Zaption

Not exclusively US I, but very valuable. Zaption is a 2.0 site/tool that allows teachers to embed questions and additional resources into a streaming video like YouTube or PBS.org. Anything from M/C to short answer is possible and even gives instant feedback for incorrect answers. The free version still gives detailed analytics for each student that views the presentation or "tour" included % correct, % incorrect, # of attempts, if the students was skipping around, etc... 

You don't have to make your own. There is a gallery hosting a variety of tours created by other practitioners that you can make a copy, edit, and distribute. You can additionally use the service to break up or trim down lengthy video resources (like the "Roosevelts" series by PBS) to the sections relevant to your lesson. 

Crash Course's John Green packs every minute full of material that most students miss. Use text slides to review every two minutes or to pre-teach the upcoming two minutes. Better yet, have your advanced students do this as a review exercise in groups of twos while you remediate your less proficient students. 

Long story short... Zaption is one of the tools we have been looking for in Social Studies. Jump in and get going. Share your / kids work with the blog here so we can continue our mission.

Collaborative Work = Less Work

Collaboration in Constructed Response.....Construction

Hey everyone, 

I was approached by a colleague here at UPHS about gathering a body of APUSH teachers (virtually) interested in creating a bank of constructed responses. The idea is obviously to share the work load in designing new questions & resources for the updated curriculum. With that said I wouldn't want this to be a forum where a wallflower can cherry pick without contributing. Post a comment here or send an email if you are interested to wherring@ncmcs.net. I'll serve as initial organizer until someone else has the time or inclination to take the wheel. 

Shoot this blog far and wide to anyone you think might be interested in joining the network of APUSH teachers. The College Board has the same test everywhere so there is no limit to our potential teacher pool. 

Thanks for reading & I look forward to hearing from you and working with you!

Will Herring
Moore County Schools
Digital Integration Facilitator
(FMR: USHistory 10+)