Documentary Heaven

As you may know from previous posts, I am a big fan of documentaries.  I think these types of films are wonderful for education because of how they focus on a certain topic to convey facts and/or opinions.  They can be wonderful debate starters, eye-openers, etc.

Documentary Heaven is a portal for finding documentaries that have been posted online.  Use this site to search through subjects, or by keyword to find a film that fits your lesson.  There are over 2100 videos to search!  I found a neat science video about important astronomical discoveries, hosted by Bill Nye.  Click here to watch it!

None of the videos are hosted by the site, meaning that they may be Vimeo, YouTube, or some other video site, but they are all collected here for easy searching and viewing.  However, this does mean that if your district blocks YouTube, you will not be able to watch some of the videos.

I also want to caution you that there may be some inappropriate or controversial videos featured on the site, so make sure you check it over carefully before displaying anything to your students.

Sheppard Software - Educational games and review online

Today's site is Sheppard Software, a collection of fun online games that helps students review, learn, and progress in several subjects.  The site can be used K-12 and beyond.  They even recommend the best games and activities to use based on grade level (seen by scrolling down to the bottom of the home page). 

Some of my favorites are:
Geography - Practice at different  levels of difficulty; explore, learn, and test yourself in identifying capitals and countries for all the countries of the world.

Science (Animals) - Learn more about the food chain, and producer/consumer relationships in these fun games!

Grammar - Practice parts of speech and punctuation placement!  Or, for higher level students, check out SAT and GRE vocab!

 The site also offers free software downloads of some of their games for teachers!  Have fun and check it out!



**NOTE: I found that this site is best used with internet explorer.

Youngzine - News for kids

 

Looking for a current events site for kids?  Check out Youngzine.  Using this site, students are able to read current events articles, comment on those articles, and even submit some of their own writing  to the site.  The comments are moderated by the staff at the site, as are any submitted articles.  If you sign up as a teacher, you are even able to create a "classroom" where students use a unique code to join your class.  Once the students are associated with you, you are able to see what they commented on and all their site activity.

A unique defining feature of Youngzine is the students' ability to earn points as they use the site.  As they read articles, comment, rate, and take quizzes (yes there are even pre-made quizzes!) they earn points that go towards earning them a spot on the Hall of Fame!

The news is split up into World News, Science and Tech, Our Earth, Society and Arts, and Sports.  There is also a games section where users can read comic strips and play games (to be used if a student has finished their work). So, check out this kid-friendly, Slide-approved current events site!

My Fake Wall - A compromise?

Today's site is My Fake Wall.  I'm really excited about this site because I think it will get your students excited.  Basically, My Fake Wall is a site that imitates a Facebook wall.  There are no ties to Facebook and the "social interaction" like that of a real Facebook wall is removed.

The site can be used to create personalized Facebook walls for literary characters, historical figures, or even elements, scientists, inventors, mathematicians, and more!  Just use your imagination!  Believe me, this is more work than it sounds like.  Students who are tasked with creating a Fake Wall have to find pictures, think of the appropriate friends to add, find pictures for the friends, and then make comments and posts that would be relevant to the person and their friends.  I truly believe that this would be a worthwhile project....and one that the students would enjoy!

I spent a little time creating the beginning of a wall for one of my favorite characters: here.  Also, here are some other examples: Hermes, Ben Franklin, Cinderella.  Check it out and leave any comments telling me about any ideas you are having for how to use this with your students!

**NOTE** - This site may be blocked in your district.  If so, I would like to inform you that it was designed to be an educational site only.  There is no inappropriate content on the site.  I think that this is a great way to meet the students halfway and it would be an excellent tool to get them to analyze the important information surrounding a real or fictitious person.  To unblock the site, simply write an email to your principal, and explain that the site is educational.  They should then be able to speak to a tech and unblock the site.

Free Documentaries - Inspire Knowledge, Debate, and more.

I wanted to share today's site because I think it can be the source of fuel for a great many debates in a high school classroom.  Have your students watch one of these documentaries on Free Documentaries.org and shake them out of their "blissfully unaware" status quo.

