Search Strategies for History Students and Teachers

If a student has ever said to you, “I can’t find anything about this,” the webinar that I’m hosting on February 15th is for you.

On February 15th at 4pm ET I’m hosting Search Strategies for History Students and Teachers.

In this one hour webinar I’ll share the strategies and techniques that I’ve used with my own students to help them get beyond the first few pages of Google search results and dive deep into the research process. Learn more about it in the following video.



Key points of the webinar include:

• How to craft interesting search lessons.
• Getting students beyond the first page of search results.
• Alternative search engines for history students.
• Accessing and utilizing local, state, provincial and national archives.
• Guiding students through source evaluation.

Free eBook!
Everyone who registers for the webinar will get a copy of my eBook, Search Strategies for History Students and Teachers.

Live and recorded access!
This will be hosted live at 4pm ET on February 15th! It will also be recorded for everyone who registers in advance.

Register Here  

No, this webinar isn't free but the tools featured and techniques within it are free to use. Purchases of this webinar make it possible for me to create other free resources like The Practical Ed Tech Handbook that I update and give away to thousands of teachers every year.

Experiment and Create New Sounds on WolframTones

Wolfram Tones is a neat offering from Wolfram that students can use to can play with sample sounds and rhythms to create new own sounds. Wolfram Tones uses algorithms, music theory, and sound samples to generate new collections of sounds. Wolfram Tones allows visitors to choose samples from fifteen different genres of music on which to build their own sounds. Once a genre is selected visitors can then alter the rhythms, instrumentation, and pitch mapping of their sounds. When satisfied with their creations, users can download their sounds as MP3 files.

Watch this short video to learn how to use WolframTones.



Applications for Education
Wolfram Tones might be a nice little resource for a music theory lesson. Wolfram Tones could be a fun way for students to experiment with rhythms and instrumentation to make unique sounds.

Prompt Conversations With Google Drawings

One of the lesser-utilized features of Google Drawings is the ability to comment on images. Drawings allows you to collaboratively create drawings from scratch and or alter images that you upload to Drawings. By uploading an image you can draw on it and write on it to add labels. Google Drive Drawings supports commenting just like Google Documents. The sharing options in Drawings are the same as those of Documents too.

By using the collaborative drawing tools you could start online image-based conversations with your students. You could also use these tools to have your student collaboratively label diagrams. Directions for these processes are included in the screenshots in the slides below.



Watch this video for five more neat things you can do with Google Drawings.

Citing Sources in Google Docs and Word Docs

The other day I sarcastically Tweeted, "can you imagine if we let students cite sources the way that ESPN lets reporters name anonymous sources?" My Tweet was in response to ESPN's somewhat botched reporting of Tom Brady's retirement from playing in the NFL. Tweeting that question did prompt me to dig up some tutorials on using the citation tools that are built into Word and into Google Docs. 

In this short video I demonstrate how to insert citations and create a bibliography in Microsoft Word documents.

  

Last fall Google updated the citation tool that is built into Google Docs. The current version now lets you search for books and online resources without having to leave Google Docs. In this short video I demonstrate how to use the built-in citation tool to cite a website.



Applications for Education
Any time I write blog posts or publish videos about tools like these I get emails from readers who like to point out that bibliography tools make it "too easy" or that there is some discrepancy between the tool and the latest minor update to MLA or APA. My point in getting middle school and high school students to use these tools is to help them build the habit of citing their sources. When they reach the point that they have a college professor who is a stickler for bibliography formats or they're submitting research papers to journals then they can worry about the minutia of the bibliography standards of academic research papers

Educational Resources With a Super Bowl Theme

The Super Bowl is a just a little more than a week away. And while this year's Super Bowl won't have the Patriots or Tom Brady in it, I'll still be watching. I'm guessing that my American readers have a student or two interested in the game. Try one of the following resources to turn your students' enthusiasm for the Super Bowl into a lesson.

Practical Money Skills hosts a series of eight online games designed to teach students some money management skills. One of the games that is timely considering that the Super Bowl is just a few days away is Financial Football. Financial Football has students answer questions about budgets, savings, and spending to move their football teams down the field against another team. The games use real NFL team logos. 

Perhaps you have students who are new to the game of American football and want to know more about it. Or perhaps you want to learn the basics of the game so that you can enjoy the game with your students. If so, take a look at the NFL's Beginner's Guide to American Football. 

One of the dangers of playing football is the risk of head injuries. TED-Ed has a good lesson that explains what happens to your brain when you get a concussion.

On the topic of concussions, Microsoft's Hacking STEM website has detailed directions for creating concussion simulations and recording data from those simulations.

The Superb Owl is a cute video about owls. The video presents interesting facts about four types of owls. The whole four minute video is presented as if it is an NFL pre-game show.