Federal Resources for Educational Excellence

The website Federal Resources for Educational Excellence is a beneficial tool for all teachers to appreciate. This site is a database that holds a collection of multiple links to other educational and historical websites. Within these website links, one can find pre-made lesson plans, primary documents, photographs, video clips and much more. Essentially, this website allows educators access to many resources from an array of sties not only for social studies teachers, but teachers of other content areas as well.

When first entering the site, a subject map appears where you can select from all content areas, which are then broken down more specifically. For instance, under U.S. History Topics, a teacher can look under the topic wars, and then click the link to a specific war, the American Revolution is one example. This link will take you to a featured resource page where multiple website links will appear along with the summary of the material within the links. Some of the featured website links include the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institute, the Library of Congress, etc. By entering these websites, teachers can find classroom activities, lessons, and material to enrich students learning.

Along the top of the subject map page a tool bar featuring an animations page, primary docs page, photos page, and entrepreneur’s page can be located. These pages provide an immense amount of resources, particularly valuable for history, which includes primary sources to further student’s learning of a specific period.

The Federal Resources for Educational Excellence provides teachers with limitless resources to enhance students learning and I would highly recommend using this site to begin learning more about specific events and creating lessons for students.

History Now

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History websites provides a plethora of information and resources for teachers and students. This website covers numerous time periods in American History including the Founding era, Slavery and Abolition, the Civil War, Lincoln era, Westward Expansion, Immigration, Early 20^th century, Great Depression and WWII, and American 1945-Present. Among each of these periods in U.S. history teacher are provided with multiple resources designed for lesson plans on the specific time period. A major strength of this website is its collection of primary source documents that provide valuable insight into what each time period special. In addition, teachers are provided with lesson plans for many different grade levels and appropriate resources to teach each lesson plan.

Another beneficial aspect of this website is its collection of scholarly articles that provide more insight and understanding of the issues they uncover, which will also the teachers to expand their knowledge. Teachers also given access to visual and audio resources that allow students to learn using new resources and methods that may better suit them. Another great aspect of this website is that lesson plans are made by credible teacher who have taught them and have been recognized for their good work. I feel completely confident in using this website as a teaching resource, and have concerns about recommending this website to other teachers.

http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historynow/12_2005/lp3.php

Coolest. Educational. Resources. Site. Ever.

http://www.educationworld.com/

As future teachers, we are all aware that the internet provides a wealth of educational resources. Given this, educators and their students today have more available to them than ever before just a mouse click away. They can gain ideas from these online resources, learn from them, and much more in order to facilitate professional development and to enrich both their skills at teaching and the experiences of their students. There are literally web resources on every educational topic imaginable; from those committed to standards, teacher development, lesson plans, units over specific events or people, classroom management strategy, technology, and more.

However, after spending some time looking over and evaluating educational based web-sites there is one in particular that I as an educator plan to use and would recommend to colleagues. I believe this is by far the most comprehensive website I could find in terms of educational resources. I like the broad nature of this site as it allows teachers to research more than one aspect relevant to education. This site includes everything a teacher could need from an educational website. There are guides for lessons, professional development, administrators, issues, integrating technology, links to other educational sights, and much more. On top of containing a huge amount of work, an essential part of this website I believe can be a great educational tool is the schoolnotes.com link. This site allows teachers and parents to work together, giving parents all the information they may need to help their child.

Illinois Historical Digitization Projects

http://dig.lib.niu.edu/

The Illinois Historical Digitization Projects, sponsored by Northern Illinois University, has tons of information on Illinois history . This website has taken primary documents on the history of Illinois, and put them online in a data base. It has information about Illinois including information about Lincoln, the Civil War, the Guiled Age, and the Mexican-American War, as well as sections about prairie life. Most of the sources on the website are primary sources, like the Mexican-American War has 129 primary sources about the war, and the Mark Twain's Mississippi has 120. These sources can be searched by author, title, or year, and can be browsed to find appropriate ones for students. The website concentrates in Illinois's involvement in history, but does address world events. For example, the information on the Mexican-American War is broad enough to teach it anywhere, but it does have a specific section devoted to the role that Illinois played.

My favorite part of the website is the section Illinois Civil War Newspapers. It has 1469 newspaper articles about the Civil War that can be navigated. All of the papers are written by Illinois Newspapers, but cover more than just what occurred in Illinois. I think this site would be very helpful in making a unit about the Civil War, because there are newspaper articles that cover the entire stretch of the war. It is also useful, because with such a large variety, it would be possible to find suitable ones for every reading level.

