Betty’s Instructional Technology Blog

In this workshop, we will be covering the following topics:

1. Google Earth
2. Photostory
3. Delicious

The following is a link to the presentation: http://www.gtps.k12.nj.us/technology/Tech_SocialSt/_Tech_SS_files/frame.htm

Workshop Participants:

Please complete an exit ticket by commenting on my blog.

I have been working on a project with 6th grade students who will be studying Ancient Egypt and the Near East, a unit in the Social Studies Alive program. The basic plan could be used for almost any content area in a variety of grade levels.

The students are broken into groups.  Kids have a choice of one of three tasks: PowerPoint, Inspiration, or Photo Story.  Depending on their strengths, students choose one of the possible products. They will use Photostory to create a “day in the life of an Egyptian”, use Inspiration if the learn best visually with graphic organizers, if they like to organize their thoughts into bulleted lists, they will use PowerPoint. Video and web links will be included as part of the project. The students will research an assigned chapter in the textbook and then use one of the pieces of software to share what they have learned. As an extra credit option, they can use Google Earth or Voicethread to share their information.

The following site contains directions and resources the kids can use to complete the project.  http://www.gtps.k12.nj.us/technology/egypt/egypt.htm

Several teachers are working on projects for Black History Month. Some possible projects include:

1. Timelines using Inspiration
2. Photostory/Movie Maker Projects
3.  Blogs & Podcasts

The following websites are resources that can be used for student research:

1. http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/
2. http://sf.factmonster.com/spot/bhm1.html
3. http://www.history.com/minisites/blackhistory/
4. http://www.kidsclick.org/cgi-bin/searchkids.pl?searchtype=all&keywords=african-americans+biography&title=Biography+African-American
5. http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/specials/bhm/0,8805,97217,00.html
6. http://www.cnn.com/EVENTS/black_history/29days.html

The site begins with a challenge, describing how difficult it was to build the Jamestown colony and challenges students to do a better job. Check out the link: http://www.historyglobe.com/jamestown/