Any history teachers interested in a chat/forum

There is very limited opportunities, online, for history teachers to have actual discussions. I would love to facilitate one...anyone interested. If not a forum we could do a chat, say monthly on a given topic and just bounce ideas off each other.

Any takers?

 

This sounds fantastic.

My undergrad is in history and I have every intention when in college to be a high school history teacher.

Fell in love with primary grades early one and have never looked back. I still in the back of my head toy with the idea.

I absolutely positively love history, love explaining it to my 3rd graders and still love reading books surrounding eras I enjoy studying!

Good luck with this!

 

Sign me up I would love to do this. I belong to both list-serves on the college board for APUSH and AP Euro but rarely contribute or read because the site is so UN-user friendly.

Let me know what I can do to help

 

Absolutely. I would love to take part in something like this....

 

I would love to!! I'm looking to get an additional certification in History so this would be great!

 

Great idea. I would love to!

 

I'll ask my techie son about what he htinks would be the best way to do this and I'll get back to you guys. I'm debating whether to invite my "real" coworkers to join as, well. Hmmm.

 

Google Wave would be a good way to go Brendan. Elluminate is excellent too but may not be free.

 

Count me in!

 

I can assist with the setup of a forum if you wish. I am experienced in administrating multiple forums. There are multiple options for the site (Could be on paid webhosting, which is more reliable, or it could be on free webhosting, which can be a bit spotty. Paid webhosting costs like ~5 a month for the lowest package for a non-shady host)

My academic content area is History

 

What do you guys think would be better a forum or a chat? Or both?

 

I am completely in.

I think a forum would be best! I set up a Google Group awhile ago, but lack of interest in my state has resulted in not many posts!

 

A forum with a chat/shoutbox integrated.

 

I like the idea of a forum for long term discussion, but perhaps a once monthly chat for actual direct conversation would be neat too.

 

Sounds interesting. As a teacher of Am. history at the elementary level, I am not sure just how much I could contribute but I'd love to follow along if nothing else.

 

I think a forum would work best for me.

 

You can sign-up for free at tappedin.org. It is a virtual meeting place for those in the education profession. You can create a virtual office there, and the rest of those interested can sign up as members of that group. There is a virtual whiteboard and a chatroom, also a way to upload and share documents. You might want to try it out.

 

My Google Groups site is called "Teaching US History." I think it would be valuable, as it allows members to upload documents if necessary. It also has a very clean interface that would allow for discussions between members.

Brendan, not sure what to do about the chat, as I think that would be valuable as well. If anyone wants an invite to the Google Groups site so we can try it out, PM me your email address and I will send you one. Or just search for it on Google and you will be good to go.

Thoughts?

 

hmmm. this sounds interesting.. its always good to share ideas & i would think that a chat would be the best way to do that, but i would still be willing to participate in a forum if we chose to do that. (notice i said 'we'.... i've already decided 'we' are an exclusive group)

 

Send me a PM, I might be able to arrange something on some free hosting that I have. Depending on the popularity of the site, we could always get donations for actual, paid, hosting

 

My only concern with the Google groups would be if we could be able to divide the site between different areas: World, US, European, Government, Geography, etc. The more private, though, the better because, I'm sure there are things on there which we would not like oru students getting a hold of. Say if we get into a discussion to assesments and I post my Quiz on Renaissance Ideals...I don't really want my Freshman getting ahold of that.

 

I think a real message board much akin to this one, but this registration being required to view and post, would be a good bet. Furthermore, it could be operated like several other professional forums I know, in that registration requires proof of being in the profession through something like the school's email address being used to register, or something along those lines. That would work to prevent students from accessing it (for the most part).

 

That could work...but I don't think I want my school email address with my name out on the web. I go by Brendan, but my real name is quite different and I want to keep it that way so I can vent about being an AP LOL. Or we could do a system in which you kinda had to be referred into the forum.

 

Well, I think we could potentially use both. You (or whomever you choose) could be setup as moderators there, and new users would need approval before they could see all the boards. If we know folks from here, they could easily be approved. Others would need referral or a school email address perhaps?

 

Not to sound too much like a Google Groups cheerleader, but it has the exclusivity you guys are talking about. I can easily modify the setting to where members are accepted strictly on an invitation basis, and all messages are private.

I would definitely be open to anything though. Just want to start a good dialogue/ongoing conversation with other history teachers- that's my main goal (and I think all of ours as well!)

 

Well I'll be darned Doug, I'm already a member of your Google Group. If I recall correctly.... I think we met at a Teaching American History conference a few years ago at Western Illinois University. Small world eh?

Anyway, I mention this because I just logged into Google Groups again after not visiting the site for over a year, and I think it would certainly work. I'm just not sure if it people are quite as familiar with it as they would be with a standard forum, but it seems to work in much the same way really.

 

On the forum system I would set up, only administrators can view the email addresses of people.

 

Ya gotta be kidding me!! Holy smokes, somehow I have a feeling that Ron isn't your real name though I don't remember any Ron's from that meeting. Was it the New York City grant?

 

Heh.... I'll send you a pm. You went to school with a good friend of mine. I just found myself surprised. Anyway.............

 

Should we try out Doug's google site to start?

 

A wonderful idea your are discussing. I would enjoy participating in a history forum.

 

Whichever you want, it'd take ~5 minutes for me to set up a forum

 

It seems like there's great interest in this forum--let's get it going guys. I know very little about forums and that stuff but one that can allow the uploading of documents would be of great use!

 

Ah yes, if we could keep an online database of sample syllabi, notes, worksheets, powerpoints, etc, it could become a powerful tool for sharing information among other history teachers.

 

On the forum system I am thinking of using, we could just make a section of the forums devoted to stuff like syallabi, notes, etc.

 

Fine by me. If you want an invitation so we can try it, send me a PM with your email address.

 

I would love to be involved. It would be a great place to share ideas - my dept. hardly works with each other.

 

So - what's the final decision?? Please don't forget to let all of us know how to sign up

 

Just so you guys know, I should have some rather excellent hosting in the next few days. I will set up a forum on there for you guys to play around - it will have more than enough space. I'd just need a URL for it. history-teachers.co.cc good?

 

I too would love to be a part of this!