Encyclopedia

http://www.encyclopedia.com/

I would recommend this website to a colleague or student because it is an excellent, credible and versatile resource. The range of topics covered in the Encyclopedia is extensive and the information is reliable and gathered from over 100 trustworthy websites. It can be utilized as a quick and accessible references during instruction or discussion because it is easily navigated by the search bar on the home page. It is straight-forward enough for students to interact with easily and could to be listed as a possible starting point for students to begin research for class activities. The site is also enriched by a web of external links throughout the articles that continue the exploration on the subject. Many of the articles are clustered together to form groups of relevant materials. This aspect of the website could be particularly useful for teachers when they begin planning units and want to gather a wealth of information. Some of the grouping may be interesting as self-contained lessons because they offer controversial and interdisciplinary topics.

Civil War Traveler

http://civilwartraveler.com/


I found a website called civilwartraveler.com, and I think it would be a great tool for social studies teachers. Every teacher finds it hard to really capture what the Civil War was like to students, and this website offers a lot different views and sources to engage students. It has links of all the different eastern, western, and west of the Mississippi. If you click on each state link it gives you a brief profile on the states during the Civil War. Each state link has maps of Civil War trails, different primary sources, and historical information. These trails actually map out actual battles throughout the war, and one trail map covers Lee's retreat at the end of the war. There is a diverse multimedia link on the page, which offers different podcasts, maps, and videos about the Civil War. This website can be used in social studies classroom and for many individual or group projects. Students will be able to interact and see the actual trails and battle grounds where the battles, retreats, and soldier camps were. The site offers civil war battlefields and historical sites in about 28 different maps, real life events for field trips (depending on which state you teach in), reenactment schedules, podcasts, travel blogs, and e-newsletters that teachers can utilize in the classroom. Social Studies teachers can you this website as a creditable. Teachers can use different maps, podcasts, trails, letters, and other primary sources to create incredible and educational lesson plans for students.

The National Council for the Social Studies

http://www.socialstudies.org/resources

The National Council for the Social Studies website is a great resource for social studies teachers that has many different materials that teachers can use in their classroom from a broad range of topics. The resource section of their main website is a direct link full of many different teaching tools that teachers can implement immediately into a classroom environment.

As you scroll down the main page there are many topics that they have posted up that have links from many different topics such as teaching resources for the State of the Union Address. If you follow this link it gives you two different teaching options describing the lesson that it is giving you and also giving you the link that you can find these lessons.

On the right side of the main page there is a series of links that are very helpful. Some helpful links are “Teaching with Documents” and “Lessons”. This is a listing of things that you can use as an educator. The downfall of this website is that you have to pay money to use most of the resources available. Without membership there is a limited access level. If you can afford this or convince your school that this would be a valuable resource to invest in, this can be a great website to get many different teaching idea, primary documents, and lesson plans.

-Michael Fauerbach

thwt.org by David Janociak

http://thwt.org/

This website is an absolute treasure chest of resources for history teachers seeking to integrate technology into their classroom. The main strength of thwt.org is the toolbar on the left side of the home page which contains numerous links to different technologies and resources. For example, if a history teacher wants to play an educational game all they have to do is click “Activities” and they are presented with links to many different websites containing ready-made history games. The resources are seemingly limitless with links to webquests, wikis, PowerPoints, lesson plans, and many other tools to make a teacher’s classroom both stimulating and dynamic.

However, thwt.org is much more than just a website stuffed with resources for the classroom. The website’s second important function is that it also seeks to teach teachers about how to effectively use new technology in the classroom. For example, imagine that there is a teacher out in the world who is playing with the idea of using a wiki page in their classroom but really doesn’t know how. Rather than scrapping the idea, that teacher can check out the video tutorials on the website which explain how to set up a wiki and integrate it into the classroom. Therefore, thwt.org is an absolutely fantastic website. It offers teachers with a starting point to find different resources to bring into the classroom. It also guides teachers who don’t know how to use technology. Therefore, thwt.org is a site that strives to improve and revolutionize the way we teach history in a simple and helpful way.

C-Span Classroom by Amy Merrell

This website provides videos and primary source documents relating to many topics in social studies including economics, political parties, US history, and US constitution among many others. All of the videos provided show congressional leaders discussing the validity of certain amendments and laws and how they apply to society today. This can be very beneficial to students as they can see how historical events shape today's society. Although this is a British site, it offers many links relating to American history that can be used in class. It also will give the student's a different perspective on events because some of the people they hear discussing are members of the British Parliament.

