WWI Online Games…

I have shared a few of these WWI online simulations and games before.  Enjoy!

Trench Warfare Game

Over the Top (Canadian Perspective)

Warfare 1917

Trench Mission

The Western Front Simulation

World War When?

The Great War

Dogfight Aces

The Red Baron 1918

Historical Videos on YouTube…

Two sites on YouTube offer thousands of historical videos…

AP Archive “AP Archive is the film and video archive of The Associated Press, one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering.

View AP Archive’s videos via this channel – the collection offers 1.7 million global news and entertainment video stories, which date back to 1895. ”

British Movietone “British Movietone is arguably the world’s greatest newsreel archive, spanning the period 1895 to 1986.

Discover British Movietone’s newsreel archive, which contains many of the world’s enduring images and is rich in coverage of news events, celebrities, sports, music, social history, science, lifestyle and quirky, via this channel.”

 

“The Vietnam War Like You’ve Never Seen it Before…”

Interesting article at CNN.com on the propaganda art of the Vietnam War.  Great teaching resource for this time period… (See link below)

Art of war: Propaganda posters paint a different picture of Vietnam

“Toys as Teaching Machines”

Great article at hackeducation.com on the history of the Speak & Spell…

World War I Online Teaching Resources…

With the centennial of World War I there are several online resources and articles that can assist educators and students in teaching and learning about a very pivotal time in history.  The following are links to several resources I have been collecting and creating as of late…

Articles

How a century-old war affects you (series of articles…this is a link to Part 1)

How World War I gave us ‘cooties’ (Part 2)

The ‘bionic men’ of World War I (Part 3)

ISIS caliphate shows still no end to WWI (Part 4)

The mighty women of World War I (Part 5)

How toxic weapons killed 90,000 (Part 6)

After war atrocities, who must pay? (Part 7)

World War I’s broken promise (Part 8)

How World War I gave birth to the modern (Part 9)

When the flu wiped out millions (Part 10)

Why words don’t work for war’s horrors (Part 11)

The man who started WWI:  7 things you didn’t know

Photos:  WWI chemical weapons

Video:  Three unexpected things from WWI

Photos:  The ‘golden age’ of postcards

Video – World War I:  American Legacy

In 2014, countries are still paying offf debt from World War One

Where Americans Turned the Tide in World War I

This Week in World War I, Nov. 1-7, 1914

How a war started Daylight Savings Time

Remembering forgotten veterans of World War I

Final Tower of London poppy ‘planted’ on Armistice Day

World War I in Photos – The Atlantic

The Art of WWI in 52 Paintings

WWI site offers hints of J.R.R. Tolkien

Resources

Hokanson’s American History WWI

Tutorials
World War I Cloze Activity – Popups

http://www.quia.com/cz/455972.html

World War I Cloze Activity – (Fill in the Blank)

http://www.quia.com/cz/456001.html

World War I Vocabulary

http://www.quia.com/jg/2433958.html

World War I Hangman (Hints)

http://www.quia.com/hm/873116.html

World War I Hangman (No Hints)

http://www.quia.com/hm/873421.html

World War I Jumbled Words

http://www.quia.com/jw/481171.html

World War I Challenge Board

http://www.quia.com/cb/826588.html

World War I Section 1 Rags to Riches

http://www.quia.com/rr/1026246.html

World War I Section 2 Rags to Riches

http://www.quia.com/rr/1026261.html

World War I Section 3 Rags to Riches

http://www.quia.com/rr/1026273.html

World War I Section 4 Rags to Riches

http://www.quia.com/rr/1026321.html

World War I Section 5 Rags to Riches

http://www.quia.com/rr/1026336.html

World War I Battleship

http://www.quia.com/ba/587142.html

Living History – The North Platte Canteen Lives On…

My intervention/enrichment students have been involved in an activity/service project gathering supplies to be placed in care packages for troops stationed around the world.  We are utilizing Operation Shoebox as our vehicle to meet this goal.  As we studied WW II, we spent some time learning about the North Platte Canteen that served 6 million troops snacks, drinks, and goodies on train stops while passing through North Platte.  My students wanted to help this idea live on, and North Platte teenagers are once again helping to brighten our service people’s days.

