Sepia: Comparing Photos of Places from Then and Now

Sepia Town is a website that allows you to compare historical photographs from selected major cities (see below).

Basically, you click on a city. Then you zoom in to see thumbnails of the photographs. Once you choose a photograph, click "Then/Now" button to see a side by side comparison of the present day photo to the historical one. In addition, users can upload their own historical photos to the site. While there are limited cities right now, I would imagine this site would grow over time so check back often.

Google Maps: Use "Earth View" for 3D Maps

Most people are familiar with Google Earth, but it seems as if the Google team has now integrated Google Earth features into Google Maps. When you click on Google Maps, you now have the option to click on "Earth View" to fly to different 3D maps. Once you click on "Earth View" a random list of 3D places will appear for you to fly to! Here I have flown to Reichstage, Germany. Notice the building is being viewed from the side, and I can see buildings behind it.

Google Maps: Use Street View for a Virtual Tour

Are you on a budget? Can't afford to travel to places with your class? Consider using Street View in Google Maps to virtually explore areas you can't otherwise visit. While this feature is not yet available everywhere, I was surprised to see it offered as many places as it is. Street View allows you to move the little "Google Man" from the compass rose directly onto the map to get a view from street level. Real photographs are strung together to create a "walking tour". Look around the photograph, turn around, walk forward, or walk backward within this view. How do you do this? Navigate to Google Maps. Zoom in to the city of the area that you are interested in. (If you don't zoom in close enough, this won't work.) Click the Google Man and drag him onto the map. If the street you choose is not available in Street View, it will tell you.

If the street is available, you will see a preview of the street above the Google Man's head. Drop him in place! When you are finished, click the little "X" in the upper right hand corner to exit this view.

History in Pictures

The American Image: The Photographs of John Collier Jr. is a site where you can see how photographs have changed since the 1940s. Also users can create their own propaganda to study how propaganda is used in the public within this site.


Picturing the Century is sponsored by the National Archives and spans over 100 years in history. In addition to browsing the pictures online, you can order reprints from their catalog.


The Way We Worked: a site that documents in photographs how the workplace has changed since the 19th century. Pictures of how we worked, where we worked, what we wore to work, dangers at work, and more are displayed.



Life Magazine: Photographs show current issues as well as historical events.

Earth Day Activities for K-8

With Earth Day approaching, I found two sites that are appropriate for K-8 learners.

The first is Earth Day from Scholastic. Here you will find activities for K-8 including:

• A Water Experiment
• Recycling Game
• Earth Day CyberHunt
• Earth Day Math Hunt
• and more
  

The second site is also from Scholastic: Kids' Environmental Report Card. This is a chance for kids to make their voices heard as they vote on topics that are important to them. You can also see the results from last year's Environmental Report Card to compare how issues are changing.

SnagFilms Film Widget

SnagFilms allows you to place documentary widgets on your blog or social networking site. The one I have embedded into my blog is about Great White Sharks. The movies are shorter than the original ones that aired on National Geographic, but they are still high quality.

Pros:
You can link to documentaries using widgets on your blog.

Cons:
The widget links directly to the site itself and does not play within your blog.
The video will play 1-2 short commercials before the documentary that you cannot skip.

Turning Off Overlays in Google Earth

There are many different layers that can be turned on in Google Earth to provide your students with additional information. For example, Rumsey Historical Maps will overlay a historical map over the current image of the earth for you to compare. There are NASA satellite images that you can overlay on top of the earth as well. However, once they are turned on, how do you get them off? I tried clicking the link, "Hide this layer", but the overlay didn't turn off. (See picture of overlay below)When you activate an overlay, the overlay moves from the "Layers" window pane to the "Places" window pane. Once you find the layer in the "Places" window pane, uncheck the box to the left of the layer, and the overlay will be removed. (See below)

Primary Resources: Historical Documents for Classroom Use

I found two different websites that are perfect for using primary documents for history class.

The first one is Footnote. As described on their website, "Footnote.com is a place where original historical documents are combined with social networking in order to create a truly unique experience involving the stories of our past." Users can upload their own primary sources that they may have in their family history, and post accounts of different historical events as it happened from their point of view. The site includes teacher resources and print resources for using it with your classroom lessons. I found one particular section to be very interesting on the USS Arizona. Footnote provides an interactive monument where you can click on the names of the deceased, and insert information about that individual (photo, personal info, etc.) to make it a more personal experience. Even though Footnote is a paid site, there are many free sections that are worth checking out. However, if you are a history teacher, it may be worth your money to invest in this site.

