Week 4: Using Blogs in the Classroom

For this week's assignment, the students have been placed in a group to post and answer questions that have been posted to a blog.  Since I have a difficult time in making decisions, I have posted 2 questions.  Please choose one to answer, then post your reply.  So here it goes:

• What is your favorite time period in U.S. history?  Why?  

 

• Do you think the importance of teaching social studies has declined in the last decade?  Why or why not?

Thanks for participating!

Non-Linear Power Points

Last week, students were responsible for creating a non-linear powerpoint for use in their own classrooms.  We visited Christy Keeler's website to gain an understanding on the background and use of these presentations in an educational setting. We viewed some of the samples and then created our own using the Warneka template.

I teach 4th grade social studies, so I used the template to create a museum on the Southeast Region of the United States. 

Interactive Timelines

The focus for the second week of class was interactive timelines.  The first site visited was myhistro.com.  Using this site, students had to create an interactive timeline.

The other site visited was meograph.com.  At meograph, members can create stories using images, videos, and narrations.   Students were responsible for viewing some of the stories and posting ideas on how this site could be used in the classroom. 

Interactive Games and Images

This week's assignment was a two-parter.  For the first part, students had to explore three websites and share their feedback on two of the three sites. The two sites I chose were icivics.org and mission-us.org.  


Icivics.org is an interactive website aimed at middle-school students covering civics topics, such as democracy, constitutional law, and the branches of government.  Visitors use interactive games to gain civic knowledge and awareness.




 At mission-us.org students, age 10 and up,  play interactive games to learn more about U.S. history. 






The second part of the assignment was for students to create a thinglink lesson and share it with the class.  The activity I chose was for Veterans Day, as the assignment was due the Sunday before the holiday.   Click on the image to view my thinglink.