This website also provides links to other websites that have been approved by C-Span to be beneficial to teachers on many of the same topics that they have already addressed. This allows teachers to have many resources in one place. You can go to this website and have many resources at your fingertips. There is also a lesson plans links and a blog that allows fellow teacher to give input and tips to each other. Basically, this website takes historical events and relates them to the events of today, and also gives many resources on American history that can be used in the classroom.

http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/

German Propaganda Archive

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/

It seemed that every year in History classes from 6th grade through senior year of high school, a lesson on World War II and the Nazis was included somehow. Everyone knows the textbook story, but the true feelings and moods lie within the primary documents. Letters from families, messages to front lines, and propaganda speeches all deeply explain the background and the movement that was the Nazi movement. I stumbled upon this archive two years ago in another European History class, and I kept it in my favorites for an occasion such as this. The German Propaganda Archive, with help from Calvin University, provides an easily accessible, organized and detailed database of hundreds of primary sources to utilize.

Many categories are listed, spanning from Pre-War material, visuals, anti-semitic attacks, and speeches by many influential leaders. Under the “Visuals” tab, you can access Nazi propaganda posters from the late 1930’s, German and American cartoons, pamphlets, art and many other visual sources. Easily downloadable or printed, primary sources provide an incredibly interactive tool for better engagement in the classroom.

Instead of struggling for ways to link World War II to feelings at home, you can pull presidential speeches, motivational “war bond” posters and read workers accounts of wartime. I actually used some propaganda posters of Nazi soldiers for a lesson in Urbana Middle School this year. I could imagine easily structuring an entire unit on WWII using this site alone for my sources and activities. At the bottom of the homepage, there are several links to outside pages and other guides to the history behind propaganda. Feelings and emotions are usually the hardest to convey so students can understand, but with first-hand accounts of soldiers and citizens attitudes become clearly conveyed. Overall, I would recommend this site to any US, European or World History teacher in secondary education. Simple and organized, the site allows these primary sources to reach learners effectively on a topic filled with emotional accounts and historical interest.

The Journal of American History

The Journal of American History

The Journal of American History is published four times each year by the Organization of American Historians at Indiana University. The website for the Journal boasts multiple resources for the historian and for the teacher. Full text versions of all the issues of the Journal from 1999 to the present are available through the website, and older issues are made available through a link to the JSTOR database. Under the "Web Projects" tab on the website are two resource that can be very helpful: "Teaching the JAH" and "Textbooks and Teaching".
"Textbooks and Teaching" is a feature published once every year by a different author. Full text versions as well as other supplemental material from the authors can be found on the website as well. THe resources provided include articles, syllabi, lesson plans, teaching strategies, and more. Similarly, "Teaching the JAH" offers a multitude of resources for teachers at many levels. Each installment of "Teaching the JAH", published twice each year and contributed by various authors, offers ways to "teach the article" to a classroom. It provides useful resources pertaining the the content of the article such as maps, charts, pictures, reading questions, author commentary, primary sources, and links to supplemental websites in order to help "bridge this gap between the latest scholarly research and classroom teaching."

Teacher's Guide-Black History Month

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/bhm/tg.html

February is a time of year that comes around for all teachers. For history teachers, who often want to emphasize diversity, February means Black History Month. It is often challenging to find a tool that allows instructors to teach black history in an open-ended, interactive manner that both challenges students and allows them access to pertinent, primary sources. The Teacher's Guide, provided here by the University of Illinois Extension, offers a wonderful way for instructors, including those in elementary, junior and high school, to teach black history.

The site offers a variety of options for students at all levels, which are pretty clearly delineated. There is a small History for Kids section, which teachers can click on to find easily accessible links for early students, such as Black History from A-Z and Black History Links for Kids.

The rest of the site is devoted to material that I believe is excellent for high school teachers. There are, in addition to the History for Kids section, six additional sections along the left hand side of the screen that act as a kind of guide for both teachers an students. These are divided into categories of Teacher's Guides, Community and Culture, History, Museums, Notable African Americans and News. Within each section are useful primary and secondary sources dealing with that particular heading. For example, under notable African Americans, there are links to primary documents that include the Frederick Douglass Papers, Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers and pieces specifically by African-American women writers of the 19th century. There are links to sites on African-American warriors (i.e. in the United States military) and even more specialized topics like Notable Chicago African-Americans. With such a deluge of information teachers can design their course around either large, open-ended topics, such as African-Americans in the military or more specialized topics like African-American women writers in the 19th century.

The news section of this site is also particularly useful because it provides information on areas where African-American history is permeating and links to new, relevant sites that offer students and teachers access to even more crucial information. Diversity is a cornerstone of our education, and in an increasingly interconnected world, it is essential that students and teachers have the tools necessary to educate themselves on it. The Teacher's Guide to Black History Month provides such an opportunity for instructors looking to incorporate it into their curriculum.

