Instructional Technology
Robert Forsythe, DTC/CIO
Warren County Support Service Center
877 Jackson Street, Bowling Green, KY 42101
Phone: 270-842-0702 ext 1207 Fax: 270-781-1133
email: robert.forsythe@warren.kyschools.us
TEACHING/RESEARCH SITES
Nobel Foundation Website
NASA for KIDS
Fractions
http://www.math.com/homeworkhelp/HotSubjects_fractions.html
Art
"Online Tours of the Gallery's Permanent Collection" offers in-depth studies of artists & specific works, & "virtual walking tours." (NGA)
http://www.nga.gov/onlinetours/index.shtm
"Tilman Riemenschneider" (W'rzburg, Germany, 1483-1531) exhibits 50+ works of this artist, who demonstrated proficiency -- at the beginning of his career -- in a variety of media, sculpting limewood, alabaster, sandstone, & marble with equal facility. (NGA)
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/tilmanintro.htm
"Teaching Resources: Loan Programs" features 150+ teaching resources that are loaned free to educational institutions, community groups, & individuals. Programs are designed to meet national standards in visual arts. (NGA)
http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/loanfinder/
"Education Resources" provides free-loan educational materials, programs, & resources for teachers, educational activities & events, as well as internship & volunteer opportunities at the Gallery. (NGA)
http://www.nga.gov/education/index.shtm
Foreign Language
"Cultra Project" lets students in the U.S. communicate with students from other countries. Students observe, analyze, & compare cultures. (NEH)
http://web.mit.edu/french/culturaNEH/
Language Arts
"Romantic Circles High School" is a real-time multi-user environment that includes "online classrooms" designed & occupied by classes across the country, a library of Romantic electronic texts, a teachers' lounge, & shared spaces for special events & social interaction. The class is meeting inside Villa Diodati, the house that Lord Byron rented in the summer of 1816 & that served as the impetus for Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." (NEH)
http://www.rc.umd.edu/rchs/index.html
"National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Kids' Pages" teach children about the connection between their health & the environment & encourage the pursuit of careers in health, science, & the environment. The site includes brainteasers, puzzles, stories, & science activities. (NIH)
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/home.htm
"Science@NASA" features the latest news in science. "Thursday's Classroom" provides new lesson plans & activities based on a current headline story & connects NASA's latest research & to the classroom. Past topics include four facts about Christmas in space, the Red Planet in 3D, much ado about Pluto, & more. (NASA)
Social Studies
"After Reconstruction: Studying the Problems of African-Americans in the South" encourages students to identify problems facing African Americans immediately after Reconstruction. Students then work in small groups to identify documents describing a particular problem, consider opposing points of view, suggest a solution, & present their research findings. (LOC)
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/rec/rhome.html
History
"America Dreams" offers lesson ideas & resources for investigating what the American Dream has meant over the years from various perspectives, including those of photographers, lawyers, poets, politicians, comedians, musicians, & reporters. Classrooms across the country are invited to contribute to a Student Gallery & to post their dreams on a Wall of Dreams. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/97/dream/
"America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets" provides "song sheets" (lyrics without music) for 4000 songs that were popular before the advent of the phonograph & radio. During this time, (1850-1870), song sheets were the way that many Americans learned the latest songs. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amsshtml/amsshome.html
"American Wars in Asia Project" is a cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary project at the University of Montana about how to understand three of the wars the U.S. fought in Asia (Japan, Korea, Vietnam). (NEH)
http://www.umt.edu/mansfield/awa%20overview.htm
"'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime': The Effects of the New Deal & the Great Depression" examines primary sources -- from photographs to oral histories recorded by the famous Federal Writers' Project -- to develop a sense of the profound impact the Great Depression had on people's lives. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/98/dime/intro.html
"Become a Historical Detective" challenges students to search for evidence to support their answer to a question: Was Billy the Kid really killed by Pat Garrett at Fort Sumner, New Mexico? (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/detect/detectiv.html
This is a continuous web cast of the NASA-TV broadcast covering the agency activities and events. During peak usage (launch, landing) you may experience a lag in the web cast but I have found an extremely acceptable loss otherwise.