Read an article from the North Platte Telegraph here…

Read an article from KNOP news here…

A Tale of Two Cows…

by kylatomdesign.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.

Periodic Table of the New Deal

Click here Periodic Table of the New Deal for an interactive view of FDR’s programs during the Great Depression.

The Legend of The Oregon Trail (Mental Floss…)

Great read on the educational game The Oregon Trail @ Mental Floss: http://mentalfloss.com/article/51930/legend-oregon-trail

So, where have you been?

It has been quite some time since I last posted here at HIT.  Since returning to the classroom last fall I have been busy educating the youth of America, at least those that set foot in Room 100 at Adams Middle School.  Our journey together is almost finished in terms of the school year, and we have some evidence to show for it online.  Our American History site can be found at oxpower.org in all its glory.  There are several student projects shared on the home page for your viewing pleasure.  The resources that we use on a daily basis are found mostly via the “Agenda” links in the right hand column, and here you can see all sorts of practice that has been going on on a daily basis.  I hope my students are ready to go to the high school.  I feel like they are getting there, but I also know it will be a whole new “ballgame” for them.  I think they are ready for high school social studies…

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 19,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 4 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

“61-year-old Computer Springs to Life…” (CNN)

Read more here…

History, statistics, and datasets (some resources)…

Interdisciplinary…is it a goal, a state of education, an action?  As I contemplate my new history course and the awesome math teacher I will collaborate with (Mr. Dan Smith), I am working my mind to find ways to accentuate math throughout the ages and to show how data is an important historical tool that tells great and interesting tales. In this process, I want to share an example of what I am getting at and some data resources that one can utilize with students to inspire their search for truth through data.

The following is a video clip of an older piece from Hans Rosling:  200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes:  a great example of combing data and history…

The next items are links to data resources that may be useful (in no particular order)…

Stat Planet http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/map/

KML Factbook http://www.kmlfactbook.org/#&db=ciafb&table=undefined&col=undefined&

Knoema http://knoema.com/

Many Eyes http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/

Data First http://www.data-first.org/

2011 in 11 Graphs http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/2011-in-11-graphs/2011/12/22/gIQA0HWJMP_gallery.html#photo=1

The Joy of Stats Video 200 Countries, 200 Years in 4 minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo&feature=player_embedded

Gapminder http://www.gapminder.org/

Google Think Insights http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/insights/

Google Public Data Finder http://www.google.com/publicdata/directory

2010 Census Data http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/

Find The Best http://www.findthebest.com/

Policy Map http://www.policymap.com/maps

Where Americans are Moving http://www.forbes.com/special-report/2011/migration.html

Social Studies Project Based Learning Idea: History A to Z

In getting ready for a return to the middle school social studies classroom I have been considering projects I might start off with.  One I call “History A to Z.”  I see this as a beginning of the school year project to get students thinking about history, in a way where they can embed technology in the process, and to find out what social studies and technology skills they bring to my classroom (a diagnostic project if you will).

Students first would come up with words starting with letters of the alphabet and then find historical pictures that would match up with the words.  Students could use Photo Story 3, Windows Live Movie Maker, iMovie, iPhoto, or any digital photo storytelling program to piece together a sort of historical slideshow.  The slideshow could even be a personal history with pictures from their own lives to place another twist on it.

An extension of this project, that can be collaborative, would be teaching the importance of copyright, citing information, design, and you could even have students add narration to the story.  There are always many variations with a project like this, and that is why I like to provide students with an opportunity to try them.  The following is an example I put together…

Enjoy!

I’m only a teacher…

Five years ago I moved to North Platte, Nebraska to take a position as the educational technology director for the North Platte Public Schools.  I had taught for 13 years prior to that as a high school and middle school social studies teacher.  Upon my arrival in North Platte I soon found a lot of opposition to embedding technology into the learning process.  One of the first school board meetings I attended I heard one gentleman accuse me of being “only a teacher.”

What a great compliment!  That phrase sticks in my mind, and I couldn’t be more proud to be called such a name.  My career as a teacher has led me to many places and on adventures with many great educators and students.  I now go back to the classroom to teach, to work with students, to feel like what I am doing is worth something.  Worth more than gold or riches.  Teaching is a profession that literally reaches into the future.

I am a teacher, a great teacher.  If only everyone would be…