What is democracy - or what am I doing to start off the year?

Next week I will meet my AP Government students. The first day we will get to know each other and then for homework I will give them the top video (no reading the first night).  We will then begin class by answering any questions they may have (using a Google form) and then they will take a short quiz (very straight forward) during which they can use their notes.

Then in class we will read the Hauss e-book definition of democracy which is a five part discussion.  His definition is partly on pages 27-30.  Each student will take notes and in small groups they will discuss the five items to make sure they have understood the concepts and I will move around between the groups to help out.

With that definition in mind I will want my students to tell me if what is happening with algorithms is good or not. The Filter Bubble is a very interesting book two summers ago.  The author makes a great argument for the filtering of Facebook, Google, etc. and how we are limiting what we are seeing which follows the reasoning of The Big Sort.  Combined (and I will show the short video above to describe the "filter bubble") the two make the argument that we are self selecting into groups of people just like ourselves, which is why you end up with a House of Representatives that generally only gets 40 competitive elections each election and is that good for democracy?  This will re-enforce what the term is and make my students consider if they like the impact of outside online resources on their lives.   By the way if you want a search engine that does not consider your personal needs, you can use Duckduckgo.  Use it alongside Google and look at the differences. 

How to Start Your Students on the Flipped Experience

So yesterday when George Coe and I were teaching how to flip, Frank Franz was sitting on the sidelines and occasionally answering questions.  One of the best questions was how do you get your students to accept the concept of flipping.  Well Frank is more than on top of this as he has a Google Sites page you will want to check out as well as a video for students to be introduced to the concept as well as parents (above).  But it is better than that as Frank is flipping his back to school night (in VA we have the parents come in and meet the teachers for 10 minutes).   So Frank (and I this year) are e-mailing our parents our flipped video and then giving them a Google form for their questions.  Then, for the 10 minutes we see them will give go over the questions and additional ones that come up so the parents can actually experience what their kids are doing in class.   Frank is also doing standards based learning this year which he also explains in the video. 

Relevant Activity for Constitution Day!

Speaker Boehner sent this letter to President Obama about possible military action in Syria. Good for a primary source analysis and a discussion of checks and balances & separation of powers.
goo.gl/nH1MRq 

Intro Video for Students on Flipping

Today George Coe, Frank Franz and I did a presentation on flipping the classroom.  One question that always comes up is how do the students receive the idea if they have never done it before.  Frank actually has his students watch a flipped classroom introductory video and then uses a Google form to answer their questions in class.  What I find is that all students like how they can "control" the teacher by stopping the video and going back and forth.  Having said that AP/IB students are the ones most likely to give a little flak, but the majority are on board from the get go. 

Take My Technology Integration Course

I will be teaching the fifth version of my technology integration course with Fairfax County Public Schools this fall.  We will learn about such items as webquests, pacing your students individually using technology, flipping the classroom, using electronic textbooks, collaborating online, how to use Google Drive and lots more in a ten week course.  You can get more details here on page 43.  To sign up go to MyPLT (if you need help go to page 76) and put either the title or just a few words from the title or even e-mail me and I can add you to the class.  The deadline for signing up is this coming Monday (Labor Day).

The class will be on Thursdays from 4:30 to 7ish at Woodson.  It is free to FCPS employees, but if you live in the areas and are not in FCPS you can take it, but you have to pay for it (page 9).  The class fills up quickly in the fall, so if you are interested I would sign up sooner rather than later.  If you have questions, please e-mail me at ken.halla@fcps.edu. 

VoiceThread, Blackboard Blogs and Discussion Boards

I was part of a group this summer that is came up with lesson plans and ideas for VoiceThread.  VoiceThead is a collaborative tool used to have students comment on a picture, PowerPoint or document. One can comment by typing, using your cell phone, talking or even video recording.  It is a good way to have an asynchronous discussion with your class.  Perhaps you want to get their opinion on a recent event in the US or the world or you want them to provide additional research.

Here are 26 interesting ways to use VoiceThread in the classroom and here is a great introduction page with lots of links for teachers.  Here (and above) is VoiceThread's how to page with lots of written how to sheets complete with pictures to guide you through the process.  On top is a VoiceThread on pictures from the Great Depression.

Here is our outline sheet along with multiple links to different VoiceThread items.  We also have how to create a Blackboard Blog and Discussion Board as those are other ways to use student collaboration in the classroom. 

Using Google Drive in Your Classroom

One of my former teacher-students, Amanda Lombardi has been proving for a long time that special education students are great for using technology in the classroom (and this year I am going to prove that with ESOL kids).  Tomorrow she is doing an in-service for our county on using Google Drive documents and PowerPoints (Google calls them Presentations).

Here is Amanda's e-sheet on creating a document and here is one on sharing documents.  Here is how you create a Google Drive Presentation (PowerPoint).

