DOGOnews and Free Comic Book Day
DOGOnews is a student news site offers features articles for K-8 students. DOGOnews covers current events stories in the areas of science, sports, entertainment, and variety of topics that fall under the banner of social studies. Teachers can find stories by browsing the categories, filtering by grade level, or filtering by grade level. This morning when […]
This AI Tool Generates Reading Comprehension Questions for Any Article
QuestionWell is a new AI tool that will generate reading comprehension and guiding questions for just about any article that you specify. Questions created by QuestionWell can be saved in a document or exported to a handful of popular quiz apps including Kahoot and Quizziz. There are two ways that you can use QuestionWell to […]
Lesson Plans for The State of Union Address
Tomorrow night President Biden will give the annual State of the Union Address. C-SPAN Classroom offers more than one hundred resources for teaching and learning about The State of the Union Address in historical and current contexts. If you don’t have time to review all of the resources that C-SPAN Classroom offers (honestly, who does?), […]
The Differences Between England, Great Britain, United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth Explained
Queen Elizabeth II died yesterday. The news broke after most on the east coast of the U.S. were out of school for the day. If you find your students asking questions about about her passing, the monarchy, or Great Britain in general, here are some videos that you might find helpful. The Washington Post published […]
Newspaper Map – Find and Read Newspapers Published Around the World
Newspaper Map is a neat tool for locating and reading newspapers from locations all around the world. Newspaper Map claims to have geolocated 10,000 newspapers. To find a newspaper you can browse the map then click on a placemark to open the link within to read a newspaper. You can also locate newspapers by using the […]
Library of Congress Resources About Ukraine
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve received quite a few requests for resources for teaching and learning about the Russia/ Ukraine conflict. In response to those requests I’ve been directing people to Larry Ferlazzo’s frequently updated list of resources. Today, I found one resource that isn’t on Larry’s list, yet. That is the a […]
A Great Way to Explore Newspapers of the World
At the end of August I shared a couple of neat ways to explore newspapers of the world through interactive maps. Over the weekend, thanks to Larry Ferlazzo, I learned about another interactive map of newspapers from around the world. Today’s Front Pages is an interactive display of the front pages of nearly 500 newspapers […]
Three Good Places to Find Current Events Stories for Students
Last week I wrote about using the BBC’s Week in Pictures as a source of current events discussion starters. Following up on that idea, here are some other good places to find current events stories written for kids. For many years CNN Student News was one of my go-to resources when I was teaching current […]
Exploring Newspapers Through Maps
When I included current events as a regular part of my social studies classes I would always show a map of where a story takes place. The following websites can provide students with a geographic connection to current and historical news stories. Newspaper Map is a neat tool for locating and reading newspapers from locations all […]
In Pictures – A Good Resource for Prompting Current Events Lessons
Over the weekend while browsing some news articles on the BBC News I was reminded of a good resource that I used for many years to prompt discussion and small research activities in my current events class. That resource is the BBC’s Week in Pictures which is a section of their more general In Pictures […]
Synth Relaunches With a Renewed Focus on Asynchronous Audio Conversations
This week Synth released an updated user interface and a renewed focus on helping teachers and students engage in asynchronous audio conversations. In this post I’ll provide an overview of what Synth does, what has been updated in its user interface, what’s still the same, and how Synth can be used by teachers. What is […]
Three Good Resources for Teaching Fact vs. Opinion
This afternoon I was talking with a few of my students about TikTok and its new relationship with Oracle. The course of that conversation brought up a lot of “I’ve heard X” and “I’ve read X” statements from my students regarding news about TikTok. As you might imagine would happen with teenagers talking about their […]
Factitious 2020 – Can You Spot Fake News Stories?
