Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Horrible Histories Are Very Entertaining Videos


Thanks to my teacher neighbor at school, Janet Babic, who found this series of Horrible Histories on youtube.  Above is a factual and very entertaining four minutes about Oliver Cromwell.  Others include Charles I, Charles II, history of Rome, English Civil War, medieval history and more.

Annotate Any Video on Youtube


If you look at one of my most recent posts, you will see an assignment I will soon be having my students work on for a PowerPoint on one of the early Indian empires.  One of the tasks is to find a video to embed in their PowerPoint.  I just added that part this year, but didn't love it because I couldn't be sure if the students had viewed it.  Now I will ask that they use Embedplus.com which I found out about from Notanotherhistoryteacher.  Now I will know if they actually viewed the video.  Above is one on India that I annotated a few times in the first 30 seconds.  You can also see it here and here is a video explaining how to create it. 

Monday, November 28, 2011

Captain Cook's Voyage Around New Zealand


I just received a Google+ message from RichardByrne who told his followers about a new Google Earth item on Captain Cook's travels around New Zealand.  If you don't want to download it on your laptop, then you can just go to the video above to see a narrated voyage of it in youtube. Most of the time you find a great Google Earth item, it is almost always been recorded on youtube. 

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Consulting for Your Department, School or District

Have led 15 district-wide, in-services for Fairfax County, VA (12th largest district in the US), as well as international conferences such as the Global Education Conference.  Initiated, piloted and implemented e-books for Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) district.  Teach a technology integration course which is applicable to all content areas.  Advise school districts regarding converting to teaching entirely online, including network requirements, preferred interface (laptops v. tablets) for student use and best websites to enhance online learning.  Featured in the Washington Post (here and here), in Education Week and cable television.  Worked with e-book companies, created an online course, am a national board certified teacher and have a Ph.D. in my primary content area (full C.V).  For consultation services for your department, school or district, e-mail me at kenhalla@gmail.com.  

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Test Prep

I am toying with how to use this test prep for the NYRegents exam.  It is not quite in the same format that I give my students, but it has most of what you and I cover for world history.  For example, under belief systems you will find Shintoism, Confucianism, Legalism, etc. and under "changing points" you will find the Reformation, Scientific Revolution, Neolithic Revolution, etc.  But after a few minutes of sorting through the titles, it is well worth it as a review site for your students.  

Friday, November 25, 2011

Gupta Empire PowerPoint


Last year (I'm not sure if I am doing it this year) when I was doing the Indian empires I had my students create a Google Docs Presentation (PowerPoint).  Above is a great example of a student one I found online.  

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Qwiki


I love Qwikis as they give your students, a video, pictures and a written record of most items you would put into them.  Above is what they have on the Mayan civilization. 

The Story of India


This website has many useful links to various aspects of India's history. While it coincides with the PBS series "The Story of India," it does have stand-alone videos and matching lesson plans and activities. There are some amazing interactive photos as well. Useful for India pre- and post 1500.


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Classtools To Make Fun Games


Just a week or so ago I posted on Fakebook which is built by "Classtools."  Well I finally got around to looking at that site and was impressed as there are a number of games (most of which I had not heard of - but that will make it even more interesting for your students).  There are also more traditional items such as a Venn diagram which you can write upon the computer screen and then turn into the teacher.  Above is a video explaining how to use the site. 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Want To Blog?

Two weeks ago, creating a blog came up in tech integration course and it made me think that I have never had a post on how to create a blog such as this one.  The real question is what could you use it for.  It would be a great place if you do want to put up current assignments in a very easy way.  The only thing that is not on the blog entry is how to embed a video in it which means I will have to do another post on that soon.  

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

I'm Presenting at the Global Education Conference

At 7 AM EST (on Wed) I am making an hour presentation on the the Global Education Conference.  Here is what I will be attempting to show the participants.  I will be covering  splitting your laptop screen, igoogle, Google Docs, Screencastomatic and Remind101.  It is overly ambitious, but if you want to know how to do any of those things you can either go on Elluminate by clicking here to join the free class or go to my link and look at the how to sessions.  

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Ideas for Using Google Docs

My county is switching to Google Apps so I made a short video cast above to show our social studies teachers some ways they can incorporate Google Docs in the classroom and with fellow collaborators.  If you want to know how to do each of the items go here, here and here for written how to sheets.  Here are videos explaining how to use Google Docs. I made the above video "on the cloud" using Screencastomatic.

