Another Annenberg Website Full of Great Resources

*Note: Much of this blog post is dedicated to teachers who teach social studies, however, if you teach about writing arguments and analyzing data, you will find some great lessons too.


The wonderful folks at Annenberg have a wonderful website dedicated to teaching civics. There are great  and relatively short videos highlighting many topics we teach in non AP US Government and AP US Government. Beyond the videos, I particularly love the "Critical Thinking Lesson Plans" and "Critical Thinking Resources" that I am excited to use with my classes (I write more about this in a bit). The website also includes an RSS feed of news headlines that can be handy when you cover current events with your students.

When you go to the website, please check out the amazing resources listed at the bottom. I wish Annenberg would highlight these with a larger font since these resources (including interactive games, background information on controversial issues, and more cool stuff) are of high quality and made to be easy to use in your classroom. The list of lesson plans will impress any civics teacher.

To those of you who teach writing, especially argumentative writing, you should check out this fantastic lesson plan. This lesson helps students understand how to build a strong argument. As we focus more on Common Core implementation, we will need to help students learn about becoming better persuaders.

I hope you are able to use these resources to help your students.

Annenberg...Tons of Useful Teaching Resources!

I have rediscovered the great resources offered for FREE through the Annenberg Foundation. The following content areas are covered: Math, Social Studies, Science, Literature/Language Arts, Foreign Language, and professional development resources for educators.

The flier above lists some of the great items that you can use for free. I have used some of their videos to supplement lessons in my AP and LSN Government classes. Besides great videos, the site includes many written resources and lesson plans on a variety of topics within each content area.

For those of you who teach US Government, I recommend you check out the video series Democracy in Action. The videos cover much of what I teach. Because I teach many ESOL sections, I love how you can show the subtitles for each video. I highly recommend you discover their "Critical Thinking Activities", the "Primary Resources" (and reading questions), and the "Use the Videos" section.

If you try out Annenberg, let me know about your experience.

GradeCam...Grade Multiple Choice Questions Quicker!

GradeCam is something I have seen mentioned in a couple of blogs, and I want to share the resource with you. I am not going to bore you by explaining how it works (that is why I included the video explaining GradeCam). In an era where we teachers are being asked to assess students regularly, this seems like a nifty tool to make giving and analyzing assessments less time consuming.

I have not tried out GradeCam yet, however, I plan on doing so over the next few weeks. After I try out Gradecam, I will write about my experience. I am excited that you can print your own scantron sheets for FREE! I bought 200 scantron sheets this past school year and it set me back $50! I am hoping GradeCam can make assessment more efficient and less costly. 

Have you used GradeCam? If so, please share your experiences :)


Note:
- Since this post, a colleague (Mr. W.) tried it out and said it worked as advertised
- I played with it yesterday and it seemed to work well. I would need to spend some time putting my class rosters into csv format. I am going to try out GradeCam in a future formal assessment and share my experiences.

E-Books Revisited: FlatWorld Knowledge

I recently discovered a great E-book website, FlatWorld Knowledge that houses a variety of wonderfully written E-books in a variety of subjects. As a social studies teacher, I can personally attest that the AP US Government and Politics book is great...lots of modern examples with substantial information. I like how each chapter has objectives, comprehension questions, and how outside resources are hyperlinked to allow readers to learn more about topics. 

I foresee teachers using the English, mathematics, and this college success E-book. The college success E-book includes information about taking notes, reading to learn, and preparing for exams. I enjoy finding resources that explain these topics in innovative and different ways. I find that many students don't know how to read a text to gain knowledge, as well as study for exams. 

For me, E-books provide another resource to help me stay on my game. Reading the same information from the same book or website creates an echochamber that can inhibit a teacher's creativity. I often discover new ways to teach content by viewing different and new materials. I am sure that you will find that these FlatWorld Knowledge E-books will renew your teaching juices!

Common Core...We'are already doing this stuff!

Over the next few years, nearly all the states are voluntarily adopting the Common Core State Standards (or just Common Core). As a social studies teacher, it is a bit scary that my state of Maryland seems to be solely focused on Math and English content areas. According to the English Common Core standards, high school students are supposed to be able to use English to effectively communicate using persuasion and explanation--this sounds like social studies to me. Furthermore, the Common Core standards are meant to help our students become "college and career ready" through teachers assisting in the development of student higher ordering thinking skills---this sounds like social studies to me. The Common Core standards emphasize that students should become adept at research and reading primary source documents--social studies again!! 

A great video that explains Common Core

So...what is this crazy teacher trying to say? Theoretically, I wholeheartedly support high standards for all students in every state throughout the USA. What scares me is that English and Math are receiving much of the focus, while social studies, arts, music, science, and personal fitness are considered bunk. Perhaps in the future the Common Cores standards will grow to encompass these necessary content areas, however, in these trying economic times, it is difficult for schools to divvy resources to content areas that are not under strict federal, state, and local oversight. If Math and English are the only Common Core standards, then schools are going to direct their scarce money, teachers, technology, etc. to these content areas. Logically, it makes sense...if my mom only checked to see if I made my bed, but she didn't check to see if my closet was clean, I would ignore my closet and make my bed. (Honestly, I would go nuts if my closet was dirty, but saying that would hurt my argument)

The video above does a pretty good job explaining the basics of Common Core. Undergraduate and graduate education students are receiving lots of education about Common Core, while us foot soldiers are in the process of digesting the latest and greatest method to fix our education system. If you are a social studies teacher like me you should be happy that many of the skills we are teaching are part of the Common Core standards. I do hope that social studies eventually joins the prestige of English and Math, but until then I will keep teaching my students how to explain information, analyze documents/media, and persuade their classmates through their formal writing and oral presentations.

Password Creator

Whether you are a teacher or someone else who uses passwords in order to log into a website, you know the dread of making a new password. In my case, I am forced to change my school password every 90 days. Logically, I understand that it is in best interest to change my password to ward off evildoers waiting to exploit my identify. However, I dread this experience since I must follow so many rules per my school district. For instance, I cannot use a word or number sequence that I have previously used, and I must create a password at least eight characters in length. Once again, I understand the logic of these rules but realistically I despise rules like these because I struggle coming up with word and number combinations I can easily remember.

ALAS, a solution to the aforementioned problem---passcreator.com. Simply follow the simple rules and you will receive a randomly generated password that meets your needs.

HippoCampus..Free Online Multimedia Courses

For the last five years I have been using the resources on HippoCampus to assist my AP US Government and Politics students prepare for the AP exam. The site has a plethora of resources that help teach students about different topics. Each lesson includes a multimedia video, a written explanation (like a textbook), a variety of charts, images, and more to help students learn about topics. Additionally, the site includes essay and multiple choice questions to help students review what they just learned.

Many courses are offered through HippoCampus. A variety of science, math, social studies courses are offered for FREE through HippoCampus.

A word of caution. Even though I do love HippoCampus, it does not include 100% of the information my students need to know for the AP US Government and Politics exam. Nevertheless, I do like this resource to support what we are learning about and to review previous lessons from earlier in the year.

With all the great technology resources out there for, I still believe that a human teacher is the best resource to help students succeed!