In yesterday’s episode of Two Ed Tech Guys Take Questions and Share Cool Stuff I shared some information about an update to a favorite resource of mine, Factitious. Factitious is a game that is designed to help students practice identifying real and fake news stories. The 2020 version of the game features stories about COVID-19. […]
Three Ways to Explore the News Through Maps
One of the things that I liked about the old version of CNN Student News is that it almost always included a map to show students where a story is taking place in the world. I tried to do the same whenever I taught current events by showing students a map of where a story […]
Do Politics Make Us Irrational? – A TED-Ed Lesson
As the 2020 Presidential primaries and caucuses roll on more there is no avoiding political advertising unless you shut off your television, your radio, and never go on YouTube. Politics stir up all kinds of feelings in us. People who are otherwise very even-keeled sometimes get very passionate and perhaps irrational when it comes to […]
What’s the Difference Between a Caucus and a Primary
When I turned on the news this morning I was greeted with the news that the results of the Iowa caucuses would be delayed. That made me realize that I haven’t posted any resources that can be used to help students understand how a president is chosen in the United States. The first step in […]
Five Good Places to Find Current Events Stories for Kids
For a couple of years I taught an elective that was all about current events. That was one of my favorite social studies teaching assignments because I enjoy listening to what students have to save about the news. CNN Student News was one of my go-to resources when I was teaching that current events course. […]
A Helpful Search Refinement Option for Students Studying Trending Topics
Earlier this month I published Ten Search Strategies Students Should Try. An eleventh strategy that students can try when they are researching current events, trending topics, or any rapidly changing topic is to refine results according to publication date. In the following video I demonstrate how students can refine search results according to publication date.
A Fun Literature Game
A couple of years ago Terri Eichholz wrote a short blog post about an activity that she had found on the New Times Learning Network. I was recently scrolling through some old bookmarks and found Terri’s post again. So I went to see if it’s still available and it is. The activity is called Literature […]
Youngzine – Great Current Events Resource
Youngzine is an excellent resource for anyone who needs ideas for current events lessons in an elementary school or middle school classroom. Youngzine articles feature a mix of news, sports, and entertainment stories for elementary school students. A new edition is published weekly. Most articles on Youngzine are accompanied by a supporting video. Articles that reference […]
Current Events Sites for Students
CNN Student News, now called CNN 10, is one of the most popular sites for student news and current events, but there are many other sites out there that are worth taking a look at. Here are some of the ones that I have used over the last couple of years. KidsPost– This is associated […]
Google Tour Builder
Google Tour Builder was originally created for veterans as a tool to record and preserve their experiences and memories in the military and share them with friends and family. Google made Tour Builder available to everyone because they know everyone has a story to tell. While Tour Builder isn’t as popular as Google MyMaps, it has some features […]
Read2Me – Free Text to Audio Conversion
Read2Me is a free service that will convert a webpage or an uploaded document into an audio file that you can listen to on the Read2Me website. To use Read2Me you simply have to paste a link to an article or upload a file and then be patient while it converts to audio. When the […]
Free Solar Eclipse Glasses in Your Community
In 15 days a solar eclipse will cover a large portion of the United States. Star Net, a production of Space Science Institute’s National Center for Interactive Learning, has partnered with American Library Association, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, and the Afterschool Alliance to provide more than 2 million free eclipse glasses to public libraries […]
DOGO News – Current Events Lessons to Share in Google Classroom
DOGOnews is a student news site that features articles for K-8 students. DOGOnews covers current events stories in the areas of science, sports, entertainment, and variety of topics that fall under the banner of social studies. Teachers can find stories by browsing the categories, filtering by grade level, or filtering by grade level. All articles […]
Media Literacy & Fake News – A Lesson Plan
C-SPAN Classroom has a new lesson plan that is quite timely given all of the recent stories about fake news stories created and shared through social media. Media Literacy & Fake News is a free lesson plan that is based on five C-SPAN videos featuring authors and other experts talking about the role of media […]
Pic4Carto – Find Creative Commons Images Based on Location
There are plenty of places to find public domain and Creative Commons licensed pictures on the web. Some of my favorite places were featured in this post on Practical Ed Tech. Pic4Carto is an interesting site that I will probably add to that list in the future. Pic4Carto is a site that lets you browse […]
How to Create Twitter Moments
A few weeks ago Twitter started to allow anyone to create what Twitter calls Moments. Moments are collections of Tweets organized around a hashtag, an event, or a theme. When you create a Moment you can share it on Twitter account for others to see the Tweets that you’ve included in the Moment. In the […]