http://www.unitedspacealliance.com/live/NASATV.htm
"Child Labor in America" is a teaching unit that leads middle & high school students through the process of critically examining photographs (by Lewis Hine) as historical evidence. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/98/labor/plan.html
"Choices & Commitments: The Soldiers at Gettysburg" aims to help students understand the Gettysburg Campaign & the major actions of the armies during each day of the battle, as well as the motives & experiences of several participants in the battle. It offers readings, maps, photos, & activities for students. (NPS)
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/44gettys/44gettys.htm
"Citizen Kurchatov: Stalin's Bombmaker" tells the story of a complex, world-class physicist who became the driving force behind the Soviet Union's race to develop the atomic bomb. (NEH)
http://www.pbs.org/opb/citizenk/
"The Conservation Movement at a Crossroads: the Hetch Hetchy Controversy" is a two-part teaching unit about the controversy among conservationists over a proposal to turn part of Yosemite National Park into a dam to furnish water to San Francisco. The first part explores the history of the conservation movement in general, while the second links to primary records, such as Congressional debates, of Hetch Hetchy itself. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/97/conser1/xroads.html
"Crucible of Empire: The Spanish-American War" deals with America's transition from a republic, founded in opposition to imperialism, to an empire. According to the site, "When a declining Spain, beset by rebellion abroad, fell to American expansionism, the U.S. inherited her colonies & suddenly emerged as a world power. The experience & questions that the Spanish/American War raised about foreign intervention echo throughout the 20th century, as recent events in Kosovo show." (NEH)
"Doing the Decades, 1890-1941: Group Investigations in 20th Century U.S. History" is a two-month team research project for 9-10th graders that uses Library of Congress resources to focus on long-term change in U.S. history. Students gather, analyze, & evaluate primary & secondary sources; develop their own conclusions; & refine their writing. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/97/week/whome.html
"Early Virginia Religious Petitions" presents images of 423 petitions submitted to the Virginia legislature between 1774 & 1802. The petitions concern such topics as the historic debate over the separation of church & state, the rights of dissenters such as Quakers & Baptists, the sale & division of property in the established church, & the dissolution of unpopular vestries. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/repehtml/repehome.html
"Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony Papers Project Online" is an effort to locate & make available all surviving manuscripts & printed texts from this 52-year friendship based on a mutual commitment to establish "perfect political equality among all classes of citizens." (NEH)
"Enhancing a Poetry Unit" is a teaching unit that leads students to the famous Federal Writers' Project & gets them started writing "found poems." Among the examples is a free verse poem written after reading an account of surviving the Blizzard of 1888. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/98/poetry/poem.html
"First Person Narratives of the American South, 1860-1920" is a compilation of printed texts of the 19th-century American South from the viewpoint of Southerners. There are diaries, autobiographies, memoirs, & travel accounts not only of prominent individuals but also of women, ex-slaves, enlisted men, laborers, & Native Americans. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ncuhtml/fpnashome.html
"The Frankish Building: A Reflection of the Success of Ontario, California" helps students see the impact of the Chaffey brothers & Charles Frankish on Ontario, California. Students also compare that impact with the effect of important individuals in their own community's history. (NPS)
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/43frankish/43frankish.htm
"From Jim Crow to Linda Brown: A Retrospective of the African-American Experience, 1897-1953" helps students understand themes of African American life in the first half of the 20th century & explore to what extent the African American experience was "separate but equal." Among the activities, students examine Plessy v. Ferguson (1897) & simulate the 1898 meeting of the Afro-American Council. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/97/crow/crowhome.html
"The Great Depression & the 1990s" asks students to research a modern government program having roots in the New Deal. Following their research, students participate in a congressional forum where they debate which programs should be continued. (LOC)
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lesson97/depress/overview.html
"Griffith in Context: A Multimedia Exploration Analysis of D.W. Griffith's 'Birth of A Nation'" provides an overview of a CD-ROM that makes the film's cultural & cinematic impact tangible. (NEH)
http://griffith-in-context.gatech.edu/
"Growing into Public Service: William Howard Taft's Boyhood Home" examines the family & setting in Cincinnati where the 27th President & Chief Justice of the Supreme Court grew up. It includes readings, maps, photos, & activities for students. (NPS)
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/15taft/15taft.htm
"In Congress Assembled: Continuity & Change in the Governing of the U.S." provides four teaching units linked to American history readings. Topics include drafting the Constitution, adding the Bill of Rights, comparing certain issues then & now, & how the early Congress proclaimed holidays. (LOC)