Friday, November 11, 2011

The World's Most Typical Man


I just found this at Freetech4teachers.com.  It is a tremendous video showing who the most most average person is in the world and what are his (and it is a he) qualities.   So in three weeks I will be starting my China unit and this will be the perfect introduction.  Not only that, but in 2030, as the clip states, the most typical human will be from India and that is the unit we are now doing. 

Tripline for Mapping With Students


I just found Tripline where you can put pictures on a map (from History and Geography in the 21st Century) and have it follow from one place to another.  The one above is about a 16th century Spanish explorer. Here is a great video on how to make one and include slideshows, videos, etc. 

Ancient India

One of the things I live about Google Docs presentation mode is the ease with which people can share and work together on items.  This is the PowerPoint I will be using for my India unit.  Check back in a few weeks and you will see that I will have made changes depending on what I find as we go through it.  Best of all, I am about the 4th or 5th person to add to it. 

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Screencasts to Help In The Classroom


I love Screencastomatic as it allows you to record and very quickly upload into Youtube a screencast of up to 15 minutes.  Thursday one of my colleagues will be at a meeting and so he actually recorded two fifteen minute lectures where we spoke while showing the screen to his students.  So the kids will bring in their ear buds and once they are done presenting their projects, they will not miss a beat without their teacher.

As if that is not enough above is a video detailing how a friend/colleague can record their screen and send you a link to see what problem they might be having.  The site is called "show me what is wrong." For me this is perfect for students who are having problems accessing their e-books or really any problem they are having.  I found this video along with a bunch of other ways to create screencasts on FreeTech4Teachers.

Stop Watch & Splitting Your Computer and LCD Screens

I learned a trick from a 7th grade teacher in my building that if you want students to work more quickly - esp. using technology, give them a clock and break the assignment up into parts.  My favorite clock is this one.  It both counts up and down.  Also, if you have the new Windows on your computer, you can go here for an explanation of how to put one thing on you LCD monitor (the clock, perhaps) and another on your computer.  That way you could help a student with his/her work while the clock was on the LCD. 

Monday, November 7, 2011

How Are You Adjusting Your Teaching?


This video is quite excellent and leads me to ask how you are adjusting your teaching in the 21st century. It is a take off on the very popular Shift Happens videos.  Yes, a baby did really Tweet as you can see here

Sunday, November 6, 2011

March of Democracy Map in 90 Seconds

History of Imperialism in the Middle East in 90 Seconds

The History of Religion in 90 Seconds

Where Are You In the Seven Billion?

From Freetech4teachers.com, I found this fun site that shows you where you lie in terms of how many people were alive when you were born.  I hold the distention of being the 3,230,700,582nd person alive on earth when I was born and the 77,053,916,357th person to have lived since history began.  Where do you fall? 

Ecological Footprint

I like to think of myself as fairly energy efficient.  I get give clothes to charity as soon as I buy new ones, recycle tons, hardly use any paper, but then I took this ecological footprint quiz and I find I still need 5.4 earths to support me.  It seems the driving I do for my kids adds up.  You can take the quiz here with your students.  

Saturday, November 5, 2011

The History of the World in 100 Objects

The new BBC book, The History of the World in 100 Objects, is getting a lot of ink in the press right now.  If you want to forgo buying the book (it's expensive even in digital form), you could just go to the BBC site and see each object and read an in depth piece explaining each individually. 

Friday, November 4, 2011

Watch the Hajj Live


The annual Hajj starts on Saturday November 5th.  You can see it live on Youtube (and for that matter right now if you click above). 

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Art Exhibits from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties

A hat tip to another one of my students, Jessica May, for this link to a bunch of wonderful pictures of Shang and Zhou Dynasty works of art. 

Instant Quiz for Your Students Online and on the Smart Phone


I am teaching a technology integration course right now for teachers (and will be again in the spring if you work in Fairfax County, VA).  One of my students, George Coe, found this new site which is similar to PollEverywhere.com.  Both all teachers to pre-make questions and have the students answer questions using their cell phones and computers.  So using Socrative or Polleverywhere.com, if a student has an ipad or a laptop, but no smart phone, then they can still take the quizzes.   Now if a student has an ipad or a laptop, but no smart phone, then they can still take the quizzes.  These are a great way to start or end a class and they also allow the teacher to instantly (either company) see what percentage of students selected each other for immediate feedback for the teacher.

Great Wall of China Quiz

Here is a nice Great Wall of China quiz your students can take.  It has pretty nice interactive features. 

Maps and Timeline of World History

This is a great site that has a timeline of all the world epochs  as well as maps of every era