Text Your Students with E-mail
I always get my students' e-mails and will occasionally send them a message. It is frustrating that half of them never check. In fact even after they e-mail me, they don't look for a reply. But here is a way to use cell phones, but not in the classroom. You could set up a database with their cell phone numbers and then add the code below depending on their cell phone and then they will receive a text. Certainly this way the kids will get the message. (Obviously this is one you'd want to check with the parents first to make sure they don't mind)

Sprint:

[10DigitNumber]@messaging.sprintpcs.com

T-Mobile:

[10DigitNumber]@tmomail.net

Verizon:

[10DigitNumber]@vtext.com

AT&T:

[10DigitNumber]@mobile.mycingular.com

Just replace [10DigitNumber] with the ten digit phone number you are trying to reach (area+ local number).

Guns, Germs and Steel

Based on my summer assignments link (see links on the right of this post) for AP students, "Guns, Germs and Steel" is one of the books most often used. Well, go here and your students can read it for free (I believe even on their phones - how's that for a creative use of phones for school work?) or you can embed it as I have done it above on a webpage if you have one.

AP Study Guides Online
Well I may never have to ask my students to buy another AP study guide online as here most of them are in their entirety. If you have a webpage for your students, you could even embed one or all of them as I have done. It just keeps getting better and better.

Ancient Sites in Google Earth
If you go to youtube.com and type in "Ancient sites + google earth" if you are in YouTube the above video is what you get. You can do it for anything you are studying. This one includes Google Earth scenes as well as pictures and includes Colossus of Rhodes, Greece, c.280 BC + Pharos of Alexandria, Egypt, c.285 BC + Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus, Turkey, 351 BC + Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece, 435 BC + Temple of Art.

Game Templates
This comes from FreeTech4Teachers. I love using review games for my students and here are templates from Jeopardy, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Wheel of Fortune, $25,000 Pyramid and more.

Great Interactive Map Review

This site asks you a world history question and then the student has to answer it by finding the place on the map. Incredible! It also is timed so the student has to really know their stuff.

Transcribe Your Voice Into a Student Text Message
Yes, you heard it. You can use this free service to record a message for your students which will then be converted into a text message. If your parents are wary of giving a phone number to this site, you can always use the post a couple of days ago where I showed you how to e-mail a text message (and for that matter students can text you back to your e-mail!).

Larry Ferlazzo's Links
Larry has some of the most helpful websites for teachers on the Internet. This is an example of why as there are hundreds of links for world history which are worth your time to go through.

Maps and more maps
Why buy another world map again with this resource. It has hundreds of maps in chronological order and they are all in color.

Great Primary Source

This source is nicely divided up to make it easier for you to search and has pictures, first person documents, historical artifacts (pictures of them) and more.

Google Earth Blog
This is a great site that shows you all the uses for GoogleEarth.com. Above is one example of how you can "go somewhere" and narrate the tour for your students. Wow!

AP World Teacher Moodle Page
First off, Moodle is an open resource page for teachers to use for their classes. It is similar to Blackboard, but it is free. You can put assignments, links, folders, etc. there. If you are like me it will make your life infinitely easier as students can print out their own assignments or see what they have to do on a day they missed.

Here is an excellent example of what a teacher can do. This is an AP World history teacher's page and it includes links for the class free response rubrics, review quizzes for each unit, study guides, and review Power Points. It is excellent.

The Scramble for Africa
Here is a fun way to study European imperialism in Africa in the 1800s. It is in a game format and includes the game, cards, etc. and it is free.

Amazing Site of Links
This site will take me a while to get though as it is a very rich source of links, video, etc. broken into a variety of topics. For our purposes, it includes categories for world and US history as well as US government.

World Religions Movie
This is a BBC production that begins with why people turn to religion, the looks at religion in pre-history and finally moves onto the major religions. The best part about this site is that the movies are broken up into segments so you only show what is appropriate to your religion course.

The Last 1000 Years
Here is a great summary, by topic, of the last 1000 years put together by The Economist.

Rubrics
When I first started teaching, I quickly realized that my teacher preparation classes had never prepared me for grading essays and research papers. Too bad I didn't know about this site as it has annotated rubrics for change over time, compare and contrast and DBQ free response (essays) questions. I also have two basic ones on my department's webpage found here. Finally here is a generic DBQ rubric.

12 Essentials for Technology Integration

Here is a great booklet put together to help you set up an online class for your students. While I am in a county that pays for Blackboard.com, remember you can have your students put everthing up for free - your assignments and the work for the kids. If you want to know how, check on this Free Technology for Teachers site. This site tells you how to set up Google folders, have cool slide shows, podcasts, create student webpages, get clips of films, get videos on Teacher Tube and more. About the only site I'd add is Moodle.com which allows teachers to set up folders for classes.

Essay Topics
Here are a bunch of essay questions. They are designed for AP World. The site they came from is here.

Great Map
Above and here is a great map that since it is an 8x11 can easily be given to your students. It shows all the major empires and when they occurred. It is from the Michigan Geographic Alliance.