Bringing life to history is always a challenge.  Being able to show students that history actually occurred has become easier through the use of the digital age.  Now documents can be scanned in and used by students all across America without the use of a field trip to the nearest archive museum.  I look at two different apps that help promote the use of primary documents in student analysis of history.

The National Archives app gives the user a new document each day of the year.  These documents are meant to have been important on the day they show up in the app.  I found documents such as bills signed into law, government documents, and pictures of historical significance.  This app creates a great tool to promote the use of primary documents when studying history.  The only drawback was that documents could not be searched within the app.  This would still be beneficial for  a quick write at the beginning of class to promote study of primary documents.

iTunes U is another great app that allows the teacher to bring primary documents into the classroom.  You just need to search for the lesson that you want to teach and many of them will have the original documents available to learn from.  For Example I looked into civil rights and found the civil rights bill signed by Lyndon Johnson  easily accessed along with a textbook to help the guide the student through the construction of the document.  Apps such as these can be instrumental in bringing documents to life for our students.

Tech Edge offers many different perspectives for teaching Social Studies in the classroom using technology.  I found three tools that will be of great benefit in student’s classroom.

The first is City Walks it offers a virtual tour of over 470 cities.  This will allow students to get a glimpse into cities around the world as they come up in your lessons.  It has the capability to design your own tour through a city which enables students to personalize a trip to pertain to the lesson being taught.

The next app offers a way for students to generate excitement for history.  Ancestry.com allows students to connect with history on a personal level.  If the student know a family member who lived through a particular time period than they are more likely to take interest and find out more about that time period.

The Getty offers a virtual tour of a museum and brings the museum into the classroom without the hassles of reserving a bus, sending out permission slips, and the extra cost of gas.  The artwork that is provided through the app offers a fulfilling experience in the classroom.  Each piece gives audio to detail its importance.  You do not have to be an art major to appreciate this app.

 

This week I stumbled upon the blog Educational Technology and Mobile Learning.  This blog has many fantastic articles for educators.  There was one entry in particular that was about a group I had always heard about but never had the time to really look into.  It was about TedEd.   After looking into what TedEd offers and has available I was quite impressed and started seeing great applications and ways in which to use the information.  The blog states that the videos that are created are perfect for flipped classrooms.  After investigating the videos I found that they offer a lot of information in a concise format and are very entertaining at the same time.  These videos are made in such a way that any student would love to watch and learn from.  I am looking forward to incorporating these into lessons plans and using them to engage students.  In fact if you click on the below image it will take you to one of my favorite lessons.

Matt Miller’s Blog has tips for reenergizing and taking care of number one during those summer months away from school.  My philosophy of teaching revolves around three areas that help make the most of each student’s education.  The first two consists of family and community.  We must be aware of each student’s family and community needs in order to help them to become a success at what they want to do.  The third part, and this is where Matt Miller comes in with his tips, is a dedication to ourselves.  We as teachers must do a little overtime work to improve and make ourselves better for the next group of students.

Matt Miller gives nine free ways to leverage your summer for better classes in the fall.  I will highlight two that are the most appealing to me.  The first is a GAFE summit and if you are like me and have too many acronyms floating through your head, it stands for Google Apps for Education.  Like the name implies these conferences highlight google apps and new ways to use them in education.  They are held all over the world and in Kansas City on July 11th and 12th.  The Missouri summit is sold out at this point but you can be put on a wait list.  Although I may not be able to go this summer I am definitely keeping on eye on this website for next summer.

The other option Matt suggests, and one that I will start right away, is listening to podcasts.  Downloading podcasts for summer listening or even on a vacation drive are a great way to improve yourself and enjoy your summer all at the same time.  Matt suggests seven different educational podcasts within his blog.  I am planning on starting with Every Classroom Matters with Vicki Davis.  Scrolling through the podcasts I found a large variety of topics for education.  These podcasts come about twice a week and are about ten to fifteen minutes in length.  With just twenty to thirty minutes a week, you will be on your way to transforming yourself into a Superteacher.

Using Osmo was unexpectedly exciting.  It is also extremely simple as it consists of a stand and a mirror.   It was something that is fun and engaging for any age group but especially for youth. I was so engaged, that the world around me melted away. It requires focus and attention to detail.  If you want a fun learning environment that has a family game night feel, then Osmo is a great resource.

The Tangram game was an immediate hit and was slightly forgiving if pieces were not in the exact angles but placed close enough.  Words is a game that I found very addicting and highly competitive if played in pairs.  I was surprised to see that it was very effective at recognizing letters even when multiple letters were placed down at the same time.  Newton was one game that I found to be slightly challenging for an adult.  I am afraid that a child in elementary school may experience some frustration with it.  For young children I would have them draw a single line and then move the paper to get the desired angles to bounce off of.  The last game masterpiece is very exciting for someone like me who has trouble drawing stick figures.  As evidenced in the above photo I was able to draw a dog and have it actually resemble a dog.  I am excited to take the games home and have my four kids test it out and see how my kids identify with it.

I was able to quickly put together a vocabulary game for a unit on the American Revolution through the Osmo site.  I used the following words to make up my game.

British, Washington, Proclamation, Treaty, Tax, Boycott, Parliament, Ally, Massacre, Repeal, Minuteman, Firebrands, Treason, Quarter, Olive Branch, Patriot, Loyalist, Blockade, Mercenary, and Levy.

The hardest part was finding large pictures to add into my game.  Osmo required them to be at least 1024 x 768.  At first I did not realize this requirement and saved many pictures that were too small.  By changing my search parameters I was able to locate only large picture files.  Other than that it was an enjoyable experience and hope that my future school will have Osmo so that I can take advantage of it.