App of the Week: Stack the States/Countries

Teachers of elementary school students must find ways to engage their students while still teaching them pertinent information. This is especially true when teaching Social Studies. As geography can become quite boring and there is a significant breadth of information, many teachers struggle to properly engage their students thus the students find the topics “boring”. Stack the States and Stack the States lite are U.S. geography apps designed for the iPad. The purpose of the app (lite is simply the free trial version) is to engage the students in recognizing the shape and location of states as well as important facts related to each state. The students are asked a question and given four states as possible answers. When the correct state is chosen the state becomes a Tertis like piece which then must be stacked. When the students reach the desired height (it varies) they are awarded a badge in the form of a state. The goal is to collect 50 badges. An amazing feature of this app is the when the students choose the correct answer, the state resizes itself so that it is the correct size in reference to other states. For example Delaware would be a tiny piece where as Alaska is quite large. 

Cost: Free (Stack the States Lite version) $1.99 full version. 

Grades: 3-8

Stack the Countries

This app is the same as the aforementioned app expect it substitutes countries for states. 

Cost: Free (Stack the Countries Lite version) $1.99 full version. 

Grades: 3-8

App of the Week: U.S. Westward Expansion

Social Studies teachers are always looking for fun ways in which they can can engage their students. U.S. Westward Expansion is an app designed for the iPad and is a great way to aid students in the acquisition of content area knowledge about U.S. westward expansion. It challenges the students to apply the information they've learned about the content area. The app is designed as a game for the students. They can choose from focusing on the Louis and Clark Editions, geographic awareness (called Territories), or the Industrial Revolution (called Cause and Effects). Recently I shared this app with colleagues and even as educated adults, they found it entertaining. 

Cost: Free 

Grades: 5-8

App of the Week: Nearpod

Nearpod is a push application which allows for educators to push the images on their screen their students' screens. After using this app, I feel as though it can and potentially will revolutionize teaching using Powerpoint.

Nearpod comes in two forms Nearpod Teacher and Nearpod Student. The Nearpod teacher app is designed for the educator, it is the "pusher" for lack of better terms. The Nearpod Student app is designed for the student/ anyone wishing to view the presentation. Nearpod Student simply allows for a viewer to link to the the presentation you've created. The way the app works is quite simple, once you've uploaded your presentation( I will explain later this process because it's quite cool) you are given a code to which you present to your students. They "sign in" with their first and last name and can see everything that you share from your version of the application.

Now, the information you've all been waiting, the Nearpod Teacher explanation! As I mentioned earlier in the post, the teacher version of the app is pretty cool. First, you must create an account, you have a few choices for free versions, so don't worry about budget constraints. Once you've signed in, you upload a PDF format of your chosen presentation. Then, you have the option to add in cool assessment tools such as a DrawSomething like activity in which students draw something representing an idea mentioned. You can also choose standard multiple choice questions or short open response among others. The best part, you get realtime updates as to performance.

The downfall of this app is that students needs access to an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad. Additionally, districts may not possess the aforementioned items. However, that opens us up to BYOT days, which is a discussion for another day!

Site of the Week: Go SocialStudies Go

Go Social Studies Go! is an amazing resource for Social Studies teachers. This website has numerous different educational videos and explanations on topics ranging from global regions to U.S. history. Almost each resource has a written explanation and an accompanying video, which is extremely useful especially for teachers who are looking to differentiate their presentations of information. As our classes comprised of  heterogenous populations, we must make every attempt to curtail our lesson meet our students diverse needs, and this site provides quite a bit of assistance in accomplishing such a goal.

Site of the Week: Brain Pop

 Brain Pop is a wonderfully useful educational website for elementary and middle school teachers.  Two animated  characters, Tim and Moby teach the lessons through short scenarios.  Additionally the site has tutorials and webinars to allow teachers to become more familiar with the  site. This site can be integrated in lessons quite easily.  The website contains numerous printables and many other resources for teachers.The site catches students' attention through the creative use of animation. Despite cover such seemingly boring topics as as parts of speech, grammar,  and research methods, the students remain engaged thanks to the animated videos.  This is a must use for any elementary or middle school educator.

Site of the Week

History Site of the Week

50states.com is a very useful Social Studies website. Not only is the site accessible for students, but it provides a lot of information from which educators can create interactive and challenging lessons. The website is easy to navigate and provides comprehensive information about states. From fun facts to city guides, this website has it all! I would highly recommend it to any elementary, middle, or high school teacher. This website is not only useful to a teacher who is covering geography, this website can be used for anything. If an educator is looking for a way to give students additional enrichment about an area or region, they need only send them to this website. 

