This is a webpage written by high school teachers for those who teach US and comparative government and want to find online content as well as technology that you can use in the classroom.
I am stuck at home with two feet of snow, but thankful that I can still do my job as I have recently changed from a classroom teacher and chair to the eLearning Coordinator of our 4000 student, 53 course strong Online Campus.
To that end I have, as you might have noticed found some other to help continue my other blogs and have continued adding posts myself to them. But my new site - "eLearning Blog" is where I am putting anything related to learning online. You can also receive the posts using Google+ and/or following me on Twitter. Recent posts have included
Is another billionaire thinking about running for president?
Former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg retired from public life after leaving office in January 2014. Today, he runs the Bloomberg Philanthropies, where he works to encourage progress in a wide-range of fields such as the environment, public health, education, and the arts.
No response yet from Bloomberg on his Twitter feed. You can follow Mike Bloomberg on Twitter @MikeBloomberg.
Classroom Connection: Tweet or send a Remind notification about this story to your students. Ask them to write a one-page reflection analyzing the impact a Bloomberg candidacy could have on the campaigns of the announced candidates in both parties.
Digital Learning Day 2016 is Wednesday, 17 February. The event, sponsored by the Alliance for Excellent Education, is designed to showcase successful digital teaching and learning in our classrooms, and encourage all teachers to use innovative instructional technology to improve student outcomes. As the Alliance says,
"Digital Learning Day is not about technology, it's about learning."
You can plan a special activity or event for that day and register it for free on the Alliance's Digital Learning Day website. That website also has information about a contests and online resources. You can follow Digital Learning Day on Twitter @OfficialDLDay.
This video (2:23) from 2015 would be a good introduction to Digital Learning Day to share with your colleagues and administrators.
The graphic is in the form of the periodic table of the elements. Just like the real elements table, this graphic divides the best EdTech into color-coded categories like social networks, online learning, and hardware. They also use abbreviations just like the elements table, so Twitter is coded Tw, Dropbox is Db, and ISTE is Is.
Clicking on the graphic opens it into a pdf format for easy printing.
Kudos on the cleverness of the design. A suggestion for the future would be to make the graphic interactive, so that by hovering over and then clicking on a box would open a new window for that tool.
They say that they'll be updating the graphic several times a year. That's good to hear. You can follow DailyGenius @DailyGenius.
CIA, America's super-secret spy agency, has been on Twitter since the summer of 2014.
CIA's twitter feed is fun to follow. They tweet about artifacts from their museum. (CIA's museum is on its headquarters campus and is not open to the public, but it has a great webpage for those of us without super-top-secret, G14-classified security clearances.) They honor the memory of its agents who have lost their lives in the service of our country. They offer commentary and context to historical events, like this Dec. 7 tweet on Pearl Harbor.
The real reason I love CIA's feed, though, is that the tweeter(s?) has a sense of humor. This was how CIA announced to the world that it was on Twitter:
They followed that inaugural post with this Tweet:
The 2016 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner will be held on Sat., April 30. Mark your calendars now! You can watch the event live on C-SPAN starting sometime after 10pm eastern.
WHCA represents the White House press corps in its dealing with the administration on coverage-related issues. Every spring, they hold a black-tie dinner at a Washington, D.C., hotel that is attended most years by the President and First Lady. Unofficially, the event is called the "nerd prom." (Make sure to follow #NerdProm on Twitter that day; there's also a movie you can watch about the event that's actually called Nerd Prom: Inside Washington's Wildest Week). It's the one night where Washington's political establishment (members of the administration, elected officials, and the press) dress up in formal wear and rub elbows with Hollywood celebrities. (Full disclosure: I once saw a distant relative, a celebrity in the art world, attending a dinner years ago. That was very cool.)
After the dinner, the president makes formal remarks, as does an invited speaker. What makes this event so much fun is that the president's remarks are always filled with jokes (most often self-deprecating comments mixed with biting shots at rivals in both parties), and the invited speaker is a top-shelf comedian! Here's video of the remarks last year from President Obama (22:10) and from Cicely Strong (22:49), a Saturday Night Live cast member, who was the invited speaker.
