Monday, November 30, 2009

Tremendous Class Webpage
This is quite simply one of the best class webpages I have ever seen. It includes outlines (yes they come from a textbook, but you will see it is very smoothly done and you still remain on the website), great online games, video, terms and a calendar. I will add that it is made for AP World. I just wish the teacher had his e-mail on there so I could get him to help me on this blog page.

Friday, November 27, 2009


Twenty-One Interesting Ways to Use Audio in the Classroom
Perhaps the coolest thing about the above PowerPoint is that it just appeared on my Google Docs page as I was added as a collaborator. It was made by Tom Barnett whose blog is here. I have been using Google Docs this fall for my students group projects and love it. I even am going to try having students turn in some of their work this way as I am becoming frustrated by the clunkiness of Blackboard's way of turning in assignments. I'll do more on it later, but for now the twenty-one ways include podcasts with audacity, musical timers, recording projects in both audio and video and most importantly it includes all of the links for each idea.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Interactive Darwin Site
This site does a great job of showing the stops that Darwim made in the correct order. I got it from a Larry Ferlazzo tweet.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Edublog Awards
Each year these awards are given out to the best blog sites on the Internet. If you want to see the categories and think that this site has been helpful to you, you might want to nominate it by going here.
SparkNotes
This is a great review site or actually a site close to a complete book. It has a fairly detailed outline of world history, 45 question quizzes on each section (and there are many sections), context, important people, summary and analysis, study questions (including essays), and further reading. Really it is a one stop shop place for your students.

Monday, November 23, 2009

12 Ways to Publish Online
Okay, this comes from FreeTech4Teachers and includes Google Docs, SlideShare, Empressor, Zoho, SlideRocket and more.
Cold War Advertisements
This is pretty cool as is it has fifteen advertisements from the Cold War era.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Digital Storytelling
This is an amazing sheet as it gives you all of the items to make a digital story (ie video, slideshow, etc.) with your classes. It even tells you how you can resize photos, add music, etc. Of course, all of the items are free. I have used digital stories with my students and find they are often ahead of me and the ones who aren't, learn from those who are. I found this item from a tweet from Larry Ferlazzo.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Ashoka and Buddhism
Here is a film on the edicts of Ashoka and the development of the Buddhist faith.
A Very Cheap Interactive Whiteboard
I found this on the FreeTech4Teachers site. If you watch the video above, you can see for about $30 how to create an interactive whiteboard using a "Wiimote." You can get more information on how to do this by going here.
Thirty Tips to Use Twitter
I've only been using twitter for the past week, but I am amazed at how 140 characters can enhance one's teaching. If you want to give it a try, I'd recommend going here for some quick help.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Amazing Site on World Religions
This is one succinct website that has a bunch of the world's religions and in a organized page for each one all the details for each. For example, for Judaism it has beliefs, customs, holy days, the Holocaust, people, texts, subdivisions and worship.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009


Top One Hundred Technology Tools for Learning
You will probably see a lot more posts dealing with general technology as I adjust to my Twitter feed which has been growing quickly. Here and above is a great list of technological innovations one can use in the classroom. I found it from this Twitter site. Each one also has a link to the item's site. If you are using this site a lot, you will recognize many of the items.

Monday, November 16, 2009

100 Google Docs Tips
My students challenged me today to try to get through a class without mentioning the word "Google!" I am not sure I can do it! Here are 100 tips you might want to have as you learn to work through Google Docs. In a way they remind me of word in the earlier stages, however there have been so many times I have wished all of my documents were on there so I would not have to log onto my slow to start school laptop or when I am at another house and want to look at something. Google Docs is getting better and better and for collaboration it can't be beat. By the way, I found this using a Twitter feed.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Twitter & Education - #140conf LA from RealPlayer SP on Vimeo.


Twitter Resources
I just found this by tweeting and ended up seeing a post I had missed on FreeTech4Teachers. It is a short discussion of how and why to use Twitter for educators. Since I am just getting into this, I will probably have more ideas in the near future. Remember you can follow my tweets at www.twitter.com/kenhalla. They will be for all three of my educator sites (World, US and Govt) and will also be on the right side of all three sites.
Outline of the Stearns AP World Textbook
If you make your students outline a textbook, be careful since you have seen from this site that many of the outlines are now available online. As proof, here is the entire one for the Stearns AP World textbook.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Twitter Feed
A few months ago I signed up for a Twitter account and then did nothing to it. Interestingly enough people started signing up, so I am going to start using my account. If you want feeds of all three of my teacher blogs (US Government Teachers, World History Teachers, US History Teachers), you can see the latest feeds on the side bar of this blog page or you can subscribe directly to the page by going to twitter.com/kenhalla

Friday, November 13, 2009


History of Religion in 90 Seconds
I've run this one before, but it is a super video and a nice way to review the spread of religion.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

PowerPoints for Holt "Human Journey" and Entire Book
Okay, here are all the PowerPoints for the world history textbook, "Human Journey" as well as the entire textbook in pdf format. Wow!

PowerPoints and entire AP textbook
On the same site are PowerPoints and the pdf textbook for an AP World book as well.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009


Mining New Data from Google
Here is a great link that allows you to compare a large variety of items from countries around the world and then put them in a chart instantly. Above is a comparison of Internet users in China, India, the US and the world. Also, click on any part of the lines and it will give you the percentage at that point in time. Right now, Google can display results for all of the following:
CO2 emissions per capita, Electricity consumption per capita, Energy use per capita, Exports as percentage of GDP, Fertility rate, GDP deflator change, GDP growth rate, GNI per capita in PPP dollars, Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Income in PPP dollars, Imports as percentage of GDP, Internet users as percentage of population, Life expectancy, Military expenditure as percentage of GDP, Mortality rate, under 5, Population, and Population growth rate.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Quizlet
This is another "goodie" from the teacher who created the webpage mentioned in the previous post. This has 78 question on 1914 to the present. If you go to Quizlet.com, you can see lots of quizzes and even make your own.

Berlin Wall
Above is the fist story of the NBC Nightly News Broadcast from 20 years ago on the fall of the Berlin Wall. Here is a link to a number of stories about the wall on icue.com.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Plug this Blogsite?!
If you live in the DC area you know of Jay Matthews who came up with the Challenge Index which features the top AP schools in the country. He and Valerie Struass are looking for the best education blogs. If you like this site, you might consider clicking on the article and leaving a comment or by e-mailing either Jay Matthews at matthewsj@wash.com or Valerie Strauss at theanswersheet@washpost.com (note you have to copy and paste the addresses into your e-mail). I heard about the article from FreeTech4teachers.com

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

NOVA Series on "Becoming Human"
This is an excellent (based on the first part) sthree part eries on human development. It starts with apes and goes through the neanderthals. You can already watch the first part on line and have it in full screen (in case you wanted to show it in class) and the others will be up as they show. Go to the link above for the show times.