Constitution Day

First, let me apologize for not posting all summer. Did you even miss me or were you out having too much fun? I didn't mean to take a vacation from posting... it just happened. But I'm back at it and hope to be more consistent with my postings this school year.

Constitution Day occurs shortly after the beginning of the school year so it probably gets overlooked amidst the chaos. But, for those of you who are interested, there is a free live Webcast (brought to you by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt & HISTORY™ ) on Friday, September 17, 2010. According to the information I have received, it will be a 45-minute program featuring "leaders from government, news, and entertainment". Houghton Mifflin Harcourt & HISTORY™ will also provide primary source documents, activities, and other curriculum resources online to help you prepare for and follow up the Webcast. To see further information and/or register, please click here.

Hope you had a great summer!

Civics

Now that the school year is just about over it is time to start thinking about the Fall, right? Well, here's a little something to get you started.

It can difficult to find material on civics topics that is interesting to the students. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s “iCivics Project” has done a wonderful job of producing reliable information in a way that is engaging to students. The site contains games to help introduce students to the Separation of powers, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the Executive Branch, and the Judicial Branch. I actually started playing Do I Have A Right? where I got to run my own law firm and deal with Constitutional issues. Pretty cool, huh? The teachers section is arranged by curriculum topic with interactive webquests and lessons that provide everything you need to teach your students.

And don't forget that Constitution Day is Friday, September 17. Visit Sunnylands Classroom to register for free Constitution Day 2010 resources. According to a promotional email I received from annenbergclassroom.org, 2010 resources will include:

Several films:
A Fair and Impartial Jury: Jury Selection – Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Company (mailed only to those who sign up by September 3rd)
A Conversation on the Constitution with Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony M. Kennedy: The Right to an Impartial Trial by Jury

And many interactive educational games on the Constitution:
The Bill of Rights
Being John Marshall
Branches of Power*
LawCraft*
Executive Command*
Court Quest*

* produced in partnership with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s “iCivics Project”.

So get a jump on the new school year and check these out.

Children's Book Week 2010

Children's Book Week is May 10th-16th. Here are a few good resources for finding good books.

As a parent and a former school librarian, I really love ABookAndAHug.com by Barb Langridge. Barb has been a bookseller, children's book specialist at a public library, and has a cable television show in Baltimore for which she interviews children's and young adult authors and illustrators. Her website truly reflects her understanding of children's books and how important it is to connect the right books to the right children. Her booklists are easily browsed or searched and I especially like that she has tagged books for boys, girls, reluctant readers, and "middle reader - careful content". Middle reader - careful content are books for children ages 8-11 who read above level and aren't ready for more mature subject matter. We have all had difficulty finding books for this group! An added bonus are the links to her interviews with authors/illustrators on the Books Alive! page.

Some other great resources to check out are the seven "editorial websites" from the Book Report Network. Here are brief decriptions of what they have to offer.

• Graphic Novel Reporter - Learn about it, read reviews, see whats up and coming. Covers graphic novels for kids through adults.


• Teen Reads - Set up for teens to share information about their favorite books and authors.


• Kids Reads - Intended to share information with kids about their favorite books and authors but I personally feel that it is more appropriate for parents, teachers, and librarians.


• Book Reporter - Reviews and book suggestions for the adult reader.


• Reading Group Guides - Need a guide for your book group? Here's the perfect place to start looking. There are over 3,000 guides to choose from.


• Author Yellow Pages - A searchable directory of author websites. There's also a list of author newsletters you can sign up for.


• Faithful Reader - Need to add to your Christian fiction and non-fiction collections? This site's for you. Lots of lists and reviews.

I hope these sites are as helpful and interesting to you as they are to me. Happy Children's Book Week!

Visuwords™ Online Graphical Dictionary

Looking for a new way to teach students about word meanings and associations? Check out Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary . Type in a word, hit enter and get a diagram showing word associations. The user can then interact with the diagram - zoom in, shift the model around, grab a node to clarify connections, hover over a node to get the exact definition of that word. Use it as a dictionary. Use it as a thesaurus! Just play and learn! It's pretty cool.

I'd love to hear from you if you can think of specific activities for your students with this resource.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology - NestCams

Spring has sprung and it is a great time to introduce students to the wonders of nature. The NestCams provided by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology gives students the opportunity to view birds courting, mating, laying eggs, and raising young. There are live cams that students can access to watch the nesting cycles of various birds around the country. And since the lab has been filming these nesting attempts since 2000, there are many to choose from in the archives.

Students can also participate in CamClickr, a Cornell Lab of Ornithology citizen science project, by becoming a Bird Sleuth. They can sort and tag NestCam images while learning about bird behavior. Instructors can download free lessons to help their students use CamClickr. There are also Bird Sleuth lessons that you can purchase but they are pretty expensive.

If you want to learn more about birds and birding, visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's All About Birds.

Census in Schools

Want to teach your students about the Census?

Census in Schools is a website designed to help students learn why the Census is important. There are lesson plans and other teaching material for teachers, fun activities for kids in grades K-5, and activities to teach kids in grades 6-12 about how the census "affects [their] world. "

Women Working, 1800-1930

The Harvard University Library has a wonderful collection focusing on women's role in the United States economy. With 500,000 digitized pages and images, Women Working, 1800-1930 can be browsed by genre (e.g. books, photographs, diaries - what I would call format) and subject. Terms and phrases can be searched in the catalog or the full text transcriptions of the digitized material.

The Teacher Resources section brings together primary resource materials organized into selected themes taught in social studies. Each theme contains featered sources with links to resources to explore further.

But my favorite part of this site is the Today's Diary Entries - selected diaries are opened to the current day's date for your reading pleasure. You can also page through the diaries if you don't want to wait.

A nice site for the study of Women's History or just to browse for fun. Who wouldn't enjoy reading The American frugal housewife : dedicated to those who are not ashamed of economy (1835) by Mrs. Child (Lydia Maria, not Julia).