When possible I enjoy using primary documents as they bring history alive, but it is even better when one gets a short video like the great one above. It shows two elderly gentlemen, one who was hidden by the other during WWII for being Jewish. Perhaps since my own grandfather saved 200 Jews in Czechoslovakia from the Germans, I feel somewhat moved by the end of the video. It would make a nice addition to your teaching WWII.
This is a webpage written by high school teachers for those who teach world history and want to find online content as well as technology that you can use in the classroom.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Holocaust Survivor Meets Savior
When possible I enjoy using primary documents as they bring history alive, but it is even better when one gets a short video like the great one above. It shows two elderly gentlemen, one who was hidden by the other during WWII for being Jewish. Perhaps since my own grandfather saved 200 Jews in Czechoslovakia from the Germans, I feel somewhat moved by the end of the video. It would make a nice addition to your teaching WWII.
Oracle Bone
My students were supposed to find out about the oracle bone, but a lot missed the boat so we will look at this simple site on Monday which does a nice job of explaining its purpose.
Monday, November 25, 2013
World's Most Typical Human
We just finished our India unit and now are into China so I showed the bottom video to our students. It is a great clip from National Geographic showing that the most typical person in the world is a Han Chinese man. There is more to it and it is captivating to the kids.
The top video looks at what having seven billion people on the earth means and why are numbers keep going up. It too will be enjoyed by your students.
Da Vinci: The Lost Treasure
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Sailing the Seas of Global Trade
Follow Harvard historian Maya Jasanof as she explores global trade aboard an 1100 foot cargo ship as it sails along some of the same trade routes ships have traveled for centuries. In a story for Aljazeera America Jasanof says that she is interested in the "links between the globalized past and present."
Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" provides Professor Jasanof with what she calls "a rich if unconventional historical source." Conrad, she says, "described the beginnings of globalization as we know it today: a world in motion and increasingly financially, politically and culturally intertwined; a world in flux, shaken by new powers, technology and ideas; a world whose dynamics strikingly resemble those of our own."
Here's the ship she on which she will be traveling for four weeks.Check Aljazeera for updates and photographs from Professor Jasanof as she begins her travels.
Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" provides Professor Jasanof with what she calls "a rich if unconventional historical source." Conrad, she says, "described the beginnings of globalization as we know it today: a world in motion and increasingly financially, politically and culturally intertwined; a world in flux, shaken by new powers, technology and ideas; a world whose dynamics strikingly resemble those of our own."
Here's the ship she on which she will be traveling for four weeks.Check Aljazeera for updates and photographs from Professor Jasanof as she begins her travels.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
NCSS Breakfast Talk
This morning I am going to be helping my son's troop with their popcorn delivery. Somewhere in the middle of that I am supposed to talk to the NCSS World History teachers' breakfast and hopefully call in for questions. Since I can't be on my computer, I made this five minute video showing some of the cool things world history teachers can do.
Friday, November 22, 2013
QR Generator for Google Drive
You can use a QR code generator for any of your Google Drive documents to use in your classroom, but if you want to keep a list of them, then you need to go to the Google site that will shrink your link and give you a QR code which it will keep for you as long as you want.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Photos of Brazil's History With Slavery
Now, you can see many of those photographs at a new exhibition in Sao Paulo (the museum web site is in Portuguese). You can also read the excellent NPR story which includes some background about the history of Brazilian slavery.
We are covering sugar and silver in Brazil in AP World now so these photographs should offer students some interesting insights.
Here's the NPR story about the exhibit.
Kahn Academy's Smart History
I just found the Kahn Academy's "Smart History," which was started in 2005 and has now been quite well populated with both history and videos. It started as an art history website, but has grown to be a nice history book or sorts with summaries, video and images. It is broken into the major categories that you are teaching, be it ancient or modern world history.
Amazing Summary Video of Major Religions
This is an eleven minute Ted Talk overview of each of the world's five major religions. I would show each part to your students as a summary as it does a great job of giving your students the main points you are teaching. But it adds in maps and ties the facts of each religion together very nicely.
Saturday, November 16, 2013
75 Google Play Apps for Your Classroom
A few years ago I met Jaime Casap whose job it is to promote Google's Chromebooks. I found this PowerPoint from his Google+ account. I will be mining it over the next few months, but wanted to share it right away as it has too many amazing apps for those of you who like to jump into these things right away. All of the apps can be used on Chromebooks and with Google Driveand are found in Google Play.
Friday, November 15, 2013
World History Teachers at NCSS
I recently have been in touch with Joe Ballou, the current chair of the world history community within the NCSS. Starting this year, NCSS is placing a greater emphasis on developing its support of world history teachers than it had in the past. If you're going to St. Louis next week, their world history community is hosting a talk and a breakfast (which I will call into to talk about technology) and I'd encourage you to check out both if you can. The community is also looking for NCSS members who would have an interest in leadership, as there are a number of volunteer leadership positions available.
Joe is a former world history teacher who has spent the past 2 years creating world history games and technology with his company Civic Games, and currently works as a coach and curriculum developer at the Democracy Prep Public Schools. You should look out for him in St. Louis to talk about this work, or you can contact him directly via the contact form at www.joeballou.com.
