Tuesday, September 29, 2009


Last Sixty Years of Chinese History in 2 Minutes
I found this on FreeTech4Teachers.com and it's here.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Great How Tos For Moviemaker
If you go here there are a bunch of how to connections for movie maker which I use to have my kids do a variety of assignments.

Friday, September 25, 2009

British History
One of the nice things about doing this blog is that I get a lot of e-mails telling me about sites (and please send any you know of) including this one that gives a great deal of information on British history. There are a lot of links and pictures as well.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009


Google Docs and Florence
Okay, call me a little behind the times, but I only just started learning Google Docs recently. What is amazing is how easy it is to embed video (from youtube or your desktop, but no where else) and pictures, etc. You can also easily link to outside sources. There are a bazillion templates for a PowerPoint and it can be shared with others online and you can download. Above is a very simple example that I did in one minute. Here is a video I made on how to make a Google Doc Presentation.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Quizlot
This is a new site that allows you to make quizzes, flashcards, etc. It also allows you to share them with others (ie practicing for a test). It already has some questions up for history and government.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009




Google Earth
Here is how to navigate around Google Earth. Below it is a video showing you how to place a marker for a site. I will be having a series of video so you can use this tool with your students. One use might be to follow the explorers in the Age of Exploration and both follow them on the earth, as well as embed pictures of the people and the places as they look today. The very top video tells you how to embed it in a blog.

The Lascaux Cave

The French Government has sponsored a phenomenal website which gives users a virtual tour of the Lascaux cave, including descriptions of each drawing, its importance and meaning, as well as individual breakdowns of specific parts of each drawing. A really cool site that students can explore individually or that you can look at as a class.
The Lascaux Cave

Monday, September 14, 2009

Google Earth
Google Earth keeps getting better. Here, thanks to the Google Earth Blog and Free Tech4Teachers is a great video for looking at Afghanistan. It is more professional than what your students might do, but it will show them what is possible and give them something to shoot for. Check back soon as I will be adding a video showing how to do it.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

AP World Exam Calculations
While I have not taught AP World, years ago I used to grade AP US exams. Back then if the student used 3 (yes 3!) facts correctly they could get a 5 (out of a possible 9) on the rubric and that was good enough to pass the exam - assuming all else was equal. Well here (and above is the graph) an explanation of what a student needs to pass the AP World exam. I'd be curious about your feedback on this one, but the point is that if you can teach students how to answer free response questions (and the best way is to become an AP Reader) it is not that hard to pass the exam (yes, assuming the kids come to class each day, do their homework, etc.). It is interesting to see the chart and the explanation, though.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Mysteries of Catalhoyuk


This is a great website that allows students to complete some simple Pre-historic activities, such as creating a neolithic dinner. Its a fun way for students in World History I or AP World History to explore the world of the Neolithic individual, how they survived, what they ate, and where they lived. Great as a whole class or explored by individual students.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009


How Stuff Works
This is a great site for many reasons, mostly because they have hundreds of short videos (on many things beyond the classroom). I have found it very good for both US and world history. Above, for example is the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The coolest thing is that the movies are 3-1o minutes, so if a student misses class, he/she can still see what you watched!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Smart History


This is a great website that helps us learn and teach Art History. The topics covered range from prehistory (cave art) all the way up to modern art. This site is great for students to explore in class since it provides maps, pictures, and detailed explanations of different art trends and how they relate to art history. This is especially helpful for World History since the SOLs and AP exam seem to be adding images every year. http://www.smarthistory.org/

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Map Site Traces Famous Voyages
If you want to show your students the voyages of Magellan, Columbus, Lindbergh's flight to Paris, DeSoto, the Silk Road, Marco Polo and others, this site is a great one. It also includes pictures and descriptions which you can see as you make the follow the voyages. By the way, I found it on a Delicious.com site. Delicious allow you to bookmark online so you can get to your links from any computer and it also shows you what others who have bookmarked the same sites are looking at.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Reminder on Videos

Just as a reminder, there are several tips posted on how to download and embed videos for instructional use.

How to download a video from Real Player

Academic Earth



Here is a great resource. Academic Earth is a collaboration between Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA and Yale that provides full video courses and lectures for free. There are video lectures that cover both US and World History, as well as Political Science/Government. I'm planning on using these in my AP World History class as enrichment material that students can access from home.
Great Map Site
I'll let this site speak for itself: The David Rumsey Historical Map Collection has over 20,000 maps and images online. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia, and Africa are also represented. Collection categories include antique atlas, globe, school geography, maritime chart, state, county, city, pocket, wall, childrens, and manuscript maps. Some examples are United States map, maps New York, California map, Arizona map, America map, New York City map, Chicago map, and Colorado map. The collection can be used to study history, genealogy and family history.