Was just told this past week that I am moving to 8th grade. I am not too happy about it as it is my 3rd grade change in as many years - I mean god forbid you let somebody become more of an expert on something. However, that is a vent for another post. In NYC 8th grade SS is Reconstruction to present day (hopefully) - do any of you have wonderful lessons or ideas for this time period? Any websites I MUST visit and use? And help or direction would be great. I never taught 8th before and I am having a slight panic attack over it!
Eighth graders might like the idea of making facebook pages for a unit where you have a lot of names to remember like Civil Rights or the Progressive era. You could have students have little pictures associated with the person at the top of the page, some pictures of people they would be friends with going down the side, and have comments that are appropriate to the person on the wall.
I use http://www.historyteacher.net a lot, although that's a high school AP website. There may still be some materials/primary sources that will be of use to you.
My site has a ton of generic assignments that will work with any history subject. That won't help with the content but I think you'll find plenty to use. www.mrroughton.com
Rockguykev, love your website! I am going to copy your layout a little bit for my own! Glad to see Riverside has such great teachers (I grew up there)!
Your students are NEVER in their seats; it amazing! They are all SO engaged. I would love to know more about the activities they're doing in your video, "A Hero Arises" because they are clearly loving every second of History class!
To be fair I didn't highlight the times they are in their seats which is at least twice a week. In that video in particular are plays the students wrote, a Tai Chi routine, a sumo wrestling ritual, Michelangelo Day (laying on the floor writing underneath the desk, a human body map of Japan and some random stations lab. They're all on the website if you browse through the Teacher section.
Try exploring some of the US History links at http://lessonindex.com/beta/ -- it's a hodge-podge but there might be some useful links in there.