The video above gives you an overview of the different things you can do in Google Drive and this video tells you how to have your students turn in assignments and grade them and this one tells you how to link it to Blackboard. 

How to Use Prezis

Jason van Cassell is doing an in-service for social studies teachers tomorrow on how to use Prezi.  Prezis are a cool alternative to PowerPoints.  I like them best as they force the creator to think about a more enticing PowerPoint that can add items such as video, documents, pdfs, pictures and do some interesting maneuvers. Above is a short introductory tutorial and here are others to do more advanced things such as importing from a PowerPoint and creating a Prezi collaboratively.

Here is Jason's how-to e-sheet on creating a Prezi.  Here is one on how to upload a PowerPoint into it and finally here is how to register for a Prezi. 

Remind 101

When I speak to groups Remind101 is one of the items that gets the best reception.  It allows teachers to text willing (they have to sign up themselves) students and parents to receive homework reminders.  I usually set it so that students receive it around 6 pm when I know they are home.  I also suggest that students use a name such as "K Halla" and that parents go by "Mr. Halla."

Above is a video made by Matt Levi who took my teacher class on integrating technology two years ago.  If you work in FCPS schools you can sign up for it too.  Look for "Enhancing the Social Studies Class with Technology" in the Academy listing.

Next week Matt will be giving a presentation to other teachers using the PowerPoint below. 

When I speak to groups Remind101 is one of the items that gets the best reception.  It allows teachers to text willing (they have to sign up themselves) students and parents to receive homework reminders.  I usually set it so that students receive it around 6 pm when I know they are home.  I also suggest that students use a name such as "K Halla" and that parents go by "Mr. Halla."

Above is a video made by Matt Levi who took my teacher class on integrating technology two years ago.  If you work in FCPS schools you can sign up for it too.  Look for "Enhancing the Social Studies Class with Technology" in the Academy listing.

Next week Matt will be giving a presentation to other teachers using the PowerPoint below. 

Quizlet and PollEverywhere

Kim Belknap is doing a presentation for our social studies in-service later this week on PollEverywhere which allows the teacher to quiz students using a phone (doesn't have to be a smartphone) or a laptop.  Above is how you do it.  Kim has also created a how-to sheet here.

Another way to quiz students is using Quizlet which lets students create flashcards for smartphones or laptops or you can use the many ones others have created.  Just search for your topic and your type of test.

Quizlet for Teachers from Quizlet on Vimeo.

John Green and US health care costs

John Green does a lot of videos on US and world history, but here is one you might like to describe the cost of health care in the US.  

How to do a Webquest

Sarah Olson does a great job of integrating technology into the classroom and is doing a presentation on how to a webquest with your class at our county's August in-service.  Webquests are a great way to have the students learn the information in a hands-on approach and very much go with flipped learning.

Sarah took my class a few years ago. During the class one of the things teachers will develop is a webquest. If you are interested go to page 43 and sign-up starting August 19th at 4 pm.  The class will be Thursdays at Woodson from 430 to 730 pm starting 19th. 

March on Washington

This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and MLK's "I have a dream" speech (with scenes of marching).  Most of your government students know about MLK Jr's speech, but few know that it was a way of showing massive support (or trying to force fence sitting southern US senators and representatives) for JFK's Civil Rights legislation.  Of course the Civil Rights Act (1964) did not pass until LBJ was president.

Above is a short (4:31) interesting 60 minutes interview with MLK where is discusses why he favors peaceful demonstrations.

John Hiltz sent me the video below of people marching on DC in August 1963 (two months before I was born!).  Here are some personal recollections you could use with your students.

For those of you who like old "clippings," here is the NYTimes from August 29th and here is the WashPost. 

Fakebook and FakeTweet

If you follow this blog, you know I like Fakebook and FakeTweet which allows students to create facsimiles of Facebook and Twitter without having to create a login/password.  Above is a video on how to create a Fakebook page.

On our county in-service next week Karen Kratz and Katherine Lorio is going to teach a class on how to create both items.

Here is a written tutorial that she created for teachers and here is the assignment she wrote up for her students.  Finally here is what she gives her students to explain how to create a Fakebook post.

For FakeTweet, Katherine and Karen have created this document to explain how to use it.
Below is a Matt Levi video on how to create a FakeTweet.  Here is what she gives her students to help create the FakeTweet account and here is her example.

Online US Government e-Textbook

Years ago I worked with a group that was trying to get interactive textbooks up and free online.  We managed to get the textbook up, but not the funding.  But, for those of you who want to share a great e-textbook with your students, here is our US government textbook.  I have my students use it as another resource, esp when their main one goes down a couple of times a year. 