This year's invited speaker is Larry Wilmore, host of Comedy Central's "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore."
Photo: Peter Yang/Comedy Central
I watch this event every year and the speeches are always entertaining and often hysterical. Watch the speeches live, then share and discuss with your students the following week.
Which online quiz-game platform do you use with your students?
Kahoot is very popular, and recently I've been experimenting with quizizz. Both are easy to use and engaging for students.
But I just recently learned of a new platform called Triventy.
I've been giving Triventy a test-drive over the break and have been favorably impressed. Creating a game is easy, the template for writing questions is straight-forward, you can add images to your questions, it has sound effects as you play, you can limit the time to answer each question, and it's easy to share your activities with your students. And did I mention that it's free?
My friend and teaching colleague George Coe (Twitter: @ggcoe) also adds that teachers can invite others (like our students) to write questions for a game. Great idea to increase student engagement.
How new is Triventy? As of this writing they have just 15 followers on Twitter. It's so new that there are no video tutorials yet. But here's a link to Triventy's very easy-to-read printed instructions.
I'm sure that Triventy's Twitter followers will grow and that more help materials will become available soon. You can follow Triventry on Twitter: @Triventy
Living in the nation's capital has afforded me some unique opportunities. For example the Dir of Ed Tech for the US Dept of Education spent a day in my classroom and, as a result, I got to meet (in a small group) with Arne Duncan. My students have also had the chance to meet with him on Digital Learning Day. I even ran into him at a local track while I was running with my son and he was playing basketball with his daughter.
I am teaming with several other teachers in my county on October 14th to have our students Tweet the Democratic debate at 9 pm on CNN. Here is how we do it:
We pick a hashtag which our students include in every post. It can be as simple as #schoolnamegovclass. Here is what we used last year (but aren't using Tuesday).
We require the students to make three comments during the debate and tell them that school rules apply (ie language, etc.). Our kids like to see that we are trending so they do far more comments (20-30) and stick around the entire debate. Our kids then have to take screenshots of their 3 comments and share in a Google Drive document.
The teachers teach! This means you might say that some candidates are already running very low on funds or that the polls are great, but the goal is to win delegates. Having more than one teacher in on the debate makes for a richer discussion.
I use TweetChat (which can be synced to your Twitter account) so I can see the comments from the other students and easily enter in my own. Assume the kids can see all of the comments and know how to follow the discussion. I also usually watch the debate/State of the Union on my laptop as well and split my screen as you can see from the video above.
What about the kids who don't have Twitter! I generally use an editable Google Drive document, but one option I am using TodaysMeet which lets you set up a Twitter like screen that does not require a login/password. We used it for the Republican debate and it was awesome and much better than using an editable document from Google Drive.
We find that the kids have a dynamic discussion during the debates (or the State of the Union) and can't pull themselves away from the screen (big or small).
We had another fun and successful Twitter debate. Above is short clip showing my view of it.
You can see it at #fcpsgov. The kids were polite and had lots of great comments and we had thousands of them. We also used TodaysMeet for the kids without Twitter as there is no sign in required for it. Here is our TodaysMeet feed.
If you want to use this as a teaching technique, go here.
I am teaming with several other teachers in my county on September 16th to have our students Tweet the Republican debate at 8 pm on CNN. Here is how we do it:
We pick a hashtag which our students include in every post. It can be as simple as #schoolnamegovclass. Here is what we used last year (but aren't using Wednesday).
We require the students to make three comments during the debate and tell them that school rules apply (ie language, etc.). Our kids like to see that we are trending so they do far more comments (20-30) and stick around the entire debate. Our kids then have to take screenshots of their 3 comments and share in a Google Drive document.
The teachers teach! This means you might say that some candidates (Rick Perry, for ex.) are already running very low on funds or that the polls are great, but the goal is to win delegates. Having more than one teacher in on the debate makes for a richer discussion.
I use TweetChat (which can be synced to your Twitter account) so I can see the comments from the other students and easily enter in my own. Assume the kids can see all of the comments and know how to follow the discussion. I also usually watch the debate/State of the Union on my laptop as well and split my screen as you can see from the video above.
