10 Free Tech Tools & Websites Every Teacher Should Know About (National Geographic) 26 Jan 2018

https://archive.is/WQhUz

Confession: I was a late tech adopter.

I didn’t own a computer until I was in college. I couldn’t record on the VCR, and I didn’t have a smartphone until about 2009. As a new teacher, I felt comfortable with PowerPoint and Word, yet I rarely explored any other tech tools.

I felt out of my league when it came to tech, and chalked it up as something the younger, more tech-savvy members of the staff would do. My mindset changed as the number of devices available in our school grew, as well as my observations of the ease with which my students could navigate and create with their laptops. They inspired me to try more tech.

Several years later, as I teach my global studies course and my students explore the world in real time through their devices, I couldn’t imagine not being a to take advantage of this technology. There are free tools that are easy to use—even for the tech novice.

Here are my picks for the top 10 tech tools and websites every teacher should know about!

Rewordify https://rewordify.com/ : This user-friendly website allows you to adjust the reading level of a text. All you need to do is copy the webpage URL of the text you want to adjust and paste it into the yellow box at the top of the site, then click “Rewordify text.” Rewordify will simplify the text to the reading level you selected in the settings. If you don’t want the whole page to be Rewordified, you can copy, paste, and Rewordify text excerpts as well. You also can change how the text is displayed. My favorite part of the tool is to have simpler words displayed next to the challenging words that were in the original text. Finally, if you click on the “Print/Learning Activities” page, Rewordify will create vocabulary lists with definitions from the text, generate vocabulary quizzes for the text, and create close activities for the text. With this website, you can make more challenging texts accessible to all students.

SMMRY http://smmry.com/ : This is a handy website that summarizes any text or webpage to the exact number of sentences you want. Like Rewordify, all you need to do is copy the text you want summarized and paste it into the box on the page, set the number of sentences you want, then hit the summarize button. You can also paste in URLs to summarize an entire webpage or upload files to summarize. What makes this tool even more user-friendly is you can drag the bookmark widget to your toolbar so that when you are on a website you want summarized, all you have to do his hit the SMMRY widget and it will summarize the page without even going to their website. I learned about this great tool via Eric Curts’ (@ericcurts) amazing blog, which every teacher should bookmark!

Viewpure http://viewpure.com/ : I use videos every day in my classroom. Most of these videos I access via YouTube. This can be a scary proposition for most teachers, as you never know what type of ads, comments, or suggested videos will show up. Viewpure takes the fear out of opening up YouTube in your class. All you need to do is copy the video URL and paste it into the box at the top and then click the purify button. The site then generates a new URL with all the clutter removed. Like SMMRY, Viewpure also has a toolbar widget. Just drag the purify button up to your toolbar. Then the next time you are on YouTube and want to use a video, just click the Purify button and it will remove all the page clutter without you having to go to the Viewpure homepage.

360 Cities https://www.360cities.net/ : One of the greatest aspects of being 1-to-1 in a global studies class is that I can show almost instantaneously the places that we are studying via their laptops. One of the websites that I use frequently to do this is 360 Cities. I’ve found nothing fascinates students more lately than 360-degree imagery, and 360 Cities has 360-degree images from across the globe. Type the location you want in the search bar and I bet they have that location. I haven’t been shut out yet. 360 Cities has also recently added ambient noise to many of their newer panoramas. Finally, if you have VR sets, there is a VR setting that you can click so students can view through their VR devices.

Google Earth https://www.google.com/earth/ : I like nothing better to take my students to the location we are studying via their Chromebooks, and the relaunch of the new and improved Google Earth evolved what was once an underutilized resource into one of my most frequently used websites. What is awesome about Google Earth is that by clicking the pegman you can explore the location via Street View. We were studying Lagos, Nigeria, a couple weeks ago, and my initial activity was to have my students go to the city and traverse the city streets. As they did, they recorded what they saw as well as what questions they had. Their observations and questions launched our inquiry into the challenges Lagos is facing. Another cool feature of Google Earth is the Voyager tool. These tools are tours that give detailed information and stories about spots on the tour. We just used “Finding Home” in my class. This Voyager story describes the journey of Nourelhuda Altallaa, who fled her home in Syria due to the civil war. “Finding Home” includes text, photos, and video that document Nourelhuda’s dangerous trip from Syria to Verl, Germany. Google Earth is adding new Voyager tools all the time and they are an incredible resource for any Social Studies teacher.

Google Tour Builder https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/ : This is a tool that I just started using. It allows students to create tours very similar to the ones in Google Earth Voyager. Students just click the “add location” button and they will add a pin to Google Earth at that location. Students can add text to describe that location’s significance as well as photos and videos. They can change the order of the tour by moving the slides. If you are looking for samples of what tours could look like, check out the gallery on the Tour Builder website.

