What's New at classroomtools.com

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Date Added	Title	Description	Category
Friday, February 16, 2018
	When a person dies at the hands of a gunman, who most often pulls the trigger?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Wednesday, February 7, 2018
	Tax Returns Made EZ	updates to ready the lesson for tax year 2017	Main Events
Friday, March 10, 2917
	How Much is an Education Worth?	Statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
	Tax Returns Made EZ	updates to ready the lesson for tax year 2016	Main Events
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
	Tax Returns Made EZ	updates to ready the lesson for tax year 2015	Main Events
Sunday, March 8, 2015
	saywhat-ccss2015.pdf	This file contains the presentation I made at the 2015 California Council for the Social Studies annual meeting.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
	Tax Returns Made EZ	updates to ready the lesson for tax year 2014	Main Events
	Building History Labs - a draft so far	The first part of the book I'm writing, Building History Labs: U.S. History Lessons That Teach Critical Thinking and Other Citizenship Skills
	Selection from The American Revolution (1976)	What does the American Revolution look like when described in a Canadian textbook?
Tuesday, March, 4, 2014
	Tax Returns Made EZ	updates to ready the lesson for tax year 2013	Main Events
Saturday, August 12, 2013	http://www.classroomtools.com/edcampsfbay2013.pdf	The slides we discussed in the session I led at EdCampSFBay at Hillside High School in San Mateo on Saturday, August 10, 2013. I titled the session, "Saywhat?! Language, History and the Common Core"	History

Sunday, March 10, 2013
	Engaging U.S. History	This PDF file contains the slides I presented to those attending the workshop I offered at the annual conference of the California Council for the Social Studies on March 9, 2013 in Burlingame, CA.	History
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
	Tax Returns Made EZ	updates to ready the lesson for tax year 2012	Main Events
Monday, August 20, 2012
	2nd Amendment History Lab	Flowchart for the session I presented at EdCampSFBay on Saturday, August 18, 2012	The Right to Bear Arms
Saturday, July 21, 2012
	When a person dies at the hands of a gunman, who most often pulls the trigger?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Saturday, May 5, 2012
	http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/us/map-markings-offer-clues-to-lost-colony.html?_r=1	New York Times story on new findings that may shed light on the disappearance of the Roanoke Colonists in 1587.	The Roanoke Mystery
	http://www.firstcolonyfoundation.org/news/british_museum_findings.pdf	The British Museum report that is the subject of the New York Times story.	The Roanoke Mystery
Friday, January 20, 2012
	http://skepticalscience.com/	This site provides clear explanations of Climate Change science and rebuttals of deniers.	Is it a fact that glaciers have been growing, not shrinking?
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
	Nations of the world meet to discuss the future of the leap second	On January 18, 2012, the New York Times reported that the nations of the world would meet on Thursday, January 19, to decide the fate of the leap second.	How Long is a Second?
Thursday, January 12, 2012
	*Consuming Kids*	This documentary shows the lengths to which marketers go to manipulate even the youngest children in their effort to create lifelong customers. Riveting!	Propaganda Resources on the Web
	Jeff Schrank's Perception: How We See	This slide share presentation will open your eyes to show you how you create what you see.	Propaganda Resources on the Web
	Jeff Schrank's Taste: Your Brain on Food	Did you know that without your sense of smell, your sense of taste does not work properly? You'll learn that and so much more from this engaging slide share presentation.	Propaganda Resources on the Web
Friday, January 6, 2012
	Tax Returns Made EZ	updates to ready the lesson for tax year 2011	Main Events
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
	The Wonderful Future That Never Was: Flying Cars, Mail Delivery by Parachute, and Other Predictions from the Past	Between 1903 and 1969, scientists and other experts made hundreds of predictions in Popular Mechanics magazine about what the future would hold. Their forecasts ranged from ruefully funny to eerily prescient and optimistically utopian. Here are the very best of them, culled from hundreds of articles, complete with the original, visually stunning retro art. They will capture the imagination of futurists in the same way Jules Verne's writing did a century earlier. Every chapter features an introduction by astrophysics professor, science-fiction author, and former NASA advisor Gregory Benford.	Yesterday's Tomorrow
Sunday, August 28, 2011
	Truth: What is It?	Flowchart for a session I presented at EdCampSFBay	Is that a Fact?