Microsoft.com/Education

As a service to teachers and students microsoft.com offers a plethora of lesson plans and resources for students to use. The benefit of these lesson plans being created by Microsoft is that each of the lesson plans involves using technology to various extents.

Many of lessons incorporate Microsoft software in ways that I would have never imagined; for example Microsoft has a lesson plan entitled Making and Reading Maps in the 21st century. This lesson uses Bing Maps, which is Microsoft's version of Google Maps, to help students learn more about the digital maps of today's society. The lesson plan is designed to help show students the benefits of using digital maps and how to search them and find what they are looking for. After an introduction to digital maps, the students are allowed to create their own maps to help them understand the difficulties a mapmaker has to work through while selecting what to include or not include in a map.

Microsoft has lesson plans listed for every subject including: Math, Social Studies, Geography, Language Arts, Digital Media, Science, Music, and Physical Education. As I mentioned in the first paragraph the great part about these lesson plans is that everyone of them incorporates technology in some form into the lesson; and the incorporation of this technology is actually worthwhile and with a purpose. I feel that this website is a great resource for when a teacher desires to incorporate more technology into the classroom.

http://www.microsoft.com/education/lessonplans.mspx

Talking Points Memo [TPM]

Talking Points Memo is a website on contemporary American politics. Created and run by Josh Marshall, it is a political journalistic organization that covers "breaking news" articles particularly from a liberal viewpoint. I enjoy this site because it sifts through the unnecessary news articles that popular media often thrives on. I do not enjoy seeing Sandra Bullock on my newsfeed, nor do I want to know anything about what happened on American Idol. TPM includes news bits that are actually relevant to my tastes and always headlines important issues in American politics. In 2007 TPM became the only blog to win the POLK award for its outstanding coverage of the US attorney scandal. Basically if you are a liberal and enjoy American politics, this is a great site that has many intellectual, competent contributors. While the setup of the website can be confusing at first, it becomes easy to maneuver through after continued use. It is important for educators to be knowledgeable of the contemporary issues in American politics otherwise we are being ignorant citizens. I am not at all worried about the issue of bias and balance in the site. Unlike FAUX news they do not promise fair and balanced news coverage and then walk all over the concept. If I want my conservative news input, I will visit Foxnews.com. Otherwise TPM is enough for any concerned observer of American politics.

PBS.org

This website is awesome on multiple different levels, which is why I chose it. First of all, this website has a section devoted specifically for teachers (pbs.org/teachers). What I find helpful about this is that it does not limit the resources to a certain grade level or subject. There are tabs for every grade level from pre-kindergarden to seniors in high school, and each of those tabs has a link to the specific content area that you are teaching. Second, the information under those links is extremely useful and provide multiple different types of resources for teachers. For example, under the sixth through eighth grade social studies tab, they have numerous links to activities to do in the classroom, as well as links to videos shown on PBS that can be used in the classroom legally. Third, there is a section that provides lesson plans and general guides for different subjects that teachers may want to teach on. The final thing about this website that I found to be really helpful are the multiple sections devoted to things other than lesson plans and content. The two sections that stuck out to me were the "Teacher Discussions" and "Professional Development" sections. The discussion section provides the ability for teachers to post things and review lessons on the website, saying what did and did not work for them in their classroom. The development section was different for each grade level, but included things such as how to connect your classroom to parents and the surrounding community. I really liked this idea, as I feel that teachers need to spend extra focus on this aspect of education, as the home and community play a major role in the way students learn and interact in the classroom.

CIA World Factbook

In thinking about what site I should choose to review for this blog, I decided on what might be termed (as the expression goes) "an oldie but a goodie."

It's called the CIA World Factbook, and I had my first encounter with this magnificent site while I was a senior in high school. I was taking Modern World History and we used it for a short, introductory exercise. The CIA also hosts a wide variety of other extremely informative sub-sections on its website--World Leaders, Maps and Publications, Additional Publications, etc. The user can see regional maps, look at flags of the world, browse a Did You Know? section, and make country comparisons.

In its barest form, the World Factbook essentially lets you to bring up any country or region in the world and immediately access a broad range of statistical data related to that country or region, as well as qualitative information related to the development and makeup of the nation (history, politics, culture, geography, etc). When I say statistical data, I mean very minute details, such as the number of paved and unpaved airport runways, miles of telephone lines, internet users, and other seemingly insignificant (but interesting!) things. However, from a tactical standpoint, all of those facts could coalesce into something important for our government if a serious situation arose. To add a little more fun into the mix, countries are ranked in many categories, and users can bring up comparative lists to search for trends in the data.