Pear Deck Flash Card Factory https://www.peardeck.com/vocabulary/ : I’ve never seen a game in which studying vocabulary was so much fun. For this game, students are paired with a partner. They must create flashcards for a list of words that you have uploaded. One student writes a sentence showing the meaning of the word while the other uses their laptop to draw an illustration of that word. Once they are both done, they submit their word for quality control. You review the completed cards with your class and determine which ones should be added to your flash card pack. If their card is selected, the team is awarded points. For an added bonus, you can upload these completed decks to be played using Quizlet Live. The directions to get started with Pear Deck Flash Card Factory can be found here. I learned about Pear Deck Flash Card Factory from Steve Wick’s (@WickedEdTech) outstanding edtech blog http://rechargelearning.blogspot.com/.

TodaysMeet https://todaysmeet.com/accounts/login?next=/home : I was an introvert when I was in junior high. I hated to speak in class. I wish we had TodaysMeet. This is a backchannel tool that can enhance conversations in your classroom. I most frequently use TodaysMeet for Socratic Seminars. Instead of those in the outer circle taking notes about what was said, they to can participate in the discussion by typing their reactions to what the inner circle was saying, posing questions they have to the inner circle participants or include links to stories that either support or refute their claims. You don’t need to have a Socratic Seminar to use TodaysMeet, though; it can be used during classroom presentations, or you could split your screen as you show a video and have students react as they watch. Another great feature of TodaysMeet is you can print a transcript of the chat so you can review exactly what each student said.

Edpuzzle https://edpuzzle.com/ : This website allows you to make videos you are already using interactive. You can also turn them into formative assessments. Just upload a video you want to use or search their gallery of countless Edpuzzle videos that other teachers have already created. Once you upload your video, you can clip the video to only include portions of the video. You can also add audio narration or comments to the video. The coolest feature, though, is you can embed both multiple-choice and open-ended questions as well.

Listenwise https://listenwise.com/ : I am a huge fan of text sets, and I often want my text sets to include items that are not just articles or photos. Listenwise allows me to add great audio components. Listenwise has aggregated public radio broadcasts on a wide variety of subject areas. You can browse their collections to find relevant stories for your topic. Then just click the share button to get a link to take the students to this audio recording. Listenwise also provides discussion questions for each story as well as pre-made Socrative quizzes.

*11. Bonus Resource: GeoGuessr https://geoguessr.com/ : If my closure activity ends early and I have a couple of free minutes before the end of the period, my go-to website is GeoGuessr. This website drops you in a location on Google Street View. You have to look around and observe clues in your surroundings before you try to guess where in the world you are. Then you drop a pin of your guess on the map in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. The closer you are to the location the more points you get. In addition to the default world game, you can choose other games about famous places or individual countries.

What tools and websites do you use most frequently? I’m always looking to add another resource to enhance my practice. I can also safely say that this late adopter no longer fears technology and definitely has witnessed first hand the countless benefits of its use in my classroom.

https://blog.education.nationalgeographic.org/2018/01/26/10-free-tech-tools-websites-every-teacher-should-know-about/

Trump is Shit-Hole-Phobic

Witch Hunting Democrats Target Green Party Candidate Jill Stein (Boston Indie) 22 Dec 2017

All fair minded people should condemn the targeting of Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate in the 2016 election, by the neo-McCarthyite witch hunters on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Many of us have fundamental political differences with the Green Party. However, we should unequivocally defend the constitutional right of the Green Party to conduct its work and campaign for office unmolested by the government, and its police and intelligence agencies.

The attack on Stein, spearheaded by the Democratic Party, is an unconstitutional attempt to delegitimize and suppress political opposition to the monopoly of the capitalist two-party system.

Stein warned in a statement that investigations are being "used to intimidate and silence principled opposition to the political establishment" in a climate of "attacks on our civil liberties, with the emergence of censorship in social media and the press, criminalization of protest, militarization of police and massive expansion of the surveillance state."

On Monday, Stein confirmed that Senate investigators had demanded that she produce documents related to her alleged interactions with Russia. Her suspicious activity, according to the congressional investigators, consisted of attending a dinner celebrating the tenth anniversary of RT, the only TV network that gave her campaign any significant coverage, at which Russian President Vladimir Putin was also present.

Stein has absolutely nothing to answer for to the US Congress. As a presidential candidate, she was fully within her rights not only to attend a media event, but to meet and have discussions with any other public figure, foreign or domestic.

