Resources for Teachers and Parents

Social Studies

• General Sites
  • The National Council for the Social Studies - Standards, teaching resources (internet, print and videos), and links to social studies web sites.
  • History/Social Studies Web Site for K-12 teachers - Huge list of links to other sites.
  • Social Studies Lesson Plans and Resources - links to sites with lesson plans for history, geography, and current events. There is also a section on online activities.
  • Computers in the Social Studies Journal - Dedicated to the promotion of the use of personal computers and related technologies in K-12 education.
  • Social Studies Teachers and Technology - Activities for the constructivist classroom. Article by Margaret L. Rice et al.
  • Professional Cartoonists' Index - A teacher's guide to using political cartoons in the classroom at all grade levels. This web site contains an excellent collection of polital cartoons organized by artists' names and by state. This is a great tool for teaching current events and can also be included in the Language Arts, Journalism, and Art curriculum.
• Geography
  • The Geography Educator's World - This Canadian site has many links to web sites which will be useful to geography teachers.
  • Working with Maps - Lesson plans for teaching map skills for grades 1 - 12 by the USGS.
  • K-12 Internet Resources for Geography Education - Lesson plans and links to geography web sites.
  • Education@NationalGeographic - Online expeditions, lesson plans, free printable maps, and, of course, National Geographic products for sale.
  • Geography Home Page - From About.Com. There is quite a bit of geography information here. Take a look at the Geo Education link for lesson plans.
  • News@NationalGeographic - Current news of geography and other science and social studies topics.
  • Teaching and Learning About Canada - Geography and history of Canada.
  • GEO Sources - The Canadian Geography web site. Geography news, lesson plans, and other help for the geography teacher.
  • Retanet - A resource for secondary educators who are looking for help in teaching about Latin America and the Carribean. Lesson plans and links to other useful web sites. From the Latin American Institute of the University of Michigan.
  • AskAsia - This is a good source of lesson plans for Asian countries.
  • Online Geography Games - A list of online games from Geography World.
• Government
  • Federal Government Resources on the Web - Extensive directory of government web sites provided by the University of Michigan.
  • The Federal Web Locator - Locate any part of the Federal Government
  • The Government Information Sharing Project - Census and statistical data from the federal government.
  • Constitution Day - Information and lesson plans for teaching about the US constitution.
  • The Foreign Policy Association - The Educator's Corner provides information on teaching international relations. Their Great Decisions program may be used as a method of teaching foreign policy and current events in high school.
• History - General
  • The Best of History Websites - A large collection of history and lesson plan sites compiled and rated by a secondary school history teacher.
  • History Lesson Plans - US and world history plans from the Awesome Library.
  • American Women's History : A Research Guide - Print and online sources in women's history.
  • The Conquistadors - Based on the PBS TV series. This site has both information on the conquistidors and lesson plans for middle and high schools.
  • The Food Timeline - The history of food with recipes and lesson plans.
• United States History
  • United States History Lesson Plans - From ProTeacher.
  • Links to the Past - From the National Parks Service. Information on our national parks and lesson materials for teachers.
  • Teaching with Historic Places - A guide to teaching American History using the National Register of Historic Places. There are lesson plans on the middle school level.
  • PBS Online: History - This site has a wealth of information relating to PBS broadcasts on history.
  • Crossroads - A K -16 American history curriculum.
  • Gilder Lehrman Center for Slavery, Abolition, and Resistance - The Source Documents section has many primary sources such as court decisions, cartoons, letters, and maps which may useful to educators. There is also a page on the Amisted with related web links.
  • Lesson Plan: The Civil War - Literature based unit on the civil war for upper elementary classes
  • Civil War Interactive - An excellent starting point for locating civil war web sites. This site also has a Civil War Cookbook, On-this-day in the Civil War, and a guide to current Civil War shows on television.
  • The Age of Imperialism - Lesson plan.
  • A Critical Bibliography on North American Indians, Grades K-12 - A culturally sensitive and historically accurate list prepared by the Smithsonian Institution.
  • Great American Speeches - Great political speeches of the 20th century with background information. From PBS.
  • The History and Culture of Puerto Ricans - with lesson plans.
  • The Liberty Bell: From Obscurity to Icon
• World History
  • Mr. Donn's World History Lesson Plans - Links to lesson plans for all periods of history. Also links to world history clip art.
  • History Lesson Plans - For elementary grades from ProTeacher.
  • History Lesson Plans and Web Quests - From EdHelper.
  • History Lesson Plans and Resources
  • Ancient Egypt Lesson Plans - From the Detroit Institute of Arts.
  • Ancient Egypt Web Quest - Online teaching unit about ancient Egypt created by a 4th grade teacher.
  • On-Line Survey of Audio-Visual Resources for Classics - Locate web sites, CD-ROM's, videos and posters for teaching about the ancient world of Greece and Rome.
  • WWWorld of Archaeology - Listing of links to archaeology sites on the web.