When I was a high school student, I believe we used this website to make comparisons in specific areas, such as GINI coefficients, natural resources, population growth rates, ethnic groups, religions, and languages. These facts painted a picture of the countries we were examining and provided a background for further investigation into some of the issues they were facing, or understanding why one country might be doing very well in one area but another country was having problems. (For instance, a country with multiple ethnic groups, languages, and religions might be experiencing more social unrest or revolution than a neighboring country with less diversity.)

Although there is no specific link for teachers, I think the lesson possibilities are endless with this site--not only in terms of a particular content concentration, but the academic level of it as well. A variety of data is available and can be flexibly used to accommodate a complicated high school project in comparative politics, or a simple middle school one in world geography. Teachers could launch an historical investigation based on the information found in the Factbook, or design multiple geography lessons from the maps, flags, and information found on the site. It could be part of a webquest, or a project on a certain country. The site could be used to build on historical knowledge that students already have, too. For example, in one of my classes, we spent a week or so on the history of the Middle East, focusing slightly on conflicts in the the region. When we reached the current circumstances in the area, our teacher split us into groups and gave us the ethnic, language, and religious makeup of the Middle East on one handout, as well as a map showing where various natural resource deposits were located. He then told us to get busy and decide how we were going to re-draw the boundaries of the Middle East, keeping in mind its history and all of the other factors (which can be found on the Factbook). It ended up being one of the best exercises I was ever given as a student.

I've discovered that I'm prone to the "go explore what interests you" type of approach as a teacher, so I prefer sort of the more open-ended resources--sites and media that I can tweak and tinker with and let students get out of them what they want. I know this approach doesn't work well with some students, but I wanted to be honest and say that because it influenced my choice of this website for the blog.

Smithsonian Education

http://smithsonianeducation.org/educators/resource_library/resource_library.asp

The website is full of diverse tools for teachers. I selected this website because I think it offers a lot of versatile tools that are not normally available to teachers within the school or classroom due to availability or budget. The website is broken down into four useful components: For Educators, Professional Development, Lesson Plans, and Resource Library.

In the "Four Educators" link, there are multiple links in which you can find resources that pertain to a variety of subjects, specific grade levels, as well as standards for your state. For example, the website gives you the opportunity to select "African Culture" as the subject, grades 9-12 as the grade level, Illinois as the state, 11th grade as the grade, and social studies as the subject. This way teachers have the ability to focus their lessons in regards to grade and state standards while still having a lot of latitude in which to decide which subjects to explore and teach. This will be an outstanding tool for teachers who are looking for some structural guidance when attempting to plan a lesson. While teachers may have a subject or theme in mind, they may need some inspiration to lead them in the direction of what the content and assessment should entail.

In the "Professional Development" link, there are a variety of links and videos that allow teachers to participate in virtual workshops and conferences which can expand and supplement their knowledge of a variety of topics. For example, there is a workshop for high school teachers which shows them how to use a museum exhibit as a basis for student writing. There is another opportunity for teachers to get involved in a virtual workshop in order to learn how the museum resources can be used to bring new ideas and activities within the classroom so that their lessons can come to life regardless of the activity. This will help to keep lessons innovative by using the latest technology as well as the plethora of resources that are available, regardless of whether or not they are readily available within the classroom.

The "Lesson Plans" link offer educators a variety of diverse lesson plans to use with an assortment of topics. Educators have the opportunity to pick a subject from: Art and Design, Science and Technology, History and Culture, Language Arts, and Idea Labs. From there, teachers are given the opportunity to focus the search for lesson plans by key word and grade level. Lesson plans range from "How Americans Elect Their President" to "Small Worlds: Stamps as Story Tellers." This shows the wide array of lesson plan topics. These lesson plans are especially useful because they focus on primary sources, photographs, virtual tools, cooperative learning techniques and the use of technology by students. Also, the lessons are often interdisciplinary so that each subject benefits from the other. For example, there are writing and reading activities in the social studies lessons and there are art and design projects in language arts. There are numerous lessons that stretch "outside the box" (i.e.: lessons that are not regularly taught within the classroom) which also allows for innovation within the classroom.

Finally, the "Resource Library" provides educators with an array of resources in which they can search for resources by subject, key word, grade level, and state standards. This link is also unique because it allows teachers to search through a large number of different museums, such as the National Museum of American History of the National Museum of African Art, which offer a countless number distinctive virtual resources. The possibilities are endless with these resources at your finger tips! Take advantage of these innovative tools that can add excitement and depth to the lessons in your classroom. The Smithsonian Museum is a worldly institution which can be used to facilitate diversity and global knowledge within the classroom. Teachers can extend education beyond the four walls of the classroom using this website and enrich the lives of their students.

