Technology is so GREAT! Have you heard of screencasts before? You can record what is going on your screen, and make a video. It is great for students who are absent or how to show students how to do something. It has made my life so much easier! I have used it to make a video on how students upload documents and pictures to their Google Drive, how to do research and even recorded some lectures. How have you used Screencasts? Feel free to comment below!
I have used these two screencast applications: Screencast-O-matic - free version -can log-in with Google -cannot edit in free version - 15-minute time limit -can be upload to Youtube -no watermark
Screencastify Chrome Add-On -free version -can use on Chromebooks - watermark on -10-minute time limit -50 video limit a month -no editing in free version -can upload to Youtube For me, I prefer to use Screencast-O-Matic. It is really easy to use, and I prefer not to have a watermark on the video. With my Mac, it is downloaded to my launch pad, so I don't even have to open a browser to do a screencast. I posted some example screencasts below. Samples:
I found this blog who goes over more types of Screencasting software and is well worth a look!
My number one tip to new teachers- keep your sense of humor! Nothing can be more emotional, physically, spiritually, mentally draining than teaching. To keep my spirits up- I have some go-to Youtube videos and cartoons that help keep a smile on my exhausted face. I have more on my Pinterest board- Teacher Humor .
If only this app was real! I love this principal- he is so funny!
I can sympathize with this sub so much!
My teacher buddies and I frequently say, "Mitch, give me your money!"
I love this holiday! Here are some fun resources about the Declaration of Independence. (I had to include the Muppet video because it is one of my favorites!)
The beginning of the school year- a fresh batch of Expo markers, and bright-eyed 7th graders trying to find their way around the big middle school. I have loved starting my school year off with Thinking Like A Historian. I decided what historians skills my students need to be successful in my class, and introduced them at the beginning of the year. As we well know, students come with different levels of understanding, background knowledge, and abilities. As we go along this unit, I really know what skills my students know and what skills they don't know. Then as we progress through the school year, I can really target my instruction.
Artifact Activity
*A Getting To Know You Activity
The day after I go over my rules and procedures, we have a class discussion on what is history, why is it important and what is a historian. David McCullough has a great answer for Why History? Here is a clip from an interview. (Below I also posted an essay from Reader Digest that he wrote, and it is great for students to read as part of the discussion.)
After the discussion, I give my students their first homework assignment.
Homework Assignment:
You will need to bring 3 items that represent you to school. They need to unique to you, and something, if found 1,000 years from now, would really represent who you are. Good example: a photo of you winning the hot dog eating contest at the Salt Lake County Fair
Bad example: Your iPod or your cell phone
*Teacher Note- Remind the students that it needs to be something that can fit in their backpack or locker. It also needs to be school appropriate. I have some big hunting families at my school- so I tell the students they can bring a picture of their favorite hunting moment.
I then go through my examples artifacts that represent me. It can be really hard to narrow it down! I bring a photo of my family, one of my Funko Pops, one of my favorite books, music, and/or movies.
After my artifact sharing, the forty-five minute class period is up. The next day, I have my students get out their artifacts and they are so happy to share! Some students will forget (even when I send out a text reminder through Remind), so I have those students write down what three artifacts they would have brought with them. Students are in pairs and share with their partner first. Then rotate the partners by the columns the students are arranged in. I then give five-ten minutes where they can share with anybody in the class. At the very end, I let any students who want to present to the whole class, their three artifacts, they can. It is such a great way for everyone to get to know each other! Plus you can learn some hidden talents of your students, and it helps me learn their names faster.
Why History? By David McCullough Source: Reader's Digest December 2002
"The best way to know where the country is going is to know where we've been." On
a winter morning on the campus of one of our finest colleges, in a
lovely Ivy League setting with snow falling outside, I sat with a
seminar of 25 students, all seniors majoring in history, all honors
students-supposedly the best of the best. "How many of you knew who
George Marshall was?" I asked. No one knew. Not one. At a large
university in the Midwest, a young undergraduate told me how glad she
was to have attended my lectures, because until then, she said, she
never realized that the original 13 Colonies were all on the Eastern
Seaboard. This was said, in all seriousness, by a university student.
Who
are we, we Americans? How did we get where we are? What is our story
and what can it teach us? Our story is our history, and if ever we
should be taking steps to see that we have the best prepared, most aware
citizens ever, that time is now. Yet the truth is that we are raising a
generation that is to an alarming degree historically illiterate. The
problem has been coming on for a long time, like a disease, eating away
at the national memory. While the popular cultures races loudly on, the
American past is slipping away. We are losing our story, forgetting who
we are and what it's taken to come this far.
Warnings of this
development have been sounded again and again. In 1995, the Department
of Education reported that more than half of all high school seniors
hadn't even the most basic understanding of American history. Two years
ago, a study by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni showed that
four out of five seniors from leading colleges and universities were
unable to pass basic high school history test. To the question "Who was
the American general at York town?" more of these students answered
Ulysses S. Grant than George Washington. And there's been no
improvement.
This year the American Council of Trustees and
Alumni reported that none of the nation's top 50 colleges and
universities now require American history as part of the curriculum. In
fact, one can go forth into the world today as the proud product of all
but a handful of our 50 top institutions of higher learning without ever
having taken a single course in history of any kind.
But why bother about history anyway? "That's history"-that's done with, junk for the trash heap. Why
history? Because it shows up how to behave. History teaches and
reinforces what we believe in, what we stand for, stand up for.
History is about life-human nature and the human condition and all its
trails and fallings and noblest achievements. History is about cause and
effect, about the simplest of everyday things-and the mysteries of
chance and genius.
