History for Music Lovers: Brilliance

What it is: Thanks to a tip from Jan, an iLearn Technology reader, I learned about the History for Music Lover’s YouTube channel yesterday.  Oh. My. Goodness. Instant love. Seriously, if I had learned history this way, I would have rocked it!  As it turns out, I actually met @amyburvall, the genius history teacher behind History for Music Lover’s at ISTE 10 in Denver and didn’t make the connection (feeling like a jerk for not figuring that out!).  I starred in a video with one of the stars of the MansaMusa video “Magnus” the fashion police guy at ISTE.  Small world.  You MUST check out this YouTube channel, even if YouTube is blocked in your building. (As a side note…someone remind me WHY we block students from learning opportunities??)

History for Music Lovers is a collection of music videos (high quality I tell ya!) centered around events and people in history set to popular songs.  Amy Burvall, IB high school history teacher, is the creator and star of the videos.  Coolest history teacher ever. My high school history teacher sang one song to us: I’ve Been Working on the Railroad. True story.  It was not engaging, inspiring, or helpful in my learning of history.

On the History for Music Lovers YouTube channel you’ll find:

I think it is awesome that the 80’s is so well represented in this list 🙂  that Amy Burvall is one talented girl!

How to integrate History for Music Lovers into the classroom: This is my new favorite way to introduce a history topic.  If this doesn’t grab student attention and leave them wanting to learn more, I don’t know what will.  The collection of videos is a fantastic place to start learning.  The lyrics give students just enough information that when they begin fleshing out the period or figure in history with additional reading or research they will have a solid base to build from.  The lyrics are catchy, students will forever associate William the Conqueror with Sexyback.

Students can embed these videos in their own history Web 2.0 creations and presentations.  I’m currently using Capzles with a group of 8th graders and imagine them embedding these videos in their timelines along with images, and their blogged reflections.

Are your students as inspired by music as Ms. Burvall is? Encourage students to tackle a figure or historical time that hasn’t been done yet and create their own historical song parody.

Tips: For those of you who don’t have access to YouTube in your building (again I have to ask why?) you can still use these awesome videos in your classrooms with a little bit of pre-planning.  Download and save YouTube videos so that you can show them at school without accessing the YouTube site. Use KeepVid, YouTube DownloaderHD, Kick YouTube, SaveVid, or Zamzar.  Some of these tools will even let you download at school if you know the YouTube url.  The downloaded video should have no trouble playing at school!

Follow History For Music Lovers, historyteacherz on Facebook and Twitter.

Also, did you know you can become a fan of iLearn Technology on Facebook? It’s true! I don’t have a fancy dancy Twitter account especially for iLearn Tech but feel free to follow me on Twitter. I like talking education, technology, and am in general a geek 🙂

** This is the LONGEST it has ever taken me to write a blog post, I got sucked right in and watched each and every video.  On the bright side my knowledge of history has increased substantially today.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using History for Music Lovers videos in your classroom!

Virtual Volcano

What it is:   Virtual Volcano is a Discovery Channel interactive where students learn about and test out volcanoes.  First students get information about plate boundaries, active volcanoes around the world, and tectonic plates.  They see all of this information on a 3-D rotating globe.  Next students can learn about the different types of volcanoes, they will discover the three most common categories and read about each categories profile and its association with types of magma.  Then students can take a journey inside the volcano.  Here they will learn about the vents and how the volcano works.  After students have learned some basic information about volcanoes, they can build their own volcano and watch it erupt.  Students can set the conditions for the volcanoes, changing the viscosity and gas.  When they are finished creating the volcano, they can test out it’s eruption.

How to integrate Virtual Volcano into the classroom:  Virtual Volcano goes beyond the vinegar and baking soda models.  This site really gives students an inside look at exactly how a volcano works.  Students can adjust the viscosity and gasses and get a real idea about what is going on when a volcano erupts.  This site would make an excellent experiment center on classroom computers while your students are learning about volcanoes.  The site is also perfect for whole class instruction with a projector or an interactive whiteboard.  Be sure to invite students up to adjust the conditions of the volcano and create their own eruption.  Discuss the type of volcano the class has created and make predictions about what the volcano will look like before erupting it. 

 

Tips:   In the upper right corner of the volcano simulator you will find a link to information about Pompeii.  Students can learn about Pompeii and take a quiz.  There is also an excellent video of a volcano eruption here.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Virtual Volcano in your classroom.