History Teachers on Youtube

Check out this amazing Youtube channel for funny and educational videos that you can use in your classroom. Thanks to Kristi (http://krherbert.edublogs.org/) for sharing this with me!

The Heart of a Teacher

We Teach Who We Are

I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy. When my students and I discover uncharted territory to explore, when the pathway out of a thicket opens up before us, when our experience is illumined by the lightning-life of the mind—then teaching is the finest work I know.

But at other moments, the classroom is so lifeless or painful or confused—and I am so powerless to do anything about it that my claim to be a teacher seems a transparent sham. Then the enemy is everywhere: in those students from some alien planet, in that subject I thought I knew, and in the personal pathology that keeps me earning my living this way. What a fool I was to imagine that I had mastered this occult art—harder to divine than tea leaves and impossible for mortals to do even passably well!

**Read the rest at:

http://www.couragerenewal.org/parker/writings/heart-of-a-teacher

Canadian Social Studies Super Site!

www.ualberta.ca/~jkirman/

Follow the above link to an amazing resource for Canadian social studies teachers. You are welcome!

My Video Project

Video Review

EDCI 336 Melissa Lackey.egg on Aviary.

Here is my Podcast review of Andrew and Brandon's video found below:

Bringing Your Classroom Outside!

This website leaves Victoria area teachers with no excuses. Bring your students outside!

http://www.victoria.amongnature.net/search/

Adventures in Canadian Post-Secondary Education: Growing up digital

Adventures in Canadian Post-Secondary Education: Growing up digital

Check out this prof's blog about all things educational. This post talks about technology and today's students. Definitely worth a look!

Using Spreadsheets in the Social Studies Classroom

First off, here are the links to some of the resources I used for this blog post:

• http://www.internet4classrooms.com/excel_non-mathematical_uses.htm 
• The Pilgrim Timeline is an excellent example of a clear depiction of history that you can give to your students as a study aide. 

• http://www.angelfire.com/wi2/spreadsheet/SpreadsheetLessons#Equation 

• The "Chart the Population of your State from 1900 to today" activity can be modified for provinces or even communities in the Human Geography unit of Social Studies 11.

• http://www.ncwiseowl.org/kscope/techknowpark/FreeFall/Graphing.html
• This site provides an activity that would serve as a simple yet fun way of introducing spreadsheets to your class. They will learn how to use excel while getting to know their classmates better - maybe a good activity for the first week of class!

• http://www.microsoft.com/education/lessonplans.mspx#History/Social%20Studies
• An extensive list of lessons with Excel. Under "History/Social Studies" there are a number of fully developed lesson plans that would be great to use, such as "Track the life of a legislative bill," "Plan and take a virtual international field trip," "Plan and hold a food and globalization summit," "Making and reading maps in the 21st century," and "Design, administer, and analyze a generation gap survey."

Integration technological skills into your lesson plans is very valuable for your students. In all likelihood, they will need to use Excel at some point in their future lives and careers, so helping them to understand how to use it while not losing valuable time in teaching your actual subject area is great! Excel can be used in the Social Studies classroom in countless ways, including the following:

1.Have students use Excel to create and do a scavenger hunt for historical or geographical items in their community.

2. Have students provide/create data spreadsheets to compare global standards of living.

3. Have students use Excel to develop a timeline, pie chart, bar graph, etc. as part of exam review.

My Son is Gay

This lady's blog is amazing. It is so sad that this 5-year-old boy was faced with such discrimination and prejudice. As teachers we should be making sure these things never happen.

http://nerdyapplebottom.com/2010/11/02/my-son-is-gay/?ref=nf

Great Tech Assignment!

I will be doing my Spring practicum at Merivale High School in Ottawa, Ontario. Here is an amazing assignment that a grade 10 tech class did:
http://www.vimeo.com/16158212

Parks Canada Resources for Teachers

Just found this gem for Canadian geography teachers!

http://www.pc.gc.ca/apprendre-learn/prof/itm2-crp-trc/crp-trc1c_e.asp

Twitter, Facebook, and social activism: newyorker.com

Twitter, Facebook, and social activism: newyorker.com

Check out this link which talks about the "social networking revolution". Very interesting!

Photo editing with Picnik

Today we are learning how to edit photos for use in class as visual learning tools.

Here is the original photo of my farm in Ontario:

 Using Picnik, I applied the effects of Boost, 1960s, and several goofy stickers:

In my second attempt, I used Heat Map, Posterize, HSL Filter, and Crystallize to achieve a completely different effect:

Picnik will be a great tool to share with my students!
Next, I used Splashup. I applied Emboss, Add Noise, and then Invert to make it look like an old photo negative!

Twitter

While I can see the benefits of using Twitter as a distance education tool, I believe it is simply another technology used to avoid face-to-face communication. In a high-school classroom, where a major goal of teachers is to prepare their students for the "real world", I believe young people need MORE rather than LESS personal interaction. Students need to overcome their fears of voicing their opinions to their classmates. Plus, I feel that Twitter is capable of less than other social networking sites, therefore I feel that it is obsolete. I think actual discussion in the classroom is much more valuable. Sorry Twitter!

Thought-Provoking Image

Canadian Geography Links for Teachers

I thought I would make a list for geography as well. Hopefully you'll find these links useful!

Something for every age group from the popular magazine:
http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/

A pretty informative site:
http://www.yourcanada.ca/geography/

Natural Resources Canada (provides example test questions for any age group):
http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/auth/english/learningresources/quizzes/index.html

A cool competition with which to get your classes involved:
http://www.geochallenge.ca/geochallenge/default.asp

A great resource for teachers:
http://www.ccge.org/

Feel free to let me know of any others you might find!

Link to Canada History Game

Thanks to Lawrence here is a link to the first finished part of the game I blogged about last week. You can download and play for free. Enjoy!

http://www.historycanadagame.com/page.php?sid=42

Canadian History Links

This website provides a very detailed history of Canada which breaks things into eras and other categories that would be very useful for students to understand the various connections in history:
http://canadahistory.com/index.htm

This is the blog by the creators of the previous website:
http://canadahistory.org/

The source of the infamous "A People's History" videos:
http://www.cbc.ca/history/

An extensive resource for Canadian history including very useful and detailed timelines:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCETimeline

This site provides a list and description of a number of Canadian content movies that would be great in the classroom:
http://www.movingimages.ca/catalogue/Canhistory/Canhistory.html

A great site with links where students can learn about and discuss Canadian issues in new ways and with other young Canadians:
http://www.histori.ca/default.do?page=.index

One of my favourites, it gets young Canadians talking about  important issues:
http://fyicanada.ca/index.do

A good resource for older students:
http://historywire.ca/en/index

New Game Will Be An Excellent Resource for Canadian History Teachers!

Sir John A, a new computer game based on the popular game Civilization, is being developed by a group of students from Queen's University. When finished, the game will be an excellent tool for Canadian history teachers.

www.queensu.ca/sps/publications/op_eds/20090416_Press_re_Axworthy.pdf