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Maps ETC - Florida's Educational Technology Clearinghouse
Grades
6 to 12Maps are also available in PDF format so you can download and print for classroom use. Note however, the very specific terms of the license under which these maps are available. A limit of 25 maps can be used in a single project without special permission, and a link to Florida's ETC must be included when maps are used on websites. The license is clearly spelled out and would also serve as a good exemplar to use with students to teach them how to credit the resources they find on the internet.
tag(s): maps (217)
In the Classroom
Each of the maps is available as a GIF or JPEG file to use on an interactive whiteboard (or projector), or to insert in a document or website. Use this site for nearly any historical research project. Have students make a multimedia presentation using one of the many TeachersFirst Edge tools reviewed here.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Quicklyst - Shantanu Bala
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): note taking (36), organizational skills (88)
In the Classroom
If you do not approve use of Wikipedia, you will want to state this up front to your students. Before turning your students loose with this program, use your interactive whiteboard, projector and Quicklyst to show them how to put information in their own words. Then you can have them use Quicklyst to take notes for any type of summarizing or research. Create separate accounts on Quicklyst for student research groups. Students can then easily share their notes with their group members. Create a class account, and use your interactive whiteboard and projector along with Quicklyst to have the class create a study guide for a test on any subject. These can be saved and used for notes for a final test. If there is a common class password, students will be able to access the notes from home.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Great Inventions, Great Inventors - edinformatics.com
Grades
4 to 12This site includes advertising.
tag(s): inventors and inventions (80)
In the Classroom
Find information for science and technology reports on this site. Allow students to view the dates of many of the inventions to determine what scientific principle was just known to push technological thinking. For younger students, create a timeline of inventions to enhance learning and determine the impact of science, economy, and society on inventions. Use a site such as Sutori, that can include images, text, and collaboration. Ask older students to choose an invention and research other forms of that model, alternatives before and after, and what we are using today. Discuss environmental impacts, how the invention changed society, and other impacts.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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lino - Infoteria Corporation
Grades
K to 12tag(s): bulletin boards (15), collaboration (93), collages (17), creative fluency (5), creativity (86), DAT device agnostic tool (146), gamification (80), note taking (36)
In the Classroom
Use this tool easily in your Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) classroom since all students will be able to access it for free, no matter what device they have. Students can use this when researching alone or in groups, sharing files, videos, and pictures quickly from one computer to another. Have students write tasks for each member of the group on a sticky so that everyone has a responsibility. Show them how to copy/paste URLs for sources onto notes, too. Use lino as your virtual word wall for vocabulary development. Use a lino for students to submit and share questions or comments about assignments and tasks they are working on. Use it as a virtual graffiti wall for students to make connections between their world and curriculum content, such as "I wonder what the hall monitor would say finding Lady Macbeth washing her hands in the school restroom... and what Lady M would say back." (Of course, you will want to have a PG-13 policy for student comments!) Encourage students to maintain an idea collection lino for ideas and creative inspirations they may not have used yet but do not want to "lose." They can color code and organize ideas later or send the stickies to a new project board later. In writing or art classes, use lino as a virtual writer's journal or design a notebook to collect ideas, images, and even video clips. In science classes, encourage students to keep a lino board with (classroom appropriate) questions and "aside" thoughts about science concepts being studied and to use these ideas in later projects so their creative ideas are not 'lost" before project time. A lino board can also serve as a final online "display" for students to "show what they know" as the culmination of a research project. Add videos, images, and notes in a carefully arranged display not unlike an electronic bulletin board. This is also a great tool to help you stay "personally" organized. Use this site as a resource to share information with other teachers, parents, or students.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Shmoop: Picture This - Shmoop
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): literature (221), slides (43)
In the Classroom
Give students some background knowledge before they start reading for a unit. Put the slideshow on your own site so the captions don't show. Then use your projector or interactive whiteboard to show the images to the students while they jot down what they observe and infer about each image. Once the students have finished, have a class discussion based on what they observed and what this says about the topic. Then click on "full size." This will take you to Shmoop to see what the captions say about the picture. At this point you can click on one of the orange tabs at the top to read the summary for the topic, view a timeline, etc.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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HistoryWorld - HistoryWorld
Grades
6 to 12Take caution when using the Google images search feature: the images that can be generated may not all be appropriate for classroom use.