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/constitu/conintro.html
"Learning About Immigration through Oral History" is a lesson plan where a team of middle-school students search the Library of Congress website & other resources to learn how to conduct oral history interviews. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/97/oh1/ammem.html
"Mapping Margery Kempe" is a digital library of resources for studying the 15th century cultural & societal context of "The Book of Margery Kempe." (NEH)
http://www.holycross.edu/departments/visarts/projects/anglia/anglia.htm
"The Mathew Brady Bunch: Civil War Newspapers" offers 1000 annotated photographs ranging from portraits to battle scenes. Students become reporters, assigned to sort through photos to find one that will bring the war to life for their readers. They write a newspaper article based on their chosen photograph & publish it on the web. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/98/brady/home.html
"The New Deal: North Carolina's Reconstruction?" invites students to interview imaginary North Carolina residents who lived during the Reconstruction and Depression eras. Each interview is historically accurate & supports a thesis that answers a question: "Was the New Deal North Carolina's Reconstruction?" This site includes more than two dozen examples of student interviews. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/97/newdeal/lesson.html
"New Netherland Project" is an effort to transcribe, translate, & publish all Dutch documents in New York repositories relating to the 17th century colony of New Netherland. Among the highlights is a letter from Peter Schaghen to directors of the West India Company announcing the purchase of Manhattan. (NEH)
"New York: A Documentary Film" investigates 400 years of New York City's rich & varied history as a laboratory of modern life. Visitors are introduced to 12 little-known locations in the city, can sit in the back of an animated New York cab driven by a bantering celebrity, or explore the views of 32 luminaries who discuss the city that inspired them. (NEH)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/
"Photojournalism: A Record of War" explores how & why war has been photographed & affords students an opportunity to see bias within war reporting. In addition to analyzing war photographs, students learn about Mathew Brady's process for photographing the Civil War & how photographic equipment has improved over time. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/97/photo/home.html
"Port of Entry: Immigration" lets 6-12th graders assume the role of historical detective & travel back in time to the turn of the century. As historical detectives, they search for clues to the past in photos from immigrant neighborhoods of New York & read the stories of immigrants documented through personal interviews in the Federal Writers' Project of the 1930s. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/port/start.html
"Prehistoric Puzzles" helps students investigate the prehistory of the African continent. The site includes learning modules on diet, subsistence, ceramic artifact analysis, & other topics. (NEH)
http://www.indiana.edu/~puzzles/
"Race & Place: An African American Community the Jim Crow South" recreates the contours of the African American community in Charlottesville, Virginia, during the start of this century. Narratives provide historical analysis as well as archival content, including newsclippings from the "Only Negro Weekly," hundreds of early 20th century photos of African Americans, & more. (NEH)
http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/afam/cvilleenter.html
"Reservation Controversies" is built around two scenarios that help students understand issues related to American Indian reservations. Under one scenario, set in 1973, the student plays the role of agent for a Comanche Indian reservation. Under a contemporaryscenario, the student is cast as a new congressional intern who has received a letter from the his congresswoman asking for help on issues related to casinos on reservations. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/97/reservation/teacher.html
"The Star-Spangled Banner" unlocks the history behind the 186-year-old banner, which inspired the National Anthem & became a symbol for the U.S. Students may use this site to learn about the War of 1812; the poem that became the national anthem; the people who made, used, & preserved the flag; & the symbolism of the American flag. (SI)
http://americanhistory.si.edu/ssb/
"Theodore Roosevelt: His Life & Times on Film" features 104 short films which record events in Roosevelt's life from the Spanish-American War in 1898 to his death in 1919. In addition to scenes of Roosevelt, these films include views of world figures, politicians, monarchs, & friends & family members. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/trfhtml/trfhome.html
"To Market To Market" helps students sharpen their observation & interpretation skills by inviting them to examine images from the turn of the centuries, circa 1900 & circa 2000. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/97/market/main.html
"Turn of the Century First Ladies: Who's That Lady?" is an online "bowl event" where teams of students compete by naming First Ladies who appear in a slideshow. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/lady/
"Using Oral History to Explore the Lives of Everyday Americans" lets students examine social history topics through interviews recounting the lives of ordinary Americans. Students also develop their own research questions & conduct oral history interviews with members of their communities. (LOC)
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/oralhist/ohhome.html