The second site is called 100 Milestone Documents, which posts copies of 100 primary sources important to U.S. History such as: The Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Bill of Rights, and all the way to The Voting Rights Act of 1965. The site has print resources and teacher resources for using these documents in the classroom. I was a little disappointed that some of the primary documents were difficult or impossible to read online. However, there is an option to download a hi-res copy of the document you want to view. Nice touch!

Related Posts:

Interactive Social Studies Websites

Fun Educational Websites for Kids

Statetris: Geography Fun

Thanksgiving Sites for Kids

The Interactive Constitution

Egypt Websites for Kids

The Interactive Constitution

The Interactive Constitution is a website based on on The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution by Linda R. Monk.

The Interactive Constitution has three sections: Keyword search (search the constitution for keywords in the text of the constitution for in-depth explanations), Explore by topic (discover how the constitution is linked to more than 300 indexed topics), and Supreme Court Cases (search the text of the constitution by supreme court cases).

I looked at one of the articles in this site, and was impressed that it is broken into a split window. The actual text from the constitution is on the top, and the explanation for what it means is on the bottom.

This is a very in-depth site to help students understand basic fundamentals of our government.

Related Posts:

Interactive Social Studies Websites
Fun Educational Websites for Kids
Statetris: Geography Fun
Thanksgiving Sites for Kids

Egypt Websites for Kids

The Tomb of the Unknown Mummy by National Geographic Kids

The Tomb of the Unknown Mummy is geared more for primary kids than the second site. The user is given 5 lanterns to explore in the tomb. Every time the user finds a sparkle of light, click on it for a clue. By collecting all of the artifacts, the user should be able to conclude who is in the tomb.

Egypt's Golden Empire by PBS

Egypt's Golden Empire by PBS is designed for middle and high school students. The site is based on the corresponding series, which is available on DVD, but there are many sections that are worth exploring such as:

• A Timeline: explore 500 years of the new kingdom with artifacts, video, and images
• Virtual Egypt: explore key sites in the new kingdom in 360 degree panoramas
• A Day in the Life: what was it like to be different members of society at this time? Take a look!
• A Virtual Library: View primary sources related to the new kingdom

RELATED POSTS

Interactive Social Studies Websites

Fun Educational Websites for Kids

Statetris: Geography Fun

Thanksgiving Sites for Kids

Thanksgiving Sites for Kids

There are several interactive Thanksgiving sites that you can use with your students to teach about life in the 1600s and how the holiday began. All of the sites below have something different to offer, so check them all out!

Journey on the Mayflower (from Scholastic)

Journey on the Mayflower is a wonderful site from Scholastic. It begins with an interactive timeline. With each stop on the timeline, there is a mini movie complete with sound effects and narration. Also explore the tab at the top of the site about “Daily Life“.

The First Thanksgiving (from Scholastic)

The First Thanksgiving, also from Scholastic, has wonderful slide shows depicting what life could have been like during the 1600s as well as a webquest for your students to complete.

Colonial House (PBS)

Colonial House from PBS has many different pages worth exploring. For example, there is a section on “375 Years Ago at 360 Degrees” with panoramas of the colony. Very cool! Also, you can play “Dress Me Up” to see if your students can match the correct clothing with the colonists for the time period. At the bottom of the home page, there is a section for teachers called “Educational Interactivities” with lesson plans completely written out for you. Thank you, PBS!

Welcome to Plimouth Plantation’s You are the Historian… Investigating the First Thanksgiving

This is one of my favorites! Plimouth Plantation’s You are the Historian allows students to be the historian and investigate the first Thanksgiving from the point of view of the Native Americans and the Colonists. As you click through your investigation, there are interactive activities with narration and sound effects to keep the youngest learner engaged.

Mayflower History

Mayflower History’s site, based on the book by Caleb Johnson, is geared for intermediate students, probably 4th grade students and older. Click on “Pilgrim History” to be taken to a page full of resources on the voyage, life in the new world, the Native Americans and more.

Interactive Whiteboard Links

If you have an interactive whiteboard (Promethean, SMART, or Polyvision), it’s always nice to know where you can find websites that work especially well with your board. A site that may not be suitable to use with your class in the computer lab could be very valuable once you use it with your interactive whiteboard in a whole group instructional setting.

As I was searching for interactive whiteboard links, I came across this site by ETTC (Educational Technology Training Center). The site has tons of links suitable for your interactive whiteboard. But the best part of the site is that the links are broken down by elementary sites, middle school sites, and high school sites. ETTC also separates the links by subject area: math, language arts, science, social studies, music, PE, art, software, tutorials, and other.

It’s the best list I have seen to date. I looked at about 70% of the sites under “elementary” and was astonished that the sites were of high quality. There is nothing worse than a hotlist of sites that stink.

RELATED POSTS:
GAMES FOR THE INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD

A Visual Way To Read The News

There are several sites available that allows you to see current news articles in a different way. I like a few of them, and some of them I don’t understand at all.

