Amendments to the Constitution Project

I was making my rounds though Albert Hill Middle School yesterday and of the 8th Grade Civics teachers mentioned a project his kids were working where some of them were actually creating smartphone apps. Intrigued I stopped by to check it out and was so impressed I grabbed a copy of the project to post here.

Along with creating an app students also had the option to do a number of other things including PowerPoint presentation or podcast. Along with posting the lesson I've included links to resources for students that wish to use the technology options in their final product.




Brochure/Poster:
Canva

PowerPoint Presentation:
Google Slides
Prezi

Podcast:
Audacity
Speakpipe

Smartphone App:
Code.org App Lab
MIT App Inventor

The teacher that provided it to me, Mr. Kimbrell, couldn't remember where he had originally found this project and despite some Google sleuthing on my part I couldn't fully determine the source either. If it's yours please comment so I can provide proper credit.

Resources from the Library of Virginia

I was first introduced to the Library of Virginia during my time as undergraduate at VCU. I did quite a bit of research there for papers in my upper level history courses and also spent time looking up ancestors it in old census records. The semester I graduated I spent time in their special collections room doing research from an original 1862 Confederate field manual for a paper I was writing on Civil War field fortifications. I’ve also become a big fan of their Out of the Box blog that is a must read for anyone interested in Virginia history.

In previous social studies sessions I’ve done at staff development I’ve mentioned some of the resources they have. But I always felt like I was only scratching the surface of what they had to offer and wasn’t doing as great a job as I could be explaining it. At the end of September myself and another ITRT met with the education staff at the LoV to plan out sessions for the upcoming district wide Election Day professional development.

The presentation below is what came from that. The LoV staff, Adrienne Robertson and Catherine Wyatt, that put the slideshow together and did the presentation (with myself and the other ITRT assisting) did a fantastic job and the sessions were very well received. We had a mixture of history and English teachers along with a few from other disciplines as well. With the focus on research resources I think most everyone that attended came away with something they could use.

PowerPoint Presentation

Along with the presentation are three other things of note that were used during the sessions.

Document Bank of Virginia Flyer - information about the Library of Virginia’s Document Bank.

Governor J. Lindsay Almond School Integration Speech Transcript - the actual recording was played during the sessions.

Sound Recording Analysis Worksheet - used to analyze the aforementioned speech.

Streaming into the Past V

Because of my background as a social studies teacher prior to becoming an ITRT, when I do professional development often do something in that content area. Roughly once a year for the past four years I’ve put together presentations on a collection of useful social studies sites. For our district wide pre-school subject area PD this year I did round five. I’ve developed a bit of a following in the district with these presentations and along with seeing a lot of familiar faces in my sessions I got some great positive feedback on the sites I had found. Interspersed among the slides are another round of corny cartoons to break it up a bit.

Along with linking the presentation on my Wiki site I’ve also placed the links in their own section on my Portaportal page. The previous presentations I’ve done can also be found on the Wiki as well.

Streaming into the Past V PowerPoint

My Portaportal Page

My Wiki (Previous presentations can be found on the Presentations and Tutorials page.)