Popular music and lyrics are also great for engaging middle school students and introducing topics/projects in American History

Welcome there!
Jim

Hi Susan,

I read your post in the forum about Skyping. I teach 8th grade U.S. History. I was wondering if you would want to collaborate on a project using Skype? How far are you in your curriculum? We've already completed the section, but I was thinking about a Bill of Rights debate series a while back.

Also, do your students blog? I'm trying to build a strong audience for student blogs we just we just launched. We discuss current events and such. Thanks for considering!

I love your idea of using the Socratic dialect! I too have never tried Skype in the classroom, but can learn fast. We can create different worlds on each of our ends of the Skype network, Northern Industrial (Hamilton) / Southern Agrarian (Jefferson).

We could also schedule times where one of us could have a students prepare a statement of ideals or updates in our particular worlds, almost like a Fireside Chat format; however, your class will be able to ask questions afterward.

On a different date, or on the same date, you would do the same. I can see this working if I can get my class to really act the part.

This was just my initial brainstorm after reading your reply. Let's throw ideas around. I will have Chris read our thread, maybe we can include his class as well.

Hi Susan. I was wondering if you have students or educator contacts who would be interested in participating in a nationwide SAT Vocab Video Contest @ MIT university. You can view contest details at BrainyFlix.com Please let me know. Thanks!