Loewen - Ch 13

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Big Question: What makes history meaningful to you?


Caption:Great learning (in any subject area) cannot take place in only the mind.

The Fallen of World War 2 - This interactive website is still in it's experimental and crowd funding phase, but it's already an amazing resource! It provides a video with an explanation of the deaths in WWII, but there are periodic breaks in the video where you have the ability to stop and manipulate the data being shown on screen.

Cantu - Chapter 13

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Big Question: Think about the first time you used the Library of Congress Website: What challenges did you face? How can you help your students overcome theses challenges?


Caption: Replication of Jefferson's library at the the LOC


Kindred Britain - This Stanford sponsored website on Britain "is a vision of the nation's history as a giant family affair." With different methods of visualizing, students can see the many ways that some of Britain's most iconic figures are related or connected. The site can also be searched through a number of different categories.

Cantu - Chapter 12

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Big Question: What's the best way to introduce these areas of study to students? (For example, integrated with other subjects or as a stand alone course.)



Caption: Vocabulary from one area of study can be deeply connected to another area of study.


The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Voyages is a database of maps, images, and records surrounding the voyages of slave ships. In the educators section it also lists additional websites (many interactive) that provide further details for specific events relating to the slave trade.

Loewen- Chapter 12

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Big Question: How do you use textbooks?


Caption: No matter the grade level: no one is happy with the textbook industry


Mapping the Republic of Letters - Allows students to click and see the networks of communication between some of history's "Great Thinkers."

Cantu - Chapter 11

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Big Question: How can the exposure of geography in media be a "bad thing" for lesson planning?


Caption: The Animaniacs' iconic songs might be too iconic for some.

GeoNet - This interactive game allows you to be quizzed on a variety of locations and different geographical categories.

Cantu Ch. 10

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Big Question: How can we, as teachers, overcome our own deficits in economic education?

Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
Fun fact: This Federal Reserve bank actually has an entire list of interactive economic resources.

Loewen Ch. 10

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Big Question: How does the lack of focus on the recent-past effect your own education?

Caption: Recent history evokes a much different reaction from people than other subjects. 

Digital History Timeline Map is an interactive website that shows social, political, and cultural events in United States history. The map starts in 1590 and goes through the year 2010. While the map is focused on the the United States, it does have some pointed arrows going off the map to show what's going on in US territories and US Foreign Affairs. 

Cantu Ch. 9

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Big Question

1.What personal values and beliefs on citizenship do you have and how does it effect your teaching?

Caption: The National Standards for History Content Standards for U.S. History are more broad and specific, allowing them to cover all parts of U.S. History

Caption: Citizenship relates to many aspects of history and social studies. 

Interactive Website:

ReadWriteThink is another website with lists of interactive programs and websites that you can use for student activities. You can filter results by grade level, theme, and resource type. It is originally meant for English classrooms, but there are tools that can be used in a history classroom. 

Loewen - Ch. 11

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Big Question: How could history teachers collaborate with science teachers to overcome some of the problems mentioned by Loewen in chapter 11?



Caption: What implications does this book cover have?

Google My Maps

Take your students on an adventure without ever leaving the classroom! This tool from Google allows you to create your own maps and add different layers of information.

Cantu: Chapter 8

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Big Questions

1. How do the National Standards for History Content Standards compare to other standard we've examined?

Caption: The National Standards for History Content Standards for U.S. History are more broad and specific, allowing them to cover all parts of U.S. History

Caption: Citizenship relates to many aspects of history and social studies. 

Interactive Websites:

Annenberg Learner is a website that actually has a large inventory of many types of interactive sites. You can filter search results by grade level, audience, and content. 

Loewen: Chapter 6

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Big Question: How can we present information to avoid "textbook" melodrama?


Caption: An 1856 daguerreotype of Brown

Mission US "is a multimedia project that immerses players in U.S. history content through free interactive games" and features four different people that students can play through to learn about American history in different eras. The characters you can play as include a boy in the American Revolution, a slave girl, a Cheyenne boy from 1866, and a Russian Jewish Immigrant from 1907.