Twitter for Your PLN

During our first week of school  (not until next week) I am doing a presentation about Professional Learning Networks to other teachers in my county.  I am going to focus on Twitter.  So to start off on top above is how to set up a Twitter account and below that is a great video on how to use Twitter (no, it has nothing to do about getting married).  I would suggest your watching it as it tells you how to do everything you'd want to do in Twitter such as set sending Tweets, direct messaging someone, following lists, getting help and on and on.  If you prefer seeing it all written out, here is a great set of written instructions and below is a summary of them:

To see everyone you are following (and your own Tweets), hit the “Home” button.  If you want to see your own Tweet, tap on the “Me” link.  If you want to see if people are enjoying and passing on your Tweets, go to “@Connect.”  If you hit “#Discover,” an algorithm will promptly deliver you some people on Twitter to follow.  When you are in the “Home” tab, just below your picture it says “Compose new Tweet.”  

Secondly we are going to look at lists of educators to follow.
Ken Halla @kenhalla
Cool Cat Teacher @letytijerina
We Are Teachers @WeAreTeacher
Larry Ferlazzo @LarryFerlazzo
Eric Sheninger @NMHS_Principal
Richard Byrna @rmbryne
Shelly Terrell @ShellTerrell

Next we are going to look at how to set up a hashtag and how to use it in class.  As you might remember from my posts, my students have Tweeted the election returns, State of the Union, presidential debates and reviewed for the exams using hashtags.  Below is a list of hashtags you might want to follow.  Some other useful ones are #SSChat (social studies), #HistoryTeacher and #GeographyTeacher.  To find a hashtag, type in the # symbol plus the name in the search engine in Twitter and the conversation will appear.  If you want to be really blown away go here for the 300 most popular hashtags for educators.
Educational Chats: #edchat, #schools, #lrnchat, #TT (Teacher Tuesday), #GlobalEd
Technology Chats: #edtech, #elearning, #mlearning (mobile learning), #edapps, #gbl (games based learning), #islide2learn (iDevices & learning), #vitalcpt (effective use of tech in the classoom)

If you want to both follow a hashtag and Tweet at the same time, I'd suggest you use TweetChat.  Below is a video on how to use it.  

Nixon Tapes: Recent Release

Washington Post reporters discuss the recent release of more Nixon tapes in this five minute clip.

Take My Technology Integration Course

I will be teaching the fifth version of my technology integration course with Fairfax County Public Schools this fall.  We will learn about such items as webquests, pacing your students individually using technology, flipping the classroom, using electronic textbooks, collaborating online and lots more in a ten week course.  You can get more details here on page 43.  To sign up go to MyPLT (if you need help go to page 76) and put either the title or just a few words from the title or even e-mail me and I can add you to the class.

The class will be on Thursdays from 4:30 to 7ish at Woodson.  It is free to FCPS employees, but if you live in the areas and are not in FCPS you can take it, but you have to pay for it (page 9).  The class fills up quickly in the fall, so if you are interested I would sign up sooner rather than later.  If you have questions, please e-mail me at ken.halla@fcps.edu. 

Due Process: Justice Breyer:

Studying due process? Here's Justice Breyer discussing the concept at Rutger's University. Thanks to Joe Taraborrelli for the link.  

White House Visitor Database

If you want to see how many and who comes to the White House, here is the official log.  It might be fun if you put some celebrities (Michael Jordan, for example) and see who you can find.  If you put in "Ken Halla," you will see I had the good fortune of taking my family last summer.  

40 Ways to Use Google Apps

Great presentation on ways to use Google apps. Saw it here on edgalaxy who writes that it was created by Becky Evans. There are some great ideas even for those of us who know a lot about Google.

Short Flipping Tutorial

At the end of the month, George Coe and I are co-presenting on flipping the classroom.

Below is the PowerPoint we will be using.  The hardest thing to do is to cut what you want to lecture to ten or fewer minutes.   To create the lecture watch the video above and then either use some PowerPoint slides or line up some slides, pictures, and slides on different tabs on your Internet page and then start your video.  Once the kids have watch the video, you will want them to be able to ask questions.  They can do it via Google Drive forms which you can learn by going here.  Then during class you will need to come up with an activity that is on the higher end of Bloom's taxonomy where the students can get help from each other and/or you.

Finally here is an example of a flipped video, the actual Google form we used and the interactive assignment that followed in class. 

Keith "Hip" Hughes Flipped Videos

We discuss flipping a lot on this discussion on this blog on newer ways to teach including flipping the classroom.  If you want a huge archive (221) of short history and government videos, go to Keith's YouTube page. 

Colbert's Super PAC Definition

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Colbert PAC - Trevor Potter
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Colbert Super PAC - Trevor Potter
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

These are the only things you need to show when you do super PACs.  For those of you flipping, this could be your at home video.  

