Posts Tagged ‘middle school’

« Older Entries

Comprehensive World History & Geography Resource

July 14th, 2022

It’s Thursday, July 14, 2022, and time for Social Sciences at ClickSchooling!

Student’s Friend: A Guide to Teaching World History & Geography

(www.studentsfriend.com/)

Grades 6 and up, with parental supervision

This website was developed by a history teacher named Mike Maxwell whose mission is to make history and geography more meaningful to students by identifying important developments in world history and tying them to geography in a way that is memorable.

It offers a free, downloadable, comprehensive guide called the Student’s Friend that may be used in place of a history textbook, along with lesson plans, study guides, and other resources to enhance learning. The site has been recognized as one of the top ten history sites for teachers by the Stanford University School of Education.

When you get to the site you’ll see a menu that includes:

  • Purpose – Learn more about the author and educational philosophy.
  • Teaching and Learning – Get the fundamentals of teaching and learning world history and geography.
  • Teacher Tools – Get free lessons plans and activities. Students can explore important themes and issues and enjoy in-depth learning activities such as projects, investigations and simulations. While designed for high school classroom use, the materials have been used by middle school teachers, college professors, and homeschool teachers worldwide.
  • Student’s Friend – A Concise World History – Access a free, concise narrative of world history and geography to use in place of a textbook. The Student’s Friend can be used online or download it for use offline. It’s divided into two parts:

Part I – Prehistory through 1500 including:

  • Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt
  • Ancient India and China
  • Ancient Greece and Rome
  • The Early Middle Ages, 500 to 1000 AD
  • The Late Middle Ages, 1000 to 1500

Part II – 1500 to the Present including:

  • 1500s and 1600s, Early Modern World
  • 1700s, Enlightenment & Revolution
  • 1800s, Industrial Revolution & Imperialism
  • 1900 to 1950, World at War
  • 1950 to the Present, Cold War & Space Age
  • Current Issues, A Changing World Order

This is a remarkable resource, so bookmark the site to return again.

No comments »

Posted in social sciences

Tags:

Stossel in the Classroom Resource

July 2nd, 2022

It’s Saturday, July 2, 2022, and time for Other Electives at ClickSchooling!

Free DVDs – Stossel in the Classroom

(stosselintheclassroom.org/shop/)

Grades 6 & up (middle school – college level), with parental supervision

A big THANK YOU to ClickScholar Nancy Hogan for recommending this website “Stossel in the classroom.” Sponsored by the Center for Independent Thought (a non-profit educational foundation) it has produced a free DVD each school year that is a compilation of John Stossel’s television programs and specials, along with a teacher guide with lesson plans and ideas for complementary activities. Though they have discontinued their DVDs to focus on streaming videos and other online content, you can still order some of their past editions, and they’re still 100% free, shipping included.

When you get to the site you’ll learn how to register (free) to get past edition DVDs, as well as an accompanying downloadable “Teacher’s Guide” containing lesson plans, activity suggestions, handouts, and vocabulary.

In addition to getting the free DVD and resources, you can use the menu at the top of the home page to watch streaming videos from Stossel on thought-provoking topics in the “Video Library”. These videos cover a variety of categories including business, college, consumer issues, healthcare, law, privacy, and more. You can also search the videos by subject including:

  • Business
  • Government
  • Science
  • Technology
  • Economics
  • Health
  • Physical Education
  • Personal Finance
  • History
  • and much more!

Again, all of this is provided for FREE – they simply request that you send them your feedback on the website and products to share with fellow teachers/educators.

No comments »

Posted in economics

Tags:

Computer Programming Teaching Tool!

June 4th, 2022

It’s Saturday, June 4, 2022, and time for Other Electives at ClickSchooling!

Computer Science – Free Alice Computer Programming Software

(www.alice.org/)

This website offers “Alice” – free educational software from Carnegie Mellon University that teaches students computer programming in a visual, 3-D environment. It makes it easy to create animation for interactive games and videos and much more.

The description from the website best explains it:

“Alice is a freely available teaching tool designed to be a student’s first exposure to object-oriented programming. It allows students to learn fundamental programming concepts in the context of creating animated movies and simple video games. In Alice, 3-D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world and students create a program to animate the objects.

In Alice’s interactive interface, students drag and drop graphic tiles to create a program, where the instructions correspond to standard statements in a production-oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, and C#. Alice allows students to immediately see how their animation programs run, enabling them to easily understand the relationship between the programming statements and the behavior of objects in their animation. By manipulating the objects in their virtual world, students gain experience with all the programming constructs typically taught in an introductory programming course.”

When you get to the site you can read the latest news and media coverage about Alice software and then click on the menu items that include:

  • Downloads – Get Free downloads of the software designed specifically for middle school students and/or high school and college students that will allow you to get started learning computer programming in a fun and engaging way.
  • All About Alice – Click on this item and a new page opens that explains how Alice works – and provides promotional videos you can watch to better understand how to get started.
  • Teaching Materials – Alice provides instructional materials to support teachers and students in classrooms. Resources include textbooks, lessons, tests, and more that you can download and print out.

