Learning

Reading blogs and other RSS feeds is a great way to pickup knowledge and some fantastic ideas being implemented in other classrooms, and I have been picking away lately. My favorite blog, to date, is the US History Teachers Blog which is updated by social studies teachers from around the country and molded by teacher Ken Halla. On Friday, March 23rd, there was a post by teacher Rebecca Lacquey that I loved, an interactive World War II map. Each time you click on the map you can see the expansion of the German army across Europe, and it's eventual retreat as well. As a history buff, and future social studies teacher, I love this map and applaud the time and effort Ms. Lacquey put into it, it shows!

Another blog I try to check in on every day is Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day, this guy really spends a LOT of time and effort scouring the web for some fabulous information. I have been following his blog, and not the news media, for any and all information on James Cameron's adventure down the Mariana Trench. Current events are a great way to get students hooked on reading for content, and reading news reports to spot bias and generalizations, and just to get them reading. Mr. Ferlazzo's coverage of this event has been superb, he has links to BBC pictures, National Geographic coverage, maps and previous attempts heading down the Mariana Trench and even some live footage when it becomes available. His blog is one stop shopping for current events that may not get much attention in regular news media, but ones that students may gain a lot of knowledge from.

Do Schools Kill Creativity

Last Thursday in my Instructional Technology class at York College we watched a presentation given by Ken Robinson at last years TED conference title, "Do Schools Kill Creativity?". While he was giving his speech, our class was back channeling on a document in order to share thoughts with each other and to dig a little deeper into this topic.

One of my classmates has this to say, "All schools want are results and test scores, but an education is much more than that. Being creative and doing something outside of vocabulary and math problems helps children to release stress and think with a difference part of their brain.". I have to agree, if we continue to push for higher test scores and make curriculum tighter and more streamlined to cram everything "testable" in, there is less free time for even the teacher to express any creativity. When students want to express their creative side some of their only outlets, within a school day, are the arts and increasingly we find them first on the chopping block when budgets and test scores collide.

Mr. Robinson spoke about the need for creativity in schools, especially through the arts and he tied it into being wrong, or students being afraid to be wrong. He made the point that nothing creative will ever come out of someone who is ashamed to fail and he's right. We are killing creativity not by just cutting the arts, not just by over testing, but by instilling in our students that being correct is highest achievement there is and being wrong is abject failure. Perhaps finding a way to express creativity starts with saying "maybe" a bit more often.

History Tech

I have been subscribing to educational blogs left and right lately and my favorite, so far, is History Tech. As a future social studies teacher this blog is full of inventive and creative ways to get kids connected with history and to get them writing. The man behind the blog is Glenn W., no actual last name was given, and he goes by Virtual Glenn on the blog, the man behind the technology. He is currently employed by the Educational Service and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas, but prior to working there he was a professor at a small Kansas college and before that as a middle school social studies teacher. (He also has a masters degree in American History, so the nerd in me loves that he is well heeled in history.)

There were two things that I immediately gravitated towards when reading Mr. Glenn's blog, the first thing was his willingness to try new technology and apply it to social studies/history, which many consider old and stodgy, and the second was his love of getting social studies students to write, and write a lot.

I love that he gives a nod to PBS on his blog and the fabulous job they have done consolidating a lot of historical information onto their website. His example of the story of the Freedom Riders is case in point, PBS has a teachers website with news footage, time-lines, biographies on many of the riders, and even maintains the Freedom Riders site. Valuable resources for any history or social studies teacher, middle school up to high school. His next suggestion of teaching through video games caught me off guard, but a new book "Gaming the Past" by Jeremiah McCall lists 26 games that are historical "simulations" that would be perfect for classroom use; how cool is that?

My favorite thing about Mr. Glenn is his passion to get kids writing about history and with new tools to help it is easier than ever. One program called Writing It, made by Scholastic, gives students organizational tools that help them write papers, get help with ideas and even grow their portfolio and possibly publish their work. Another idea he suggested combined reading fictional works or poetry books, like the ones he had his middle school students read, and then tie into current lessons in history. His model dealt with a book of poetry written about the dust bowl in the 1930's and the other, a historical fiction book, about Kansas prairie life in the 1800's. Both examples, the website and poetry books, are fantastic tools and ideas to get kids reading, thinking critically and most importantly getting them writing about what they are learning.

Another great idea was