HISTORY.com

A great website is history.com.  It is run by the History Channel and has a ton of free resources on it.  There are free videos on the website for just about anything.  I have already used three or four videos when teaching a lesson this year at my field placement.  The website also interactive games, photos, speeches, audio and biographies.  This website has great resources that can be integrated into lesson plans to enhance information.  There is also a section called "This Day in History," which talks about important events that happen going day by day and this comes up when you search as well.
However, the best part about this website is that there is a section that has classroom study guides.  Some of these classroom study guides are more like lesson plans, and include standards and objectives and how to teach the material.  The study guides basically give vocabulary, overview key events and people and go over important ideas.  Some of them also include stories and writings by authors from the time period.  They also give ideas for activities to do with students as well.

CNN Student News

A great current event resource for both teachers and students is the “student news” portion of the cnn website (www.cnn.com/studentnews/). There students can look through the headlines of the day, with a simplified version of the daily topics specifically designed for high school students to read. The website has daily podcasts, videos, headlines, discussions, and news quizzes for students to peruse. Also, the “daily student news” specifically refers to a ten-minute commercial free news clip specifically designed for students to by editors at CNN. This would be a great way to open class every day, or to show once in a while to pique student interest.

I find this website useful because CNN is one of the most recognizable networks in the world. Students can simultaneously get great newsfeed and learn how to navigate different headlines. Perhaps the best part about this webpage is that students can follow links to other websites as well, giving them multiple perspectives on a number of topics.

For teachers, there is also a “wealth” of teaching materials available for free, included transcripts of each show, discussion questions, learning activities, downloadable maps, and other support materials to reinforce the videos and headlines. The website even includes suggested learning strategies to go about teaching with these materials. The only downfall of this site is that it would be blatantly supporting CNN, which to some may seem like a bad thing. Perhaps a way around this would be to use a different website at times, and alternate between the two in order to have a well-rounded current events resource.

www.cnn.com/studentnews/

Lesson Plans

The Lesson Plans Page is a great website that includes many different types of lesson plans for certain subjects and topics for grades 6-12. As a future history/social studies teacher, the lesson plans available on this website are very useful. Even though it is important to create one's own lesson plans that portray their teaching styles, I believe these lesson plans are good "fall backs" if one ever gets stuck or cannot think of how to teach a certain topic. Some examples of the subjects available are listed below.
*Economics and Business
*Culture
*Geography (U.S and World)
*Government
*News and Current Events
*U.S. History

Within each of these topics, there are many options available of different lesson plans pertaining to specific topics in the subject area. For example, under government, you can find a lesson plan on How a Bill Becomes A Law. The lesson plan lists detailed instructions of an activity that can help students learn hands on how a bill becomes a law as well as the materials involved to make it happen. The website even gives suggestions to alter the activity to satisfy the "more advanced learning students" by adding some complexity to the assignment and including real life situations.
Another website that is similar to this one that is useful as well is Lesson Plans for Teachers. What is so great about this website is that not only does it include lesson plans for different subjects within social studies, but it also includes lesson plans for different subjects, different holidays, and grade levels. There are lesson plans for math, science, language arts, music, physical education, foreign language, etc. This is wonderful for those history majors who are having difficulty finding a job in their content area and decide to teach another subject they are endorsed in. In feeling not as strongly about the alternative subject, it is nice to have some lesson plans to follow to make sure you are teaching accurately on the subject level. The first website included some lesson plans for math, science, and language arts, but this website gives more options and covers more of a variety of topics in each subject. This website has lessons for Middle School and High School, which makes it easier to distinguish the difficulty required for each grade level when teaching a topic and the different activities that are appropriate for them. I thought it was pretty creative that the website includes lesson plans that include specific "holidays" such as Earth Day, Arbor Day, and Earthquake Day. Not only do these lesson plans take a day to teach the students about the history of the day but it also exposes them to information about out environment and the issues going on in the world today.
Another feature that is nice on this website is that it includes a list of lesson directories that can enhance your lessons. For example, there are a list of suggested lesson plans by the Discovery Channel for grades k-5, 6-8, and 9-12. The Discovery Channel is a reliable source and they give great suggestions for different lessons and activities to include in your classroom. I hope these websites will be useful for our future teachers and that the lesson plans will make classrooms more interesting and engaging.

