Category Archives: Social Studies

44 Presidents: Details don't have to be dull

Posted on February 3, 2009 by Linus

Proving once again that memorizing detail doesn’t have to be dull, this YouTube video called 44 Presidents comes from EducationalRap.com. This almost makes me wonder if I should try something like this (except I really can’t rap).

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Teaching Google Reader

Posted on January 30, 2009 by Linus

Last October I tried to get my students to use Google Reader as an RSS reader to gather news for a regular current events assignment. Though it all worked out pretty well, some students found it challenging. Of course, I … Continue reading →

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Inauguration Speech Generator

Posted on January 27, 2009 by Linus

In the wake of the new president’s swearing in last week, I stumbled across an Innauguration Speech Generator. It’s a kind of a cool little Mad Lib style activity where you fill in adjectives, nouns and verbs and it pops … Continue reading →

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How to explain troubled times

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Linus

FlowingData.com has a fantastic guide to understanding our current economic mess. How did we get here? Follow the arrows on their diagram. It’s a very cool look at the issue. Unfortunately, I can’t find any indication if you’re allowed to … Continue reading →

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Shooting the Schlieffen Plan

Posted on January 14, 2009 by Linus

In the course of teaching history/Social Studies, it seems that nearly every year I have to teach the kids how World War I got started and how the Schlieffen Plan kicked in. It’s a fairly complex sequence of events, and … Continue reading →

Posted in On the Web, Publishing, Social Studies | Leave a comment

Energy for Fun and Learning: Game Day

Posted on December 18, 2008 by Linus

Hanging out on Twitter this morning someone tweeted about a new online game they’d found called Energyville. In it you are the all powerful entity that makes energy choices for a company and determines just how it will be powered. … Continue reading →

Posted in Games, Science, Social Studies | Leave a comment

What do you know about Canada?

Posted on November 26, 2008 by Linus

We spent today’s Social Studies classes with my two sections of Grade 9s coming up with and then choosing questions on what people know and understand about Canada and being Canadian. It was tough to keep 50 Grade 9s on … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaboration, Social Studies | Leave a comment

Are newspapers objective?

Posted on February 5, 2007 by Linus

In many social studies classes I’ve long discussions with students who think that newspapers report news “objectively” and without any kind of slant. They tend to think that what you see on the front page is what is really important … Continue reading →

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World Maps with a twist

Posted on February 1, 2007 by Linus

Have you ever wanted to show your students the world from a different viewpoint? All those statistics you have about hunger, aging populations, or misquito infestations don’t mean much to most people. World Mapper takes all kinds of the data … Continue reading →

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Third World Farmer

Posted on January 9, 2007 by Linus

I haven’t had as much time to play this as I wanted, but Third World Farmer looks like a promising little game. It tries to simulate the conditions a third world farmer would face, ranging from crop failure to civil … Continue reading →

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