UR Instructional Tech Integration

I made the following graphic organizer to visually represent the Columbian Exchange as described in Virginia SOL WHII.4d.  The students need to see the direction of the exchange of products.  In class, I would use this organizer during a discussion of the topic and as a study aid for the students.  This was the first time [...]

Prior to reading the articles about 21st century skills, I completely supported what I thought was an education concept centered on teaching methods that incorporate using technology in the classroom; however, I have now learned that 21st century skills is much more broad than I originally thought.  The key elements of 21st century skills include…[Read more]

For my online learning experience, I watched a panel presentation from the fall 2010 FETC Virtual Conference Expo titled “Mobile Learning in the K-12 Classroom:  Get the Facts Straight from the Practitioners.”  Even though the virtual conference was live on October 7, 2010, the presentations are still available on-demand.  I was intrigued by this…[Read more]

I found this example of real world media for the classroom in a blog post from my mental_floss RSS feed subscription.  The following video relates to SOL CE.13f about the role of the government in creating currency. This is obviously someone’s personal opinion about pennies and nickels, but it contains several references to facts that [...]

SportsCenter commercials are some of the funniest on TV, but this ad had me laughing harder than any of the others.  Who had the creativity to relate Brett Favre’s return to the Vikings to the movement of the British Army before the battles of Lexington and Concord?  Someone was probably waiting for the right moment [...]

After searching and viewing many social studies-related PowerPoint presentations, I have come to the conclusion that a “good” presentation is very hard to find.  Even if the first slide looked interesting with a great picture and title, the next slide included bullet points 99.9% of the time.  I saw so many bad presentations with definitions,…[Read more]

For my professional feeds, I tried to sign up for sites with useful teaching resources and a variety of social studies content sites.  Professional:  1.  The blog from iLearn Technology provides information on integrating technology in the classroom, including websites and software.  Using technology along with Bloom’s Taxonomy is a prominent…[Read more]

After reviewing the videos and online material for creating interesting digital presentations, I learned that I have made numerous boring Power Point presentations throughout my educational career. In order to make useful digital presentations for my future students, I must completely change my thinking and methods for using Power Point and…[Read more]