Media Literacy

http://mediaeducationlab.com/topic/Advertising+Literacy

I selected this website because I believe it to be a great tool for teachers who are willing to learn and teach about media literacy. The ability to critically assess media content is as important to new generation of children as reading was to the generations of the past. Therefore, I believe that this website is useful and important tool. The pressures on both parents and educators are rising as they see more violent and destructive behaviors being transformed via screen to the youngest children in America and around the world. Thus, this website is great tool for all of those who are concern about new generations. However, to prove my point I tested the website taking the number of criteria’s as a consideration. The criteria for this review are: authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, and coverage.
The resource was founded by Renee Hobbs the professor of the school of Communications and Theatre at Temple University in Philadelphia. She contributed to the media education by founding Media Education Lab in the Department of Broadcasting , Telecommunications and Mass Media in her University as well as by writing number of scholarly articles on the topic such as: multimedia curriculum resources, professional developmental programs, and interactive websites in the United States. The fact that she helped to build Partnership for Media Education, which evolved into the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) and served as co-editor of Journal for Media Literacy Education is a proof of her deep involvement and concern with the topic of media literacy. Professor Hobbs involvement is also proven by the fact that she is not only concerned about media education, but rather concern about her message to be told to any child even those who are the most disadvantaged . Professor Hobs is also expressing the special concern about media influence on young women.
It is important to mention that Professor Hobs received her Ed.D from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an M.A. in Communication from the University of Michigan, and a B.A. with a double major in English Literature and Film Video Studies from the University of Michigan. Thus, she received her education from the institutions that are well known for excellent programs in both communications and education. The above information can be easy found by clicking on the link provided in the introductory part of the home page of the website.
The sponsors of the website are listed under learn about us link, and they are respectively: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Alliance of Civilizations, William Penn Foundation, Verizon Foundation. All of the above sponsors are highly reputable and currently working on issues that concern: human rights, global conservation, security, technology and its effect on children, addressing polarization of cultures and many others. The website is error free, and it contains a lot of relevant information for teachers who can then pass it on to both parents and students. The web contains clear mission statement, and clearly labeled links that help teachers locate information that they are looking for. The website includes many options for teachers, parents, and students to learn how to be media smart. The web provides links such as Teaching Resources which include: lesson plans, videos, online quizzes that teach educators how to incorporate media in their classrooms. The same link provides digital workshops that can teach parents and teachers how to protect their kids from harmful messages projected through media. The options such as textbooks on literacy are also presented on this website, so the educators can incorporate hard copy materials to help students in the process of learning about media content. The blog is also offered on this website to help educators connect and post on the issues concerned with media.
Another positive aspect of this website is the fact that it provides information about the ongoing events that teachers may attend in order to learn about media literacy. Thus, looking at the dates of the events I conclude that this website is well updated and the information provided is fairly current. It is truly impressive that this website is as approachable as it is, and it actually picks the media and turns them around to then use them to spread knowledge and critical thinking as oppose to violence, fake perfection, and negativity.
I also paid close attention to the objectivity of the information presented, and I did not spot any contend that was biased or any issues that would be presented with close minded one side opinion. I screened videos which I found informative and approachable enough for students and educators to learn about media tricks. I took number of quizzes which I find interesting and truly useful in objective assessment of our critical thinking about media. I also found that this website is concerned with political advertising as well, and it teaches educators and students how to asses political massage based on resources available.
Finally, I looked at topics covered on this website which are all relevant when speaking of media literacy. The topics are truly relevant when approaching the new generations which are born into media and therefore exposed to the danger of negative and harmful massages which are part of the media today. The topics include media literacy, copyright and fair use, games and online learning, girls and media culture, international media literacy, measuring media literacy, media and health, media and family, media literacy advocacy, media literary in urban schools, news literacy, teaching media literacy, and youth and community media production.
In the summary, I want to encourage everyone to look at this website since it contains relevant information, promotes media as a tool for learning how to critically asses information. It also truly present s ways in which media might be use for the educational purpose rather than for the purpose of spreading destructive message to youth. In addition, the web connects those who are interested in learning and teaching about media through blog and regular posts on ongoing events in which educators, parents, and kids might became active participants. It is also important this website is extremely approachable, so you do not have to be a media genius to use it and learn from it.

