National Council for the Social Studies

Classroom Tech Blog

Elizabeth Ramos, a H-SS teacher at Alta Loma HS in Southern California and Inland Empire Council for the Social Studies Teacher of Excellence, has been exploring ways to integrate technology into her classroom as a tool for teaching and learning since she first entered the classroom. She has participated in international video conferences with students, involved them in creating digital documentaries,digital storytelling, blogging, digital collaboration, and much more. All the while she has learned from her experiences and improved with each iteration of her projects, willingly sharing with others.

After discovering the technology blog she had been operating for her colleagues and students, the CCSS Publications Committee asked her to join our effort to bring our cutting edge publications to our members.  You are welcome to participate in the ongoing discussion and idea sharing of the most effective uses technology to enhance learning in every social studies classroom.  You will enjoy Liz’s energy and ideas and are encouraged to add your own.   
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  • Twitter Power

    21 Apr 2013 2:36 PM | Elizabeth Ramos (Administrator)
    Twitter is a powerful tool. Do not underestimate its potential for teachers and students! Those in the know are harvesting the many benefits. Twitter is a source of constant information regarding education pedagogy, Common Core, flipped classroom, educational technology, content specific connections, and more. In a recent Twitter chat I commented that I wish I had joined in sooner- no joke! 

    Twitter is also a way to connect with our students. One of my students forgot what time we were meeting yesterday for out practice AP exam and Tweeted me to find out the info. They will tweet me articles or info they find. Sadly, I just started using it with them...watch out next year. Just the other day I saw another teacher, Tara Becker-Utess (@t_becker10) conducting a review session via Twitter- yes on Twitter.   

    Also, by connecting with other teachers and following Twitter chats you can collaborate outside of you site and subject. I am constantly amazed by my Twitter peers and wanting to challenge myself and students more. So come on and join the Twitter community. The steps are below along with a tutorial video. Please forgive the video, it is my first attempt- they will get better.


    Step 1: Go to Twitter. Enter your name, email, and create a password. I would suggest not using your district email, but rather a alternate email account. Also, I would suggest creating a Twitter account to use with students and another to network with educators (PLN).


    Step 2: Create a username. Twitter will automatically generate a username- don't be afraid to change it. Try to create a username with your last name and school/subject/mascot to make it easy for the students to remember. When creating a user name to use with educators keep it classy. Scroll down to create and hit the button to go on to the next step.


    Step 3: Add people and groups/organizations to follow. You can add people by name, Twitter handle (@username), or type in a topic. Select organizations by category or select Skip (it's in very light font under the selection menu) to continue.


    Step 4: Create your profile biography and insert an image. Select an image from your pictures folder to use. It does not need to be an image of yourself- use a school image, animated image, etc...anything is better than the generic Twitter egg. Type in a little background info about yourself and include a link to your website or blog if you have one.


    Step 5: Congrats your on Twitter. Send out a Tweet and explore!
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  • US History Review Resources

    21 Apr 2013 10:31 AM | Elizabeth Ramos (Administrator)
    It is that time of year again...race against the calendar and testing. At the same time, it is getting warmer and the students are getting more excited about the prospect of summer vacation. With this excitement comes the restlessness and lack of focus sometimes, along with fatigue. This can create anxiety and stress for both teacher and students. State testing is here and AP testing is around the corner. For me, I'm setting up review resources for my AP US History class that can hit the different learning styles, be engaging, and provide access on the go for our mobile and sometimes over scheduled students. I came across some great resources for my students and to share with my fellow teachers.Some are general review videos and some include practice quizzes. You could also use them with middle school and for CST prep.

    Education Portal (review movie and short quiz)


    bubbabrain (online practice quizzes- multiple grade levels & subjects)


    US Key Dates & Eras (You Tube video)


    Hippo Campus (video review with transcript & more)


    Crash Course US History (You Tube videos)
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  • Tech & History Join Forces at Presidential Timeline Institute

    13 Apr 2013 10:37 AM | Elizabeth Ramos (Administrator)
    With the emphasis on primary sources and using multiple texts, along with the call for student collaboration and use of technology teachers can feel overwhelmed by the Common Core. However, technology has some powerful uses and integration with literacy and writing in the history classroom. 

    Presidential Timeline has just announced their summer teacher institutes which take place in conjunction with presidential libraries and the National Archive resources. Southern California via the Nixon Presidential Library will be hosting their Energy and Environmental Policies: Historical Thinking, digital Archives, and Web-based Tools for the Social Studies Classroom July 11th through the 14th. Having attended one a couple of years back, I can attest to the depth and quality of primary sources, technology, and speakers. Presidential timeline uncovers great readings and walks you through the process of breaking them down with your students. They will provide you with access to a wide variety of primary resources beyond the topic, and show you how to integrate primary sources with a 21st century touch.

