7), timelines (50)
In the Classroom
Build context around historic dates using details of pop culture, magazines, and more. Have students search for their birthdate and write about significant events on that date. Use an online tool such as Interactive Two Circle Venn Diagram, reviewed here, to create a visual comparison of two different dates or of a past date with today. Ask students to generate questions about an important date, such as Pearl Harbor day, and use cultural details to generate a "snapshot" of what life was like before the world changed. What can you tell from the information shared here? How do you know? Challenge your students to use a site such as Timeline Infographic Templates, reviewed here, to create timelines of events in the 1900's.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Drop Me Off in Harlem - Artsedge
Grades
6 to 12One of the nice things about this site is the easy access to the section they call "Classroom Activities." Scroll down to the bottom of any page to find it. Here they provide activities for grades 6-8 and 9-12 that are specific to grade level as well as links to lesson plans if you choose to use those. Under A Place Called Harlem, you will find the Media Player which still requires Flash, however there is so much information on this site that the media player will hardly be missed.
tag(s): 1910s (7), 1920s (15), 1930s (20), dance (26), harlem (8)
In the Classroom
Because of the sheer variety of links offered, this is an ideal lesson to spread among a class. As a culminating activity have a "Harlem Day" where students present their information. They might dress and speak as the person they studied; they might present music, poetry, or art from that time, or even create a Harlem "nightclub" to share their information.Why not extend student learning and have them create video clips using Adobe Creative Cloud Express Video Maker, reviewed here, to share on your interactive whiteboard or projector via TeacherTube, reviewed here. Other project ideas could be a blog using Edublogs, reviewed here, written from the perspective of someone living in Harlem during the great depression, or a wiki written between one of the famous artists and the president at the time (Herbert Hoover, for example). A good wiki tool to use is PBWorks, reviewed here.
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Prohibition and Temperance - OSU Department of History
Grades
9 to 12tag(s): 1920s (7), 1930s (20), drugs and alcohol (27)
In the Classroom
This site is best used as a supplementary set of resources for further exploration. Teachers might use some of the contemporary illustrations or narratives to expand understanding, or students working on an independent project might find the resources helpful. You could use TrackStar, reviewed here, to design a brief web scavenger hunt within the site to engage students and introduce the topic in a new way.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Jazz in America - Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): africa (137), african american (110), blues (22), harlem (8), jazz (17)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of the free lesson plans offered on this site! The lesson plans are meant to be taught in American history classes, so search and see how this site can benefit your classroom. Make sure and save this one as a favorite to allow for easy retrieval later on.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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National Museum of American History - Jazz - Smithonian Institution
Grades
2 to 12tag(s): africa (137), african american (110), harlem (8), jazz (17)
In the Classroom
Use the audio on this site to supplement a lecture or class discussion about the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz era. Click Education from the left menu then use the next menu on the left to allow students to explore an area of interest. Enhance learning by having students use Flip, reviewed here, to share what they learned and comment on their peers' contributions.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Interactive: Roots of Jazz - PBS
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): jazz (17)
In the Classroom
This site would be a great addition to a US history class studying the Harlem Renaissance. The site could be used for the lesson plans OR as a learning center in your classroom. If using the site as a learning center, we recommend creating a graphic organizer to accompany it for students to take notes on each section. For help creating a graphic organizer, we recommend using Graphic Organizer Maker, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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