Teaching has always seemed to be an individual activity, forcing teachers to figure things out on their own. Using trial and error isn’t necessarily a bad thing when conducting a science experiment but probably not something that works that well when trying to corral 30 8th graders.

And in the pre-internet days, it was difficult for teachers looking for help with instructional practice, resources and strategies to find it.

But with the web, PLNs and digital content, teachers don’t have to sink or swim on their own anymore. There are tons of great lesson plans and ideas out there, conversations that we can have and sites we need to use.

The problem?

Time to find them.

And . . . while I can put links and sites and handy gadgets here at History Tech, it doesn’t really feel like the most suitable place to share in-depth lessons and strategies. So I have created a specific page over at Social Studies Central to share useful things I run across.

The Best Practices page highlights a variety of detailed professional development resources goodies from such sites as the National History Education Clearing House, Edutopia and History Matters. Every few weeks, I grab a few more.

So . . . take off that life preserver, head on over to Best Practices and discover what others have to offer!

I wrote earlier about the map created by Robert Louis Stevenson before he wrote Treasure Island. I especially liked his quote – that maps have:

the power of infinite, eloquent suggestion.

I suggested that we need to use geographic tools and powerful maps to create engaging activities for our kids:

Not one of those cheesy, sad outline maps that comes as part of your textbook’s supplementary materials package. I’m talking about a map with depth and richness and mystery, one full of questions and possibility.

And what should I come across this week but another great map. Several of us were exploring the wonderful MyLOC web site and ran across a lesson plan and materials connected to Martin Waldseemuller’s 1507 world map.

Like the Treasure Island map, the Waldseemuller map is another example a map with “depth and richness and mystery, one full of questions and possibility.” There are several nice tools that you can use with the map:

• a LOC press release with some nice background
• a site with more info on the map itself
• a LOC page with a direct link to downloading the map
• a LOC lesson plan page
• an interactive site that lets you dig deeper into the map

If you’ve not done much with maps before, this is a quick and easy way to dig into a wonderfully engaging tool. If you already feel comfortable with using maps, adapt the lessons and materials in a way that best fits your kids. Either way, students will walk away knowing more!

As an official Google groupie, I am always looking for new and different ways to use Google tools. My PLN hooked me up with a handy site designed for college kids but one we all should be using.

100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time in School has some old chestnuts (using Google Search to do calculations and searching for specific file types) but it does have some things that most people probably haven’t tried before.

So . . . find out about some new things or review what you may have forgotten . . . pre-made templates in Google Docs, send invitations, set up a custom search engine or use Knol to find out what other experts are saying. You’ll especially like using Surveys in Google Docs to create simple pre and post tests for your kids!

And there is a whole section just on Google Mobile that provides some nice stuff for smart phone users.

If you’re not a Google groupie yet, this page should convert you!

I was told once that in the typical social studies classroom, 85% of the conversation is teacher to student, 10% student to teacher and 5% student to student. (And . . . no, I can’t remember the source so I suppose you can adjust the numbers as you see fit.)

But even if the numbers aren’t exactly correct, the point remains.

We talk too much. The kids don’t talk enough. And we certainly don’t let the kids talk enough with other kids.

When the brain spends time reviewing, repeating, experimenting and talking with other brains, good things happen. We need to let the brains of our students spend more time with other brains.

The problem, of course, is to find ways to help kids structure their conversation around the history topics that you are attempting to teach.

So I like what I see over at MyHistoryNetwork. The site is designed to give social studies students the opportunity to talk with one another.

Where high school history students from around the world come together and share, co-operate, challenge, assist and inspire each other.

The site is new and so David Hilton, the site’s creator, is working to generate a group of students and teachers large enough for quality conversations. But I like what I see. Moderated forums for kids, ability to upload content, personalized pages, place just for teachers and specific groups.

It really looks like a useful place to encourage high-levels of conversation to take place about specific content. You could assign your students to talk with others as part of a larger project or simply encourage the conversations by awarding extra credit. The possibilities seem pretty endless.

One of the biggest problems the site will probably experience is that it is hosted at the Ning network. And because many school filtering systems view Ning as a social networking site, it may be blocked at your school.

Of course, that’s the whole point . . . having kids talk with other kids in a structured, content-based way. I could argue that blocking MyHistoryNetwork because it’s a social network is just another way of saying that we don’t want kids to learn in effective ways.

That would seem petty and inappropriate. So I won’t.

(But I’m still thinking it.)

According to the timer at the Census in Schools site, the 2010 US Census is only 154 hours, 22 hours, 48 minutes and a few seconds away. And I know that you have been anxiously awaiting the release of Census-related teacher materials, lessons and maps!

Well . . . wait no further.

Travel over to Census in Schools and find a nice selection of grade-appropriate teaching tools that you can use in a variety of content areas, obviously including geography and history. But you can also find stuff for reading, writing and math. The site has a nice interactive page for grade school kiddos and some very nice maps for your older students.

All in all, a nice use of my tax dollars.

Do you teach World History?

Then the new World Digital Library is a must visit.

A cooperative project of the Library of Congress, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and partner libraries, archives, and educational and cultural institutions from the United States and around the world. The project brings together on a single website rare and unique documents – books, journals, manuscripts, maps, prints and photographs, films, and sound recordings – that tell the story of the world’s cultures. The site is intended for general users, students, teachers, and scholars.