Monday, August 8, 2011
	How Much is an Education Worth?	Statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Monday, July 25, 2011
	Student Information Scavenger Hunt	Use this activity at the beginning of a course to introduce students to each other, and to the idea that this class will require all students to participate and contribute.	Main Events
Saturday, June 18, 2011
	The Roanoke Mystery	illustrates a key activity that makes up the professional lives of research historians - taking what often seem to be random bits of information found during research, and organizing them into a coherent story.	Main Events
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
	Hollywood Goes to War, 1914-1930	This one hour documentary, part 4 of Kevin Brownlow's *Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film*, is must viewing for all teachers and students.	Propaganda Resources on the Web
Sunday, January 16, 2011
	Tax Returns Made EZ	updates to ready the lesson for tax year 2010	Main Events
Friday, August 27, 2010
	https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=df2ntbv6_466c5kwfhgw	A slideshow that answers the question, "What does one TRILLION dollars look like?"	How Big is a Billion?
Wednesday, March 16, 2010
	http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence	The Smithsonian Institution's web site presenting the evidence for human evolution.	Evolution is Both a Theory and a Fact
Monday, January 4, 2010
	Detecting Bull	John McManus' multimedia book is must reading for those aspiring to become active, engaged, informed citizens in the digital age.	Propaganda in the Classroom
Friday, January 1, 2010
	Constitution Day for Teens	A slide show illustrating the ways in which the Constitution affects all aspects of teen life.	Government
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
	Tweeting the 1787 Constitutional Convention	Daily summaries based on James Madison's Notes	History and Government
Monday, December 28, 2009
	Tax Returns Made EZ	updates to ready the lesson for tax year 2009	Main Events
Friday, December 4, 2009
	*Seven Answers to Climate Contrarian Nonsense*	Scientific American's John Rennie lays waste to the claims of Climate Skeptics.	Glaciers have been growing, not shrinking
Monday, November 9, 2009
	The Psychology of Climate Change Communication	This guide, from Columbia University's Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, clearly shows us how to speak intelligently on climate change issues.	Glaciers have been growing, not shrinking
Friday, November 6, 2009
	John Allen Paulos on tabloid news headlines	Find out how we can be led to make false inferences despite being given uncontested facts.	An Uncritical Inference Test
Monday, October 5, 2009
	Justice with Michael Sandel	Justice, one of the most popular courses in Harvard’s history, aims to help viewers become more critically minded thinkers about the moral decisions we all face in our everyday lives.	Tough Choices
Thursday, July 30, 2009
	Yesterday's Tomorrow	Some suggestions for ways to help your students begin to explore how tomorrow was envisioned at two points in the American past.	Main Events
Thursday, May 28, 2009
	You Are There	Episodes of CBS Radio's famous 1940s series, saved by the Internet Archive.	Eyewitness News
Friday, April 24, 2009
	What Exactly is a Trillion?	NPR's Planet Money Team puts this number into perspective.	How Big is a Billion?
Thursday, April 2, 2009
	24 Myths and Misconceptions About Evolution	from New Scientist, April 18, 2008	Evolution is Both a Theory and a Fact
Saturday, March 7, 2009
	How much did they make in 2008?	Page showing 2008 income data added to the activity How Much Do They Make?	How Much Do They Make?
	Jury Duty - a Teen on Trial for Murder	Read the Tough Choices instructions for presenting these situations to your students, then use this particular situation to let your students explore the case at the center of the film 12 Angry Men.	Tough Choices
Friday, February 27, 2009
	Tax Returns Made EZ	updates to ready the lesson for tax year 2008	Main Events
Monday, February 2, 2009
	How Effective is Advertising? (answers)	statistics update	Propaganda in the Classroom
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
	My Boy Jack and The Great War	Additional resources for teaching about World War I	Vinyl Records
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
	How Much Do You Owe?	statistics update - the Federal Debt surpasses $10 trillion for the first time.	Interesting Numbers
	The State of the Nation's Finances	A guide from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation	How Much Do You Owe?