Is anyone expected to believe that neither Hillary Clinton nor her campaign had contact with any political leaders of other countries? On September 19, 2016, for example, Clinton met publicly with three foreign heads of state, including Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, installed in a fascist-led putsch, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the butcher of Cairo who drowned the Egyptian revolution in blood. (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-un/clinton-trump-vie-for-world-leaders-attention-in-new-york-idUSKCN11Q0BS )

The investigations into allegations of Russian "meddling" are based on unfounded claims that Russia manipulated the US elections. However, the fact that Sisi and Poroshenko are in power exposes the extent to which the United States meddles in the political affairs of every country all over the world, staging coups, propping up dictatorships, and bombing and invading countries at will.

In addition to the dinner hosted by RT, Stein, according to ranking committee Democrat Mark Warner, had "very complimentary things to say about Julian Assange." And this is now evidence of potentially criminal activity? Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is a journalist who has helped expose the crimes of the US political establishment.

For having spoken out publicly in support of a political prisoner and dissident, Stein is threatened with being hauled before a congressional committee as if she were involved in treasonous activity.

This is the Orwellian reality of America in 2017, ruled by two right-wing, oligarchic parties that can and will tolerate no political opposition.

The entire premise of "Russian collusion" is made up out of whole cloth, aimed at explaining away the Democrats' own hemorrhaging support among broad sections of the population, and seeking to pin their electoral defeat on the very existence of an alternative to the two-party system.

In her book, What Happened, Clinton fumed that "the Russians targeted propaganda to undecided voters and to 'soft' Clinton supporters who might be persuaded to stay home or support a third-party candidate."

She continued, "Perhaps this is one reason why third-party candidates received more than five million more votes in 2016 than they had in 2012. That was an aim of both the Russians and the Republicans, and it worked," resulting in Clinton's loss.

Now, the Democrats are using their institutional power to pursue a vendetta against a party they blame for having contributed to their electoral defeat.

The reason the third-party vote grew in 2016 was not because of Russian "meddling," but because millions of people hated the candidates of the two big business parties. The Democratic Party is leading the attack on political opposition within the United States because it feels itself under siege from popular sentiment, which is on the whole moving to the left.

For this reason, the Democratic Party has lashed out with a series of provocations, from allegations of Russian "meddling" to the hysteria surrounding sexual misconduct. All the while, they have created the most favorable possible conditions for the Republicans to pass a massive reduction of corporate taxes, a policy that enjoys bipartisan support.

The old tropes of the most right-wing sections of the Republican Party at the height of the Cold War McCarthyism--in which the foreign policy setbacks of US imperialism and all political dissent were presented as the result of a conspiracy of foreign infiltrators and left-wing agitators--have been adopted by the Democratic Party.

The Senate's investigation of the Green Party comes as figures like Warner and House Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat Adam Schiff are pressing for mass political censorship by technology companies, and as the FCC has ruled to revoke net neutrality, giving internet service providers free reign to block access to oppositional web sites.

The targeting of the Green Party marks a new stage in the drive to criminalize dissent and political opposition within the United States as the ruling elite prepares yet another onslaught on the social rights of the working class, and is laying plans for "great power" conflicts that threaten a new world war.

Was Lee Harvey Oswald A Communist or Leftist of Any Kind? No

Was Lee Harvey Oswald a Leftist? L.H. Oswald went to a lot of trouble to look like a pro-Communist Leftist. The documentation for his actual leftist beliefs is pretty thin. One can watched the videos, and read articles and documents related to Lee Harvey Oswald's political views and identification as a Communist. The amount of material related to L.H. Oswald's political beliefs is not very big. L.H. Oswald claimed to be a Communist, but he wasn't really very interested in Communist ideas.

Was he a Stalinist, or a Trotskyist? That was an important question in the 1950's and 1960's when L.H. Oswald publicly claimed he followed communist politics. Apparently L.H. Oswald never spoke a word about this pressing divide in communist and leftist circles. Right Wingers couldn't understand the debate, and that seems to be where L.H. Oswald got his 'communist' ideas.

Oswald did not have many working class experiences when he was young and was the lower class child of a struggling mother. Oswald may have publicly voiced leftist opinions, but he did not seek to join a labor union, or go to work in a factory. Oswald had contact in a youth group with a Right Wing military veteran who was focused on fighting Soviet Communism. All of L.H. Oswald's supposed 'communist' ideas come out of the Right Wing playbook of the John Birch Society conception of what communism was in the 1950's and 1960's.

L.H. Oswald was an obnoxious 'in your face' communist in the 1950's America, and then joined the military? That would seem to make more sense for a villain in a Batman comic than a real committed communist. Was L.H. Oswald building up a list of Leftist accomplishments as some kind of 'deep cover' to accomplish ... what?