This site offers free steaming (and promised future download capabilities) of a couple hundred documentaries.  There are several topics including history, popular culture, politics, and more.  I have previewed several of the videos and I found that I only had to watch one advertisement at the beginning.  I was unable to watch the movies in their entirety, but I assume that they are uninterrupted by ads for the rest of their duration. 

I was excited to see that well-known documentarian Michael Moore also had some of his films listed on the site, but I was unable to get them to play.  However, that does not mean that the others are of a lesser quality.  Why not use the film Santa's Workshop in your economics class to provoke discussion on cheap labor and it's moral costs.  Maybe you would use the 6-part mini series Hitler's Holocaust to give your students a chilling story of what happened during that terrible time.  Or have your health class take a look at The Tobacco Conspiracy and have a debate over business vs. general good.

What's great about documentaries, is you can use them to show first hand facts.  If you are using them to spark a debate, you can show how not all issues are black and white, or the news you hear at 7:00 each night might not be the whole truth.  Share these with your students and see what you can spark within them.

Get Your Kids Interested in Government with iCivics!

Today is the big day!  Time to vote!  In celebration of our nation's finest quality, I want to highlight a great site that will help your students understand the different branches of our government and see that the jobs of politicians are not always easy!

Check out iCivics and go to the game section where your students can be immersed in the life of a lawyer in the Supreme Court, a legislator, or even the president!  These are real eye-openers!

Mission US, a fantastic US history resource!

I have discovered that there is a wonderful new online resource to learn about the Revolutionary War.  Mission US is an free online adventure game.  You as the teacher can preview by playing through each of the chapters and then set up a class of students so your students can do the same.  You can also track your students' progress through the game!

As you play, you will see the preceding events of the  Revolutionary War in 1770 Boston from the viewpoint of young apprentice, Nat Wheeler.  You can click on your surroundings, learning about daily life, political cartoons, and vocabulary of the time.  You can also unlock a Rock Band-esque mini game where students practice playing the penny flute and songs of that era.  It is loads of fun and completely educational, your students will LOVE it!

Register for FREE and share any experiences here!

Look, Ma! I'm on a Gondola in Venice!

Actually, what you're looking at is a screen shot from a panoramic "virtual tour" from the website, Arounder.

Using Arounder, you can dive into any one of  a great selection of cities in Europe, North America, South America, and even one tour on the Moon!  Once you have found the city and view that you want to explore, enter full screen mode to really feel like you are standing outside the Louvre, or on top of the Duomo Cathedral in Milan.  It's amazing and presents wonderfully on a SMART Board!

Thanks to Tom Place for featuring this on his blog The Giga Bite.

Free Rice...Trivia Fighting Starvation

Here is a site that is doubly beneficial.  Free Rice is a site that allows students to practice questions from many areas such as English vocabulary, pre-algebra, multiplication tables, art history, chemistry symbols, geography, and foreign language.  Users are presented with one question at a time, and for each correct answer, 10 grains of rice are promised to be delivered to hungry people around the world.  How could you go wrong?  Your students get to practice their skills in the provided areas all while helping to make a charitable donation!  Get donating today!

Time Explorers....become Indiana Jones!

Yesterday, I was alerted to the existence of a website for The British Museum by Kristin Swanson, keeper of an awesome Ed. Tech blog, Teachers as Technology Trailblazers.

So, The British Museum has a section of their website dedicated to Young Explorers that is a fantastic place to find fun facts, games, pictures, and events that have to do with world history.  One of the best games, also the one that Ms. Swanson highlighted, was Time Explorer. Students are transported back to a period in time to recover precious artifacts while learning fun facts about the civilization they are visiting.  Some of the adventures include Ancient Rome, or the Mayan pyramids at Teotihuacan.  Don't forget to check out the other games, as well as the other areas of the main site!

