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Will you be teaching your students to write about history soon? Read this first!

Think there’s no need for sepia-toned filters and hashtags in your classroom? Don’t write off the world of #selfies just yet.

Instagram is one of the most popular social media channels among generation Z, or those born after 1995 and don’t know a world without the Internet. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that this is a generation of visual learners and communicators, where sharing your life-from the food you’re about to eat to your thoughts about anything and everything-is a part of your everyday routine. So, why allow Instagram in your classroom?

For starters, preparing students to be college and career ready involves helping them build their digital literacy skills on a professional level, and Instagram is a technological tool that offers educators innovative ways to motivate and engage students, opening up a new platform for collaboration, research, and discussion. Secondly, we all know the importance of interest and ownership for getting students excited about learning, and since your students probably already love Instagram you’ve already won half the battle.

Teacher/Classroom Instagram Accounts

Create a private classroom Instagram account that you control and can use to connect with your students, their parents and guardians, and other grade team members. Invite them to follow your account and catch a glimpse of your everyday classroom moments and adventures.

1. Student of the Week: Each week, feature a different student on the class Instagram account, posting photos-with their permission- of their favorite classroom projects and other examples of their hard work and achievement. This is a fun opportunity to highlight your students’ individual strengths, positively reinforcing their behavior and progress.
2. Daily/Weekly Classroom Update: Similar to student of the week, you can instagram your students’ classroom projects and activities on a daily or weekly basis. From photos of new classroom reads to capturing field trip memories, this is an excellent way to build a sense of community while allowing parents to see what lessons, topics, and exciting activities are happening in your classroom. This is also a great way to easily and quickly share your classroom ideas with other grade team teachers.
3. Student takeover: If you’re not able to encourage students to create their own individual Instagram accounts, invite each student to “take over” the classroom account for a day or week by sharing photos from his or her everyday life. This is a great opportunity for students to learn more about their peers by instagramming their interests, hobbies, routines, and even cultural traditions.
4. Photo Inspiration: Finding inspiration to write can be one of the most difficult parts of the writing process. Spark your students’ imaginations and help them discover new ideas through instagramming writing prompts by playing with different angles, perspectives, and filters to capture random moments and objects that you encounter throughout your day-to-day.
5. Caption That! For a variation of the writing prompt, post an interesting photo and ask your students to write a descriptive caption in the comments. Differentiate how challenging this task is by asking students to write their caption using specific sentence types, different parts of speech, clauses, prepositional phrases, and their current vocabulary words.
6. Daily challenges: If your students are able to follow the classroom Instagram account on a regular basis, you can use it to post daily challenges in the form of visual word problems, review questions, and bonus questions. Instagram photos of important learned concepts and pose questions to your students in the caption, asking them to write their answers in the comments. For example, this fifth-grade teacher used Instagram to review who Henry Ford was and other important events in history.

Student Instagram Accounts

Asking your students to follow the classroom Instagram account with their personal accounts is one, highly unlikely, and two, probably not the best idea. What you can do is ask your students to create additional Instagram accounts that would only be used for school or classroom purposes. You know how LinkedIn is your professional Facebook? A similar idea applies here.

1. A Day in the Life: Challenge students to assume the role of a fictional literary character and share images that he or she believes the specific character would post, highlighting the character’s interests, personality traits, and development throughout the story. The 15-second video option is a great way to really let students get into character through recorded role-playing and even performance reenactments. These activities can also be applied to important figures in history, such as the creator of Honda, Soichiro Honda, or jazz musician, Melba Liston.
2. What the Kids are Reading: Students can snap photos of their favorite reads and write a brief 1-5 sentence review in the caption. To take it a step further, ask them to record 15-second long persuasive book trailers to hook their peers. Boost further discussion among your students by asking them to comment on other book reviews and book trailer videos to share their opinions. Tip: Encourage your students to use a unique #hashtag (ex.: #SMSGrade4Reads) for each book review posted, and by the end of the year you will have a visual library of all of the books your class has read.
3. Math Hunt: “Why do we have to learn this?” “I won’t need this in my everyday life.” Sound familiar? Help your students see the real-world math applications all around them by sending them on a hunt to document or illustrate their knowledge of different math concepts:

• Geometry: lines (parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting), angles (right, acute, obtuse, etc.) symmetry, and three-dimensional shapes (prisms, cubes, cylinders, etc.)
• Everyday fractions and arrays
• Concepts of money
• Examples of volume vs. mass, area vs. perimeter

4. STEM Research: Students can watch, observe, and record science experiment data and results over time by documenting any step-by-step process with photo and video narration of learned science concepts. Outside of the lab, students can use their Instagram accounts for observing science in nature or sharing their own scientific findings. What makes this special is how quickly and easily students can share and revisit their visual references and recorded data.

