ClassDojo Launches a New Series of Videos About Empathy

Earlier this year ClassDojo launched a new video series that they called Big Ideas. The first videos in the series were all about growth mindset. The videos proved to be extremely popular as they were all viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

Next week ClassDojo is releasing some new videos in their Big Ideas series. The next set of videos will be all about empathy. The videos were created by ClassDojo in conjunction with Making Caring Common, a project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.


Applications for Education
Like the other videos in the Big Ideas series, the empathy videos will be accompanied by discussion guides that are suitable for K-6 students. When you download the discussion guide (PDF) you will also download a sheet of "tear away" questions that you can send home with your students to discuss with their parents.

How to Use Google Scholar to Track Product Developments

Last week I wrote about how students can use Google Scholar to track product developments and innovations over time. In the video embedded below I provide more details on how students can use Google Scholar and Google Patents to trace the history of a product's development.


We'll cover topics like this one and many more in Teaching History With Technology which starts next week.

A Brief History of the Cuban Missile Crisis

No unit of study about the Cold War is complete without including the Cuban Missile Crisis. The latest TED-Ed lesson provides students with a five minute overview of the moments of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The History of the Cuban Missile Crisis explains why the Soviet Union wanted to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, the decisions that Kennedy and Khrushchev had to make, the compromise that ended the crisis, and how historians view the outcome of the crisis today.



Take a look at Keith Hughes' work for a more in-depth video lesson about the Cuban Missile Crisis.



To The Brink is a free iPad app about the Cuban Missile Crisis. It offers more detail and media about the Cuban Missile Crisis than I’ve ever seen in a middle school or high school history textbook (print or digital). As a free app it is a resource that I highly recommend to middle school and high school history teachers.

Spend a Few Fall Evenings Learning New Tech Skills To Use In Your Classroom

Next week I'm starting three sections of my popular Practical Ed Tech online courses. On Monday Blogs & Social Media for Teachers & School Leaders begins. On Tuesday Getting Going With GAFE begins. Graduate credits are available for completing both of those five week courses. Teaching History With Technology is a three week course that starts next Thursday evening.

About the Courses

Blogs and Social Media for Teachers and School Leaders is a five week webinar series during which teachers and school administrators will learn the how to choose the best blogging platform for their situations, how to set-up a blog for classroom and school-wide use, and learn about strategies on how to manage blogs in classroom and school-wide settings. Participants will also learn how to avoid the mistakes that often lead to blogging endeavors being abandoned. After establishing blogs we’ll jump into using social networks like Twitter, Google+, and Instagram to reach out to parents, students, and other members of school communities.

Getting Going With GAFE is a webinar series designed for teachers and administrators who are new to using Google Apps for Education. Getting Going With GAFE is a five week course covering everything you need to know to integrate Google Drive, Google Classroom, Google Calendar, and Google Sites into your practice.

In Teaching History With Technology you will learn how to develop engaging and challenging learning activities through the use tools like Google Earth and Maps, video production tools, primary source databases, and how to help your students become better researchers. This course features three interactive online meetings.