Michael Beschloss talks Tweets with Johnathan Karl

Michael Beschloss talks with Johnathan Karl about his tweeter feed--what he tweets, and why he tweets the pictures he tweets. They actually discuss some of the images he posts.  You can follow Bescholss on twitter at @BeschlossDC

Print from I Pad or Android

Printing from your phone or I Pad is not easy, and often not possible.  You need Google Cloud Print or Airprint. Not any more!  New software for Android and IOS devices allows you to print on any printer or copier to which your computer is connected.

For your I Pad or I Phone, Presto, which you can download from Colobros software allows you to print to any printer on your network. You download the software onto your computer and then your devices automatically find  printers on your computer.  You don't have to install anything on your device, only your computer. My I Pad found my home printer and all the printers and copiers at school.   I tested it with a webpage on my I Pad.  Printing worked like a charm.   

For an Android device, you need ThinPirnt. You have to register and create an account and then ask the program to connect your printer.  You also need to install the app on your device.  I tested it with my Samsung phone.  I went to a picture on my gallery and clicked share and "Print with ThinPirnt." It also worked like a charm.

 Here is a full review of Presto and ThinPrintfrom All Things Digital.

Simulation for Being Poor

Robert Nolan sent me a great e-mail yesterday chalk full with lots of ideas for those of you who teach economics and personal finance.  I am going to feature some of his items over the next couple of weeks.  The first one is PlaySpent which has you pretend that you are down on your luck with no job and throws various life situations at you.  For example you see a few ads in the paper for low end jobs, should you also opt for insurance, then how will you afford rent and food and so on.  I had the good fortune of having grown up with a number of poor people around me (in Iran) and in a very very nice neighborhood in Paris, but not all our kids have those kinds of extremes so this might help the ones without the poorer upbringing see how tough it can be for some.  

San Francisco High School Teens Interview Last WWI Veteran

San Francisco history teacher, Frank Mazzi, and students from his elective history course on World War 1, scored an interview they will never forget. They traveled from San Francisco to West Virginia to interview the 107 year-old WWI veteran, Frank Buckles. He is the last surviving veteran of that war. The San Francisco Chronicle has a great two-page story about the interview, which they say the Library of Congress now wants.

It's a great story and shows, as Bill Chapman notes, that teachers are amazing. My thanks to Bill for tweeting the link to the story.

Investopedia (Wikipedia for Stock Market Questions)

This summer I am teaching a fairly new course to VA called Economics & Personal Finance.  In teaching it I am finding new items for those of you who teach it in your state or who teach it as part of government.  Here is a site called Investopedia which is like Wikipedia except that it also has videos.  For example here is one on elasticity.  

Voice Thread

I am working with a group this summer that is coming 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 is VoiceThread's how to page with lots of written how to sheets complete with pictures to guide you through the process. 

The Whipple Report for Political Junkies

I wonder if other states are so lucky as I am to have an aggregation of all political stories e-mailed out each morning as those of us are in VA.   Theoretically (and many teachers do not follow it), VA teachers are supposed to teach state as well as local government sometimes during the year.  One of the best ways is to go to the link and sign up for the report and then watch it very closely during Jan/Feb when the legislature is in session and in Oct/Nov of odd years when the House of Delegates (in 2013) and the state senate (2015 since they have four year terms) are up for election and especially this year since VA has the only real gubernatorial race in the country (unless you think Chris Christie will have a real challenger).  While you are at it, here is a nice article on the founder of the morning report, Tom Whipple. 

Supreme Court Justices Graphic

The WashPost has a great graphic which tells you how often each Supreme Court justice voted with each of the other eight.  Just click on each portrait and it will give you the percentage of the other eight.  So how can you use this?  I have this assignment on how the court works and just updated it to include the graphic above.  Since it is already connected to Blackboard (we are not yet allowed to use Google Sites), it took me all of 5 seconds and I am ready to go for an assignment that will not be done for months and will not have to remember to update it until later. 

Gay Marriage Decisions

Above is a quick explanation of what the two Supreme Court cases on gay marriage are about.  Here is a graphic that also explains the decision.  Below are the full arguments for DOMA (US v. Windsor) and gay marriage in CA (Hollingsworth v Perry)

The Voting Rights Act Decision

There is so much out there on the Supreme Court 5-4 decision to strike down section IV and leave it to Congress, but the video above is a great, concise history of voting rights (or lack there of) in the US.

Some people believe the ruling will make it harder to create minority-majority House seats, but 538.com has a piece arguing using statistics that (using GWU professor John Sides of the Monkey Cage) that gerrymandering from the 2010 census has only netted the Republicans 7 seats and therefore the decision today might not hurt Democrats as much as they think.

Here is a third perspective from The Fix which argues that Obama is now in a tough spot since he would have to get through any legislation passed an unfriendly House of Reps.

Behind the Gratz Case

One of the cases I teach each year is Gratz v. Bollinger.  But it is the precedent I care about.  If you want the story behind the case, here is a great article from the WashPost on Jennifer Gratz and how she sued the Attorney General of Michigan.  

Whipping the Vote

Here is a nice article on whipping the vote for the recent farm bill in the House of Representatives and here is the actual vote.  This might be a good way to illustrate the concept for your students.   This page from the WashPost also allows you to search for votes from any member of the 113th Congress. 

Using QR Codes in Class

Here's a great tutorial on how to get started using QR codes in the classroom. There is also an Itunes course you can take for free all about how to use QR codes in the classroom. Thanks to Sean Junkins, instructional technologist in Myrtle Beach, SC for tweeting the link to the course.

Remind101 Improves Its Site

Our county has an in-service in August for which I have organized ten groups to do presentations.   If you come to this site in August I will be putting all of those in-services and their "handouts" on this blog.  One of the sites we will discuss is Remind101 which has been one of my favorites for years.  I use it to communicate with students and parents about what they should be doing at home.  This year I have also used it on days when I cannot be in class.  So recently I was grading AP exams and I pre-set a message to my class so they would know their assignment.  Since you can use Tinyurl to shorten the link address and then you can send it to your students in class when you are not there.  

The Fix as a Class Resource

If you ever want to pep up your government class with examples of inside Washington information to jazz up any lesson plan, one of my resources to do so is The Fix by Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza.  It has short stories, video and even short news stories and does so with one to two posts a day about very current stories.  Give it a try on Twitter or Google+ (more for the Hangouts than posts since he doesn't do lots of them) or just go to the WashPost link.

Here is an interesting recent link where he lists his favorite state reporters for politics which might be worth your time to look at to find his favorite for your state.

Above is one fun example of something fun on the page as well as this one on the top fifteen governor races in the next two years including my race in VA which is ranked #5 and is the only real one this fall (since NJ is no contest).