• Physical & chemical changes
• Weather patterns and phases of the moon
• Animal adaptations
• Habitats in nature

Note: Instagram, as well as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Snapchat, has a minimum age limit of 13 to open an account, but according to Instagram’s parents’ guide, there are many younger users on Instagram with their parents’ permission since you don’t have to specify your age. Always check with your school’s administrator and obtain parental permission before sharing photos of students or their work.

Know of any other interesting ways to use Instagram or other social media sites in the classroom? Already using Instagram in the classroom? Let us know in the comments!

Veronica has a degree from Mount Saint Mary College and joined LEE & LOW in the fall of 2014. She has a background in education and holds a New York State childhood education (1-6) and students with disabilities (1-6) certification. When she’s not wandering around New York City, you can find her hiking with her dog Milo in her hometown in the Hudson Valley, NY.

Just in time for Presidents' Day, I chatted with nonfiction author Katherine L. House about her recent book, White House for Kids. Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win a copy of her book.

Want some fresh ways to channel your students to write about history? This post offers some light and fast tips that could easily be turned into weighty and meaningful instruction.

I’m always looking for exemplary informational mentor texts. When Under the Freedom Tree crossed my desk, I knew I found one I wanted to share with you.  It’s the story of the first contraband… Read More →

February 21, not a particularly notable day, thought I to myself. Day before George Washington’s birthday (February 22, 1732). So, what possibly could have happened?

What a surprise!  Here are a few gems from the Library of  Congress American Memory Today in History, Arts and Entertainment site This Day in History, and Historyorb.com.

On February 21:

• In 1972, Richard M. Nixon arrived in China for a historic eight-day official visit. He was the first US president to visit the People’s Republic of China since its founding in 1949.
  
• The National Association for  Stock Car Racing, NASCAR, was founded in 1948.
• The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx was published 1oo years before NASCAR in 1848.
• The Washington Monument was dedicated on this date in 1885
• In 1431, England began the trial against Joan of Arc.
• The first known sewing machine was patented in the US by John Greenough in Washington, D. C. in 1842.
• The World’s Fair in San Francisco, officially known as the Panama-Pacific International Exposition,  opened in 1915 celebrating the successful completion of the Panama Canal in 1914 and a shout out to the world that Frisco was back in business after the devastating Great San Francisco Earthquake April 18, 1906.
• The first American Indian newspaper in the US, Cherokee Phoenix, was published in 1828.
• And, as we get ready for the World  Champion San Francisco  Giants 2013 Season,  we remember that the then NY Giants played the Chicago White Sox in the first exhibition night game in 1931.

Come back next week as we kick off National Women’s History Month. Graphic from Flickr Creative Commons license courtesy of izik.

The Olympics give us such a great opportunity to become familiar with the five themes of geography–location (longitude and latitude), place (physical and human characteristics), human/environment interaction, movement (patterns of movement/migration), and region (biome). Don’t get caught like a national newscast proclaiming Baghdad to be in Iran (it’s not, Baghdad is in Iraq). Of course, not only do the Olympics provide a glimpse of the peoples of the world, but your own summer travels likewise offer insight to the people and places of our world be it the Russian River, the South of France, or Oaxaca.

You can even become an armchair traveler–watch the Olympics and read a book about the games, the places, the athletes, the events. Use a keyword search at the San Francisco Public Library for Olympics, Olympics History, or Olympics Literature to get you going. It’s not too early to study for the National Geographic Bee–check out the GeoBee challenge! School Bees take place November 12, 2012 through January 15, 2013. Get your school to register by October 15, 2012.

Graphic from  Flickr Creative Commons License by adacar

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• London Olympics mascots: menacing or magic? (newsday.com)

For the last installment in our series on Sensational Summer Read Alouds, literacy expert Jaclyn DeForge shares one final title that has a high student-interest level, can be used to hit multiple Common Core learning standards, and is super rich in terms of content, just like A Full Moon is Rising and Silent Star.

Today’s Pick: Balarama: A Royal Elephant

Written & Illustrated by: Ted & Betsy Lewin

Genre: narrative nonfiction

Hook: India! Elephants! Parades!

COMPREHENSION CONNECTION

Another two for one: this narrative nonfiction travelogue can be used to tackle both literature and informational text standards. The Lewins also include maps and information about the royal elephants of the Dasara celebration in the city of Mysore.

