Week+of+March+1,+2009

toc =Interesting Web Sites= March is Women's History Month (Oprah gets two months!) So here are some sites you can visit for WHM: [|CNN] and [|Scholastic]. Your students can do voicethread reports as shown below in the Student Projects for Black History Month or make a movie with Movie Maker.

[|www.fliggo.com]is a new site I've found that allows teachers to create their own **YouTube** style website. You can easily set up a free web address and then students can upload their **video projects ** to the site instead of virtual share. **NOTE:** right now it's blocked unless if you use the override, but I'm trying to change that.

[]is for students and teachers and is a good way to present material in a new way. Here is a sample video: []. The idea would be for your students to find images that convey the meaning behind the content you are teaching and have them make an **MTV style video ** for it. It's not a great tool for creativity, but may be a fun thing to do.

**Copyright Free Images** are important for students to know because many students publish online, and they need to make sure they use appropriate pictures. I'll post some of these sites at the end of this newsletter, but some include: [|Picture History], [|LIFE Magazine], [|Creative Commons], and [|Flickr]has some great pictures also, but Flickr is blocked at school.

=Teaching Tips=  **Problem solving** is a great way for teachers to get students more interested in their content area. However, doing a lesson that includes problem solving can be time consuming. So here is a quick example of something you can do in your class:

Basically, students will see a picture that will hook your students into your content, but see the picture one part at a time. In groups, they try to predict what the image is, who is in it, when it was, and what it's about. This allows kids to review prior material in class and also include critical thinking as they try to guess what it is.
 * ID the Picture**

The teacher groups students into 3s or 4s and projects the PowerPoint below on the screen, starting on slide 2. Students start guessing in their groups and maybe even sharing answers with the class. The slide is changed, revealing more of the picture and the guessing continues. You may want to reveal the last part of the picture the next day, that way, your 1st block students don't tell the 3rd block kids the answer.
 * How to do it**

Here is an example: media type="custom" key="3370132"

=Student Work= Roger Brookes' Government class took on my **Black History Mont ****h ** project. I'm a bit hesitant to show it because they weren't the best. The theme was, "The Quest for Citizenship in the Americas," but most students just did a "greatest hits" of famous African-American figures. It wasn't what I hoped for, but nonetheless, they created something and published content they created (though violating some copyright rules). The tool is **voicethread ** and their collected work can be found here.

The best one was probably this one: media type="custom" key="3370420" =General Notes= Many teachers are using **Facebook ** these days, which is great. However, I just want to point out that the county probably doesn't want you using it during the school day, so please keep that in mind. Furthermore, if you are "friending" students, you may want to have a Facebook page as a teacher, and a second one for your real life. It's probably not a good idea for your students to know what you do outside of school. See these articles: [|WI Schools Ban Facebook, IM Fraternizing Between Staff, Students]and [|Suspended Teacher in Facebook Incident Ignites Debate: Should Online Privacy for Educators Exist?]

=School Space= Many of you are using School Space which is a great way to keep your classes organized. However, you can use it as an instructional tool also. The best way I can think of still is using the **discussion board **. I've seen it said, and believe it, that //**"students learn best when they discuss the content."**//

The discussion board opens up conversation in classes and allows the normaly quiet student to participate. In fact, the best way to have an open discussion is to have students write down their thoughts first. If you have them answer questions on a discussion board first, as homework, you can read their comments before the in-class conversation and bring in the quiet students because you already know what they said.

=Reminders= =Copyright Images= If you need some image resources, try some of the sites listed below. And be sure to have fun!
 * Please remember to back up your work on your computer and export grades to HCPSLink.
 * Make sure your mailbox is cleaned out.
 * For technical help, go to [|www.henricowarriors.org/help].

[|Multimedia Presentation Resources for] [|Teachers] Access to a wide range of copyright free resources [|Life Magazine Photos on Google] Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today [|Digital Librarian: Images] [|Finding Images Online] A huge site with links to hundreds of photo and graphic sites in a variety of categories [|Flickr Creative Commons] A great online photo storage site with copyright free images [|History Image Bank] A series of images through history by Brooklyn College [|Morgue File] Purpose is to provide free image reference material [|Nations Illustrated] Over 7,700 pictures from around the world [|New York Public Library Photo Collection] An image resource site of 30,000 digitized images from books, magazines and newspapers as well as original photographs, prints and postcards / Be sure to also go to [|NYPL’s Digital Gallery]- tons of historical documents! [|Pics4Learning] Copyright-friendly images for educators [|PictureHistory] Find the pictures you need in this easy to use digital library illustrating more than 200 years of history [|Picsearch - The Search Engine for Pictures] [|Pictures of Places] A directory of links to websites providing pictures of geographical places and sights [|More Public Domain Photos][|StockVault] Browse and search over 7800 royalty free, photos to use in your personal and educational design projects[|Wikipedia: Public Domain Image Resources] Nice site with links AND helpful copyright info