What about the kids who don't have Twitter! I generally use an editable Google Drive document, but one option I am considering for next week is TodaysMeet which lets you set up a Twitter like screen that does not require a login/password.
We find that the kids have a dynamic discussion during the debates (or the State of the Union) and can't pull themselves away from the screen (big or small).
I think one thing textbooks do poorly is cover media - perhaps because it has changed so much in recent years. This is a great article on how the media is influencing Ben Carson's rise (thanks Frank Franz). It implies that if the media would back off Donald Trump, he would fall in the polls. But Trump has a press conference before each speech and is proving that there is no such thing as bad coverage.
Below are the dueling ads from Trump and Bush and here is Trump's Twitter feed which is interesting to say the least.
This coming Wednesday September 2nd I am going to try to get through a number of items in a one hour presentation at the FCPS Social Studies in-service during sessions A and B in room 447. I'll let the teachers decide where to start and then if don't finish everything, they (or you) can have this post to learn the rest. The goal is to meet your students in their world - online! We will look at:
how to create a video either for a flipped class. The video below explains the process and here is a more detailed one.
how to create a YouTube play list for one's flipped videos - be they your own or others.
how to use Twitter for class warm-ups and discussions. Below is a video on how you can follow a hashtag using TweetChat. Here is what it looks like to be in a live hashtag discussion that we used on our government classes last year.
how to use Quizlet for student review. Its power was proven to me when my own children found it on their own and started using it to prepare for assessments. The video below shows you the amazing features, from traditional flash cards to a multitude of games. Here is how you can make a Quizlet set of questions. Honestly I rarely make my own, but rather do a search and find one that suits my students and give the link to them.
how to use Blackboard Collaborate on snow days for my AP students and below is a video explaining the few features you need to know as a teacher to run such a class. If your district has access to it, it only takes 30 seconds to make you a shell. If you don't then here are alternatives you could consider using for free on a snow day. Below is a very informative video on all the tools you might want to use for snow day sessions or evening reviews.
Long ago I stopped putting my bookmarks on Explorer, Chrome, etc. as I didn't not want to be married to one laptop. Think about it. Your school laptop is re-imaged probably once a year and each time you have your bookmarks deleted. There is a way you can suck in your Chrome, Mozilla or Explorer So Diigo is a great way to save your bookmarks on the cloud. You can set up your own account or login using Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo.
Below this is a video explaining how to sign up and above is one showing how you can use groups in a class. If you use it with your students they do not have to have a Diigo account nor even share their email (although that allow them to be updated with alerts).
Richard Byrne and I started teaching a class together online tonight. One of the things we spoke about what using Twitter in your classroom. Several of the middle school teachers were understandably hesitant. So I suggested something we also use at Hayfield called TodaysMeet. The beauty about this site is that there is no login or password required for the kids. You can also set the time paramaters and share the link only with your students. It is can be used to have a discussion. You could use it if you want the students to watch something at home and have a live chat. Alternatively you could use it so students could carry on a conversation during a portion of a movie giving them some active participation skills. Believe me they are used to using two devices at once and will find this easy to do.
Long ago I stopped putting my bookmarks on Explorer, Chrome, etc. as I didn't not want to be married to one laptop. Think about it. Your school laptop is re-imaged probably once a year and each time you have your bookmarks deleted. There is a way you can suck in your Chrome, Mozilla or Explorer So Diigo is a great way to save your bookmarks on the cloud. You can set up your own account or login using Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo.
Below this is a video explaining how to sign up and above is one showing how you can use groups in a class. If you use it with your students they do not have to have a Diigo account nor even share their email (although that allow them to be updated with alerts).
Most people who teach and AP course know that Trevor Packer is the head honcho for all AP subjects. If you follow him on Twitter he will Tweet when the College Board has released the FRQs for your subject. Laster in the summer (late July) he will release the statistics on each exam such as passing percentage, percentage of 5s, 4s and more.