	The Top 100 American Speeches	American Rhetoric's list from its online speech bank.	Propaganda Resources on the Web
Friday, June 27, 2008
	When one dies at the hand of a gunman, who most often pulls the trigger?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
	The Right to Bear Arms	In a hotly contested 5-4 decision (District of Columbia v. Heller), the United States Supreme Court found yesterday that the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives individuals the right to keep firearms.	Is that a Fact?
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
	Buying the War	Bill Moyers' documentary explores how and why the major U.S. news media organizations proved so susceptible to government propaganda in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and its aftermath.	At War with Iraq: the Propaganda Battles
Sunday, May 25, 2008
	Unspun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation	This slender book (by Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Brooks Jackson) is an absolutely superb overview of the techniques used by political and commercial propagandists; as well as a guide to how one may deal with them so as to avoid manipulation. FactCheckEd.org (the authors' web site for teachers and students) is also worth the time you'll spend examining it.	A Propaganda Bibliography
Friday, March 28, 2008
	Tax Returns Made EZ	updates to ready the lesson for tax year 2007	Main Events
Thursday, March 20, 2008
	War Made Easy	Norman Solomon's documentary film and book examine the propaganda used by U.S. politicians and news media to create popular support for the initiation and continuance of wars from Vietnam to those in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 21st century. You may also be interested in What is Propaganda?, a PDF slide show I created to use as an introduction to War Made Easy.	A Propaganda Bibliography
Saturday, February 16, 2008
	Symbols and the Subconscious	This Adobe Acrobat PDF file contains a slide show designed to introduce students to the idea that advertisers use symbols to manipulate our wants.	Why People Smoke
	Hidden in Plain Sight	Part 2 of the slide show begun in the file above.	Why People Smoke
Sunday, February 10, 2008
	Hugh Rank's Persuasion Analysis site	Hugh Rank was the first chair of the National Council Teachers of English's Committee on Public Doublespeak. His is a very rich site, chock full of information and teaching suggestions.	Propaganda Resources on the Web
	NCTE Doublespeak Award	Given annually as "an ironic tribute to public speakers who have perpetuated language that is grossly deceptive, evasive, euphemistic, confusing, or self-centered."	Propaganda Resources on the Web
	NCTE Orwell Award	Given annually to recognize "writers who have made outstanding contributions to the critical analysis of public discourse."	Propaganda Resources on the Web
Saturday, January 5, 2008
	No Smoking	An hour from the Public Radio program To the Best of Our Knowledge on the role cigarettes play in our lives.	Why People Smoke
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
	How Much Do You Owe?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Monday, December 24, 2007
	World Statistics Clock	Poodwaddle.com has created an absolutely fascinating page. There you can watch key measures of environmental and personal health spin before your eyes.	The World in a Room
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
	Arithmetic, Population and Energy	Albert Bartlett, a retired professor of Physics from CU Boulder, has presented the talk captured in this video more than 1,600 times since 1969. His message is compelling.	Double, Double Toil and Trouble: Real World J Curves

Friday, August 31, 2007
	MeasuringWorth.com	"Measuring worth is a complicated question." Find out how one goes about doing it.	Your Inflationary $, How Much Is It Worth Today?
