Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Impact of Rising Global Temperatures
This is an interesting interactive site that looks at what would happen if the temperatures of the world went up 4 degrees. It looks at items such as forest fires, crops, water availability, sea levels, impact on marine life, drought, tropical cyclones and extreme temperatures.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010


Books of the Future or Should I Say the Present
The juniors in my school have been using e-books this year rather than a paper text. Some of them love it and others don't, but for me it is an important step towards what will be a much better product in the near future as you can see above.

Google Docs for Teachers
I can't say enough about how easy it is to have your students turn in work through Google Docs and then grade them. Additionally Google Docs is a tremendous way for students, and teachers to collaborate. Above is a nice how to video.

Sunday, January 17, 2010


Multiple Ways to Use Wordle
I have used Wordle on this site to show how you can compare two different sources on the same topic to look for bias. But I went to this blog and found the multiple uses you can see above including ways for your students to analyze their own writing and work. It is a great slideshow.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Timeline Using Microsoft Excel
If you want to make a timeline easily such as the one above, you can go here for all of the directions.  The site is done by a British teacher who mixes free lessons which are quite good with others that you have to pay for to use. 

Thursday, January 14, 2010

World Population Clock and much more
This is much more than a clock as it has a running total of the number of people, but also time clocks from around the world, as well as live statistics on death, illness, the enviornment, energy, US crimes, food and more.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Haiti
Not that you can't find some of the images everywhere for the Haitian earthquake, but above is a video I found on the NYTimes Lede page. I can't say enough about that resource as they upload video and pictures in real time from people in an effected area (last month it was amazing footage from Iran). If you incorporate current world events in your world history class, the site is a must.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Alexander the Great's Armour
This post from "A Blog About History," talks about the armor that his troops used to create Alexander's empire. He and his troops used something called linothorax which is a linen covering that is a mysterious covering that has never been seen by modern researchers. More
TeachMideast.org
TeachMideast.org is a new website from the Middle East Policy Council that offers K-12 teachers a smorgasbord of fresh resources on the Middle East, Islam and Muslim societies. It utilizes Google Earth, to showcase many lesser-known aspects of the Middle East in tours that bring the region to life. The site also connects teachers, students and the general public to a variety of other resources, including background essays, articles by prominent scholars, lesson plans and activities, presentations, images, and more. The site is organized thematically, with resources on stereotypes and realities, geography, history, religion, peoples and languages, culture, current issues and pedagogy. This organization helps teachers to quickly find the kind of information they need for their classes. There is also a search function that allows teachers to search for information by country, subject and grade level.

A blog feature on the site also allows the education team at MEPC to showcase exceptional new resources and to take advantage of "teachable moments" in the headlines. The blog gives teachers new ways to approach the subjects about which their students have the most questions.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Eid al-Adha and the Hajj, 2009 - The Big Picture - Boston.com


Eid al-Adha and the Hajj, 2009 - The Big Picture - Boston.com
The Hajj
Here are 38 amazing pictures on the Hajj. Also above is the first of a five part series on going to Mecca for the annual pilgrimage there.


German WWII Invasion of the Ukraine
This is a pretty interesting light box interpretation of the invasion of the Ukraine in WWII which I got from Hiram Cuvevas's tweets.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Free Online Meeting for Your Students?
Like all public schools that I know about, we are not allowed to use Facebook to let our students to collaborate after school hours. Here, though, is a free site that allows one to have up to 10 people working together in a conference setting. Here are the features:

Desktop sharing, ten participants, switch presenter, remote keyboard, session recording and playback, whiteboard, transfer files, pointer, copy/paste, etc.


Sunday, January 3, 2010

WikiBook on European History
Here is a complete e-book on European history. It is certainly not as long as your students' textbooks, but it does give a great overview and might be useful as a resource. It would be especially good for review material. Here also is the IB book for European History. I found these two after a little clicking that started with a tweet from MisterHistory. You can follow my tweets on the sidebar of this page or by going here and signing up for them.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Converting a PDF to a Word Document
Boy I wish I had this a million times in the past. Go here to find a site that will convert a pdf to a word document. It will only work, though, if the original document was a word document and not a pdf. Also, I found this site on this blog.