L.H. Oswald did not join the American Communist Party, but he felt a political loyalty to move to the Soviet Union? Maybe he was just a self motivated windup idiot, but, where did he get these bizarre ideas, and who thought they might have a use for him?

L.H. Oswald's writings and audio recordings from his times in the Soviet Union show someone who seems creepy and interested in playing a deep undercover agent, and not a socialist who came to build the Soviet Union and communism. One long piece allegedly written by L.H. Oswald about the socialist cooperation structure of the factory system as he experienced it reads like it was written by someone else as it gets lost in technical detail in a way that just about nothing else L.H. Oswald ever wrote.

When L.H. Oswald left the Soviet Union he made no break with Stalinism or any break with any political belief at all. So, why did he go to communist Russia, and why did he leave? Politics and left wing beliefs don't seem to have anything to do with his actions. Padding a Left Wing resume as some kind of cover does seem like a plausible motive for L.H. Oswald's actions.

Once back in the US H.L. Oswald hooks up with the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party that was running a defense of Cuba campaign under the group name "Fair Play for Cuba Committee" L.H. Oswald simply set up a branch of the "Fair Play for Cuba Committee" on his own in New Orleans and began to provocatively hand out leftist leaflets defending the Cuban revolution on the streets. L.H. Oswald's pro-Cuba office was in the same building as a Right Wing Cuban anti-Castro groups office as well as some other security agents who must have known what L.H. Oswald was doing. The Socialist Workers Party did not have any members in the city or state and had urged L.H. Oswald not to open a public office. But, somehow the low wage L.H. Oswald had money to set up phony Leftist political front groups.

What was L.H. Oswald's view on the conflict between Che Guevara and the guerilla war style communism as opposed to the Stalinist cold war peace deals with the US and Europe? L.H. Oswald apparently never expressed any opinions on some of the most hotly debated ideas in the communist movement worldwide. Why? Because L.H. Oswald was not a Leftist, or a Communist. L. H. Oswald was not interested in any of these debates about communist strategy. L.H. Oswald seems to have cultivated an image as a Leftist pro-Communist.

While in Texas L.H. Oswald had contacts with some strange people who funded Right Wing causes and it looks like L.H. Oswald drove to a Right Wing general's house and fire some rifle shots. These are provocative acts that are not what any Leftist would advocate as a way to build a Left Wing movement in the US. No political groups in the US at that time were telling people to do the kinds of things L.H. Oswald was doing in Texas in 1963. L.H. Oswald did not write a pamphlet advocating armed struggle and hand out the leaflets on the street, as he had done in the past. L.H. Oswald wanted action, and especially a reaction. L.H. Oswald seems to have wanted to initiate anti-Right Wing attacks - that would ultimately strengthen the Right Winger attacked.

As to what happened on the day JFK was killed...I'll leave that to so many others who have dealt with the question. Was Lee Harvey Oswald a useful idiot who walked into a setup, or the central actor who changed so much?

I wanted to address a question that I have not seen adequately addressed - Was Lee Harvey Oswald a Communist? No.

Did the people who arranged the whole thing, if it wasn't just Lee Harvey Oswald and his lucky shots, get what they wanted? Did the political changes that came after Kennedy was assassinated go the way they wanted them to? Did a Right Wing assassination of a very mildly Liberal president result in a more Liberal Leftist congress that passed a host of progressive Great Society programs? Wasn't that the opposite of what they killed Kennedy for? Lee Harvey Oswald created himself as a kind of character in a Cold War spy novel, and ended with the kind of drama he always sought. No communists or leftists recognized Lee Harvey Oswald as any kind of leftist after his death...he was alone.

Shaun Train Blogger

https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy2/comments/7krmrv/was_lee_harvey_oswald_a_communist_or_leftist_of/?st=jbdmtega&sh=51ae5ca0

Boston Common Right Wing Rally Outnumbered by Leftists Counter-Protesters – 18 Nov 2017

(Photo: Alt Right March to Rally on Boston Common)

Boston, MA – 18 Nov 2017

Around 11:30 am a crowd opposing the Right Wing rally on the Boston Common was gathering at the edge of the steel fences surrounding Parkman Bandstand. Two rings of barriers protected the protest area along with several hundred Boston Police officers in bright day-glow vests and helmets. A little before noon a group of Right Wingers gathered and marched along the perimeter fence towards the gate at the Public Garden end of the enclosure. The opposing Leftist crowd formed a line to block the Right Wingers. Police with bikes formed a line between the two groups and prevented contact. The Right Wing group turned around and marched back toward the Tremont Street side to enter.

