This September was a great month for collaboration and sharing of resources, tools, and ideas on The Gateway to 21st Century Skills. We are adding new, high quality free resources to the collection every day to help educators maintain variety in their classrooms. These resources are even easier than ever to implement since teachers can use the standards selection tool to discover which state standards are met in each lesson.
Breaking Gateway News
Gateway columnists are sharing resources with educators through their columns, which are published weekly on the home page of The Gateway to 21st Century Skills. The topics of these columns also become the main topic of discussion throughout that week on our social networking sites. We post additional free resources every day to support the theme, and continue to bring educators to The Gateway. We choose these weekly topics strategically to be sure they are immediately useful to our members.
Our columns are archived on a blog site and on our Facebook fan page. We are excited to see the reach of these columns continue to grow as educators discover them, along with their linked resources, through Twitter and Facebook announcements. This month, we were thrilled when one of our columns on classroom management was selected to be published in the second issue of Project PLN, an online magazine created by teachers.
Our column was a perfect fit for the topic of this month’s magazine: “Best Practices for Start of School.” The post included links to The Gateway to 21st Century Skills as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages. Through partnerships with education magazines, we are able to share our column and resources with even more people and continue to bring new users to The Gateway.
We were also very busy this month joining in conversations with our own members. When one user had a question about a particular film catalogued on the Gateway that was no longer available, our librarian Joann went above and beyond to find eleven alternate free resources to meet the member’s needs.
Some Gateway Stats…
September logged 631 new registered users on The Gateway to 21st Century Skills. Of those registered users, 110 people identified themselves as NEA members, representing 17.4% of the total. Please keep in mind that users are not required to register or select their NEA affiliation to access all of the free resources, and many educators who are using The Gateway are not registered users.
The following chart breaks down the September known NEA affiliated registered members by state.
September Gateway Buzz
September and October bring a flurry of activity at JES & Co. as the Gateway becomes the cornerstone to the world’s largest collaboration for teachers and learning; the Global Learning Resource Connection, connecting the dots between education resources worldwide. Joining the U.S. effort are the U.S. Department of Education, the American Library Association, Microsoft, Cisco and Cengage/Gale (one of the largest library providers worldwide) and more.
NEA’s executive director, John Wilson, will be addressing leading international publishers and educators at the Global Learning Resource Connection (GLRC) U.S. launch at the Lone Star College in The Woodlands, Texas November 17, 2010. The event is sponsored by the IMS Global Learning Consortium which is made up of over 100 education publishers and agencies, all dedicated to the interoperability of learning resources through the use of technical standards. Many of the enabling standards were contributed by the Gateway architects. October’s monthly report will cover this event in more detail. Stay tuned!
Now, back to September… The Gateway to 21st Century Skills was a featured site with a five star rating on LearningReviews.com, a directory of interactive K-12 educational websites, reviewed by and for parents, teachers and students.
LearningReviews introduction: “NEA's Gateway to 21st Century Skills offers K-12 teachers thousands of free lesson planning resources in the arts, educational technology, foreign languages, health, language arts, mathematics, philosophy, physical education, religion, science, social studies, and vocational education.”
One comment left on the site this month raves that The Gateway to 21st Century Skills is a “Huge repository of resources!”
This has been my go-to site for the past couple of years. There is a ton of lesson plans, activities and sometimes best practices. … I just found their facebook and twitter pages that post neat facts or info on topics.
September Themes on the Gateway
September marks the beginning of the school year for many students and teachers. We helped teachers start the year on their best foot with columns and discussions about behavior and classroom management. We also helped them celebrate National Literacy Day with some wonderful resources and tools for encouraging literacy in all grade levels. The literacy theme continued with a focus on vocabulary development and resources from Martha Speaks! by PBS and WBGH. The Gateway’s columnists also spent a week focusing on hurricanes, which generated quite a few “likes” and retweets on our social networking sites.
New Resources
We have added some exciting new resources to our collection this month. Here is a sample of what’s new in The Gateway to 21st Century Skills during September.
