U.S. History Since 1877 » Blog Archive » Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (2/3) Video Games in Teaching - Lessons Learned. Pages Tuesday, February 21, 2012 Video Games in Teaching - Lessons Learned Over the years, I’ve worked with a lot of teachers who have expressed interest in using video games in their teaching, but they are not sure how to start, and what their options are.
In this post I’d like to share some tips for success garnered from working with talented teachers who have successfully integrated video games into their teaching.1) Know where to look, there is a lot of good free stuff out there, but it can be hard to find: iCivics, Playing History, BBC School Games (variety), The JASON Project (science), and PBS Kids (literacy and early math skills), are a few places that will list several games and interactives. These are great places to start to see what is out there. 2) Know the value and drawback of games. 3) You don’t have to jump in with both feet. 4) Kids love transgressive play. 5) Use a belt-and-suspenders approach to assessment. At 8:00 AM Email ThisBlogThis! Links to this post Create a Link. Home. Where Did My Tax Dollars Go? - An Interactive Visualization. Last Saturday I spent about six hours sorting through receipts and 1099 forms as I put together my 1040 for the IRS.
As I watched Turbo Tax count up how much I was going to have to shell out on Monday, I couldn't help but grumble and wonder just how my money will be spent. The answer to my question about how US tax revenue is spent can be found in the entries to the latest Data Viz Challenge sponsored in part by Google and the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. The challenge was to create visualizations about tax revenue expenditures. The winner of the challenge is Where Did My Tax Dollars Go? At Where Did My Tax Dollars Go? Applications for EducationWhere Did My Tax Dollars Go? Hunger Games – Lesson plans, worksheets, and handouts. Update October 9, 2013 I’ve added 8 more Hunger Games resources here.
No. I haven’t read it. Yes. I have seen it. It seems like everyone I talk to has read The Hunger Games trilogy. So I have heard quite a bit about Katniss and District 12 and Peeta and . . . well, pretty much all of it. A few years ago when the books were just coming out, I thought that there were pieces in the Hunger Games that teachers, especially geography teachers, could use to hook kids into instructional content. And there were some who disagreed. But I said it then and I’ll continue to say it: Some suggest that we shouldn’t have to use pop culture to teach social studies.
At the time, teachers were pretty much on their own because there just wasn’t a lot out there to help integrate social studies themes from the Hunger Games into their instruction. I especially like the maps. One quick exercise I would use would be to simply ask kids to compare and contrast the maps and then discuss why they might look different.