Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Awesome Internet Resources for High School Social Studies

The Cornell Law School Website:
This is a must for anyone teaching government to teach students about the judicial branch. Also comes in handy for running a judicial branch simulation so that students can research cases that they will try before a court of their peers. The Oyez Project is another website that helps in understanding the constitutional issues surrounding any supreme court case. The Cornell site is much more user friendly and is organized for better understanding. However, the Oyez Project has a podcast on iTunes so that you can listen to a buffet of constitutional law. The Cornell site can be used for more than just High School government class. I have also used it when talking about specific Supreme Court cases in American History and Alaska History.
PBS:
PBS has many great stories and lesson plans for teaching about American history. The pest one that I have found and utilized was their segment on WWI. The Great War gives a very in depth look at the build-up, conflict, and the aftermath of the first world war. It helps to paint a detailed picture of the past in a way that makes the second world war as well as many curent conflict make sense. I was able to teach this lesson this winter when tensions in Israel were on the rise and conflict was turning bloodier by the minute. This was a very good tool for the kids to understand the conflict surrounding the holy land.
Alaska History:
The state of Alaska offers a very good website that is designed for home schooled students as well as a credit recovery program for the Alaska History standard for the state. This website has been a very valuable resource for me to brush up on Alaskan issues in a timeline manner that includes: Native History, the Russian period, American Territorial period, and Statehood. There isn't much for lesson plans here, but it is packed full of good information that you can use in conjunction with the Alaska Flipchart lesson plans in my IEP that can be used to teach an entire semester of Alaskan History.

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