NOTE: Some of you may have heard about “Alice” in the context of media coverage about one of the developers, Randy Pausch. Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University professor, died of pancreatic cancer on July 25th, 2008 at the age of 47, leaving behind his wife and three young children. He gained worldwide attention through an inspirational “Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” in which he recounted how he achieved his childhood dreams of becoming a football player, experiencing zero gravity, and developing Disneyland attractions. There are lessons in his last lecture for all of us. You can view it here: ClickSchooling

No comments »

Posted in other electives

Tags:

Learn 3D Programming

April 9th, 2022

It’s Saturday, April 9, 2022, and time for Other Electives at ClickSchooling!

Computer Science – Free Alice Computer Programming Software

(www.alice.org/)

Grade 6-12, with parental supervision

This website offers “Alice” – free educational software from Carnegie Mellon University that teaches students computer programming in a visual, 3-D environment. It makes it easy to create animation for interactive games and videos and much more.

The description from the website best explains it:

“Alice is a freely available teaching tool designed to be a student’s first exposure to object-oriented programming. It allows students to learn fundamental programming concepts in the context of creating animated movies and simple video games. In Alice, 3-D objects (e.g., people, animals, and vehicles) populate a virtual world and students create a program to animate the objects.

In Alice’s interactive interface, students drag and drop graphic tiles to create a program, where the instructions correspond to standard statements in a production oriented programming language, such as Java, C++, and C#. Alice allows students to immediately see how their animation programs run, enabling them to easily understand the relationship between the programming statements and the behavior of objects in their animation. By manipulating the objects in their virtual world, students gain experience with all the programming constructs typically taught in an introductory programming course.”

When you get to the site you can read the latest news and media coverage about Alice software and then click on the menu items that include:

  • Downloads – Get Free downloads of the software designed specifically for middle school students and/or high school and college students that will allow you to get started learning computer programming in a fun and engaging way.
  • All About Alice – Click on this item and a new page opens that explains how Alice works – and provides promotional videos you can watch to better understand how to get started.
  • Teaching Materials – Alice provides instructional materials to support teachers and students in classrooms. Resources include textbooks, lessons, tests, and more that you can download and print out.

NOTE: Some of you may have heard about “Alice” in the context of media coverage about one of the developers, Randy Pausch. Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University professor, died of pancreatic cancer on July 25th, 2008 at the age of 47, leaving behind his wife and three young children. He gained world-wide attention through an inspirational “Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” in which he recounted how he achieved his childhood dreams of becoming a football player, experiencing zero gravity, and developing Disneyland attractions. There are lessons in his last lecture for all of us. You can view it here: ClickSchooling

No comments »

Posted in other electives

Tags:

Art Tutorials for Middle & High School

March 19th, 2022

John MacTaggart: Artyfactory

(www.artyfactory.com/)

Grades 6 and up, with parental supervision

This ad-supported website includes step-by-step, how-to art lessons. It also offers art appreciation tutorials on topics like “Still Life” or “Animals in Art” or broader “Art Movements.”

Description: When you get to the site, choose from:

  • Art Lessons
  • Art Appreciation
  • Design Lessons

Little ones can’t interact with Artyfactory on their own. The content and writing are at an advanced level. (In fact, it is suspect most of the content doubles as MacTaggart’s college course material.) But there’s tremendous potential here for a creative homeschooler as follows:

  • Use it directly as reading or coursework for a high school student.

  • Adapt the lessons for younger pupils. The “Pencil Shading” exercises, for example, found under “Pencil Portraits” in the Art Lessons section, would be a fun challenge. The “How to Draw Animals” lessons might work with a talented middle school student, too, but these are no Ed Emberley thumbprints: they require a good eye and a controlled hand.
  • Fill in holes in your own knowledge. After spending some time on this site you’ll be able to introduce your children to Expressionism paintings and more next time you visit a museum.

There’s a wealth of information here: color theory (both technical stuff like the color wheel and the emotional impact of colors in painting), a thorough overview of African masks and Egyptian hieroglyphs, shading techniques in pen and ink, etc.

NOTE: As always, PARENTS SHOULD PREVIEW the site to determine suitability of content for your own children.

No comments »

Posted in art

Tags:

Ultimate Homeschool Reading Lists

March 2nd, 2022

iHomeschool Network/Reading Lists

(ihomeschoolnetwork.com/homeschool-reading-lists/)

All grades; children with parental supervision

Here is a resource you’ll love! The iHomeschool Network has earned our praise for developing the reading list of all reading lists! They explain: “Sometimes it’s difficult to sort through all of the massive amounts of information to discover what is truly useful to our homeschooling children or our own selves. With so many resources available both online and in everyday chatter among homeschooling families, internet searches, Pinterest and chat groups it can be hard to narrow down to what works versus what doesn’t. That’s why we wanted to bring you our favorite reading lists for homeschoolers.”

They have gathered their top reading lists and sorted them by relevant categories and organized them alphabetically! When you visit the website, scroll down through the various categories to locate a myriad of reading lists. Choose from:

  • Reading Lists for Homeschool How-to, Resources, and Advice
  • Homeschool Educational Methods
  • Reading List by Age Groups:
  • Early Childhood
  • Babies & ToddlersPreschool – Kindergarten
  • Elementary School (1st Grade – 4th Grade)
  • Middle School (5th Grade – 8th Grade)
  • High School (9th Grade – Graduation)
  • Reading Lists by Subjects
  • Classics
  • Favorites/Topical
  • And Many More!

Bookmark this page and return often. You’ll find yourself falling in love with reading all over again while you share the love with your children!

Have fun!

No comments »

Posted in language arts

Tags:

css.php