Lesson Plan!

Great news! I just finished my lesson plan that corresponds with my social studies webquest that I posted earlier in March. Take a look to get a better understanding of how I would use my webquest in the classroom. Also, besides using Weebly to create the webquest itself, I also used Google docs to type up the lesson plan! Just another example of how web tools are great resources in education!

Museum Box

Hello! This week I sharing a resource with you called Museum Box. This site provides the tools for you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. What items, for example, would you put in a box to describe your life; the life of a Victorian Servant or Roman soldier; or to show that slavery was wrong and unnecessary? What if you lived during the English Civil War, what items would you include to make a case for, or against, the parliamentarians? And what if you were an abolitionist and wanted to show that slavery was wrong and unnecessary, how would you create your evidence? Museum box provides the tools for you to do just this. It allows you to build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view the museum boxes submitted by other people and comment on the contents. This resource could be used to have students in a social studies classroom research a person during history and create a museum box to show what they learned. It would be a fun way for students to display their knowledge about a topic and allows them to view and comment on their classmates' projects as well.

iPad Apps for the Classroom

Hey there! This week I spent time researching different iPad apps that can be used in the social studies classroom! Technology is a an awesome way to get students involved and excited in social studies. I came across some fun, interactive, and educational apps that can be applied in the classroom in great ways. Here are a few of them that I really like! If you want to see more that I found, feel free to visit my wiki page! 

2014 World Factbook

The complete CIA World Factbook at your fingertips, including extensive information on more than 250 countries and locations throughout the world. Whether you're an avid traveler, a busy student, or someone who just likes to stay informed, this is the app for you!


Stack The State LiteStack the States™ makes learning about the 50 states fun! Watch the states actually come to life in this colorful and dynamic game! As you learn state capitals, shapes, geographic locations, flags and more, you can actually touch, move and drop the animated states anywhere on the screen. Carefully build a stack of states that reaches the checkered line to win each level.You earn a random state for every successfully completed level. All of your states appear on your own personalized map of the United States.

United States Puzzle Maps

Do you know USA map?Do you want to challenge the puzzle map with fun game?How about your kid?United States puzzle map game will help you to learn the map’s shape and name of every state. In main game, touch state map you can see the full name; You need to drag the state map to the correct position, when you drag all state maps to its position, you win. Trivia game is designed for you to memorize better the states’ map name and shape.


My CongressMyCongress is a portal to detailed information about your elected U.S. Congressional officials. Track their news, video and Twitter feeds. Look up their official Open Congress profile or contact them directly. MyCongress helps you get in touch with your government.


Constitution for iPad
Senator Sam Ervin pulled one out of his pocket during the Watergate Hearings... Now prepare to own any legal debate with a copy of the US Constitution on your iPad!




Civil War America's Epic Struggle
CIVIL WAR: AMERICA'S EPIC STRUGGLE features over 1,000 high-resolution photos, more than an hour of multimedia presentations, in excess of 100 authentic maps, dozens of first-hand accounts, and numerous text articles and biographies. The program provides instantaneous access to information on every aspect of the Civil War. The app automatically optimizes images and text depending upon the display: iPad, Retina, or iPhone; portrait or landscape orientation. With 18 different easily navigable categories, CIVIL WAR: AMERICA'S EPIC STRUGGLE provides a moving experience of the history of the Civil War for both the casual browser and serious history buff. The zoomable black and white photographs are very high resolution and bring the text and narration to life. This reference work includes most of the notable photographs in the "Matthew Brady Collection." In addition, over 100 period maps illustrate the progress of various campaigns geographically.

National Geographic for Kids

Hello! This week a great resource that I found was National Geographic for Kids online. There is a variety of resources on this website including educational games, videos, photos, information on animals and pets, news, and other fun topics. The resource that I love the most is the one about countries. Once you click on the countries tab you are able to pick which country you would like to learn more about. When you decide on which one to research, it provides you with a variety of kid friendly information referring to the geography, climate,  history, people and culture, and government government of that country. All of this information is found under the facts and photos section of the country. Each country also has a video, map, e-card, and a print feature. I love the organization and language of National Geographic. It is informational while also being interesting. The print feature allows you to print off a kid-friendly version of the information if not all of your students have access to a computer in school or at home. It would be an awesome site for kids to use during a webquest or any project concerning a country!

Graphic Organizers

Hello everyone! This Monday I taught my lesson to the 6th graders at Sabish Middle School! Although I was nervous, it went perfect. I feel so relieved to have gotten that out of the way. My lesson focused on teaching sensory language and imagery through poetry. A large portion of it the students were using graphic organizers to put down their ideas in an orderly fashion. I found that these tools worked perfect in my lesson. They guided the students' writing and ideas and supported them as learners. So this week I am sharing the three graphic organizers that I used during my poetry and sensory language lesson. I also have found a ton of websites that have great graphic organizers that I may have never seen or used before. Some of them are even interactive because you can type on the organizer right on the website. Super cool! Graphic organizers can work great to guide learning in any subject!

Graphic Organizer 1: Students sorted the poem lines into the corresponding sensory boxes
Graphic Organizer 2: Students wrote down a line from the poem and then drew what they pictured when they read it
Graphic Organizer 3: Students created their own imagery, had a friend draw it using their description, and then they had the opportunity to revise it if needed to help their reader

Websites:
Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers
Houghton Miffliln Harcourt Education Place
Edhelper
TeacherVision