"Teaching Tolerance" website

One of the toughest challenged for teachers today is incorporating diversity into our lessons and curriculum. The website, Tolerance.org is a great tool and resource for teachers to pull ideas and lessons from. The site is sponsored by the Teaching Diverse Students Initiative (TDSI) and provides resources that are researched based, in hopes of improving the teaching of ethnically and racially diverse students throughout the country. This website provides teachers with professional development articles, classroom activities, lesson plans, teaching kits and resources centered on the topic of diversity. It has resources for all grades and subjects; however, the Social Studies resources are the most prevalent, with over 50 lesson plans and activities. The site is extremely easy to use and maneuver; I searched Brown v. Board of Education and found at least 12 lists of articles and lesson plans. It is a no-fuss website where one does not have to “dig” and search to get the content that they want.
A great benefit that this site offers is that once teachers are certified, they can sign to to receive as subscription to the site-sponsored magazine as well as to order free teaching lesson “kits” for certain events or topics. Most of the kits include primary documents, lesson guides, video and audio media and guided questions for teachers to use as a resource in their lessons. All a teacher has to do is sign up, order the kit, and will receive it in the mail within 7 to ten days. This is something that as beginning teachers, we can integrate into our lessons and use to help incorporate diversity into our classroom. The historical events and lessons focus on civil rights, diversity, and teaching about tolerance. Lesson plans range from teaching about the concept of beauty throughout the world to first-hand accounts from the Holocaust. This site would be a valuable resource not only for history classes, but sociology, psychology and anthropology courses as well, for it offers a lit bit of everything from the social sciences.

Digital History

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/
"Digital History" is an amazing history website that has resources for teachers and students alike. One section of the website features primary documents. The Primary Sources section includes famous court cases and historic Supreme Court decisions, links to key documents in American history, and historical newspaper articles.

The For Teachers section of the website includes many resources for educators such as handouts and fact sheets on various history topics and even whole lesson plans. Resource guides in the For Teachers section gives charts, chronologies, film guides, newspapers, maps, quizzes, readings, speeches, primary sources, maps, and music for different time periods through history.

Digital History also has an Interactive Timeline that students would find interesting. The timeline spans from 1590 to present day 2011. The viewer drags the "Life Span Bar", and different shapes show up on a map. The different shapes represent different events. A triangle is a social or economic event, a square is a political or diplomatic event, and a circle is a cultural event. To see what the event is, the viewer clicks on the shape. This timeline is unique and shows students the progression of social, political, and cultural events throughout history in the world. Every resource on Digital History is free; I definitely recommend this website for history educators and history students, and I am certain that I will be using this website.

History Matters - The U.S. Survey Course on the Web

"History Matters" is a great reference website that caters to both teachers at the high school and college level about American history. The website is created to help teachers design hands-on lesson plans using a variety of primary sources and advice from fellow history teachers. There is also sample work from students that is provided to help teachers create effective lesson plans.

This website contains over a thousand primary sources that are arranged chronologically. These sources include writing, images and audio interviews that are directly relevant to historical events. This range of primary sources serves as a valuable resource when teaching students that are visual or auditory learners. In addition to these resources, there are guides to interpreting these sources. These guides give insight into the ways historians use these resources and the most effective ways to teach their uses to students.

The website also has a section entitled “Secrets of Great History Teachers” where interviews are listed with honored history teachers. These teachers wish to use their experiences in the classroom and share their strategies and techniques with other aspiring teachers. One of these interviews focuses on our very own Professor Orville Vernon Burton from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign! Education students and new teachers can learn valuable lessons through these generous professors.

There is also a list of over a thousand reviewed websites about American history. All of these resources are geared toward making students become historians through fun and interactive lessons.

Our Documents

Our Documents is a website which takes “milestones” from our nation’s past to create a historical overview of the American democratic process. The project is based off of content from the National Archives and Records Administration, which compiled a list of the 100 most influential documents in U.S. history from 1776 to 1965. The home page contains a list of these documents, ranging from the Declaration of Independence to public addresses given by FDR. The chronological order of the documents makes it easy to find pieces that fit into specific lessons or unit themes. These documents are powerful in classroom lessons because as primary sources they offer direct insight into historical events.

This site is extremely useful because in addition to containing transcripts of primary documents, it also provides pictures of the actual documents so that students can view the original work. Each document also comes with a section which describes its historical context and its influence on society. Our Documents provides a section called “Tools for Educators,” which offers suggestions on how to incorporate the website into classroom lessons- such as through writing activities, listening activities, dramatic presentations, etc. Because the site is affiliated with the National Archives, it has a valuable list of Related Resources which includes the Archive’s Digital Classroom and several other useful educational sites.

Our Documents has further opportunities for classroom enrichment through links to national historical contests. Encouraging classes to participate in national essay contests will give them a sense of motivation while developing their writing skills, which also helps schools meet ACT writing standards. These programs are unique, free of charge, and have the potential to engage students in projects involving primary documents.

http://www.ourdocuments.gov/index.php?flash=true&