Tools for the Social Studies Student
This is a listing of resources and sites that either you might use in class, or that you can use to help complete projects, learn about interesting topics, or finish up assignments. These are tools that, although a chunk of them are designed for teachers, can help give you the edge you want to be an awesome Social Studies student.
-
Wix- This site was created using Wix, it is an easy to use site (and free), requiring only a basic understanding of cutting and pasting and an email address. Students really enjoy creating their projects on this tool. Here is a link to an AP US project that was created by Bradley Schaefer ('13), using Wix, called "Peace through Music."
-
John Green (History) and Hank Green (Biology) give 12-minute crash course lessons in tons of topics. They are fast, but a great resource and fit in nicely with our curriculum. The guys are funny and smart, which leads to engaging videos (warn your students that they speak quickly, but even if they only pick up on 30% of what was reviewed, it's still a ton). (Here is the direct link to the World History playlist.)
-
TED Ed- Newly created site from TED Talks, this is an education focused website that has videos, quizzes, resources, and design tools to enhance the curriculum of our schools.
-
Free Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE)- Government website designed to provide a vast number of free resources for teachers across the disciplines. They describe the site as "More than 1,500 federally supported teaching and learning resources are included from dozens of federal agencies. New sites are added regularly."
-
Wikispaces- More difficult to use than Wix, and sometimes blocked by Websense, this site lets students create shared websites with relative ease.
-
Pinterest- This is an online bulletin board that features a plethora of images and links, what is nice is that you can create "boards" for a particular class to view or you can search through for particular images (or pop culture ideals. The down sides are that you need the free membership (which can sometimes be delayed) and there is no control over comments or content (some images are not appropriate). Great database of images and quotes though.
-
Edmodo- A site that looks like Facebook, but is designed with teachers, students, and parents in mind. You can set up classes, converse back and forth, post videos/Power Points, set up libraries, etc. Teacher has moderator power and control over password reset.
-
Sheppard Software- Although the look is quite juvenile, the results have shown that our students are not only enjoying this tool, but also learning quite a bit.
-
Free Rice- A vocabulary/art/math based game that rewards the students with grains of rice for each question answered correctly (and instructive feedback for incorrect answers). The rice is donated to those in need, and the students/classes can be set up in competitive teams online.
-
Google Scholar- A version of the Google search that only shows scholarly articles, great tool to use in research projects.
-
Glogster- A poster making site designed to help organize thoughts, once the students get the hang of it, it is pretty simple to use (though limited to the size of the final result).
-
Prezi- A moving poster presentation maker that allows students to create a 2d presentation and then guide the viewer in and out of the words and pictures.
-
Teacher Tube- An education-based offshoot of YouTube, designed to focus just on videos for the classroom. Some have links to lesson plans and handouts, some are very weak. This is a minimal site, when compared to YouTube, but worth checking out.
-
Matt and Amy's Gamer's Classroom- Shameless plug for the work that Matt Benard and Amy Parkinson did for the NHCSS conference about the integration of video games into the classroom. This site has some links to an assortment of online and console games to help augment instruction.
-
Open Culture bills itself as harnessing "The best free cultural & educational media on the web." The site has links to free movies, documentaries, youtube clips, audiobooks, textbooks, courses, language lessons, ebooks... It's a clearinghouse for a lot of resources. Go check it out.
-
QuizStar is a free online quiz creator/giver. FYI, once you are "registered" in a class, teachers have access to your log-in name and password (in case either is lost).