Youngzine is Updated for 2016-17 School Year – Great Current Events Resource
Youngzine is a great service that provides teachers with current events articles written for classroom use. I first used the site in 2012 and it has only gotten better since then. Youngzine has been updated for the 2016-17 school year with a fresh and responsive design, new classroom discussion features, and easier sign-in options. Youngzine […]
CNN Student News Is Back for 2016-17
For many years CNN Student News has been my go-to resource for current events lessons for middle school and high school students. Every summer CNN Student News goes on hiatus and comes back in late August. This year, for the first time that I’ve noticed, CNN Students News is available on iTunes as well as on […]
Quick Current Events Activities from KQED Education
KQED Public Media’s website has a small section of its Ed Space pages dedicated to short current events-based Do Now activities that teachers can use in their classrooms. These weekly Do Now activities present a current events topic, some background information (both text and video), and a couple of discussion prompts. New Do Now activities are posted on Fridays although […]
Stackup – Create & Track Reading Goals in Chrome
Stackup is a free service that aims to help you give students credit for time spent reading quality articles online. On Stackup you can create reading challenges for your students. A challenge could be something like “read current events for 60 minutes this week.” After creating the challenge you invite students to join it. Students […]
Stackup – Create & Track Reading Goals for You and Your Students
Stackup is a new service that aims to help you give students credit for time spent reading quality articles online. On Stackup you can create reading challenges for your students. A challenge could be something like “read international news for 60 minutes this week.” After creating the challenge you invite students to join it. Students […]
Four Ways to Explore the News Through Maps
One of the things that I like about CNN Student News is that it almost always includes a map to show students where a story is taking place in the world. I try to do the same whenever I teach current events by showing students a map of where a story takes place. It can […]
20 Videos and a Poster Explaining Logical Fallacies
Last November I featured a series of videos from PBS Learning Channel that contained eight concise explanations of logical fallacies. This morning, thanks to Larry Ferlazzo, I learned about another series of video explanations of logical fallacies. Wireless Philosophy offers a playlist of twelve videos on logical fallacies. The playlist is embedded below. The fallacies […]
An Interactive Cartogram of News
Unfiltered News is a new site that uses an interactive cartogram to help you find trending news stories from around the world. To find stories through Unfiltered News simply open the website and click on a topic listed within one of the circles on the map. Once you’ve made a selection a list of stories […]
Perspecs Shows Students Three Sides to Every Story
Perspecs is a new app that aims to provide users with three sides to every news story. On Monday through Friday the free Android and iPhone app offers a selection of articles about current topics in the news. The topics could be breaking news or they could be topics of a more evergreen nature like […]
Tagboard Offers New Features for Following Hashtags Across Multiple Networks
Tagboard is a tool that allows you follow a hashtag and see all of the Tweets, Instagram, Facebook, and Google+ posts about it in one place. Last year I created a tutorial video about Tagboard in which I demonstrated its primary features. Today, Tagboard added some new features that teachers will probably appreciate. Tagboard now […]
Newsela Offers Text Sets About the 2016 Election
Newsela is a popular service that aims to help teachers find current events articles that are appropriate for their students’ age and reading abilities. For the 2016 presidential campaign Newsela is offering a section devoted just to news about campaigns, primary election results, and caucus outcomes. The articles in the campaign 2016 collection come from Newsela’s […]
C-SPAN Offers a Free Electoral College Poster and Lesson Plans
C-SPAN Classroom is one of my go-to sources of ideas for lessons on current events related to U.S. government and politics. Membership in C-SPAN Classroom is free and provides members with lots of digital and physical resources. One of the resources C-SPAN Classroom is currently offering to members is a poster about the Electoral College. […]
PBS Election Central Helps Students Understand US Election Process
PBS Election Central is a collection of educational resources related to the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. The collection includes interactive maps, virtual field trips, and videos. Within the PBS Election Central collection there are resources appropriate for elementary school, middle school, and high students. The central feature of PBS Election Central is an interactive map […]
Newsela’s iPad App Offers News Stories Sorted by Reading Level
Newsela is a service that helps teachers find current events articles that are appropriate for their students’ age and reading abilities. This week Newsela launched a free iPad app and iPhone app. The Newsela iPad app and iPhone app delivers current news articles to students. The stories are matched to students’ reading abilities. At the end of each […]