    Presidential Timeline has a vast arsenal of resources for the history classroom such as an interactive presidential timeline, primary resources, and lesson activities.
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  • Review Session via Twitter

    13 Apr 2013 10:08 AM | Elizabeth Ramos (Administrator)
    The other day I was going through my Twitter feed and I came upon Tara Becker-Utess (@t_becker10) conducting a review session. My jaw dropped...SUCH AN AMAZING IDEA! I have used Twitter to communicate with my students for a variety of reasons and events, but I had not thought of conducting a review session. This is such a great idea, especially when you have students involved in after school activities.  I am most definitely going to be doing this in the future. What was even better was that her students were also answering questions...EDUAWESOME! 

    To help my self remember and to give you an idea, I created a Storify of the review chat.  By using Storify you will create a "story" archive of a discussion based on the hashtag used. The archive flows from the most recent post. Scroll to the bottom and move upward to view the great review session.


    Here are the steps you will want to take:


    • Set up a Twitter account to use with your students. Try to make the username related to your name, school, and or class- this will make it easier for the students. 
    • Show your students you Twitter account in class and encourage them to follow you. You may also want to create a student account randomly or have a student volunteer to do this in class.



    • Create a hashtag (#word) to use for the class. Be sure to practice searching for it in the search bar. If you are getting hits, select something else. You will want a unique hashtag for your students to follow during a chat. Again, best to create a hashtag related to your name, school, and or class- this will make it easier for the students.
    • Practice Tweeting a few to model for the students with your hashtag at the end. Then follow it in the search bar.
    • Create an account with Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or another Twitter management system.
    • Model creating a column/following a hashtag for your students.


    For Tweetdeck:


    • Type your class hashtag into the search bar and search.
    • Once your results come up, select add column to follow tweets with that hashtag.



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  • Blogging 2.0

    11 Apr 2013 9:58 PM | Elizabeth Ramos (Administrator)

    I started blogging at the urging of Debbie Granger as a way to share resources and ways to integrate technology with history in the classroom and was asked to do so for CCSS. This week I participated in the #flipclass Twitter chat. The topic was blogging. It was in this chat that I realized I was just scratching the surface. I reflect on my teaching, but wasn't using the blog to its full potential. There is so much to gain by writing our reflections from class down as educators for ourselves, other teachers, and our students. Blogging gives an opportunity to reflect, grow, learn, inspire, and much more.


    Writing about our adventures in the classroom gives support to other teachers, ideas, allows a platform for assistance and development, models good teaching practice of evaluation to our peers and those entering our profession. More and more teachers and administrators are joining the charge of blogging.

    Additionally, and more importantly, it serves as a model to our students. What better way to encourage and model lifelong learning than for our students to see us as "students" in life as well? Students sometimes dismiss what a teacher says as be irrelevant or "do as I say." Blogging serves as an authentic piece of evidence that we are not just "talk" and are in the journey of learning along with them. I know I am constantly learning and being inspired by my students. This helps to build rapport and builds a safe learning environment.

    However, blogging is just not for teachers, why not have your students blog? Blogging is a great way for students to reflect on their learning and share their voice. There are a variety of ways to set this up- exit pass, a weekly recap, answer an essential question, reflect on a or set of primary sources, relate a topic of study to a current event...and on and on. Also, blogging supports the Common Core. Why not take it a step further and comment/connect with another class on your site or off site. If you are looking to go off site, go on Twitter. With a mention of wanting to connect with another class, I found three teachers in ten minutes. The possibilities are endless!

    This blog was established to provide a venue to communicate ways to integrate technology into the classroom. It will continue to do so, along with highlight resources- Common Core and history related as well. I encourage you to set up a blog. I will also be posting on my classroom experiences/reflections on a personal blog if you would like to join.
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  • Flipping March Madness

    05 Apr 2013 12:22 AM | Elizabeth Ramos (Administrator)


    Why should basket ball have all the March fun? I decided to flip March Madness for my AP US history class for a review.While surfing the internet, I came across a political March Madness at In the Capital and came up with the idea. Why not turn this into a review activity? I enjoyed the fact that they grouped key US political figures by eras.



    First, I got busy on Google Docs and Prezi. To introduce Political Madness to the students I created a Political Madness Prezi. Students were given time to work in their table groups of three to select a winner. While discussing their selections, the groups had a peer serve as a recorder to record the historical evidence/justification for their selection. This compelled them to review and give a purpose to their "madness." Students were given time the next day to share out their responses.