Tick, Tock, the Banneker Clock: African American Inventors
Although Benjamin Franklin is widely noted for his Poor Richard’s Almanac, African American scientist and inventor Benjamin Banneker also published a widely-read almanac from 1792 to 1806. In this activity, students learn about African American contributions to the world in the form of inventions and discoveries. They also gain practice in biographical research and in writing compositions or letters.
Blunders on All Sides: The Battle of Bunker Hill
In this lesson, students learn about the Battle of Bunker Hill, and gain experience in interpreting primary documents. They also practice synthesizing and restating arguments and reports in a contemporary context.
Blimey! What If the British Had Won the Revolutionary War?
For those who lived through the American Revolution, there were many times when it was not at all certain that the colonists would succeed in separating themselves from Britain. The Colonial army was mostly untrained, and the British were the best armed, best trained, and most experienced army in the world. What might have happened if, indeed, the British had won?
Measuring the Growth of Slavery: 1790-1860
What was often called “the slavery question” had not been settled in the writing of either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. In fact, it continued to plague the country well before the Civil War. Beginning with the first national census (1790), free and slave black populations were categorized differently. Researching for numerical data and then displaying that data in a logical way are important social studies skills. The purpose of this lesson is to allow students to develop these necessary skills while at the same time getting a picture of the newly independent nation. This was our nation’s first attempt to ascertain just who we were. Looking at data from the following 7 censuses (through 1860) will allow students to see the increasing issue of slavery in our nation’s life.
Politics! Politics! The Emergence of Political Parties in the U.S.
In this lesson, students learn about the emergence of political parties in the United States, understand the nature of an annotated timeline, be able to discuss the foundational beliefs of the Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties, as well as the separate contributions of those people who belonged to each faction, and be able to compare the platforms of these early parties with the two major parties of today.
Leeches and Spiders and Toads, Oh, My! The Emergence of Modern Medicine
In this lesson, students will learn about the basic ideas and beliefs about medicine in the 18th and 19th centuries, understand the development of medical science over that time, be able to see how poverty and disease were linked, be able to debunk many myths about health that arose in that time period, and have some empathy for families who struggled with illness in those days.
The Golden Rule of Reciprocity
The Silk Roads encompassed a diversity of cultures embracing numerous religions and worldviews from Venice, Italy to Heian, Japan. Between these two ends, belief systems that are represented are Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shinto, and Daoism. In this lesson, students will review, compare and contrast The Golden Rule of Reciprocity from different religious teachings, and will analyze primary texts of sacred and philosophical writings.
Animal Tales Travel Around the World
This lesson introduces a well-known folk tale, with renditions from India, the United States, and West Africa. After analyzing the versions, students write their own didactic story based on the formula, but focused on a contemporary setting.
Twice Upon a Time: Multi-Cultural Cinderella
Teach Cinderella stories from around the world--in an interdisciplinary way. In this unit, students explore a wide range of multi-cultural Cinderella stories, reflecting on similarities and differences of the stories. Finally, students create an illustrated Cinderella story based on their own self-defined culture.
Planning Matrix B: Objective Grouping
This form is useful for grouping the objectives of a number of children in a single classroom into five domains (communication skills, self-help/adaptive skills, social skills, cognitive skills, and motor skills). This can help in planning activities to address the needs of a variety of children.
Classroom Management
This resource provides tips and suggestions on how to manage various student behaviors in the classroom. While the resource was written with college students in mind, the suggestions are applicable to high school classrooms as well.
Hurricane Bingo
Hurricane Bingo is an interactive game where students learn hurricane terms in a fun, fast atmosphere. The game can be played independently or in groups.
The Surge of the Storm
In this hands-on activity, students investigate how a hurricane’s storm surge affects the low-lying areas of coastal regions. Students determine the distance inland that the storm surge will reach and simulate the destructive force of a storm surge.
Make your own Anemometer
In this hands-on classroom activity, students construct and use a simple anemometer (an instrument that meteorologists use to measure wind speed) to investigate wind speed.
Extreme Weather: Hurricanes (ESL)
Hurricanes are often in the news as they wreak havoc in the United States. Where do they come from? How do they form? Teach your ELLs this timely information about hurricanes. This lesson is aimed at high beginner and intermediate ESL students, and includes assessments for both groups.