History shows us what choices there are.
History teaches with specific examples the evils of injustice,
ignorance or demagoguery, just as it shows how potent is plain courage,
or one simple illuminating idea. History
is-or should be-the bedrock of patriotism, not the chest-pounding kind
of patriotism but the real thing, love of country.
At their core, the lessons of history are lessons of appreciation.
Everything we have, all our great institutions, our laws, our music,
art and poetry, our freedoms, everything is because somebody went before
us and did the hard work, provided the creative energy, faced the
storms, made the sacrifices, kept the faith.
Indifference to
history isn't just ignorant; it's a form of ingratitude. And the scale
of our ignorance seems especially shameful in the face of our
unprecedented good fortune. What's so worrisome about the college
student who doesn't know that George Washington was the commanding
American general at York town is that he also, therefore, has no idea
that it was Washington who commanded the Continental Army through eight
long years in the struggle for independence. I'm
convinced that history encourages, as nothing else does, a sense of
proportion about life, gives us a sense of how brief is our time on
earth and thus how valuable that time is.
We live in an era of momentous change, creating great pressures and tensions. But history shows that times of tumult are the times when we are most likely to learn.
This nation was founded on change. We should embrace the possibilities
inherent in such times and hold to a steady course, because we have a
sense of what we've been through and who we are.
In the aftermath
of September 11, 2001, history can be a source of strength and of
renewed commitment to the ideals upon which the nation was founded. As
unsettling as events may be, others before us have known worse. Think of
what our predecessors endured and accomplished. Think of the dangerous
times they knew! Churchill, in the darkest hours of World War II,
reminded us that "we have not journeyed all this way because we are made
of sugar candy."
I passionately believe that history isn't just good enough for you in a civic way. History,
really, is an extension of life. It enlarges and intensifies the
experience of being alive, like poetry and art or music. And there's no great secret to making history come alive. Historian Barbara Tuchman said it perfectly in two words, "Tell stories."
Part of what that means is that history is ours to enjoy. If we deny
our children that enjoyment, that adventure in the larger time among the
greater part of the human experience, then we're cheating them out of a
full life.
Oh, current events! There can be a mixed reaction from teachers and from students. There are so many ways that you can teach current events.
Ways that You can Teach Current Events:
make a quarterly current event journal packet
pick a day of the week and have it be a news day
make students sign up for a current event report/presentation
make it a homework assignment once or every two weeks
have a current event blog where students post about a current event (video or written)
current event bulletin board or poster where students can comment on the news of the day
Create a padlet for current events
infuse current events into your units
have current events as your starter/bell ringer
I have included current events in numerous ways through my teaching career. I developed this current event sheet as I was trying to incorporate more reading strategies into my curriculum. I included a digital link, and posted copies below for your convenience. I would assign a current event every other week as homework. On the day the current event was due, I would have students get into groups and discuss their new stories. Students then could ask me questions. The first current event would be Utah news, second would be U.S. news, third would be World news, and the 4th would be Watch the news. Then I would go through the cycle again.
Find the Utah section of any newspaper—in print form or online. As you read it, write down 5 facts that seem important. Include who, what, when, where and how.
1. Who-
2. What-
3. When-
4. Where-
5. How-
.
2. Write one sentence that describes the main idea of the news item.
4. Why was this article written? What was the cause of the event? What is the effect?
5. Make a prediction. What do you think will happen next?
6. What is your personal reaction to the event? (Write at least 3 sentences)
In the box below, create a picture that represents the news article. Make sure that your picture gets the main point of the news across. Also, try to incorporate the details you’ve listed above.
The struggle is real when trying to find primary sources for Utah Studies. I have been envious of the 8th-grade teachers for years- just a click and there are millions of primary sources for them to use! Over the years, I have found some go-to resources for Utah primary sources. Each resource provides a different niche in the hunt for sources you can use in your classroom. 1. National Archives at Denver https://www.archives.gov/denver/education/materials
During late night search, I stumbled on this gem and downloaded it right to my computer. The National Archives has collected Primary Source Lesson packages, and have one for Utah. It contains nine lessons from Surveying the West to WWII. The lessons contain the primary sources and can be modified to fit student and teacher needs. My favorite lesson was the New Deal in Utah, my students loved analyzing the photographs.
2. Mountain West Digitial Library http://mwdl.org/
If you have not tried this resource- you should! This is a collaborative resource for libraries, museums and archives in Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. Instead of having to search the Utah Archives website and then the BYU website, you can just go here. The search can be limited by photo, text, sound, or animation/video. I use this site for the Scofield Mine Disaster, immigrant photos, and WWI.
3. Library of Congress Digital Collections https://www.loc.gov/collections
The Library of Congress Digital Collection is updating to the new Utah Studies core so there will be more primary source lessons available at this site: Library of Congress- Utah.
The Digital Collections contains some items that can be used in Utah Studies. The Japanese Internment collection is a great resource.
4. Utah State Archives https://archives.utah.gov/digital/index.html
Collections:
The Utah Territory Project
The State of Utah Vs Joe Hill
Road to Statehood
If you have a free Saturday, it is well worth a trip to the Archives, and nerd out at their resources! If you don't have time, the digital version of the Archives is great as well. I have used the Road to Statehood collection in my Struggle for Statehood unit.
Now what?
There are so many teaching strategies that you can use with primary sources in the classroom. Some examples are a comparison chart, poster activity, museum walk and graphic organizers. Also, the National Archives have updated their worksheets and they are wonderful!
Primary Source Analysis Worksheets- https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets
In upcoming posts, I will share some of my primary source activities.