Twitter and Electoral Returns

This is a fascinating piece that came out in the WashPost two days ago where four professors predicted the electoral returns of 404 of 406 House races in 2012 using mentions on Twitter for their predictor.  They threw out any races where there was no opponent (hence there are not 435) and used the normal socio economic factors for the independent variables (dependent is the margin of winning percentage).   Here is the draft of the as yet unpublished paper.  While it goes to say that traditional electoral forecasting is over, it does mention that you will still need it to gauge how races are going.  Whether you buy this, with microtargeting it is certainly an interesting time to be teaching electoral returns (wish AP and state exams reflected these items). 

Remind 101

I have been using Remind101 since its conception two+ years ago to text my students their homework assignments.  What I have learned is that kids do not do their homework mostly because they forget, not because they don't want to.  Remind101 is not only a new sponsor of this blog, but it is incredibly simple.  If my students (and most do by the second week of school) decide to sign up then I tell them to use their first initial and last name and ask the parents (and lots of them sign up as well) to use Mr/Mrs/Ms/Dr so I can tell whether it is a student or parent.  The only pitfall is that if I forget to text students a lot of them forget their work the next day.  

Welcome to the Teacher Blogs

Welcome to the US Government Teachers' Blog.  It and the World History Teachers' and US History Teachers' blogs have been around for 5-1/2 years now and have 4200 posts between them and 65,000+ pageviews a month.  If you are new to the site know that 2/3rds of the posts have been content which you can find by going to the search engine in the upper right and putting in a topic.  The rest are posts on how to use technology in the classroom.  If you have sites that you think we should know about, please contact me at kenhalla@gmail.com. 

Cloture and Its History

Thanks to Rich Hoppock for this very short vido on cloture from the Washington Post

Nixon before Resignation and Full Speech

Here is President Nixon rehearsing his resignation speech for about five minutes. The actual speech follows. Michael Beschloss tweeted this broadcast outake.

CNN Student News

As the near year gets close for most of you (my summer students just finished today and the fall ones don't start until the first full week of September) you might want to show CNN Student News to your students.  It airs every school day during the year and is a quick review of the previous day's news. 

Differentiation

For the last few days I have been working with a colleague (Jessica McHie) on coming up with ways to differentiate in the classroom.  Here is the e-sheet that we developed complete with lots of links.  I plan on starting the year with asking my department to test our students on reading level and learning type.  The students will then put their responses in a Google Form so we can look at it during the school year to evaluate the best type of learning for the students.  All of that is on the e-sheet and if you wanted to present it to a group, you could use the PowerPoint above. 

NEA Article on My Class Using Smartphones

The blogs made the National Education Association's site today.  Specifically I was asked about my use of smartphones in the classroom.  If you want some ideas (beyond what I have here on the blogs which you can find by using the search tool), please go to the article. My principal is actually doing a great thing this year as all students can use their phones anywhere in the building except in the classroom where they have to get permission (and yes my kids have them out all the time). 

Bloom's Taxonomy According to the Pirates of the Caribbean

Granted these ancillaries are for the old Bloom's, but they still can work if you are trying to explain the levels and want other educators to understand.  Above is Bloom's according to the Pirates of the Caribbean.  Here it is according to Seinfeld and if you are my age, here it is according to the Andy Griffith show. 

WeVideo Tutorials

If you follow this blog on a regular basis you know that I am a fan of WeVideo as it is a cloud based collaborative video making site.  Think of the problems you encounter when you have your students make a video on Microsoft's Movie Maker or even when your students make one on their Apple computer's iMovie since they can't work with others at the same time and have to be in the same location.  Well WeVideo eliminates that problem so you can do it on any Internet device (Android app, iTunes app).  What I really like is that they now have a YouTube site that has all of their tutorials in one place.   Lastly WeVideo can be an app used with Google Drive so all your videos can be stored and shared from that account. 

Budget Game

This is a couple of years old, but it still works when you do the federal budget with your students.  This interactive game is one I found on the NYTimes.  Yes, they will be expected to do what Congress and the president can't accomplish! 

Most Hit Posts from July

It is ironic that all of you are heading back in a week or so and I still have three weeks to go for teachers in my county to return and four for students.  At any rate, here are the most hit posts for July.

• How a bill becomes a law (see above).
• The Stock Market game which lets your students invest and gain money in real stocks
• Citations Made Easy which is done by EasyBib and will be loved by your students. 

How to Flip from Keith Hughes

Last week I asked Keith Hughes if he would consider coming up with a video of how to flip from the definitions to how to to create his own videos.  What he came up with in just three days is great.  Thanks Keith.  

No Red Ink

Yesterday I took part in a webinar with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. One of the panelists was Jeff Scheur who taught for eight years before creating NoRedInk which lets students play games to improve their grammar and writing.  If you (or English teachers in your school) are so moved, you can also use the site to tailor games for your students.  It begins by asking 10 questions about each student (teachers can get a code so no student has to sign up) and then games are tailored to these interests.