I really enjoy the way the Internet works. I just finished watching a movie with my girls and now that they are headed to bed, I just checked Twitter and found a new follower on my account by named Mr Koz who in turn led me to Glenn Wiebe both of whom had posted on Kahoot. That made me wonder if Richard Byrne had posted on it and sure enough he just did a few days ago.
So what is Kahoot. It is a bit like PollEverywherewhich I have posted on in the past which lets you put up questions in front of your classroom using your LCD and your students can answer quick review questions using any Internet connected device.
The difference here is that students compete against others in the classroom
they can use any name they want
do not have to give anything other than that)
you can take other people's quizzes and use them as well.
This is a fantastic Economist article (with lots of graphics), on the postponement of the elections in Nigeria (ironically we were going to start Nigeria in class on about the same day of the elections). Right now it looks like Christian southern President Goodluck Jonathan would lose, but as this article argues, with more time and much more resources he might pull ahead of Northern Islamic candidate General Muhammadu Buhari.
By the way, rather than check the Economist each day, I just look at my Economist Twitter feed to quickly see what comparative government articles there are.
To say you should take your current PowerPoints and break them down into segments of video for your students would be to miss the point. You might want to first think of what is going to be done in class and then make a flipped video of the background needed to prepare for that work. If, for example, you were looking at William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, you might want to give students an exercise looking at the main points that Golding was trying to make and his view of our society. These would be tough questions that students might need assistance in understanding. A flipped video on Golding’s life and how he was led to his beliefs and subsequent writing of the book, would be a good topic for your video. This video could even include the short clip found online of Golding’s thoughts on his well known book.
Once you have your lesson and the video idea ready, you will need to line up what
you need for the flipped overview. I usually include a few Presentation slides since written words often help student comprehension. I also have additional tabs set up on my browser. Perhaps a very short clip from theLord of the Flies movie might enhance your presentation as would a picture of Golding. Once these assets are set up, it makes it easy to move through the parts of the video remembering that it is okay to have bloopers as students seem to like it when their teachers appear more human in a video. Adding in personal touches also make the videos more interesting for your students. My own children have all had cameos in my instructional videos as have the family pets!
Flipping, though, does not need to be limited to teachers. If administrators truly want to initiate a flipped school, they need to model the practice. If teachers are watching the videos, then students aren’t either and administrators need to learn how to maximize watching so as to work with teachers and students to do the same. How many times has a school started a new initiative and had training sessions. Why not give people the option of watching a short video instead. What about an opening day speech when teachers would prefer to be working on lesson plans. Have them watch a 10 minute video (or shorter) and answer key questions, much as teachers would want their students to do. Modeling the practice over and over is the best way to sell flipping to your teachers.
It is important to note that it is okay to use videos from other educators as long as they fit your needs. Use your Twitter/Google+/Google search engines to look for flipped videos on your topic. Ask your Twitter followers for recommendations or send a message to someone with a large Twitter following and see if they can help point you in the right direction. There is a growing library of short videos on the Internet that you can add to your digital library by bookmarking them for later use.
Want to learn how to make a flipped video, get more guidance on where to find flipped videos or even how to use Twitter to benefit your teaching, then you might want to buy.
Below is a flipped video I created on essay writing so my students could do the hard part (ie write the essay) in class.
This site is maintained by: Ken Halla (kenhalla@gmail.com); Jeff Feinstein (hxblog431@gmail.com), Rich Hoppock (richhoppock@gmail.com) and Summer Johnson (summer.johnson1@gmail.com)
![](<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6eIlPKvkU2I/TlqhssnGzcI/AAAAAAAAB3c/bXB7oCUuB5I/s1600/cover_thumb_paletz.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6eIlPKvkU2I/TlqhssnGzcI/AAAAAAAAB3c/bXB7oCUuB5I/s1600/cover_thumb_paletz.png" /></a></div> I have been waiting for <a href="http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog/editions/378">this e-book</a> for three months since fellow blogger Frank Franz (Pantherfan) told me about it. It is an entirely free AP book complete with pictures and loads as quickly as others out there. It is put out by Flat Knowledge. If nothing else I would tell your students about it for an additional resource. </div>)