A few ways to focus a Read Aloud:

• Understanding Genre/Author’s Craft: This text is an example of narrative nonfiction. What are some elements of narrative that you can find in the text? What are some elements of informational text that you can find in the text? (Grades 3-5, Literature & Informational Text, Craft and Structure, 5) 
• Text structure: How do both the nonfiction text features and the illustrations help you understand the information presented in the text? (Grades 2-4, Information Text, Craft and Structure, 4)

CONTENT CONNECTION

Science:

• Research Asian elephants. Research African elephants. Compare and contrast the two. How do their adaptations (trunk, tusks, size, etc) help them survive? Why are elephants endangered? What is being done to protect the elephants?
• Field trip idea: Visit the local zoo. Without looking at any of the visitor information, try to identify whether the elephants are Asian or African by looking at their physical features.

Social Studies:

• Research the regions of India mentioned in the text. Compare and contrast these regions of India to your neighborhood (think climate, culture, customs, etc). Research the holiday of Dasara. Identify information that you learned that was different from what you learned in the book.

Writing Prompts:

• If you could take a trip anywhere in the world and write a book about it, where would you go? Research that place and write a piece in the narrative style of Ted and Betsy Lewin, pretending as if you had taken the trip and are writing about your experience.

For a complete list of Sensational Summer Read Alouds, or for information about building classroom libraries that meet the needs of your students, drop me an email at [email protected]!

Today in History, from the Library of Congress American Memory, we celebrate the Fourth of July. PBS.org offers a comprehensive history of Independence Day at A Capitol Fourth, America’s Independence Day Celebration including the history and music of the celebration, the history of Old  Glory and the National Mall, and lots of links to significant people, places, monuments, and museums of our shared American history. Check it out. Here is a link to local San Francisco Bay Area Fourth of July Events.

Speaking of local, did you know the annual Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival held in San Francisco’s  Golden Gate Park in August brings more than $67 million  to the local economy, including over 750 jobs.  See San Francisco State University Professor Patrick Tierney’s study.  Tierney is chair of the Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism at SFSU.

And. . . a music-based  curriculum, Academic Music, designed by SFSU researchers Susan Courey and Endre Balogh, is helping children understand fractions.  See  the findings of the six-week trial run at Palo Alto’s Hoover Elementary School in the journal Educational Studies in Mathematics. Look out Kahn Academy! Both of these SFSU studies were highlighted in the SF State Magazine Spring/Summer 2012 edition.

Finally, artist and SFSU Alum Steven J. Backman  used 30,000 toothpicks in his 13-foot long replica of the Golden Gate Bridge. Now on display at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

Graphic courtesy Flickr Creative Commons License by Citoyendu Monde Inc.

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• Western Neighborhoods Project
• Great Minds  Thinking Differently

I’ve been meaning to share my notes from “Methods That Matter: Using Mini-Lectures, Interactive Video Alouds, and Centers to Raise the Level of Engagement in Social Studies” ever since I attended the TCRWP’s… Read More →

I’ve been meaning to share my notes from “Methods That Matter: Using Mini-Lectures, Interactive Video Alouds, and Centers to Raise the Level of Engagement in Social Studies” ever since I attended the TCRWP’s… Read More →

Reposted from April 18, 2011

The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, April 18, 1906, stretches the imagination as to understanding the widespread destruction of our fair city. Natural disasters throughout our shrinking planet have let us to better able comprehend the impact such horrors present to human beings. We can recall most recently the earthquakes of Japan on March 11, 2011,  Abruzzo, Italy on April 6, 2009, and in the Sichuan Province of Central China on May 12, 2008, Hurricane Katrina and the Levee Breaks of August 2005, and the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 26, 2004.

Those of us in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989 can’t forget the Loma Prieta Earthquake of October 17.The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco is gathering more data, spearheaded by Gladys Hansen San Francisco City Archivist Emeritus and Curator of the Museum,

In response to repeated requests through our website we are setting out to compile a new and more accurate account of those affected by the 1906 earthquake. We want information on everyone who was here at the time, both survivors and those who perished.

See the Great Register to share your family history and to read about what it was like at the time. Selections young readers might enjoy include: The Great Quake by Beth Geiger (National Geographic Explorer Journal, April 2006), The Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 by Bryan Brown (Junior Scholastic Journal, March 27, 2006), Shake, Rattle and Roar! (Junior Scholastic, March 27, 2006), If You Lived at the Time of the Great San Francisco Earthquake by Ellen Levine, The Earth Dragon Awakes by Laurence Yep, and A Song for Sung Li by Pamela Dell. These are all available at the San Francisco Public Library searched with keyword San Francisco Earthquake.

How prepared are you? Check out with your family San Francisco’s 72hours.org for advice on how to prepare your family for natural and human made disasters.

Graphic from http://www.kahnfoundation.org/images/sf_fire.png

Related articles 

• Survivor of 1906 San Francisco quake dies at 109 – San Francisco Chronicle

Buildings are like books with stories that last

They tell us our present and also our past!

The outside of a building says quite a lot.