A potential drawback to this website is it’s lack of video resources. It does not provide any kind of links to information videos like those found on the History channel’s website. Perhaps the web masters can team up with history.com to include pertinent clips from “How the States Got their Shapes”. 

Site of the Week

Site of the Week: Ad*Access   

Duke University’s Ad*Access is an extraordinarily useful website for Social Studies teachers at both the middle and high school levels. This niche website provides educators with a wealth of primary source materials to incorporate in their U.S. History classes. The website allows users free access to hundreds of advertisements from 1915 through 1955. Additionally, it provides the user with a timeline that charts majors events and fun facts from the aforementioned 40 year span of U.S. History. As the era in which the site focuses is a pivotal time in our nations history, this site is a must have for any Social Studies teacher’s cache. 

Despite it’s numerous wonderful qualities, Ad*Access does contain some drawbacks. The most notable being; it’s a niche website. What is meant by this statement is that the focus of the site is great for those teaching U.S. History II (Civil War-Modern Era). Unfortunately, for  History teachers working with World History, or U.S. History I (Exploration- The Civil War), the site has absolutely no redeeming value Additionally, for those teaching U.S. History II to the Primary and Middle Grades  the archives will be utterly useless as their students will be unable to analyze the material in great detail.

With each day that passes, another education professional, leading researcher, or government official comes up with a new way to enhance student learning. Check out what one school in New Jersey is doing to help their students. Thanks to NBC New York for their report!

Site of the Week

Site of the Week


Today's site of the day is History.com. Run by the History Channel, this website provides educators invaluable resources including; videos; documents, pictures, and interactive maps. Additionally, it contains numerous episodes of it's regularly scheduled television shows for you to watch at the end of a long day in the classroom. 

As the use of iPads and tablets in the classroom are on the rise, I have evaluated some apps that are plausible for educators to use with students. 

This app is a speech to text application. It is very convenient for users and allows for great versatility in uses. However, the application needs to be connected to the cloud in order to have access to it’s software features. I rated it a 4 in all categories except Feedback in which it scored a 3. It’s score was lower than the other categories because at times it can misinterpret words. Such misinterpretations could be frustrating to students. 

The TED app is an application similar to that of the YouTube apps, which allows for users to search different talks hosted by TED. A great feature of this application is that it has an inspire feature which randomly accesses videos that may peak a users interest. The app achieved 4’s in all categories except differentiation in which it achieved a 3. 

 

The iTunesU application allows for users to browse “courses” on a variety of topics. They can then download videos, podcasts, or audio files in the desired categories. Additionally, users can browse the cache of university, college, or schools previously uploaded lectures. The app scored 4’s in curriculum connection, user friendliness, and student motivation. It scored a 3 in differentiation. I was unable to rate the feedback and reporting features as it does not have features available in those areas. 

The Google search application allows users to run google searches with ease. Furthermore, the application can manage the use of other apps such as Google Goggles and Google Earth. The only issue arises in the use integration with other apps occurs if a user does not own the apps integrated into Google Search. Fortunately if the user does not possess said apps, the Google Search is automatically linked to the App Store. Overall I rated this app a 4 in all categories except feedback as it does not possess any feedback features. 

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

A funny thing happened to me this afternoon. I was in a grocery store buying my lunch when I stopped at a free sample table. The woman (we'll use the name Jane for our purposes) did an excellent job explaining to me the two items on the table, so I figured I would give them a try. To my surprise one of the foods was better than I thought. As I did not have enough cash to buy the item,  I figured I could scan the QR code on box and then add the site to my bookmarks and buy it another time. I asked her "Can I see the box so I can scan the QR code?" Judging solely by her reaction, one would have thought I asked her in Latin.  I'd seen the look before, it's the look a student gives the first time you ask them to analyze  the Declaration of Independence. I politely told  her "it's shortcut that you can use on a smartphone, but it's fine." She just smiled, shook her head a bit and handed over the box. After all that I got the box only to find it did not have a QR code, so I simply snapped a picture of it.

Looking back on the situation I guess I was speaking another language, I was speaking in "digital".  Jane is part of a group that Mark Prensky colloquially termed “digital immigrants”, born before the introduction of digital technology. As I was born after Prensky's "immigration" cutoff of 1980, I inherently speak a different "language". To Jane I  and my "native" compatriots life a lifestyle as unique and culturally diverse  to "immigrants" as the United States was the tens of thousands of Italian, German, and Irish immigrants entering through the gates at Ellis Island.  Who would have thought that a trip to the store would be so enlightening?