Civics....Cool? No way!

Yes, there is a cool Civics web site out there just waiting for you to go and take a look. Even it you don't teach civics and want to teach your students some research skills, debate skills, law and order, what rights really are,etc. you have got to check this site out.

It is interactive, authentic, real, fun, and where was it when I was in school. Oh, not only is it free, but it has curriculum units, and lesson plans. The only thing it doesn't have is chocolate.

The court case was realistic in that it used a real case that involved a real student with a real outcome.

http://www.icivics.org/

Get Them Cranked

Graphic Organizers

All of the sites below are free and have the ability to brainstorm, create a bulletin board, "post it", graphic lists, map ideas, and any type of graphic organizer you can think of.

Bubble.Us

Creates "bubbles" on a page and creates idea maps where you can brainstorm ideas.

Lino it

Lino It is a sticky & canvas service that requires nothing but a Web browser; put on images, URL's for video.

Notaland
You can create multimedia graphic display of brainstorming, presentations, scrapbooks, and enjoy an interactive chat on a whiteboard format.

Wall Wisher

Wall Wisher starts with a blank board, click to put on "stickies" and add text, audio files, embed video or images to create quick and easy graphic organizers.

QUICK IDEAS FOR THE CLASSROOM

1. What do we know, need to know, want to know about....
2. Make a word map of a vocabulary word of antonyms, synonyms, examples, images, etc.
3. Everyone post an example of the following...(what begins with the sound "b", a cone, a strong modifier is the story, an herbivore, a WWII ally, etc)
4. Post classwork/homework/project assignments
5. Independent writing, put up a topic on a current event (once a week) and have the students post responses, then do free writing.
6. Book Reviews
7. Students post work with a link to any website, i.e. blog, video presentation site, avatar site, etc.
8. Where were you born? Where would you like to visit? Add images, audio, video or links to websites.
9. Summarzing student learning
10. Reflecting and Sharing...enough said.