Some Housekeeping and some Link highlights

It’s about the time to clean up around here, and the Neighborhood is no exception.

The piles of materials, lesson plans, maps, flash drives of every denomination–all of it to be cataloged, categorized, and stored. Our online community is also undergoing a thorough scrubdown: no need for those pesky ant traps and rat droppings around here. While I was cleaning, I found a number of useful websites and blogs that deserve attention. Please let them know Mr. D referred you.

The National History Education Clearinghouse was recently brought to my attention by Julie Bell, and just in time. A project funded by the U.S. Department of Education and created by The Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University and the History Education Group at Stanford University, the NHEC is building itself as THE one-stop warehouse for all K-12 history educators, providing everything from content, lectures, lessons, online resources and media. A must-see site. Mr. D is ORDERING the Neighborhood to stop by this site, on pain of arse whupping by yours truly.
Local NYC teachers can check out our local Teaching American History site for a ton of resources–and its growing. TAH is a program run through the US Department of Education designed to improve the teaching of our history in public schools. My TAH grant, in district 12, is in conjunction with Lehman College and the Gilder-Lehrmann Institute of American History. I’m a proud alumnus of this program, as well as many of my colleagues.
My TAH classmate Deven Black, the powerhouse special ed. teacher with the thunderous rolling bass, blogs at Education on the Plate. He has had quite a roller coaster year, and his blog spares no detail about the trials and tribulations of a teacher giving his all. Deven is not only a dedicated teacher, but a true Renaissance man with a dizzying intellect.
When I plan, Thinkfinity is definitely my “42 Toss Power Trap”, my bread-and-butter play. A creation of the Verizon Foundation, Thinkfinity is a more teacher-friendly warehouse where teachers can search by content, grade and type of resource. Great to use in a pinch.
History is Elementary is another blog by a history teacher. Here the similarities end. First of all, there’s less cursing on “H is E” than on the Neighborhood. Second, it features a ridiculously detailed site index that features every little subject imaginable in history. She even covers the Dorr Rebellion in 1842 in a recent post. The fucking Dorr Rebellion! That little known rebellion in Rhode Island that led to universal male suffrage in the state. Now that’s dedication!
Jonathan at JD2718 is a lot of things–just look at his introduction page if you don’t believe me. Primarily, though, he’s a NYC math teacher with a great blog about high schools, math and math games, as well as teacher concerns and complaints. His infamous “Do Not Apply” list–a list of schools that are so teacher-hostile that they don’t deserve your resume–is definitely worth seeing. He also featured the Neighborhood in a post earlier this year.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Corey Bunje Bower’s Thoughts on Education Policy. Corey started with Mr. D as a Teaching Fellow–two lunkheaded ne’er-do-wells entering the vocation. He then decided that he wasn’t punished enough, and went to pursue a doctorate in education policy at Vanderbilt. TEP is his blog detailing his insights into education, particularly through a statistician’s eye. His analysis is often more detailed than the average Joe really needs, but Corey proves his points. Let’s hope he finds time to keep it up.