About setting, about character, and even about plot.



Beloved Children’s Author Gives Advice to Parents of Budding Architects

National Building Museum Online sat down with Isabel to discuss her work and her advice for the parents of budding architects.

National Building Museum Online (NBM Online): As an urban planner and architectural historian, what motivated you to create books for young children?

Isabel Hill: Quite honestly, I was inspired to write my first children's book, Urban Animals, by my own daughter, Anna. When Anna was younger we used to take walks in Brooklyn where we live and I would always point out architectural details. One day, as we were wandering around our own neighborhood, I stopped to point out an interesting floral detail on a building and Anna interrupted me saying, "Mama, there is a dog on that building!" So my wonderfully-observant 5-year old daughter gave me the idea to create books for young children about architecture.

NBM Online: What was the inspiration behind your latest book, Building Stories?

Isabel Hill: For many years I worked as an urban planner in an old industrial neighborhood in New York. I walked by a building with spectacular, yellow, terra-cotta pencils on the outside and just had to find out why they were there. I researched the building and discovered that it was the Eberhard Faber Pencil Factory, famous for making those yellow, Number Two pencils that were used for generations all across America. Fast forward to two years ago: as I began to brainstorm about a second children’s book on architecture, the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company Building came to mind and inspired the book.

NBM Online: In Building Stories you look at the details of a building as being the characters, plot, and setting of a story. Have you always thought of buildings in this way?

Isabel Hill: No, this was a new concept for me but I think it works extremely well. Buildings do have stories and, when you think about it, what goes on inside can be mysterious as well as educational. Sometimes a building can have many plots and characters depending on what goes on inside and who is involved with the building.

NBM Online: What advice do you have for the young readers who enjoy your books?

Isabel Hill: I am so excited about these books and want them to be the catalyst for walking around one’s own neighborhood and observing all the interesting architecture that surrounds us. My advice would be to go out, walk the streets, take the books as your guides, but find your own architectural treasures. Photograph them, draw them, write about them, and share what you find with other children and adults.

NBM Online: What advice do you have for parents of budding architects?

Isabel Hill: I think it’s great for parents to read the books out loud, to help their children tackle some of the harder words, and to ask their children what they see in the books that relates to what they see in their own neighborhoods.

NBM Online: As an architectural photographer, what is your favorite city to photograph?

Isabel Hill: I must admit I love the city I now call home—New York—because it is so vast and has so many different kinds of buildings, architectural styles, and fantastic details. But Washington, D.C. is the place I used to call home, and I have a huge affection for the beautiful choreography of scale, m

Thanksgiving, while not strictly an American holiday, has a  history that runs deep.  In October 1782, the Continental Congress declared November 28, 1782, a day of Thanksgiving for the young country.President Abraham Lincoln in 1864 proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving during the Civil War as he shared the news of General U.S. Grant’s success in battles.  Thanksgiving was to be celebrated the last Thursday in November. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, through much maneuvering, formally declared the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving to begin in 1942. Curiously, the change in Thursdays had to do with boosting the economy for the Christmas shopping season, as it was considered at that time inappropriate to advertise for Christmas before Thanksgiving! My goodness how times have changed!

The Education and Social Science Library (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), created a Thanksgiving reading list for children. Available on line also is their catalog of Native American Children’s and Young Adult Literature.

A very happy Thanksgiving to you and your families from SSPP Reads.

Reposted  from SSPP  Reads 11/10/2010. Graphic from Mike Licht, Creative Commons License.

The Veterans Day National Ceremony is held each year on November 11th at Arlington National Cemetery . The ceremony commences precisely at 11:00 a.m. with a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns and continues inside the Memorial Amphitheater with a parade of colors by veterans’ organizations and remarks from dignitaries. The ceremony is intended to honor and thank all who served in the United States Armed Forces. (US Dept. of Veterans Affairs)

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Veterans Day National Committee have provided a Teacher Resource Guide for this year’s Veterans Day, 11-11-11. There are more than 24 million Veterans who have reintegrated back into our communities.

Following are a few key facts about Veterans’ Day; you can find more at VA Kids. or keyword search at the San Francisco Public Library.

• WWI officially ended in the summer of 1919 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles
• Bullets stopped flying  seven months earlier  on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month–11-11-1918–when an armistice between Germany and the Allied Forces went into effect.
• In 1938, the US Congress declared Armistice Day a federal legal holiday.
• In 1968 Congress enacted legislation to change Veteran’s Day to the fourth Monday of October but under pressure from veterans groups, the holiday returned to the historically significant date of November 11.

Make your own medal to give your veteran, thanking him or her for their service to their country.

Parts of this post originally appeared here on 11-07-2010. Graphic from Department of Veterans Affairs.