Immigration Timeline

So for the past few months, off and on because of personal events that have thrown me off course, I have been working on a timeline of immigration and citizenship laws in the United States.  Please let me know if I have missed any as I most likely have.  I hope this is helpful!  I know I will definitely be using this in a classroom.  I had limited space for extended information and references, so if you’re curious, just send me an email and I will get you what you need.

You can view it here, since I can’t figure out how to embed it into this post…

If you’d like to create your own timeline, I highly recommend TimeToast.  It is an easy to use (and free!) website.

Tip of the Week: MapStory. It’s Wikipedia for Maps

This is brilliant and ridiculously helpful for social studies teachers looking for a way to incorporate a different level of map understanding and use in a classroom. I look forward to incorporating this tool into my curriculum! Thanks History Tech for keeping us up on these wonderful tools!

History Tech

Okay. Not sure if I should be impressed or freaked out by the fact that the founder of MapStory was also one of the original officers of In-Q-Tel. In-Q-Tel, as we all know, is the venture capital group working to keep the CIA equipped with the latest in information technology.

I’m gonna go with freakishly impressed.

Because MapStory looks like a very handy tool for teachers looking for ways to incorporate high-level discipline specific thinking skills into their geography and history instruction. And I’m sure there’s not any chance of teachers getting caught up in some sort of illegal international information gathering syndicate through MapStory.

Pretty sure.

Yesterday I shared some thoughts about using maps to to help generate great questions related to the Kansas state social studies standards and the Common Core. Part of what I didn’t talk about was the last part:

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Online Teaching and Reinforcement Tools

Fantastic teaching and reinforcement tool.

History Tech

We’ve always asked our kids to read. Informational text. Primary sources. Non-fiction. Fiction. Poetry. We’ve always asked our kids to write. Summaries. Research. Reviews. Reaction papers.

At least, that’s been the theory. Good social studies and history instruction has always included these things but I think that sometimes we can forget how critical reading and writing skills are to what we do. The Common Core, for better or worse, has been a good reminder for us. We need to have our kids read, write, and communicate much more.

The problem for many of us?

Uh . . . what does that look like again?

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Pinterest!

Everyone was doing it and I just did not understand the whole magic of Pinterest and why it was such a wonderful thing.  Then, someone explained it to me and I figured out how to use it.  You have to click on the image, and then click on the link or double click the picture to bring you to the subject matter.  It’s like a digital bulletin board of the most random things in life.  I am now officially hooked.  The second night after my cumulative exam I successfully spent three hours doing nothing but browsing the site and “pinning” things.

But its not only fun, but functional for historians and teachers.  I have two boards myself, one full of historical images that I look forward to using in powerpoints for my students.  Images are powerful educational tools.  I’m sure that they will come up on exams, assignments, DBQs, and many other places as well. You can check out (and follow if you like) my “Teaching History” board here: http://pinterest.com/aprilgibbs1776/teaching-history/ .

The second functional part is the different teaching tools, techniques, organizational ideas, and disciplinary tactics that are shared on Pinterest.  They not only inspire you to inspire your students, but can give you a different way of approaching a subject or topic in the classroom or with a particular student who has been struggling.  Plus, it helps to know that you’re not alone in this struggle of teaching.  You can view my “For Teaching” board here: http://pinterest.com/aprilgibbs1776/for-teaching/

There are also fantastic DIY ideas and recipes and numerous quotes and humor boards to keep you entertained for hours.  I know this is probably not new information for most of you, but I wanted to share the awesome educational abilities of a popular website.  Check it out: http://www.pinterest.com.