tag(s): timelines (54)
In the Classroom
HistoryWorld is likely to be most useful as one of a set of resources to be included on your classroom favorites, for example, rather than for in-class use. Like Wikipedia and other broad encyclopedic references, it simply isn't deep enough to really provide more than a summary. This site would be a great place to get the basics of a topic or to use as a starting point for research.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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2020 Census - US Census Bureau
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): census (13), demographics (13), population (50)
In the Classroom
First, it's important for students to know that the US Constitution requires a census, and second, that the information gathered is used in a variety of important ways that affect them directly. The first data posted looks at how shifts in population density will change the way various geographic areas of the country are represented in the US government. Consider reading the Director's blog for further analysis of how census data is being used on a local, state, and national level. Of course, the data are perfect for using in math and civics classes for teaching graph reading and creation, and for providing real-life information to use in statistical analysis. A civics or sociology class might download a copy of the census form and consider what the questions tell us about how families live in the 21st century. What questions might students add to a future census form that would reflect how things are changing for their generation?Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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State of the Union Address 2011 - guardian.co.uk
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): presidents (135), speech (68), speeches (23)
In the Classroom
Share these word clouds on interactive whiteboard or projector to analyze the presidential agendas in a civics or government class. Have students make their own clouds of text from other speeches using WordClouds, reviewed here, or similar word cloud tools like WordArt, reviewed here, to add to the comparison options. During political campaigns, share this comparison and invite students to create ones of their own between different candidates. In English/language arts classes, use the word clouds to spark discussion of propaganda techniques, word choice, and effective speech techniques. Share this discussion in debate club, as well, to point out the importance of carefully crafted messages. Have students create and compare clouds of their own speech drafts while studying persuasive writing.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Gettysburg Address on PBS - Adam Gault
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): civil war (138), gettysburg (15), gettysburg address (12), lincoln (66), presidents (135)
In the Classroom
For those who are not strong readers, the audio-video combination provided here may make the concepts in the Gettysburg Address more accessible. For other students, there may be deeper, more complex questions sparked by the video. Did the creator of the video capture the concepts authored by Abraham Lincoln adequately? This video could be the "jumping off place" for a variety of questions the class might consider or project ideas for individual students. How might you do it differently? What about other well-known speeches or documents? How would you illustrate them for a similar video? Challenge students to create their own video using FlexClip, reviewed here to accompany a famous speech and share the video using a site such as SchoolTube, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Embed Plus - EmbedPlus
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
If using student created video, please check with district policy about sharing student work on the Internet. If using with students, be sure to discuss what is considered appropriate/inappropriate annotations to make on videos. These videos may not play in districts where You Tube videos are blocked. As EmbedPlus uses its own wrapper around the You Tube video, it may be viewable in your district depending upon the filter being used. Be sure to test this before using with students. Note: The "real time reactions" option pulls in and displays public comments when you click it. Use the "enhanced embed" wizard and be sure to click the checkbox that deactivates this feature. You may wish to monitor these for possible inappropriate content.Use the controls to add annotations or student thoughts to sections of the videos. Students can make these comments on their own videos or on a different groups contribution. Use this just to add playback controls that allow for greater viewing of You Tube videos. Have students find a video (or assign one) and annotate it with curriculum related discussion, criticism, vocabulary, etc. Students can then embed this product in his/her blog or a class wiki or site. Don't have one of those? Consider using WebNode, reviewed here. Make an annotated video with question prompts in annotations and embed in wiki to share with your classes. Playback using the slow motion and zoom would be a great item to show on a whiteboard or projector.
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Radio Diaries - National Public Radio
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): primary sources (116), radio (20)
In the Classroom
This is a fabulous resource for augmenting generic textbook accounts of history with primary source material. Whether we like it or not, our students are more visual than we were. Use this site on an interactive whiteboard or projector for full impact. If you teach social studies, this is a site you'll want to bookmark and visit often. English teachers will want to use the teenage diaries as inspiration for creative writing assignments, or even as a source of ideas for college admissions essays. Challenge students to create their own visual stories to the audio essays using a tool such as Voxer, reviewed here. With Voxer you can record up to a 15-minute voice message (as well as pictures and videos) to a person or group of people at any time, and those people can listen and respond when it's convenient for them.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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ccMixter - Dig - ArtisTech Media
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
A music site that is not just for musicians and music teachers! Students in all classes can use files from this site when preparing multimedia class presentations that require music or background sounds. Use this site when preparing lessons on plagiarism, copyright, and the open source software concept. Musically inclined students who enjoy this site should check out ccMixter reviewed here for more enriching types of musical interaction and collaboration!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A Class Divided - Frontline/PBS-WGBH Educational Foundation
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): black history (130), bullying (48), character education (78), civil rights (201), difficult conversations (57), diversity (39), racism (79), segregation (18), tolerance (8)
In the Classroom
