Sunday, August 28, 2016

Ҫatalhöyük: Life, Architecture & Fall


Studying early Neolithic villages? Here's a great site all about Ҫatalhöyü.

It includes images and drawings of architecture, tools, and other artifacts that have helped archaeologists and others decipher what life might have been like.

Haiti and Slavery Reparations

Should France pay reparations to Haiti  for the legacy of slavery and for 93 million francs Haiti had to France for the loss of slave property?

That's what Haitians argued last year on the eve of a visit by French President, François Hollande. 

This short clip from AJ+ might show kids the relevance of what they're studying.  And this Washington Post story  briefly reviews the Haitian Revolution.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Greece vs Rome, with Boris Johnson and Mary Beard

Teaching Greece and Rome? Here Boris Johnson, one of Britain's best-known politicians, and Mary Beard, an English Classical scholar and Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, debate which civilization was greater.

It's a bit long and at times a bit boring, but overall still good.

"Vote for the Greeks," Boris Johnson urges, "because no matter how often or how badly they fell short, it was those Periclean ideals that corresponds most closely to our own."

But Mary Beard asks, "But what happened to Sparta?"   She notes that Greece was not just Athens.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Teaching Indic Religions: Terrific Website

Teaching Hinduism or Buddhism or Jainism or Sikhism or Zoroastrianism? Here's a terrific website that covers them all.

Click on Jainism and you'll see an overview of beliefs and practices and links to Jain literature, Jain scriptures, Jain history and much more.

Click on Buddhism and you'll see links to stories about Siddhartha's life, as well as Buddhist history, concepts, and practices.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Three Ways to Engage Students with Technology

Here are four terrific ways to allow kids to process material using technology. I've used both StoryMap and Storify with my students. You can see examples by clicking on the titles below.
I played with TimelineJS and think that it's the best vehicle for creating timelines. It's a product of Northwestern University and very simple to use. You simply click on the google spreadsheet template and and fill in the columns with text. You can also link images and videos. Below, you can see a sample I  made for the life of the Buddha.

Once you finish with your spreadsheet,  you publish it and paste the url in a box on the TimelineJS homepage.  You can preview your timeline and get the embed code, which you can then use to embed in a blog or website. Here's a short clip explaining how to make a timeline.
Making movie credits is another interesting way for students to process material. The amazing teacher, Russel Tar, made a template onto which you can input your own text. The text scrolls into infinity and music plays in the background.  This might be a great way for students to introduce big events like World War 1 or the Cold War.