My Top Three Educational Sites for Middle School Social Studies by Mike Siekkinen

Brainpop.com- very reasonable pricing for a school license. Fun, fast and informative website for history, geography, economics and culture. I use the site to supplement my classroom instruction. Students receive a login and password and then go to the topic I assign. I have students view the video that is with each topic and then explore the area. There are games and activities associated with each of the topics as well as a quiz on the subject matter. I have my students email the results or take a screen shot of the final results. I place an 80% or higher requirement on students and they are allowed to retake the quizzes until passing grades are obtained. Site is fun and middle schoolers are not to “old” for cartoons!

Icivics.org- awesome free website on government and politics. Lots of games that are fun and educational. Also many levels, so this site can work for all ages. Games are interactive and are great to use when teaching government. Website has the endorsement and a founder of none other than Sandra Day O’Connor. Lots of fun and you sneak learning in. My students really enjoy this site.

Freedomflix.com- interactive online textbook that is great for teaching civics and history. Very reasonably priced for a site license. I design web quests for my students. Each lesson has a video, interactive text with vocabulary and includes maps, timelines and pictures. Really great site that I use weekly. My students are always on a web quest supplementing my classroom instruction. I assign students web quests in Google classroom where they have options for submission of my web quest information to allow for differentiation.

Dr. Mike Siekkinen, a retired U.S. Navy submariner, became a teacher as a second career. He teaches history at St Marys Middle School as well as Adult and Career Education at Valdosta State in Georgia.

Great Teacher Resources – iCivics.org by Mike Siekkinen

If you’re teaching history, civics, or government, have you heard of iCivics.org? It’s great, and I use it with my students.

iCivics is a non-profit organization dedicated to reinvigorating civic learning through interactive and engaging learning resources. Founded and led by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, iCivics provides students with the tools they need for active participation and democratic action, and teachers with the materials and support to achieve this. The site has educational games that my students love playing. Games vary from having students take on the role of the President of the United States, making decisions as well as working with all the different departments in Washington, to running a law firm where students match lawyers and clients cases learning the Bill of Rights. There are also games showing what happens during a jury trial and demonstrates how local government works.

The site is free and also has loads of teacher materials. In addition to lesson plans, there’s a section on webquests covering multiple topics. Also available are entire teaching units on multiple subjects as well as access to source documents. There’s a search engine on the site where you can select your state and by standard, icivics will display which games and areas tailor specifically to your state’s standards. I encourage you to check out this free, interactive, fun and informative site that students love. I have been using this for a number of years and my students really enjoy it! It’s also available on multiple platforms (internet, IPAD's, Chromebooks, etc.) so it’s easy to get to no matter what kind of technology your school is using.

If you’ve tried iCivics, what do you think of it?

Dr. Mike Siekkinen, a retired U.S. Navy submariner, became a teacher as a second career. He teaches history at St Marys Middle School as well as Adult and Career Education at Valdosta State in Georgia.

You're About to Enter...The Teaching Zone by Susan Gable

(Cue the scary music!)

Imagine, if you will...a classroom filled with enrapt, engaged, enthralled students, hanging on your every word...

Too much of a stretch? Sound like an alternate dimension? Is it more likely they’re sneaking peeks at tech when they’re not supposed to be, or trying to explain why they didn’t turn in their homework? And you’re busy trying to be sure all the free lunch forms have been turned in, and the emergency contact cards, and master the new curriculum, along with the new Learning Management System, and don’t forget, there’s a staff meeting after school next week?

Yep. Being a teacher is a lot of hard work. There’s a LOT to handle. That’s why we here at izzit.org like to do what we can to make your life easier, be it through our free DVDs, our new streaming access to all our videos, online quizzes, or the thorough teacher’s guides we create. We know you’re busy.

The Teaching Zone is going to be a new spot for you to get ideas from your fellow educators, from teachers to homeschoolers, from New York to California, from public school to private to cyber. We’ll have book reviews, classroom activities, posts about new trends in education, new apps and software for you to use – all sorts of things.

And if you want to talk/learn about it, and you don’t see us posting about it, feel free to drop me an email and tell me what you’d like to see.

This is an education space.

So...let’s talk teaching, in all its variations.

Welcome back, and I hope you have a fantastic 2015-16 school year!

Susan Gable is the Director of Educational Curriculum at izzit.org. She holds a BA in Psychology from Douglas College/Rutgers University and is a certified elementary teacher in 3 states, with ten years of classroom experience. She’s a multi-published, award-winning author who also teaches writing workshops. Email her at Susan AT izzit.org.