Blogging sites

To get started blogging, here are some links to different sites that can help you blog.

Typepad is one of the blog services that allows subscriptions for unlimited blogs. Schools can purchase a subscription from Six Apart for approximately $150 per year. Through this service, you can select a web-based blogging service that allows you various amounts of control over the blogs.

Harrison High School has the entire faculty using blogs. (Constructed with Moveable Type from Six Apart.) This is a link to our school website. From there you can link to faculty blogs and then directly to my personal blog. You can see how I use my faculty blog to post assignments, weekly plans, unit plans, and update parents. We do not allow for responses on our blog which is why I use the Blogspot site for my primary source analysis.

Blogspot (which is what I have used here and for my other blogs) is a free service that an individual can use. It has less authoring control and free public access but it is free.

Edublog is a link to award winning blogs by educators if you wish to see how other educators use blogs.

French Revolution Website

Blogging is a great tool for analyzing websites. Here is a link to one of the more interesting websites on the French Revolution.

Book analysis and differentiation

Differentiation is one of the current buzz words in education. We are challenged to provide options for student assignments and assessments. Here is an example of how I incorporated differentiation concepts into an assessment regarding the book Survival at Auschwitz.

*A copy of the assignment is included in the handouts.

Baroque Art

Blogs can also be used to present more than text. Students can be given direct access to resources appropriate for document based essay composition and discussion. These resources may include artwork, maps, and graphs. You can either create a hyperlink (http://www-lnc.usc.edu/~brannon/pix/artemisia-gentileschi/judith-slaying-holofernes.jpg) to a picture or actually post that picture in your blog. This extends your classroom and allows students to analyze and evaluate visuals connected to the content. Because these resources are available outside the classroom, students can work at their own pace and necessary duration. Students can see how other students analyze the visuals and build their own skills.

AP European History Blog Harrison High School

Using a blog allows you to expand the size of your class. Now all my students can analyze and discuss the documents. It is interesting to see who really gets into things and who does not. What I find is that blogging appeals to those students who love the interactive aspect of a digital classroom.

French Revolution: Civil Constitution of the Clergy

You can directly link to digital documents. Typically, my students access documents in their textbook but occasionally I do have to incorporate an outside document. Again, just click on the title of the document above and you will be taken directly to it.

Primary Sources

Blogs are a great way to incorporate and analyze primary sources. Perhaps the best resource for primary sources is the website created by Dr. Halsall of Fordham University. I have inserted a hyperlink to a "Primary Sources" site. You can access the site by clicking on the title of this post. It will take you directly to his site from which you can access his various Internet sourcebooks.

Welcome to the AP Convention

Welcome to the AP Convention in Orlando. Today's presentation will discuss the use of blogs in a European History classroom. Please feel free to provide me with feedback on this presentation on this blog.