Cantu: Ch. 6&7

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Big Questions:
1. How do teachers combine both professionalism and technology?
2. How and why do you choose certain technologies in your classroom?




Caption: National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers

Caption: There's many ways to integrate technology into learning.


Interactive Websites

The Perfect Storm is the perfect site for teaching about natural disasters in history. This site has an interactive walk through of certain natural disasters in history that quickly shows how natural disasters can change everything.

Killing Lincoln is an interactive timeline with videos, pictures, and summaries.It follows the path of John Wilkes Booth and the steps he took to assassinate Lincoln.

Loewen: Chapter 5

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Big Question: How could thematic centered teaching "fix" some of the problems talked about in chapter five?


Caption: One of the quotes from the beginning of chapter five makes the claim that most Americans know more about the South in the Civil War/Reconstruction from this movie then from actual study.

Kahoot is a game-based learning software. It's not quite an interactive website, but it is designed to be used with smartboard and mobile type technology. You can use it to make games for learning and review. There's several different types of games you can create so you can use the one that best meets your needs.

Cantu: Chapter 4

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Big Question:  How do we balance the need to use different teaching strategies with the usefulness of classroom routine and our own limitations?


Caption: The Three Domains of Learning as covered in Ch. 3


Caption: Just some of the teaching strategies covered in Ch. 4


Interactive Websites

The Poverty Line is a site that allows users to compare what it means to be below the poverty line in different countries. It uses different visual representations so students can actually see what it means to be below the poverty line.

Loewen: Chapter 4

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Big Question: How would the poorly portrayed history of Native Americans effect students of Native American descent?


Caption: Native Web is an international non-profit dedicated to spreading knowledge about indigenous peoples.


NativeTech: Native American Technology and Art Sponsored by Native Web, this website hosts a number of small and short interactive games based off of traditional games from indigenous people. It also includes pages that explain the historical significance of the games. 

Cantu: Chapter 3

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Big Question: Given that lesson plans are not something that can be done instantly,  how do we, as teachers, train ourselves into habits that help us make lesson plans better?


Caption: The Three Domains of Learning as covered in Ch. 3


Interactive Website

Sheppard Software is the comprehensive website of interactive games that you didn't know you needed. It has games for almost all subjects, but more importantly it has U.S. and World Geography games. These games come at different levels so you can change the difficulty to match your class! It also has capitals, countries, and landscapes!

Loewen: Chapter 2

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Big Question: How do we change Social Studies curriculum to better reflect the reality of learning history?




Caption: Some areas are looking for alternatives to Columbus Day.


Christopher Columbus Game

The BBC produced this website page on Columbus. Featured on this page is a short animated game about Columbus. Given it's short length, it could be a good introductory activity for a class. This especially true because it is NOT completely historically accurate and shows clear bias which can be used to prompt class discussion about how we view Columbus.

Cantu: Chapter 2

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Big Question: How do we stay organize in a professional manner so that we can keep track of what's going on with standards at all time?


Caption: There are many standards for the many topics within Social Studies.

Story Maps
Story Maps is an online website that allow you to create interactive maps. The website also has a number of maps that have already been created that you can also use.

Cantu: Chapter 1

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Big Question: How do we know which framework to use?



Caption: A breakdown of each level of Bloom's Taxonomy

How to be a Historian
A web page from the BBC with interactive info-graphics, short videos, and more explaining how to be a historian. Simple enough for a middle school class, informational enough to be worth it for high school classes too.

Lowen: Intro & Chapter 1

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Big Question: How can we change the mindset that the "textbook is always right" without turning students completely against textbooks?

 
Caption: Are there parallels between Wikipedia and the textbook industry?

The Knotted Line
As the website states, "The Knotted Line is an interactive, tactile laboratory for exploring the historical relationship between freedom and confinement in the geographic area of the United States." This website features many events, particularly those pertaining to Civil Rights or "American Heros", that are often blurred or censured in textbooks.