Help your students understand why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and raise their awareness of discrimination and the struggle for civil rights by involving them in active viewing of A Class Divided projected on your classroom interactive whiteboard or projector. You can view the film in its entirety, or in separate chapters followed by the Discussion Questions. You may want to give students a specific task to do during the film. For example, you might ask them to listen for a particular issue or the answers to a set of questions, or take notes in preparation for one of the post-viewing activities. As a way to accomplish this and enhance learning in your classroom use playposit, reviewed here. Replay the video or pause for discussion whenever you choose with playposit for focused, in depth exploration. Depending on your students' background knowledge and grade level, you may want to review or introduce some of the basic tenets of the United States Constitution that provide the legal grounding for equality and protection of individual rights. Explain that there are examples in American history when individuals' rights were denied and that many civil rights activists were arrested for either challenging, demonstrating, or breaking rules that they thought were unfair. Pose some of the questions for written assignments and discussion. This is a perfect lesson for Black History Month! Divide the class into groups to brainstorm situations that exist today within our own communities, and how they would feel and deal with it if they were the subjects. Students can easily create mind maps, replacing paper and pen, by using free tools from Teachersfirst, such as TUZZit, reviewed here. Have students choose words from songs to explore themes of freedom and equality, using Stories Behind the Songs, reviewed here. High school students could extend this to a reading and study of the final chapter of "One America in the 21st Century," the 1998 report of President Bill Clinton's Initiative on Race, which lists 10 things that every American should do to promote racial reconciliation. Ask students to add anything they think is missing and make a commitment to continue the crusade to end discrimination.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers - Library of Congress
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): aviation (40), flight (34), inventors and inventions (80), wright brothers (16)
In the Classroom
Students doing research on the Wright brothers will find this site invaluable. Have students work in cooperative learning groups and research a specific topic found at this site. Exchange paper and pen notes by having students to take notes with an online tool like Simplenote, reviewed here. Have them share the info they learned with their small group. Tell students to be sure to save the URL to share their notes and questions. Simplenote allows you to access and update across all devices. Enhance learning by challenging students to modify their technology use and create a multimedia presentation using a tool such as Zeemaps, reviewed here. Zeemaps allows students to create audio recordings AND choose a location (on a map) where the story takes place. Alternatively, students could use Adobe Creative Cloud Express for Education, reviewed here, to enhance their learning and transform technology use by creating an interactive poster for their presentation.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Geography of Slavery in Virginia - University of Virginia
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): primary sources (116), slavery (78), virginia (15)
In the Classroom
Students will certainly gain a more concrete and visceral understanding of attitudes toward slaves when reading these advertisements. The concepts are not necessarily Virginia-specific! Use some of the "personal profiles" to help students get to know one of the runaway slaves or servants more intimately. Have students review the diary entries of slaveowners to cut through our modern interpretations of what plantation owners thought or believed. Use these primary sources to guide a frank discussion on the role of slavery in Virginia and the South prior to the Civil War. The site is also an important resource for students doing research on antebellum Virginia.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Tripline - Byron Dumbrill
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): maps (217)
In the Classroom
Suggested uses on the Tripline site are to use along with moments in history such as Paul Revere's ride and Lewis and Clark's expedition to demonstrate stops along their path. Other classroom uses would be for students to create a Tripline map of their summer vacation to use as an enhancement to a regular report, map out your favorite sports team's schedule, historic state sites, map out where characters in a novel travel around a city, state, country. and world using images to enhance the setting, and music. Registration does require an email address. Tip: rather than using your personal or work email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up Gmail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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History of Memorial Day - History Channel
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): battles (18), holidays (186), memorial day (11), veterans (27)
In the Classroom
Though you may not be able to view the videos, there also links to good content on military history, military leaders, and the various physical memorial sites that honor US military veterans.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Testmoz - testmoz.com
Grades
K to 12tag(s): quiz (66)
In the Classroom
Skills required: Be sure to remember the password for your tests, as well as the unique URL. It would be wise to copy/paste them into a document you keep somewhere for reference. Users are unable to access the tests without the URL. Be sure to not share this ahead of time. Items in Testmoz are not made public.Use where automatically graded tests are required, such as for formative assessments to check student understanding. Use as a "ticket out the door" to see what students know at the end of class. Be sure that this is the medium you want to use for testing. Be flexible with students who find it difficult to take online testing. Entering all the material ahead of time can be time consuming, so this may not be the best format for long tests. Use this quiz application to create study quizzes for review for students to complete as homework (or during class time). Have students rotate to create daily check quizzes for their peers (earning a grade for test-creation). Learning support students and others who need a little extra review might like to make quizzes to challenge each other or themselves. Have students who are preparing to give oral presentations in any subject prepare a short Testmoz for their peers to take at the end.
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Budget Simulator - Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
Grades
8 to 12tag(s): politics (117)
In the Classroom
This would make a wonderful class team competition. Consider dividing the class into groups, or even pitting different sections of the same course against each other. Encourage the students not to breeze through the choices too quickly. The site might be useful for mature younger students if they have the attention span required to make careful and reasoned choices. Another option is to complete this activity as a class on an interactive whiteboard or projector.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Timelines: Sources from History - British Library
Grades
4 to 12tag(s): europe (84), literature (221), politics (117)
In the Classroom
This site is excellent for research projects or to provide visual context to your curriculum in social studies, world cultures, world history, literature, art, or western heritage classes. Offer this set of timelines as a research source for history, social studies, and literature classes. Show students these timelines on an interactive whiteboard. Or have students research various topics on their own using this fabulous tool. Pique their interest by letting them browse to find out what else happened at the same time as events in the standard history curriculum -- then ask WHY. Challenge cooperative learning groups to create online posters displaying their findings using an online poster creator, such as Padlet (reviewed here).Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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