"Virtual Jamestown" provides an open doorway to explore the history of the Jamestown settlement. The site features historical documents including laws, census data, contracts, state papers, maps, contemporary writings, & art. (NEH)
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/jamestown/
"We'll Sing to Abe Our Song!": Sheet Music about Lincoln, Emancipation, & the Civil War presents 200 sheet-music compositions representing Lincoln & the war as reflected in popular music. This collection spans the years from Lincoln's presidential campaign in 1859 through the centenary of his birth in 1909. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/scsmhtml/scsmhome.html
"Web de Anza" is an interactive environment for studying Spain's exploration & colonization of "Alta California" (1774-1776). Diaries & letters (available in both English & Spanish), maps & trail routes, drawing & photos all recreate a living timeline of the past & provide primary documents & multimedia resources covering Juan Bautista de Anza's two expeditions to what would become San Francisco. (NEH)
"What Do You See?" is a lesson in which students analyze a single Civil War photograph & then find & analyze related images. The aim is to help students see relationships between the Civil War & American industrialization. (LOC)
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/97/civilwar/hinesday.html
Free site to get puzzles
This companion web site to the PBS program "Digital Divide," which aired in January, is an excellent supplement to the original broadcast. "Digital Divide" was a two-part series that took an insightful look at how computer technology--and, specially, the gap in access between wealthier and poorer families and schools--is affecting America's youth. The web site features additional information and activities related to the program, including a thematic discussion. Visitors to the site have the opportunity to learn more about the people featured in the show and read lengthy excerpts from their interviews. The site also includes a list of related links to the show's topics and interactive online activities that further investigate the ideas expressed in the program.
http://www.pbs.org/digitaldivide
SuperKids Educational Software Review aims to be the "Consumer Reports" of children's software. Each month, SuperKids' teams of parents, teachers, and children from across the United States compare a selection of newest software program. The teams include experts from Stanford, Harvard, and Northwestern universities. The site's purpose is to help teachers and parents identify good educational software--software that they find educationally valuable and that children enjoy using. The site features new software reviews, a best seller list, a price survey, product support information, and a searchable archive or reviews.
Think Wave.com offers a secure web community that enables teachers to easily inform students and their parents of their exact status in school. Using ThinkWave Educator 2.0, the company's recently updated classroom management software, teachers can upload individual student information to the ThinkWave web site. Parents and students can log on to their own personal password-protected account and check grades, homework, handouts, announcements, and class schedules. They can also communicate with the teacher through eMail. ThinkWave Inc. was established in 1997 in Pacifica, CA with the goal of helping parens, teachers, and students work together in the educational process. Both the software and the service are free.
The Compact for Reading, a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Education, the Corporation for National Service, the Los Angeles Times, and Little Planet Learning, is a program designed to bring families, teachers, principals, and students together to improve literacy among K-3 students. The project's site offers 400 easy-to-use learning activities for K-3 students that are designed to strengthen their reading and writing skills. The activities are organized by grade level into categories of reading and literacy skills. The site also features a Guidebook that explains how to implement the Compact for Reading program in your school communities. The materials were reviewed extensively by teams of parents, teachers, and administrators and by participants at the 1998 Improving America's Schools Act and Title I Parent Conferences.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading
Kentucky Department of Education
Kentucky's Academic Expectations
Kentucky
Butterflies
http://www.butterflywebsite.com/
Economics
http://www.economicsamerica.org/
Lesson Plans/Resources/Ideas/Activities
Education World
http://www.education-world.com/
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/
TeachersFirst
Search Engines
Yahooligans
Ask Jeeves
Google
Ideas and Resources for Teachers
Try these clever activities to take some of the mystery out of technology.
http://www.ael.org/rtec/ideas.htm
ERIC Chats
The on-line forum series wraps up with discussions of scaling down school size and supporting rural and tribal economic development and self-determination.
http://www.ael.org/eric/fora2000.htm
Funding Opportunities
Education-related grants are available from the federal government, foundations, and other sources.
http://www.ael.org/grants0011.htm
Getting Kids Ready for School in Rural America examines the rolesof family, school, and community.
http://www.ael.org/rel/rural/abstract/perroncel.htm
Acronyms
~~~~~~~~
ED -- U.S. Department of Education
LOC -- Library of Congress
NASA -- National Aeronautics & Space Administration
NEH -- National Endowment of the Humanities
NIH -- National Institutes of Health
NSF -- National Science Foundation
NGA -- National Gallery of Art
NPS -- National Park Service
LOC -- Library of Congress
SI -- Smithsonian Institution
