Return of the Wolves - 20 Years Later

Wolf in Lamar Valley
by Yellowstone NPS on Flickr.

This morning on the Yellowstone National Park Facebook page there was a gallery of photographs about the re-introduction of wolves to the park. It was twenty years ago today that the first wolves were re-introduced to the park. That gallery reminded me of the PBS documentary Return of the Wolves which is about the re-introduction of wolves. I have embedded the video below. (Viewers outside of the U.S. might not be able to see the embedded video).


Applications for Education
In the past I have used part of this documentary in a U.S. Civics lesson about states' rights v. federal powers. The lesson coincided nicely with a colleague's lesson about biodiversity.

Explore the World with the Google Cultural Institute

This is a guest post from Jennfer Carey (@TeacherJenCarey) of EdTechTeacher - an advertiser on this site.

I am a big fan of the Google Cultural Institute; it’s an amazing repository of Artistic Masterpieces, Wonders of the Natural World, Historical Artifacts, and more. By using it as a repository of digital materials, it’s an easy way to access cultural content from around the world in my classroom. I can pull up a high definition image of Van Gogh’s Starry Night and use its powerful zoom features so that students can see the impasto brush strokes. We can explore the Street Art of Sao Paulo with a Google Street View for a unit on modern art or the Ruins at Angkor Wat when covering a unit on Ancient History.

 
Originally, the Google Cultural Institute was limited to the robust Google Art Project, but it has since expanded to incorporate a variety of tools to explore culture, art, and history from around the world. One of my favorite additions has been Historic Moments, which allows students to “explore online exhibitions detailing the stories behind significant moments in human history.” 

What I especially like is that it provides more advanced material for Honors, AP and even college students to perform sophisticated and in depth research on cultural and social phenomena around the world. For example, students could explore the Women of the 1932 Revolution in Brazil, the Establishment of the United Arab Emirates, or the Presidency of Nelson Mandela to extend a research project or gain a different perspective. The various exhibits include images, video, documents, historical events, and more. The collection is expanding regularly as more museums and institutions contribute, making it an excellent resource for teachers of Social Studies, Art History, Government, and more.

For more ideas about bringing technology into your classroom, consider attending one of EdTechTeacher's Summer Workshops in 2015.

Organize Leveled Reading Lists With Book Wizard Mobile

Book Wizard is a Scholastic service that allows you to create and organize book lists according to reading levels and students’ interests. Book Wizard Mobile is a free iPad, iPhone, and Android app that you can use to scan a book’s barcode to quickly discover its lexile measurement, grade level equivalent, and guided reading level. Within the app you can create book lists and edit the existing book lists that you have created in your Scholastic.com teacher profile.

Applications for Education
The lists that you create on Book Wizard Mobile can be shared with others through a variety of channels including email, Pinterest, and Twitter. If you have a Pinterest page related to your school's library or your classroom, sharing lists there could be a good way to keep parents informed of books their children might want to read.

History in Motion - Create Multimedia History Stories

History in Motion is a promising service that allows teachers and students to build multimedia history stories. On History in Motion you can build animated timelines that can move in conjunction with movements on a map. At each stop along your timeline and map you can include descriptions of events, display images, and display videos.


History in Motion requires you to register in order to get started. Once registered you begin by inserting start and end points for your story then filling in the details in the middle. You can go back and edit or add story elements at any time. The first time I tried to build a story on History in Motion I skipped watching the tutorial, I don't recommend skipping it. History in Motion's tutorial video is embedded below.


Applications for Education
Creating simulations on History in Motion could be a fantastic way for students to organize information about historical events that they are studying. Building the simulations could be a good way for students to see how time and place are connected in an event. After building the simulation students could create a screencast video in which they narrate their simulations.

Thanks to Colleen Terrill for connecting me with History in Motion's developer.

How to Create Flipped Lessons on eduCanon

eduCanon is a free service for creating, assigning, and tracking your students' progress on flipped lessons. eduCanon allows you to build flipped lessons using videos from a variety of sources including YouTube, Vimeo, and TeacherTube. You can create questions to appear while your students are watching videos that you have assigned to them in your eduCanon online classroom. In the video embedded below I provide a demonstration of how to create a lesson in eduCanon.


Edmodo users will be happy to see that eduCanon offers an Edmodo app.