Getting Ready for Election 2012 September 7, 2011
Posted by Wendy Wolfe in Educational Resources, US Government.add a comment
It seems like we just went through a presidential election cycle, but we’re gearing up again. For the 2012 election, C-SPAN has produced a new Electoral College map which is available at no cost to
anyone with a C-SPAN Education Membership. The membership can be great for many disciplines as there is public speaking, public policy relating to all content areas, and, of course, government content. The account also allows for access to more content than an unregistered visitor and when logged in, the videos can be edited within C-SPAN’s video library to allow only clips to be seen which saves a great amount of time.
To become a member, visit the C-SPAN Classroom site and register. For the Electoral College poster, visit the special offers page.
New Things September 5, 2011
Posted by Wendy Wolfe in Handhelds.Tags: Handhelds, iPad, iPod Touch
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For a variety of reasons, I am intrigued by using handhelds in the classroom. This time, my interest stemmed from a discussion I had with a friend from St Olaf. Her school is focusing on inquiry based learning this year and we explored this article, “How to Write Effective Driving Questions,” as part of our conversation. Included in this article was a link to the Buck Institute for Education’s YouTube channel with a video on project based learning. I noticed one of the other videos on the side, Tony Vincent’s K12 Online Conference presentation entitled, “Project Based Learning in Hand.” Since watching that presentation, I have become more intrigued about the potential for iPod Touch and iPads in the classroom.
I have access to 7 gen 4 and 5 gen 1, 2 or 3 iPod Touches which I will be trying out in a variety of ways in my classes this year, the first is going to be early next week with our Constitutional and Criminal Law class, we are going to interview a Founding Father. The second will be with the same class, the plan is to have students make some sort of video or flip book about the Constitution. The ideas are gelling, I will let you know how it goes…
How to Handle 9/11 September 5, 2011
Posted by Wendy Wolfe in Educational Resources, History, US History, Webbased tools.Tags: 9/11, US History
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I remember my colleague Brian appearing in my door saying, “Turn on the news, someone just flew a plane into the World Trade Center,” voting in the primary that day, and fighter jets occasionally flying over the city. I have 3 sections of seniors this year so they were about seven years old on 9/11 and I imagine that their memories are more connected to their emotions and how their households handled the day and those following it rather than the images of the day’s events unfolding in real-time. Next Sunday being 9/11/11, I have a little time, but I haven’t settled on how to address 9/11 in class this week. In August, the Smithsonian held a conference centered on 9/11 and teaching contemporary history. The conference was recorded and is available on the conference website, as well as links to 9/11 timelines and teaching resources from across the web. Thinking across the web, Larry Ferlazzo also has a great collection of “The Best Sites to Help Teach About 9/11.”
What really drives my thoughts this morning? I turned the TV on while exploring some class materials for tomorrow and C-SPAN 3 was running American History TV. This episode was an interview with Major Heather Penny of the DC Air National Guard. (The whole episode is online here and links to more of the 9/11 interviews are also included). Everyone I have ever heard talking about that day says the military was authorized to shoot down planes over Washington DC that day, Major Penny discussed how part of her assignment that day included flying into the tail of Flight 93 if it was in her flight space because they didn’t have weapons capable of shooting the plane down.
This country has so many amazing people in it, most of whom probably don’t consider themselves to be amazing either.