Museum Box Creator

UPDATE JANUARY 2013:  Museum Box is no longer a free tool.  Schools must register for an account and pay for services of this site.  While still a great tool for education, teachers must now pay to use any features. :(

Real quick post today, but still a good one!  Here's a website called Clarksons Box Creator Museum Box.  Students can use this site to make their own museum box by browsing pictures, sounds, and videos.  Have students highlight an event, or person using the appropriate items.  You can also sign in (for a free account) to save your work.  Have fun!

Abby Sunderland, a teen explorer!

16 year old Abby Sunderland is on a journey of a lifetime right now.....SOLO!  She has had the dream of sailing around the world since she was 13, and she's in the process of chasing her dream right now!  Use these sites to follow her progress and ask questions.  This is an excellent example to start learning about longitude, latitude, circumnavigation, past explorers and their routes, reading maps, and more.  She is truly a brave soul and can be a great role model for your students.

Her Official Site: http://www.abbysunderland.com/
Her Blog, which is maintained right from her craft, Wild Eyes: http://soloround.blogspot.com/
 

Google Earth

Sorry, no time to make a lengthy post today.  The next stop on the tour is Google Earth.  Go to the link, download the application, and EXPLORE!

Pathways to Freedom

Travel back to the 1800's and become an eyewitness to history.  You are a Maryland slave who must make some important and life-changing decisions.

In Pathways to Freedom, have your students decide what happens next.  It's up to you to make the decisions, but remember the dangers involved.  I went through the story once and I have to say that it really stirs up feelings and makes you feel the suspense, terror, uncertainty, and hope of a runaway slave.

TweenTribune

I was alerted to this site by a Massena principal.  I am thrilled with how easy to use and kid-friendly this site is!  I took the description from the site itself because they explain it so well:

 "Engage, inform, and educate your students with TweenTribune. TweenTribune lets students interact with the news, while fulfilling requirements for language arts, computer skills, and other classes.

Customize TweenTribune for your classroom. Register your classroom with TweenTribune using the form at the right [When you click  "For Teachers"].  Then ask your students to sign up. (They’ll need to create a username and password, then select your classroom.) Once your class starts using TweenTribune, the site will automatically generate custom pages showing:

• The stories your class has commented upon
• Individual comments by each student, on his or her own page
• All comments by your students, in one report that can be sorted by students’ names, comments, or dates

And don't worry – you can moderate, edit, or delete your students’ comments before they’re published."

Basically, students can look for stories that are interesting to them or read articles you direct them to.  Then they can leave comments and have forum-like discussions with kids all over the country and even the world.  (Some classes from Australia, Canada, Japan, and Taiwan exist in this online community.)

As requested

Sorry for not posting yesterday, I was straight out!  But, I did notice that I got a request for websites having to do with the Constitution or citizenship (Thank you, by the way!).

So, here are a few sites for any grade level (one is a repeat from before, but one of the best!):

Ben's Guide to US Government - Contains lots of information and games having to do with learning about our government.

Kids in the House - Information about the House of Representatives from a kid's perspective.

Congress for Kids - Information and games about topics such as balance of power, the constitution, citizenship, and elections.

If YOU were President - A fun game from Scholastic that puts your student in the shoes of a President.


Hope this helps!  Let me know if any of these help you, or if you would like me to keep searching!

Amazing pictures

I discovered last week, from one of the Massena teachers (thank you!), that Life.com has fantastic pictures available that are reliable and free to use.  I was just playing around with it and you can see pictures from all over the world and all different time periods.  I was looking at civil war, current politics, and pop culture pictures in the same visit!

I imagine that students can use this site as a reliable source for getting pictures that they can use in PowerPoints and other projects.  All you have to do is click and hold on the picture and drag it to your desktop.  As for citing, there is a LIFE watermark on every bottom corner.  Have fun!

Ben's Guide to US Government

Sorry I missed the last day of last week, what a busy day it was!  Anyway, I have the perfect site to make up for it: Ben's Guide to US Government for kids.  This is a fantastic site for K-12 students and teachers.  Here, you can find very accurate and useful information pertaining to the inner-workings of our government.  Games and a glossary can also be discovered here.  Enjoy!

Ben's Guide to US Government