A million minutes of genuine news hits YouTube

Remember the days when TV networks only scheduled an hour of news per day? and a live cross to a breaking story was for a legitimate event worth sticking with...

Well Associated Press does, and fortunately they have made their entire back catalogue of historic news events available to the world through YouTube.

Yes you can relive all one million minutes of the worlds most famous moments, both deadly serious and lighthearted.

The videos date back as far as 1895 and equate to 550, 000 individual uploads to YouTube.  The largest to date.

They are available here and could be applied to the classroom in a multitude of ways...  One thing is for sure though that those boring history lessons are about to get a little more visual.

You can access it here.

Teaching resources for remembrance day

Today is a great opportunity for us to reflect upon all of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Although remembrance day is intrinsically linked to World War One it's focus has changed to be inclusive of all modern conflicts. 

The Google cultural institute has some great resources that are useful in examining the 'Great War' with student which can be accessed here.  Please take some time to follow through the links contained within to get access to numerous world class sites which offer a global perspective on the conflict.

Alternately you can take a look at our resources on war and conflict with some great activities for teachers and students.

Climate Change Scavenger Hunt task for students

Purpose : At the end of this ‘scavenger hunt on climate’ students will be able to learn about the vocabulary of climate and science behind it.  It is aimed at students from years 4 to 9.

This scavenger hunt introduces to students information and basics about the Climate, its various zones and factors affecting the climate.  There are 24 scavenger hunt cards with colorful pictures. 

It’s a great tool to explore vocabulary around Climate.

This lesson was submitted by Piyush Bhakar - If you wish to sell us your lesson plans take a look here.

 Instructions -

1.  Download the free lesson plan here.

2. Print the given all 24 cards on a card stock or any other good paper and cut them along the black line.

 3. Get the print of Climate Scavenger Hunt questions pages and each student should be given this copy.

 4. Place Climate Scavenger Hunt cards around the classroom. For example you can place it on chair, on table, on benches, behind the classroom doors, besides the computer or wherever you like.

 5. Students have to search the cards in a classroom in order to find out the answers of the questions. Students can complete this exercise in a group with classmate or alone.

Put your general knowledge and geography to the test

Following on from Google's  spelling challenge game released in May called Spell Up the folks at Mountain view have again beefed up their educational profile with the addition of an excellent little Geography / General knowledge game called Smarty Pins.

The premise of this game is simple, you have to correctly locate as many geographical icons on a map using the clues provided in as little time as possible.  The closer you are the more questions you will continue to face.  It's great fun and very easy to play.

The feedback from an incorrect answer is pretty amusing.  It tries to belittle you as much as possible without killing the friendship entirely.

I am not sure how deep you can go with this as far as using it as a Geography tool for learning and teaching but it will definitely separate your students who understand that Austria and Australia are two countries that have very little in common.

Finally, it is regionally sensitive and as such will ask you questions primarily aimed at the country / region in which you live.

Click here to access.

History Hero is a great app for teaching younger students history

History Hero is an app designed for students aged between 4 and 10 to teach them about some of the worlds most significant historical locations.

Set in the style of a game, a group of villains called 'the erasers' are set to remove all records of history and it is up to you to travel the world, learn some history and in doing so erase 'the erasers.'

Set in a similar style to "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?" History Hero will definitely appeal to younger students and does a pretty good job of informing students about the where and why of 40 significant historical locations.  It is available on iOS and Android and you can find out more here.

Over 85,000 amazing news reel videos for teachers and students

Spanning the period of 1896 through 1976 British Pathe was one of the worlds premier sources of quality video journalism for the English speaking world.  

During this time it amassed over 85,000 news reel clips covering some of the greatest achievements, tragedies and bizarre events of the twentieth century.  

These news reels are an excellent snapshot of the past and are dynamic teaching resources that could be applied to a range of curriculum areas including history, literacy and science.

Last week all of these clips became freely available as high definition clips on YouTube for future generations to call upon.  They can be found here.

I hope you find these resources useful and if you have used them with your own students feel free to leave a comment below.

Lesson Plan: Making cultural connections through writing tasks

After students have been exposed to informational writing, this cultural connections” activity provides an authentic way for students to use their interview skills to compose relevant questions and complete an interview with a guest that has travelled to another country.

Students will interview the guest, write an informational piece that discusses their findings, and then write an appropriate thank you letter to the person they interviewed.  This activity is real-world and is cross-curricular, since it embodies social studies/history and writing content

Click here to download the free lesson plan

Great sites to learn about Nelson Mandela

Today the world lost one of it's most influential and well respected activists in Nelson Mandela who died at home aged 95.

Mandela almost singlehandedly raised the worlds attention to the injustice and inequity directed at blacks in South Africa, and eventually as prime minster changed these many wrongs which he grew up with as a second class citizen in his own country.

The effect of Mandela's actions were felt around the world

His story is one that should be the staple of every student at some point and I thought I might put together a brief list of worthwhile resources about this great man.

BBC Nelson Mandela - Plenty of interviews and biographical content that tell his amazing story.

Oxfam - Here you will find complete structured lesson plans about Mandela and his actions that changed racial inequality around the world.

The history of Apartheid in South Africa - some easy to follow information about something many of us have all heard about but very few completely understand.

The Guardian - Resources about Black History month that are linked to Mandela

Obviously there are hundreds more - Please feel free to contribute others in the comment section below.