Getting the Social back in the Social Studies

This is a guest post by Social Studies Teacher and VoiceThreader, Erin Coppola-Klein. In the time that I’ve been using VoiceThread in the classroom, I’ve come to believe that it is the program most ideally suited for meaningful, high quality social studies instruction. The most obvious benefits center around the discussion that occurs using the comment feature. Because it is asynchronous, VoiceThread provides space for students who are reluctant verbal participants in real time class discussions to have their voices heard. … Continued

The Animal Farm Project on VoiceThread

This is a guest post by educator and VoiceThreader, Timothy Thomas. VoiceThread has been a wonderful tool to use with middle school students. As the library media specialist, I have used VoiceThread with students to engage and motivate them, introduce topics, curate research and information, and develop unit portfolios. VoiceThread is one of my go-to web tools because it is simple to use, efficient, and adaptable. Recently, I was working with language arts’ students who were researching the Russian Revolution, so they could better understand the allegorical novel, Animal Farm by George Orwell. … Continued

Celebrating International Creativity Month with VoiceThread

This is a guest post by educator and VoiceThreader, Tasia King.  I bet when Randall Munson created International Creativity Month, he had no idea of how this would impact the minds of students at my elementary school in South Carolina. During the month of January, I wanted to make it clear that our students can, and are ready to be creative geniuses this month and beyond. I’d have to say that many times, schools across our country are the very places to stifle students’ creativity. … Continued

Game-Based Learning with VoiceThread- Part 3: The Ultimatum Game

*This is part 3 of our Game-Based learning series. You can check out part 1 and part 2 here.  The Ultimatum Game is popular in Economics and Psychology courses but it can be applied to a variety of different course subjects like History, Math, and Literature. Below, you will see a few examples of how this game can be used in different educational contexts on VoiceThread. How does the game work? … Continued

Using VoiceThread with History Courses

This is a guest post by History teacher and VoiceThreader, Gerald G. Huesken Jr. The great Polish-born American rabbi and Jewish leader Abraham Joshua Heschel once wrote that, “Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.” In the course of my educational career, when given the option between the written word and the spoken word, I have always found that the spoken word tends to carry more weight, meaning, and depth of understanding for my students then the traditional written reflection or research paper. … Continued

Ask Me Anything: Teaching with Comic Books!

Have you ever used comic books to teach? Tim Smyth has, and he is ready to share his secrets with you in our first “Ask Me Anything” on VoiceThread! Learn how Tim has used comics to teach his high school students about the Civil Rights marches, Japanese internment camps, and more during this special, one-week only, online event. Tim has helped hundreds of educators learn how to use comics to teach a variety of subjects like history, science, and classic literature, and he can share his strategies with you, too. … Continued

Ask Me Anything: Teaching with Comic Books!

Have you ever used comic books to teach? Tim Smyth has, and he is ready to share his secrets with you in our first “Ask Me Anything” on VoiceThread! Learn how Tim has used comics to teach his high school students about the Civil Rights marches, Japanese internment camps, and more during this special online event. Tim has helped hundreds of educators learn how to use comics to teach a variety of subjects like history, science, and classic literature, and he can share his strategies with you, too. … Continued

Break down your classroom walls: Global Debate

This is a guest post by educator and VoiceThreader, Aaron Maurer.  One of my favorite projects is almost underway. Over 700 students involved in our Revolution Debate project are about ready to embark in a powerful learning project. This is a project that started small two years ago. Two years ago teachers in our building created a debate on the topic: Revolution – Is It Justified? At this time we had students debate each other from separate classrooms. … Continued

4 Ways to Turn Debates into Learning Opportunities

Political debate season is heating up. So how do educators turn the debates into learning opportunities? Here are some ideas about engaging your students with VoiceThread: Idea #1 Analyze the debates to build enthusiasm for global issues. Each political debate centers around issues like economics, poverty, immigration or climate change. If your students watch the debates, they can practice their communication skills and critical thinking by researching and presenting their own ideas about these topics. … Continued

Inter-Class Debates in VoiceThread

This is a guest post by educator and VoiceThreader, Justin Miller.   The first in-depth classroom activity I did in VoiceThread was to have my students hold an inter-class debate. I was excited by the concept of having a debate between students in different classes. I determined the topic and had students select sides by a coin flip. The students researched their arguments in groups of three or four. Each class had six arguments: an opening statement, four supporting arguments, and a closing statement. … Continued

Changing the “Culture” of Learning

This is a guest post by educator and VoiceThreader Pam Sengos.  Personalizing Learning for All Students As a technology coach in my district, I have the opportunity to work with many wonderful teachers and students. In the past few years, our district has researched and invested time in personalized learning for all students based on their own skills, interests, and learning paths. With a team of third grade teachers, we began our work by redesigning our Culture Unit. … Continued

Flipping History Class with VoiceThread

This is a guest post by History teacher and VoiceThread user, Liz Ramos. Sharing and collaborating with educators on Twitter has been INVALUABLE to me as an educator and my classroom over the past year and a half. I (@historytechie) participate in a variety of educational Twitter chats and have no problem sharing resources and tools that work in my classroom, such as VoiceThread. As a result, I was eduhonored when VoiceThread reached out and asked me to be a guest blogger. … Continued