The first one is the Spectra Visual Newsreader by MSNBC.com. The best way for me to describe it is a cross between an aggregator and a customized start page. The user has the choice of adding topics that he/she is interested in and the site will arrange your articles in a moving, interactive orb of news. It is hard to capture this as an image since the articles are always moving allowing you to zoom in on different topics. I like the colors and the movement. I felt like a baby staring at a mobile at nap time. Pretty! Pretty!

The next one is World News Maps by TSmaps.com. This one is a bit more simple. You have a world map. Click a country. Thumbnails of articles from that country appear. Simple. Easy. It’s okay. I can’t see myself using it personally. See below.

Third, is NewsGlobe sponsored by Yahoo.com. It looks very similar to Google Earth’s globe, except there are long red poles sticking out of the earth, which represent different news articles around the world. Obviously, this provides a visual representation of where the news is actually occuring at the time, which is helpful when teaching current events. However, I personally would still find myself going to Google Earth to show students the exact location of the article versus an approximate location. I did like how NewsGlobe has an “AutoPlay” feature that allows you to sit back and watch the news jump around the globe or an “interactive” feature that allows YOU to be the explorer.

Finally, there is a site called Doodlebuzz. This site boasts, “DoodleBuzz is a new way to read the news through an experimental interface that allows you to create typographic maps of current news stories.” Basically, you type a word in the search field. Then you start doodling on the screen to get the news to appear. The result, to me, is a huge mess. There are titles of articles all squished together and you have to keep doodling to get the rest of the story. Eventually you can click the article to be taken to the site featuring the article. It’s A LOT of work to get to the news. I don’t get it. I don’t understand why it’s worth the effort. I found this site frustrating, but “to each his own”, I guess.

Statetris: Geography Fun!

Check out this new site called Statetris! This online game is very similar to the old favorite game called Tetris where you have to fit falling geometric shapes together as they fall from the sky. Statetris is similar, only instead of geometric shapes, you can use states for the United States map, or countries for continent maps. Imagine how much fun it could be reviewing for a geography test with this site. Fun, fun!

Interactive Social Studies Websites

Social studies lends itself so easily to online sites! I already mentioned my favorite online history game, The Pyramid Challenge, in a previous post. Any teachers, parents, or students who are interested in social studies for research or interest should definitely check out these sites. First, head over to National Geographic’s site for educators. Even though the ads on the right-hand side of the site can be a bit annoying, it has a a great selection of tools including: current events, lesson plans, maps and photos, and professional development. They have a wonderfully detailed online activity on Jamestown and life in 1607. As you click through Jamestown, you’ll find links to music, recipes, and maps. It gives a small glimpse into what life was like at that time. Clicking under the “maps and photos” section, you’ll find a link to Xpendition Atlas, which has a wide selection of maps in black and white perfect for printing and copying for classroom use.

Just as interesting is National Geographic’s site on environments. There are section to explore such as habitats, natural disasters, global warming, and goiing green. Who wouldn’t want to make lightning strike or unleash an avalanche? I do!

Finally, check out the link to mywonderfulworld, which was created to “give the kids the power of global knowledge”. There are separate sections for teachers, kids, and parents. You can find links to educational travel programs for students or take virtual tours of any continent you wish to visit. Looking for lessons based on the geography standards? Look no further! Do you want to test your global IQ? Here’s your chance.

If you teach social studies or are just fascinated by it, you’ll definitely find these sites worthwhile.

Fun Educational Websites for Kids

There are so many websites, and so little time. How do you find websites worthy to share in your class? First, network! If you find a good site, post it to your del.icio.us account, an online website where you can share your favorite websites with anyone. Here are some of my favorites:

1. While bbc.co.uk is located out of England, it has several content based games that range from simulations to trivia to drill-and-practice. One of the my favorite game-based simulation is The Pyramid Challenge, where you are playing the role of the head-of-state in charge of building the king’s pyramid. You need to make several decisions: location of the pyramid, what building materials to use, how many workers to employ, and so on. If you make the right decisions, your pyramid is constructed. It’s not as easy as it looks, and you learn many facts along the way. However, BBC has the best games and simulations for middle school and high school that I have seen as of yet.

2. Another site of interest is Learning Vocabulary Can Be Fun! The site has several clean, motivational games to help kids learn new vocabulary words. ESL learners can use this site to reinforce new words and practice English in a fun way.

3. Scholastic is well-known for their book orders, but they also have an extensive website of lessons and games for all subject areas and ages. While the games are advertised for Pre-K through 12, I have consistently heard from middle and high school students that the games seem too young for their classes. Check it out and be the judge.