Building a Federal Town: Washington, DC
John and Abigail Adams were the first President and First Lady to live in the White House in Washington, D.C. Before that, the capital of the country was in New York City and in Philadelphia. Even when the Adams family moved into the White House, it wasn’t finished, and neither was Washington. It takes a while to design and build a city from scratch!
The Phenomenon of "White Indians"
The phenomenon of “White Indians” became increasingly apparent during the early years of the United States. Many of the “white Indians” fought alongside their Native American “brothers” during the War of 1812. And as our nation extended westward, the incidence of the “white Indian” continued. The manner in which the phenomenon played out, however, depended upon whether the “Indian” was a man or a woman.
The Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening, dating from the 1730s to the 1770s, first appeared in the mid-Atlantic colonies, transitioned to New England, and reached a culmination of sorts in the South. It left in its wake a legacy of debate and division.
World War II and the English Children’s Airlift
The purpose of this lesson is for students to become aware of the impact of wartime on civilian populations and of the role the United States and Canada have played as havens of safety.
Fitness for Life
The latter years of the 20th century were characterized by the “fitness craze.” Gym memberships soared as many Americans became aware of the benefits of exercise for their continued good health. The purpose of this lesson is to acquaint students with activities that can form the foundation of life-long physical fitness.
My Favorite Book Is…
The purpose of this lesson is to allow students an opportunity to share their favorite book with their classmates.
The Pure, the Mixture, the Unknown – Grade 9
This lesson involves classroom discussions, demonstrations and hands-on laboratory activities about pure substances and mixtures with a focus on common household materials. The students will investigate: What is a pure substance? What is a mixture? How difficult is it to obtain pure substances? How can one test for purity? What are some methods for purifying substances? The demonstrations and labs will introduce students to methods for determining freezing points, melting points, boiling points, density and, where equipment is available, conductivity. Students also will learn to use these data for assessing the purity of substances.
Hungry Crabs
This PE activity aims to help improve students' upper body strength and endurance. Teams of "crabs" must gather "crab food" from around the gym and deposit them one at a time in their designated areas, while crab-walking. An extension activity allows kids to learn and name major muscle groups used in the exercise.
Balancing Act!
In this activity, students demonstrate body management skills specific to balance with and without the use of apparatus. Students complete various balancing challenges at different stations.
Candy Bar Fractions
The purpose of this activity is to give students a clearer understanding of the relationship between caloric expenditure and exercise. Also, to give students a real world use for fractions as they relate to daily life.
Maintaining Target Heart Rates Using DDR
This Dance Dance Revolution lesson has students calculate their target heart rate zones based on individual resting heart rate, and maintaining their target heart rate zones while participating in various activities.
Toss Across Lacrosse
In this activity, students practice throwing and catching balls in a game situation using lacrosse sticks.
Roam the Halls for Fitness
Grab your hall pass and go! The purpose of this activity is to walk as many steps as possible during a class period while using a digiwalker or pedometer.
Ridgerunner
This activity blends math, geography, and physical fitness. Over the course of the unit, students gradually increase their jogging time, while plotting their progress on a map of the Appalachian Trail (one lap equals one mile on the map).
Meet Some of our Newest Gateway Members!
Here are some of our new registered users this month.
M.M. from Florida has been a special education teacher for students in grades 3-5 with emotional disabilities for over 14 years.
A.L. from Alabama is a Career Technical teacher, teaching business/technology and information technology.
C.M. ME - Teacher of bio, marine and environmental sciences
C.P. from Wisconsin is a 5th and 6th grade Social Studies teacher.
A.B. from Kansas is a high school English and Language Arts instructor.
V.K. from Tennessee is a student teacher that is very eager to learn.
R.M. from Alabama is an elementary school counselor.
M.S. from New Jersey is a Family and Consumer Studies teacher.
T.S. from North Carolina has been an Elementary Education Teacher Assistant for 15 years and is a senior at NC A&T State University with an Elementary Education major.
P.B. from Arkansas is a 7th grade science teacher in a small, rural school.
T.H. from South Carolina teaches world history to 12 and 13 year old 7th graders at a wonderful middle school, and is also a mother of three wonderful children.
P.C. from New York is a special education/English 5-12 major in college and a working TA teaching reading to 2nd graders.
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