Resources for Teachers
Lesson plan ideas, Standards links, bulletin boards and links of all kinds! Visit my blog at www.histrygeek.blogspot.com
This page was updated January 25, 2009
Great Primary Source Documents and Links....
From the Library of Congress to political cartoons, as well as some of the sources I have already edited down and used.Great Lesson plans Links......
Internet links that provide lesson plans in all areas and a few downloadable ones from me
My Resources by Unit
Internet Links and documents that I have used in my own research and classroom, sorted by unit topic.Bulletin Board Ideas
The Cold War, The Declaration of Independence, The Industrial Revolution and The Age of Exploration.
Links to Additional Tools......
Special programs to involve your students, government sponsored pages, technology ideas and resources. pages from the media, ways to evaluate student work and combat plagiarism, professional organizations and developement and other great linksCheck out Resources for Election 2008! updated 1/24/09
I will continue to update this even though the election is over......for now
New Resources...
Updated January 25, 2009 - The others have been moved under their appropriate subject headings. Keep checking back for updated links as I find them. Please also feel free to email me your comments and suggestions, as well as how any of these resources went over with your students.Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America
"The Vistas project seeks to bring an understanding of the visual culture of Spanish America to a broad audience. Spanish America was an extensive region—covering much of the Americas, running from California to Chile from the 16th century to the early 19th century...The Vistas website offers easy access in English and Spanish to key components of this project. The website provides a gallery of more than 100 color images, interpretive essays, and a searchable bibliography on visual culture."
http://www.smith.edu/vistas/index.htmlMidevil Illuminated Manuscripts
If you are looking to find primary sources for you students on the Middle Ages, you NEED to check this out. You can search or browse, and it is a very scholarly site, but the information and material on it is incredible. This is what history is all about!
http://www.kb.nl/manuscripts/index.html
Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History
If you want to teach your kids how to "do" real history, go here!!
"The "Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History" project provides engaging, high-quality materials to schools and universities for the teaching of historical methods and Canadian History...The project...has created a series of instructional websites based on the premise that students can be drawn into Canadian history and archival research through the enticement of solving historical cold crimes. All the material is provided free as a public service...
The Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History websites provide many different kinds of support for teachers using the Mysteries websites in their classrooms: materials that range from student-friendly lesson plans to teacher-oriented, philosophical discussions of the teaching methods advocated by the Mysteries project." Some of the topics covered include a series of scaffolding activities and briefing sheets to introduce students to Key Concepts in Historical Thinking, short, student-oriented MysteryQuest lesson plans, a detailed Teachers’ Guide for each of the sites, access to the password-protected historians’ Interpretations portion of the websites, a summary of the Foundational Ideas of history teaching that informs the Mysteries Project, a Lesson Plan Exchange and Printable posters for the Mysteries in the series.
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/about/indexen.html
American Memory Project: The Spanish-American War in motion pictures
Part of the American Memory project by the LOC, "This presentation features 68 motion pictures produced between 1898 and 1901 of the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine Revolution. The Spanish-American War was the first U.S. war in which the motion picture camera played a role. These films were made by the Edison Manufacturing Company and the American Mutoscope & Biograph Company and consist of actualities filmed in the U.S., Cuba, and the Philippines, showing troops, ships, notable figures, and parades, as well as reenactments of battles and other war-time events. The Special Presentation presents the motion pictures in chronological order together with brief essays that provide a historical context for their filming."
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/sawhtml/sawhome.html
Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704
If any of you have read The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America, you will be familiar with this story. "In the pre-dawn hours of February 29, 1704, a force of about 300 French and Native allies launched a daring raid on the English settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts, situated in the Pocumtuck homeland. 112 Deerfield men, women, and children were captured and taken on a 300-mile forced march to Canada in harsh winter conditions. Some of the captives were later redeemed and returned to Deerfield, but one-third chose to remain among their French and Native captors." This website offers a way for you to help your students "do" real history by solving a centuries old mystery by examining different theories and points of view. Among others, the site asks: "Was this dramatic pre-dawn assault in contested lands an unprovoked, brutal attack on an innocent village of English settlers? Was it a justified military action against a stockaded settlement in a Native homeland? Or was it something else?" Your students decide...