Thursday, August 16, 2007
	Hans Rosling's Gapminder	Watch the statistical, social and economic history of the world over the past 30 years or so come alive. For an overview that shows how to use the Gapminder materials, watch Rosling's 2006 TED conference presentation at YouTube.	The World in a Room
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
	The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial	WGBH presents the L.A. Theatre Works play based on transcripts from the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial".	Evolution is both a theory and a fact
Friday, April 20, 2007
	There Is Climate Change Censorship - And It’s The Deniers Who Dish It Out	George Monbiot's critical look at a key charge often leveled by Global Warming Skeptics.	Glaciers have been growing, not shrinking
	World Population Balance	Look at the effects of world population growth, and why we need to slow it.	Double, Double Toil and Trouble
	The University Exchange Focus on Global Intelligence	View a world population clock and much more.	Double, Double Toil and Trouble
Saturday, April 14, 2007
	Tax Returns Made EZ	various updates to bring the lesson from 1999 to 2007	Main Events
Thursday, April 5, 2007
	How Much Do You Owe?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Sunday, February 4, 2007
	Alternative Uses for Iraq's Trillion	John Allan Paulos looks at spending in Iraq	At War with Iraq: the Propaganda Battles
Sunday, October 15, 2006
	The Best War Ever	Lies, Damn Lies and the Mess in Iraq. Watch the YouTube video.	At War with Iraq: the Propaganda Battles
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
	Dictionary Day Activities	October 16, Noah Webster's birthday, is celebrated each year by teachers with dictionaries.	Is that a word?
Thursday, September 21, 2006
	When one dies at the hand of a gunman, who most often pulls the trigger?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
	Food for Thought	Help your students picture world food and energy distribution.	The World in a Room
Saturday, September 2, 2006
	How Much Do You Owe?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
	Pour Better or Pour Worse: How Beverages Stack Up	What beverages do we in the U.S. consume, and what do they do to our health and weight?	How Effective is Advertising?
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
	How Many Words in English?	Is the English language about to record its one millionth word?	Is that a word?
Friday, March 24, 2006
	Eyewitness News	Turn your history students into TV news teams.	Creative Uses for Texts
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
	Time Too Good to Be True	Physicist Daniel Kleppner's Physics Today column explores the future of the leap second and the physics of future advances in timekeeping technology.	How Long is a Second?
	The Bath, Michigan School Disaster	Despite what you may believe, the deadliest attack to take place at a school in the U.S. was not Columbine.	How Safe are Schools?
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
	How Much Do You Owe?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
	The History News Network	Its mission, "To expose politicians who misrepresent history. To point out bogus analogies. To deflate beguiling myths. To remind Americans of the irony of history. To put events in context. To remind us all of the complexity of history."	History
	Wikipedia	a controversial, user-written Internet encyclopedia	Reference Works
	the Free Dictionary		Reference Works
Sunday, October 16, 2005
	Measuring the World: From Material to Ethereal	a New York Times article on why we need updated standards of measurement	How Long is a Second?
Monday, October 10, 2005
	What is the most common crime committed in the U.S.?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Thursday, September 15, 2005
	the Century of the Self	This 2002 BBC documentary is a video history of the use of psychological insights in the development of 20th century propaganda.	Propaganda Resources on the Web
Monday, September 12, 2005
	Undoing Darwin	Find out why Americans are so uninformed about evolution science.	Evolution is both a theory and a fact
	Explore Climate Change Science		Glaciers have been growing, not shrinking
Friday, September 2, 2005
	Constitution Day Lessons	Prepare for September 17.	Government
Thursday, August 18, 2005
	James Randi's Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural	Mark Twain is often credited with saying, "A lie can make it halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on." In our mass-mediated age, that would have to become around the world several times. Given our oft-demonstrated inability to identify such lies, works such as Randi's Encyclopedia are must reads for those of us hoping to stay grounded in reality.	Links to Reference works
Sunday, July 31, 2005
	Average Age Excel workbook	update	Averaging Ages
Sunday, July 24, 2005
	Invention Timelines		The Change Game
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
	Ease History	Video Clips and Still Images from Twentieth and Early Twenty First Century U.S. History are here ready for use by students seeking to explore Presidential campaigns, major historical events, and core values.	History
Friday, July 1, 2005
	How Much Do You Owe?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Thursday, May 12, 2005
	Glaciers have been growing, not shrinking.	Are global warming proponents wrong?	Is that a Fact?
