Tag Archives: lesson plans

Sweet Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic lesson plans and instructional goodies

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Sochilogo

Are you looking for some sweet Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic instructional goodies? Here’s what I’ve got:

Start with the basics

News

Social Media

Mobile Apps
(I’m part of Team Apple so . . . these are iPhone / iPad apps. I did some checking – Google Play and Android also have tons.)

Lesson Plans / Instructional Materials

Have fun!

How I use “Discrepant Event Inquiry” in my classroom

best practice, common core, graphic organizer, historical thinking, history, lesson plans, library, literacy, Megan Klassen, photos, primary sources, strategies, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A few years ago, I was introduced to “Discrepant Event Inquiry” from Glenn Wiebe. (Here is another post about it from his History Tech blog). The idea is that you take an image and only reveal a little bit at a time. As I reveal a little bit of the picture, the students must guess Who is in the picture, What is happening, When was the photograph taken, and Where is this taking place. This encourages students to think outside the box and it also does WONDERS with questioning and how to ask the right questions. Naturally, I turned this into a competition. Continue reading How I use “Discrepant Event Inquiry” in my classroom →

13 Colonies Narrative Chain

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Brain research shows that neurons that fire together wire together. When teaching concepts we want students to remember, it’s important to give them different ways to store those concepts in their long term memory. By using a narrative chain, my students are saying, seeing, and doing the information I want them to remember.

But what does that look like?

Continue reading 13 Colonies Narrative Chain →

Primary source lessons aligned to the Common Core

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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 →

EDSITEment, ThinkFinity, and sweet literacy resources

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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 →