IA Reads

Friday, April 18, 2008

WWII Homefront Digital Story Wiki


Some of our American History classes started a digital story project on the US Home Front during WWII.

Our entire project is on a wiki found at http://ww2homefront.pbwiki.com/ . Students will be using either Windows Movie Maker or Windows Photostory3. They will be using propaganda posters, photos, narration and music to teach us about the role of minorities, women, industry, agriculture, war bonds, victory gardens and the news/censorship during WWII.

When I introduced the project, I was able to use the SMARTBoard to show students what they were supposed to do and see all the resources I had set up for them. We want them to use one of our Gale ebooks:

American Home Front in World War II. Ed. Allison McNeill, Richard C. Hanes, Sharon M. Hanes, and Kelly Rudd. Vol. 1: Almanac. Detroit: UXL, 2005.

This project will be finished next week and I will embed the movies into the wiki...so check back later.
Mega-technology integration.


Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Great Depression and New Deal


10th Grade American History students came down to take a test on Blackboard. It was a 50 point True/False test that students REALLY had to study for. Mr. deZwaan and I worked together in coming up with the questions. While most of the time on our part was coming up with the questions, the grading part was a breeze! It's nice to have automatic scoring and students got instant feedback. Here are our students focused on their test.