Here are the latest power points for my Ancient Greece unit. Some are fairly large files, so please let me know if they work properly…
Ancient Greek city states and Athens: Chapter 7-8
Ancient Greek slavery, women, children and daily life: Chapter 9, 10, 11, 12
Ancient Greek wars: Chapter 13, 14, 15,16
More and more I see a movement away from one-dimensional tools, such as textbooks, towards videos, photos, on-line simulations, forums and “vicarious” experiences in the classroom. These are the tools that create long-term reading, which engage students and which answer the tough questions.
Some recent sites that are inc credible, graphically and informational are:
Ted-ED: short 3-5 minute animations on all subject areas.
NOVA: excellent history, math and science videos, lesson plans and labs
Molecular Workbench: provides visual, interactive computational experiments for teaching and learning science.
Discovery Channel: Math and science videos
Engineering an Empire: (YouTube) action-packed videos that er perfect for middle school Social Studies
National Geographic: science, math and history videos and lesson plans
Flocabulary: educational hiphop on all subject areas with lesson plans and worksheets
There are just some of the resources that are available. My students are still talking about a video I showed them in September (PBS: Ice Age DeathTrap)
I have moved towards a PowerPoint/ Keynote format for my lectures. I usually show one chapter per class. We start with a key question/ key questions (KWL of sorts) and move on to graphics to support the lesson. I pop in a video or two throughout the lesson. A great example was teaching the students about papyrus. I popped in a short 1.3 minute video that showed the plant growing and then being made into paper.TED
I have attached the Ancient Egypt PowerPoints below, which was designed to go with “The Ancient Egyptian World” , produced by The World in Ancient Times series.
There is A LOT of detail in these PowerPoint. The teacher’s guide is great because it includes chapter quizzes as well as additional links. I tried to include as many movies, photos. links and tidbits as possible, with the hope that it is more approachable format than a one-dimensional textbook.
Enjoy!
Finally, I have completed the first unit of Chemistry 7: properties of matter.
Here you will find the PowerPoint and Chemistry student booklet, complete with labs, fill in the blank worksheets, key words and homework assignments.
PowerPoint: Chemistry- Part 1
workbook: Unit 1 Chemistry
Powerpoint includes movies, detailed pictures and links to important websites
Here it is: the ultimate introduction to Ancient Egypt. Yes, it has videos, graphics and an pretty solid lesson plan; no, it does not feature virtual reality (which IS my ideal lesson plan model…)
The vision for using a PowerPoint format was to provide as many access points as possible AND, most importantly, to avoid the graphic-organizer trap.
In short, the PP uses videos, pictures, primary documents (quotes, journals, tablets and pics), critical thinking questions, and timelines to outline specific learning objectives and themes. Each chapter follows up with a choice of assignment (take-home or in class), as well a quiz (blackline master available in “The World in Ancient Times” Teaching Guide) and follow up questions to review the chapter’s key points. One concept that I have added is the connection between the past and the present. The World series focuses on American history for their connections; I have created more philosophical and general statements that will help students (hopefully) to answer that all-time favourite question: why am I learning this?
The first seven chapters of this PP Unit follow “The World in Ancient Times” Teaching Guide. I have used this series for Early Civilization, and parts of the Primary and Secondary Source book for the Mesopotamia unit.
I hope that you enjoy. Please let me know if you are interested in seeing more of these types of lessons 🙂
CLICK HERE to download the ppt lesson: Ancient Egypt Units 1-2
Multiple Intelligences in the Everyday Classroom 
