Teaching 7th graders reminds me how much I loved walking in to the classroom when I was in school and saw the t.v. pulled to the front of the room, MOVIE DAY!! Of course, now I just have to turn the projector on, no pushing a t.v. cart around, but the kids still instinctively know that they will not have to listen to me in class that day. I can remember watching movies and wondering, even as a student, what is the point of watching this movie? Continue reading Teaching the 5 Themes Using Movies – Location and Place
Category Archives: lesson plans
Primary source lessons aligned to the Common Core
There’s an elephant in the room. We all know it. Somebody needs to say something. So . . . here goes.
School starts soon. There. I said it.
For a lot of you, you’re just a few weeks away and excited about getting back in the classroom again. You’ve had a few months to relax, read, research, to re-charge a bit. And now with school start dates just around the corner, you’re looking for handy resources.
How about some sweet primary source lesson plans aligned to the Common Core? Well . . . the National Archives has got you covered.
Seriously. If you haven’t made it over to the National Archives Education page, you are missing out. Lesson plans. Professional development stuff. Handy graphic organizers. It’s one of those sites that is non-negotiable for social studies people. If you’re not taking advantage of all of that goodness, you’re not as good a teacher as you could be. It’s just that simple.
But NARA has lots of other goodies out there.
DocsTeach is one of the those. Continue reading Primary source lessons aligned to the Common Core
Chicken Foot
A great activity I like to use with my students is called “Chicken Foot”.
- They love the name.
- It’s a good way to teach students to pick out the main points of a text, primary source document, picture, etc.
I learned this strategy at a Pre-AP Summer Institute I went to in 2010 in Norman, Oklahoma. After viewing the document, students write the main idea on the “leg”, then they pick three points or elements of the text that the students feel are super important and that everyone needs to know about the document. They write the three main points on the “toes” (if that’s what they are!). Continue reading Chicken Foot
EDSITEment, ThinkFinity, and sweet literacy resources
Okay.
Raise of hands. How many of you use EDSITEment? How about ThinkFinity?
When I ask teachers around the country this question, I often get a bunch of blank stares. If you do use these two sites, sweet. If you don’t, you need to jump on board. Cause they’re both awesome sites for teachers. Continue reading EDSITEment, ThinkFinity, and sweet literacy resources
Technology and Current Events
This past year my school district purchased several iPad and MacBook carts for our school and really pushed technology in the classroom. I wanted to create a way for students to complete current events products using this new technology that went beyond simply searching for an article and printing it off. What I found was a great website called Smore where you can create a variety of online flyers. Continue reading Technology and Current Events