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
	Working-Well.org	If you, or someone you know, suffers from or is trying to avoid chronic pain from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or some other Repetitive Strain Injury, take time to visit this site.	Resources
Saturday, April 23, 2005
	First Amendment Schools	This site, a project of the First Amendment Center, provides resources for students and teachers wishing to understand, "teach and practice the civic principles and virtues vital to democracy, freedom and the common good."	Government
Sunday, March 20, 2005
	When a person dies at the hands of a gunman, who most often pulls the trigger?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Saturday, March 12, 2005
	School Safety Facts	How safe are students at school? A statistics update.	How Safe Are Schools?
Sunday, February 20, 2005
	How Much Do You Owe?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Friday, January 14, 2005
	Oh, What A Lovely War	At long last, a cast recording of the 1963 musical play is available on CD.	Vinyl Records
Saturday, December 25, 2004
	Words at War	Howard Blue's tale of U.S. radio propaganda in the 1940s.	A Propaganda Bibliography
Thursday, December 9, 2004
	The Secret Sales Pitch	Do advertisers use subliminal techniques? If so, why? Read what attorney August Bullock has to say. I don't think you'll be disappointed.	Sex and Death Among the Ice Cubes: Subliminal Messages in Ads
Saturday, November 20, 2004
	Evolution is both a theory and a fact	Why is it that only one third of Americans know that this statement is true?	Is That A Fact?
Friday, October 15, 2004
	How Much Do You Owe?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Thursday, August 19, 2004
	Follow the race for November's magic 270 Electoral votes	The votes that count in the US Presidential election are those in the Electoral College. You and your students can now easily follow the race for that magic 270.	Election resources
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
	Math in the Media	"This site is designed to be used by middle school math teachers. The goal is to get students interested in math using 'real world examples;' things they can relate to easily."	Interesting Numbers on the Web
Sunday, July 18, 2004
	Cartoons for the Classroom	This web site is presented by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists as a repository of ideas for classroom use. Check it out!	Cartoonist for a Day
Thursday, July 1, 2004
	How Much Do You Owe?	statistics update	Interesting Numbers
Friday, May 14, 2004
	The World in a Room calculator	Use this Microsoft Excel workbook to help you illustrate statistics on world population distribution, language speakers, religious affiliation, and income and age distributions. Instructions for using its calculations are at The World in a Room page.	The World in a Room
Thursday, April 22, 2004
	Poll shows Americans still hold misperceptions on Iraq and WMD		Propaganda Works!
	Understanding Evolution	a UC Berkeley web site for teachers	Scientific Illiteracy
	CAMY's Alcohol Ad Gallery	CAMY (the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth) is also a good source of research to share with your students.	Propaganda Resources on the Web
Thursday, April 1, 2004
	First Choice 2004	Excellent materials designed to help you and your students explore the issues facing the country in this year's presidential election.	Government
	The New York Times Learning Network - Election 2004	Lessons plans and resources from the New York Times.	Government
Friday, March 12, 2004
	Science News for Kids	This site is designed as a resource for kids aged 9 to 14 – and their teachers and parents.	Science News Sites
Thursday, January 8, 2004
	FactCheck.org	This site advertises itself as, 'a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.' As we begin a presidential election year, it may prove invaluable to thoughtful citizens.	Propaganda Resources on the Web
Friday, January 2, 2004
	How Much Do You Owe?	statistics update - the US Federal debt rises above $7 trillion	Interesting Numbers
Thursday, January 1, 2004
	Scientific Ignorance Dooms Democracy	George Dvorsky identifies some of the social and political consequences of scientific illiteracy in this engaging essay.	Scientific Illiteracy
	Words of the Year, 2003	An annual list compiled by the editors of YourDictionary.com.	If You Like Lists
	2004 Banished Word list	The annual compendium of "Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness" compiled by the kind folks at Lake Superior State University.	If You Like Lists

What's New items for previous years are available by following these links

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