Special Blog Assignment

  For our special blog assignment, we are to choose from Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs' 68 resources on Curriculum21, find 6 that are particularly interesting to us or that could benefit us as teachers, and write about them.

  Museum Box allows students to build up an argument or description of an event, person, or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. You can display anything from a text file to a movie. You can also view the museum boxes submitted by other people and comment on the contents. Museum Box provides tools for collecting and presenting digital versions of primary sources. Students can use Museum Box to collect sources about historical eras, events, biographies, inventions, regions, fashions—in short about anything that can be digitally documented. For students who need help with organizing their ideas, Museum Box imposes proper structure. I like this website because I will be a history teacher, and I think this is a great way for students and teachers to categorize history for projects without becoming overwhelmed.

  270 To Win is a history of the electoral college that will engage students in both individual states and national trends right now and in past elections. Statistics and probabilities can be tracked, and this website offers an interactive map of the electoral college. You can review interactive maps for recent presidential elections and find out how battles in the Senate and House played out. There's a blog, some quizzes, and an election simulator that's connected to the most recent presidential election. Kids who already have a pretty clear understanding of how this system works will benefit from the site, but there's not a ton of explanation or kid-oriented details about the election process. This is a great site for history, government, and math teachers. This website is important because students can understand politics and understand what is going on during elections.

  World Library (WDL) is a Global library of primary resources. The WDL makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures and significant historical documents on one site, in a variety of ways. Content includes: books, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, journals, prints, photographs, sound recordings, and films. WDL items can be browsed by place, time, topic, type of item, language, and contributing institution. The search feature can be used to search all of the metadata and descriptions and the full text of printed books on the site. Other features include advanced image-viewing, timelines, interactive maps, and in-depth thematic sections on selected topics.

  Pinterest is a great tool for students and teachers to share, to organize, and to focus communication through photos and downloads. This website is a GREAT way to share ideas and to collaborate. Pinterest is a place to discover ideas for all your projects and interests, hand-picked by people like you. You can create several boards, pin anything you want on any board, organize those pins, share your pins and boards with fellow pinners, and discover EVEN MORE pins! I use Pinterest DAILY! Hands down one of my favorite websites EVER!

  TEDEd allows educators to create and share lessons built around YouTube videos. With fantastic animations, TED-Ed can take even sometimes-boring subjects and transform them into wildly engaging content. You can use TED-Ed's videos and lessons to supplement almost any subject. And while it may take a bit of searching, it'll be worth it. The content is remarkable, and comes from some of the world's best minds. It has an extensive library of lessons where carefully curated educational videos are available. The platform allows users to easily create customized lessons around educational videos. One of the most powerful features that TED-Ed offers is the ability to track and measure various forms of engagement within each TED-Ed lesson over time. Students are likely to engage with it right away. I would love to use this as a teacher to aid me in setting up lesson plans!

  Remind 101 is a free, safe, easy-to-use communication tool for teachers to text students and stay in touch with parents. Teachers can instantly message their entire class. Students receive it as a text message, email, or push notification on the app. Phone numbers are always kept private so information is safe and secure. Teachers never see students’ phone numbers, and students never see theirs. Teachers, students, and parents have easy access to their message history, and can also use our reporting tools to flag conversations. Teachers save time by sending or scheduling announcements directly to students’ and parents’ phones. Remind allows you to send a message or question, watch as students and parents respond with Stamps, and summarizes feedback in a snap! I would utilize this as a teacher to be able to reach my students quickly with important information!