Social+Studies

=**Social Studies**= toc A few options ...
 * Task:**
 * Create a voicethread of great leaders of a certain era or area (Ancient Egypt, China through the ages, Roman emperors, Colonial founders, the Progressives) and leave comments on each off the leaders, reflceting various viewpoints about the individual.
 * Create [|Voki characters]Voki characters that bring famous historical figures to life, with each member embedding the characters on this site.
 * Develop a wiki or blog discussing the use of current events in the social studies classroom, possibly connecting with like schools.
 * Brainstorm a list of people and organizations to contact for possible skype or video conferences.

**Diversions**
1. [|Spell w/Flickr!] Spell your department name and embed it at the top of this page! [|Directions here!] Embed one in a new blog post on your personal blogs. 2, Generate a brainstorm of project ideas and ways we can connect our kids with kids from around the world to work on projects. 3. Review some of the [|bookmarks] that we collected from our NCSS Conference. 4. Create a [|delicious account] for yourselves and begin learning a little more about social bookmarking! 5. Add links to your department's resource bank below.

**Resource Bank:**
-[|Wesley Fryer reports from the USS Oklahoma Memorial Dedication Ceremony] on December 7th, 2007. Listen to his report and leave a few comments if you are so inspired! -[|"My Dad"] - a wonderful voicethread that a young boy completed about his father, who currently serves in the US Military. An outstanding student sample. -Voices of the World Project-Will is quite familiar with this-it is a wonderful project that students from schools all over the world are working on. Will's students are even doing their own little Voices of the World project.

Our project:
We ended up working with voki, trying to make a virtual GW, Abe Lincoln, and Mr. G. Unfortunately, Taft messed up the saving of the Mr. G file, so we don't know where it is!

**Reflection:**
These tools obviously can be integrated into the social studies at all levels. We have to watch for overkill, however. The skype conversation possibilities are endless, but we worry about how we can make connections. Time is necessary, and so is a solid direction for the project. Once everyone gets on board, these tools should be easy to

Write your reflection collaborative reflection below. What did you enjoy about this activity? What did you not like? What are some possible activities like this that you may do with students in the future? What did you think about the[| "Did You Know"] video that we watched?