Category Archives: websites

Pre-Service Teachers Contribute Curriculum

best practice, Eisenhower Library, Kansas, lesson plans, museum, primary sources, resources, strategies, websites, , , , , , , , ,

Pre-Service teachers are getting into the game and classroom teachers can benefit. The HGSS undergraduates at KU have a thriving student chapter of the National Council for the Social Studies  – the Kansas University Council for the Social Studies (KUCSS) – and they’ve been using their powers for good.

KUCSS has partnered with the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics in Lawrence, Kansas to create instructional materials for middle and high school social studies teachers. The Dole Institute of Politics has launched an online exhibit commemorating Dole and his service in WWII which resulted in a debilitating injury that would later largely shape his work as a Senator resulting in the Americans with Disabilities Act (1995).

If you’d like to read more about the collection and their collaboration with KUCSS you can check out the full article here.

Make sure to check out the WWII Letter Collection from the Dole Institute and follow the In the Classroom link for the lesson plan.

And if you haven’t taken the opportunity to visit the Dole Institute of Politics in Lawrence it’s well worth a trip. Heck, make an I-70 road trip of it: start at the Eisenhower Presidential Center in Abilene, hit the Dole Institute, and then on to Liberty, Missouri for the Truman Presidential Library and Museum – just imagine all the government fun!

A Very Cool Website & Some Fun Ideas

Brad Burenheide, Contest, geography, primary sources, resources, websites

I teach my methods students here at KSU to “constantly think about teaching.”  To do this, we always look for things to use even for small parts of lessons.  A picture to promote thinking, a quote to start a conversation, a primary source to investigate, all of these are ways to promote learning.  I happened to find a website the other night at class at the suggestions of Dr. John Harrington and Ms. Lisa Tabor who were presenting on geography…

Continue reading A Very Cool Website & Some Fun Ideas →

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Hanukkah! Internet Finds!

Brad Burenheide, history, religion, resources, websites

As I sit in my recliner on this Thanksgiving Eve, I want to wish all of you a restful and relaxing holiday. If you take on the hustle and bustle of the shopping season, you are on your own!

With that in mind, I want to share with you a few of the great finds on the Internet dealing with Thanksgiving and Hanukkah!

Library of Congress Thanksgiving Sources

The good folks at the Library of Congress have put together a good page of visual images and some documents that should help teachers of all grades make some sense of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Trivia:  This year is the first time in 125 years that Hanukkah and Thanksgiving overlap.

Library of Congress Blogger Caitlin Rizzo on Hanukkah

Last year, Caitlin Rizzo from the LoC put together a good blog post on Hanukkah with an interesting activity at the bottom.  The goal is to read a poem of Jewish Poet Emma Lazarus for each day of Hanukkah.

Interfaith.org

Where world religions are often taught about this time of year, I encourage you as a teacher to explore this website.  Often, I find several interesting entries to promote my thinking in exploring religions.

Article from IBTimes in the UK about Hanukkah

History.com’s treatment of the Mayflower Compact

As always, I want to give you resources to utilize on certain subjects, they may be useful, they may not, but I hope you glean at least one thing from them.

I wish you nothing but the best and hope that you can “sprint to the finish line” of 2013.  Have a great holiday weekend.

In social studies,

Brad

5 Random Things from the Web…

Brad Burenheide, history, photos, primary sources, Uncategorized, websites

First off, NCSS is next week.  I’m stoked looking forward to traveling to St. Louis for four days of interesting social studies exploration.  I will be doing a blog post Friday evening or Saturday morning of some of the things I’m experiencing at the conference.  I hope to have some great stuff for you.  Now onto today’s post.

Sometimes when I get brain fatigue, I wind up falling into Internet surfing and finding things that pique the historical part of my brain and at least get me back into the mood to do some thinking.  As I prepared to write this blog post, it was at the end of a twelve-hour day, and I am suffering from brain fatigue, and over-caffeinated, and ready to “veg” out.  This leads me to the post I struggled to get onto today. Continue reading 5 Random Things from the Web… →

Integrating Technology in Social Studies Curriculum

best practice, history, ipad, Megan Klassen, professional development, strategies, websites, , , , , , , ,

Here are some happenings within the social studies department at my school:

About a year ago, my social studies department decided we wanted to step outside of the box. We were tired of sharing our building-wide computer carts and iPad cart with the other departments (especially ELA – what ever happened to hand-writing an essay?). Our administrators were totally on board and willing to support us in any way that they could.

We contemplated many different options before settling on Discovery Education’s new curriculum – the Techbook. No we didn’t spend our summer’s creating our own iBooks – that will come later, at least for me. But we were preparing ourselves for some intense professional training a few weeks before school started from Discovery Education to introduce us to this new curriculum.

However, in true eduction fashion, that training didn’t happen before school started, and our new iPad minis (One cart for every social studies teacher! I feel blessed!) weren’t placed in their new otter boxes and weren’t configured with apps that would enhance our teaching experience, hooked in to the shiny new carts placed in our classrooms, ready for students to use on the first day. Continue reading Integrating Technology in Social Studies Curriculum →