http://www.1704.deerfield.history.museum/home.do
The Vietnam Center and Archive
"The mission of the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University is to support and encourage research and education regarding all aspects of the American Vietnam experience; promoting a greater understanding of this experience and the peoples and cultures of Southeast Asia. Its functions are threefold: collection and preservation of pertinent source material; education through exhibits, classroom instruction, educational programs, and publications; and encouragement of scholarly research through exchanges, publishing of noteworthy research, symposia, and financial support."
http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement
"Our mission at the Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement is to promote dialogue, understanding and grassroots, congregational and academic partnerships among the oldest and the newest of the Abrahamic faiths while generating a contemporary understanding in this understudied area and creating new tools for interfaith communities locally, nationally and beyond...There is a tremendous need for accurate and accessible information about Judaism in the Muslim world and about Islam in the West. CMJE engages in a series of programs and projects that Identify accurate information that already exists and make it accessible, and Create its own materials that will lead to more accurate knowledge about the religion and religious cultures of each community. These materials will range from print media to video and audio programs in a variety of media offering direct assistance, as well as materials and guides offering advice and expertise to those interested in creating their own materials. CMJE currently provides:
Best Practice Resources: A collection of scholarly about Muslim and Jewish engagement with insights for scholars, practitioners, community and religious leaders hoping to engage in some form of dialogue;
Religious Texts: A database of sacred texts (Qur'anic, Biblical, Rabbinic, commentaries, etc) to assist religious and lay leaders to create their own sermons and curricula around Jewish-Muslim issues. This database is in the process of expansion and will be the foremost resource on such texts;
Suggested Reading List: A themed list of scholarly resources that provide background on the history, culture, concerns, and religious edicts of each faith;
Reflections on Engagement: A collection of thought-pieces on the contemporary state of Muslim-Jewish dialogue;
Engagement Groups: An alphabetized collection of Muslim and Jewish community groups, organizations, and scholarly programs to facilitate interconnection, participation, and research;
Speakers and Specialist: A list of specialist and lecturers in the field available to discuss pertinent Muslim and Jewish topics;
Issues: A collection of opinions on relevant topics in each faith with articles, video, transcripts, and various perspectives in reference to specific issues concerning Jewish and Muslim relations.
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/about/
http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/
American Memory Project: The Chinese in California, 1850-1925
"The Chinese in California, 1850-1925 illustrates nineteenth and early twentieth century Chinese immigration to California through about 8,000 images and pages of primary source materials. Included are photographs, original art, cartoons and other illustrations; letters, excerpts from diaries, business records, and legal documents; as well as pamphlets, broadsides, speeches, sheet music, and other printed matter. These documents describe the experiences of Chinese immigrants in California, including the nature of inter-ethnic tensions. They also document the specific contributions of Chinese immigrants to commerce and business, architecture and art, agriculture and other industries, and cultural and social life in California.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/award99/cubhtml/cichome.html
Oyez: U.S. Supreme Court Media
"The Oyez Project is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality 'tour' of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices.
http://www.oyez.org/
Now, for my take on Teaching with Technology:
I have become involved in Classrooms for the Future - an initiative by the state of Pennsylvania to help districts get technology in their classrooms and help the teachers learn to use them. What I have been seeing and learning has changed the way I view education - history education in particular. I used to be one who embraced technology but still held fast to the academic belief that my students still needed to sit there and read quietly - maybe even just for the pure sake of doing it. Now I realize that in a world where they are texting, watching, playing and talking all at the same time, (a generation of multitaskers unlike any other) how could one force them to do something so counter to who they are? Its like having a microwave taken away for us or the telephone or television - it is so ingrained in daily life - good or bad. I am in no way advocating that we take the reading out of history, but I am saying that dry textbooks that have meaningless pictures and dates are just not what they need or want. We are asking them to learn in a way they don't know how or won't use and the responsibility lies with us to teach them in ways they can learn. I've witnessed first hand students who are on task, interested and motivated to learn through the use of technology in the classrooms. They want to do it when it is given to them in a media they are familiar with. One student said to his teacher:"I know its the same stuff, I'm just more interested in it this way."
To illustrate my point, check out this video on you tube. Its long but you won't be sorry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U
The video is called "Did you know 2.0"So far, one great link I have is for The Center for Teaching History with Technology. There are others listed under Links to additional tools
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