You can browse for resources by place, time, type of document or topic. You can search by keyword or by simply dragging the timeline bar to the period you’re researching. Once you find a collection or specific document, the site provides all sorts of ways to narrow your search or find related materials.

Pretty phenomenal way to store and access a huge range of stuff! The site seems great for training kids on 21st century search skills and a handy way for you to find useful resources.

If nothing else, it’s a wonderful place for history teachers to spend a couple of hours!

Donated to the Library of Congress in 1937 and labeled “Do Not Open,” the box sat in the office of the Librarian of Congress for almost 40 years. Finally, in 1975, Librarian Daniel Boorstein untied the string and pulled off the brown wrapping paper.

Inside?

Twelve items – including several pairs of glasses, newspaper clippings, a pocketknife and a handkerchief.

On April 15, 1865, the day Abraham Lincoln died, someone went through his pockets and placed the contents into a box and tied it with string. The box found its way Robert Lincoln and eventually to Robert’s daughter, Mary Lincoln Isham. She never opened the box and in 1937, dropped it off at the Library of Congress. This was the box Boorstein opened.

Yeah . . . so?

So . . . the contents of Lincoln’s pockets gives us a engaging tool for teaching kids about the historical process. Use a great lesson plan like this one from the Library of Congress to hook kids into asking questions and solving problems. Watch a short video of an archivist describing the contents or simply lead your kids in a discussion of how what we carry help define who we are.

Whichever activity you use, lessons like this give kids a chance to actually mess with the stuff of history, not just the facts.

I love Google Earth and all of its bells and whistles. But the following activity is a great way to hook kids using just the basics of GE that is very simple to implement.

I call the activity “Where Are We?” and can be used to introduce a variety of history or geography units.

Select at least one (I use two or three so I have more “winners.”) city or specific geographic place. If you are teaching high school American History and the Civil War, you might select Gettysburg, Washington DC and Fort Sumter. If I was teaching middle school World Geography, I might pick Rome, London and Paris.

Before your kids arrive, zoom into your first city or place until you are at street level. You may need to adapt the height depending on your students. Beginning at 500 feet is a good altitude to start at.

Your kids now have 10 questions to figure out “Where We Are.” It seems to work best if you require the questions to have only “yes” or “no” answers. Helpful questions might be things such as:

• Are we in the Southern Hemisphere?
• Are we in the Western Hemisphere?
• Does this city have a population greater than two million?
• Does this city have any famous buildings?
• Does this place have historical significance?

Your kids will eventually figure out that the best way to solving the problem is to start broad and work their way to specifics. Feel free to slide east, west, north or south at the street level to reveal more details. Ask that students look for cultural and human geographic features.

You could also “sell” altitude – as in zooming up 1000 feet for one of their questions or perhaps 2000 feet for two of their questions. Or you might “sell” certain Google Earth layers (3D Buildings, Panoramio, etc) for three questions.

You could also break your class into groups to make it more competitive. I’m sure that as you play with the idea, you’ll find ways to adapt it to your situation!

Have fun!

I’m sure some of you may have already seen these photos. But for those of you who haven’t, it’s a fun walk through the last 50 years of American history. And thanks to Anne Hathaway and others, my daughter (and her friends) are still into the whole of idea of princesses and princes and queens and that whole cool monarchy thing.

Could I build a huge lesson or unit around these images? Maybe, maybe not. But I’m pretty sure that I could use them as a hook at the middle school and elementary level that takes advantage of student interest.

If nothing else, the pictures give a nice, little history break!

Okay . . . who’s missing?

Apparently LBJ and Queen Elizabeth never met but his widow later did get together with Elizabeth.

Okay . . . simple exercise.

Make a list of words that come to mind when you think of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Ready? Go.

Mmm . . .

• First in the hearts of his countrymen
• President
• General
• Great Emancipator
• Leader
• Ford’s Theater
• Wooden teeth

And now, one I would never have added:

• Poet

I was over at the PBS site and ran across a post that mentions the poetic abilities of George and Abe. Had no idea.

Lord Thomas Fairfax sent 17 year-old George Washington west of the Blue Ridge Mountains on a 1749 surveying trip. Apparently George sorely missed a certain young lady during his trip and spent some time penning love poems to Frances Alexander in his journal:

From your bright sparkling Eyes, I was undone;
Rays, you have, more transparent than the sun,
Amidst its glory in the rising Day,
None can you equal in your bright array;
Constant in your calm and unspotted Mind;
Equal to all, but will to none Prove kind,
So knowing, seldom one so Young, you’l Find
Ah! woe’s me that I should Love and conceal,
Long have I wish’d, but never dare reveal,
Even though severely Loves Pains I feel;
Xerxes that great, was’t free from Cupids Dart,
And all the greatest Heroes, felt the smart.

Did ya notice the unfinished acrostic? Wonder if Martha ever got one.

Abe’s foray into poetry was a bit different.

In September 1858, Lincoln was in Winchester, Illinois in the middle of his Senate campaign against Stephen A. Douglas. A young girl named Rosa Haggard, the daughter of Lincoln’s innkeeper, asked him for an autograph. His response:

To Rosa–
You are young, and I am older;
You are hopeful, I am not–
Enjoy life, ere it grow colder–
Pluck the roses ere they rot.

Teach your beau to heed the lay–
That sunshine soon is lost in shade–
That now’s as good as any day–
To take thee, Rosa, ere she fade.

Go ahead, admit it. You’re looking at the two giants of American history a bit differently now, aren’t you?

They were poets and you didn’t even know it.