Cheat Sheets for Ancient World History
This is a great visual way to review for an ancient world history exam. It has a visual summary for every major category you will teach. Above is the one for China.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Using Rubrics in Google Drive
So have you ever wanted to use a rubric with student work in Google Drive? Sure you have. You can create a rubric and then link it into Google Drive and have it connect to a Google Drive spreadsheet so that you can have the grades recorded and the students can see their rubric. Above is the how to tutorial. You can find more easy scripting on youpd
Doctopus to Manage Student Work Flow in Google Drive
One of the problem with Google Drive is that while you may want to keep all of your students' work, it becomes almost unmanageable in the shared column. BUT Doctopus is a script that will allow you to create folders to put your students' work inside AND you will not have anything to show in your shared list. Think about it. You can then keep all assignments all year and check on cheating between different teachers (copy the curious language and then send a snippet to your fellow teachers and you can have them use their Google Drive search box to see if kids have copied between classes.
To use Doctopus, open up a Google Drive speadsheet and to to "Tools" and then "Script gallery"
To use Doctopus, open up a Google Drive speadsheet and to to "Tools" and then "Script gallery"
and then use the search box to type "Doctopus' ." (steps are here).
Next watch the video below to see how to use it.
If you like this, there are many other items found here.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
The Origins of Civilization: China The Mandate of Heaven
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Flipping the Classroom Presentation
I helped organize a technology 1/2 day at our school today. I am doing a presentation on Flipping the Classroom. Here is what we are going over today:
- What will be taught: We will learn how to record lectures for students to watch at home, how students can be accountable for that information and how to flip one’s classroom to do the “problem sets” in the classroom.
- Tutorial steps that will be finished in the class (each underlined item is linked to a tutorial)
- will discuss what can be done in the classroom
- will learn how class activities can be put on a Google Drive document and linked into Blackboard
- learn how to split the laptop screen so students can see the video and their notes or you could use VideoNot.es (tutorial)
- If you accumulate lots of videos, here is how you create a youTube Playlist
Gupta Empire Achievements
I helped organize a technology 1/2 day at our school today. I am doing a presentation on Flipping the Classroom. Here is what we are going over today:
- What will be taught: We will learn how to record lectures for students to watch at home, how students can be accountable for that information and how to flip one’s classroom to do the “problem sets” in the classroom.
- Tutorial steps that will be finished in the class (each underlined item is linked to a tutorial)
- will discuss what can be done in the classroom
- will learn how class activities can be put on a Google Drive document and linked into Blackboard
- learn how to split the laptop screen so students can see the video and their notes or you could use VideoNot.es (tutorial)
- If you accumulate lots of videos, here is how you create a youTube Playlist
Monday, November 11, 2013
Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China's First Emperor
Confucianism and Daiosm: Great Podcast
Sunday, November 10, 2013
I helped organize a technology 1/2 day at our school today. I am doing a presentation on Flipping the Classroom. Here is what we are going over today:
- What will be taught: We will learn how to record lectures for students to watch at home, how students can be accountable for that information and how to flip one’s classroom to do the “problem sets” in the classroom.
- Tutorial steps that will be finished in the class (each underlined item is linked to a tutorial)
- will discuss what can be done in the classroom
- will learn how class activities can be put on a Google Drive document and linked into Blackboard
- learn how to split the laptop screen so students can see the video and their notes or you could use VideoNot.es (tutorial)
- If you accumulate lots of videos, here is how you create a youTube Playlist
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Visualizing empires decline
Friday, November 8, 2013
Another Chinese Dynasties' Song
Kudos to Jeff and George for finding Harvard professors singing the Chinese dynasties' song. I like this one above best, especially the kid on the left whom my students get a kick out of seeing.
Voice Comments in Google Drive documents
First off a clarification. Google documents are one item in the Google Drive suite that includes things like Google forms and Google presentations, but now allow a lot of apps. A new app is Kaizena allows you to add links (which you can already do), but also voice comments to a document so you don't even have to write anything anymore. Above is the tutorial which I found from a Tweet from Rhonda Roysden.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
French Revolution Web Quest
Here's a great site that has links to short summaries of all the major events of the French Revolution from the Enlightenment to the fall of Robespierre. Each summary has a sidebar with supplemental information including images, documents, and some multimedia. My colleague, Keri O'Brien developed a web quest that can serve as a great introduction or review of the big events of the revolution.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
China's Dynasties: How to Teach Them
Two Harvard professors show us how to memorize the Chinese dynasties to the tune of Frère Jacques, a trick most of us high school history teachers also know. It's just a little amusing to watch two older Harvard professors sing it. Thanks to my colleague, Jeff Feinstein, who sent me the link to this video and New York Times story.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Buddhism Web Quest: Pacific Asia Museum
Here's a web quest based on the Pacific Asia Museum which has a great interactive website. It works best with flash player. And here's the worksheet that goes with it. Thanks to my colleague, Frances Coffee, who designed the web quest and sent me the link.
Attila the Hun: Here Comes the Rain Again.
Bookmark this clip for the Middle Ages. Here the Eurythmics sing "Attila the Hun: Here Comes the Rain Again."
And below is the 1954 movie, "Sign of the Pagan," with Jack Palance as Attila. Read more about the movie from the Medievalists.net
Friday, November 1, 2013
Salt: A Brief Big History on TV
Program your VCR for what looks like a great series. The H2 channel will premiere a 16 part series on salt this Saturday at 10 PM. The H2 channel is an extension of the History Channel. Here's how AP New summarizes the series: "The series uses science and history to show how various things that we take for granted these days had their origins thousands of years ago." Search "Big History" on the H2 channel to find the program.
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