    Then, I created a Google form to survey the students for each pair in the brackets. When I went over this and introduced it, students were given some time to enter their selections on their smart phones in class.

    Later, we returned to view the results-they enjoyed the immediate results. The remainder were able to complete the survey for homework or in the computer lab the next day.


    The next step was to create a Google drawing to enter in the winners as we progressed. Also, a new survey was needed for the next bracket. This repeats until we come to the winner. So far, the students have been

    engaged and this has been a "fun" way to review- perfect timing for the California STAR test and pre-AP/End of Course review.

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  • iPads in the Classroom: Embedding Technology in the Curriculum

    11 Mar 2013 11:45 AM | Dr. Margaret Hill (Administrator)
    British educational blogger David Andrews provides some creative suggestions for teachers to use iPads in their classrooms and makes the recommendation to use one per group in order to build collaboration (and I would add language development) opportunities. The only confusing issue in the blog is how the grade level relates to the American system. In Great Britain, the primary school year six would be either fifth or sixth grade in America. Hope you find the  blog of value for your clasroom: iPads in the classroom: embedding technology in the primary curriculum http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/mar/06/ipad-ipod-technology-primary-curriculum
     
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  • US Supreme Court Comes Alive

    10 Mar 2013 6:30 AM | Elizabeth Ramos (Administrator)
                                     
    Studying the Supreme Court can be challenging for students. They may read about the landmark cases and Chief Justices and say so what? C-SPAN has an excellent resource to bring the Supreme Court alive in your classroom...an Interactive Timeline. The timeline has profiles on the Chief Justices, changes in the Court, and profiles on major cases that have come before the US Supreme Court. Another benefit to utilizing the Interactive Timeline in the classroom is to practice Common Core skills of identifying evidence in responses and practicing sample tasks of utilizing video in performance tasks.

    The Interactive Timeline provides many options for teachers and students. In many cases, the timeline has also included video and a few questions for the timeline entries. The video may consist of interviews with scholars, experts, or more recently- audio of arguments before the Court. The questions lend themselves to many uses. Highlighted video and questions may be used as a warm-up to set the stage for day's lesson.  Another possible use would be to have students view the video and questions as an anticipatory set to a unit review where students connect the case to events in a unit or theme in American history or government. Additionally, the timeline has a variety of formats that it may be viewed in. One may view it in the traditional timeline configuration, as well as in a flip book, list or map.

    Beyond the timeline uses in the classroom, it may also serve as an idea for student extensions. Perhaps, you may show the timeline as an example and jigsaw your class to create timelines on landmark cases related to themes such as civil rights, federalism, or SPEC (social, political, economic, cultural). A detailed posting on how to create an interactive timeline on Capzles coming soon. Another possible extension would be for students to use the timeline to create their top 10 list with biographical info. Yet another would be to connect your desired case or number of cases to relevance in the United States today based on current events. The possibilities are endless. 
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  • Extra, Extra Read All About It...Newspaper Clipping Generator

    07 Mar 2013 7:30 PM | Elizabeth Ramos (Administrator)
    One of the areas of focus in the Common Core History ELA standards addresses expository writing. Additionally, this is a great formative and summative assessment to use with students. As we are requiring more writing, why not make it fun and creative. Fodey has created aNewspaper Clipping Generator online. Students can work independently or collaboratively to create an informative article and "publish" their work. In doing such an activity, teachers will be hitting multiple Common Core Tasks (Writing 2, 4, 7 Language 1, 2). Students have the opportunity to name their newspaper, date it, create a headline, and create their article. Once complete, the website generates an article clipping like the one to the side. This would be great to do periodically, as a class activity with unit material jigsawed, or as a CST review and post them around the class or hallway for a gallery walk
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  • Women's History Month Resources

    04 Mar 2013 4:00 PM | Elizabeth Ramos (Administrator)

    March is Women's History Month. The Library Of Congress has a wealth of resources for teacher to create their own lessons or utilize a lesson and materials ready to go. Better yet, the lessons include primary sources which are great to use in the classroom and support the Common Core State Standards. Women's History  has a variety of material on Women's History.Women Pioneers in American History has a variety of information and primary sources related to the Westward Movement, Suffrage, Struggle for Equality, On the Job, and Women Today. This site also allows you to search for material and lessons by Common Core, State Standards, and Organizations. Women's Words of Wisdom is another great project. The page has a variety of pictures of women. Just click on one to bring up information and a quote from the woman This is a great short and quick way to examine a primary source. One could examine different ladies throughout the month in discussion or use the quote for a warm-up activity.
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