Police made each person stop as they were frisked and patted down if they wanted to get in the protest area. People’s back packs were searched. After passing the first police check point people had to go through another check where police were using metal detecting wands. Both Right Wingers and media people were searched.

At the bandstand the speeches started to a small crowd of maybe one hundred Right Wingers, and the Leftist crowd of about a thousand along the fence about fifty yards away roared back. The Rightists repeatedly asked the Leftist crowd to define ‘fascism.’ The Leftist crowd chanted back ‘No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!’

At one point two black clad people got into some kind of altercation and were arrested. A crowd of Leftist gathered around the police and chanted, ‘Let them go!’ The police formed a wedge of a dozen officers and removed the arrested people.

Out of the Leftist crowd of about a thousand there were maybe a hundred black clad – black block – Antifa. They were vocal and stood together, but did not engage in any very provocative actions. Someone moved around the crowd with a Communist Hammer and Sickle flag. Many people had hand made signs and posters.

A couple of people from the Progressive Labor Party held up a banner that read “Never Again! Death to Fascism! Power to the Workers” while a woman spoke through a sound system. The group Refuse Fascism had a banner that read: “Refuse Fascism, In the name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America.

A couple of men played a ruckus song on brass horns while someone banged a tambourine. For comic relief there was a man with a white bib overalls with a pink heart painted on sloppily who had a long black rubber boot on his head. He had a bullhorn and circulated through the crowd making odd pronouncements. “We have you surrounded, give up!” But who was he talking about? The police, the Right Wingers, or the Leftists? The Boston Police Department was completely in control of the situation with hundreds of officers in bright vests and helmets as well as a half a dozen grim faced plain clothes officers standing with their hands in there pockets on the sides of the crowds nodding to their uniformed friends.

Different groups circulated among the crowd with banners, leaflets and newspapers. The Democratic Socialists of America had a banner, Don’t Resist Alone handed out cards for the website, and the Workers Vanguard newspaper was offered by labor union members. People used bullhorns and sound systems to address the Leftist crowd.

A young black woman stood on a green park bench with a mic and sound system and told the crowd that she would not stop fighting because she was from Roxbury, a predominately black neighborhood. “Coming from Roxbury I have to fight everyday,” she said. Shiva – a Republican candidate for senate stood near the edge of the rally with a banner and a few supporters.

After about a hour of speeches and taunts back and forth the crowd of about one hundred Rightists ended their event and were escorted out of the area by Boston Police while the crowd of Leftist were held back by bicycle police. The Right Wingers had come to Boston to hold another rally and were again met by a larger determined Leftist crowd of over a thousand.

On Youtube:

Boston Common: Right Wing 50 v Left Wing 500 – 18 Nov 2017 (3:10 min) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRYLONrQ-8s

Boston Common Right v Left Rallies – Right Wing View Video – 18 Nov 2017 (1:09:11 min) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qadI37xRK6k

Lenin: Not Far from Moscow - 4 Aug 2017

In this photo taken on Aug. 4, 2017, a statue of Vladimir Lenin stands in the town of Uglich, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north-east of Moscow, Russia. The thousands of statues of Vladimir Lenin spread across the vast region bring to mind poet Vladimir Mayakovsky's ringing line of devotion: "Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live." (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

NYC Attacker Was Uber Driver for Six Months - 1 Nov 2017

(Islamic State flag displayed in NYC) NYC Attacker Was Uber Driver for Six Months - Uzbeki Islamist Immigrant Was Arrested in Multiple States - Had Active Arrest Warrant for Missouri - Passed Uber's 'Rigorous' Background Check

The Islamist attack on civilians in New York City on October 31, 2017 was carried out by a Muslim immigrant in the name of the Islamic State.

The suspect was identified by two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov. He's from Uzbekistan in Central Asia but had been living in the US since 2010, sources said. Saipov is a legal immigrant.

A senior law enforcement officer told CNN a note, written in English, was found in the truck that said the attack, which unfolded around 3 p.m. on Halloween, was done in the name of the Islamic State.

Law enforcement sources said Saipov most recently lived in New Jersey, in Paterson. He also lived in Florida for a period, sources said.

For the past six months, he was an Uber driver. The company said he passed a background check that the company claims is 'rigorous.' Uber has removed Saipov from the app.

Despite being able to pass Uber's background investigation a casual look through internet records reveals numerous problems with the law for Saipov. He had multiple interactions with law enforcement in several states, online records show. Uber does not seem to be looking very hard at drivers records.

He had traffic citations issued in Missouri and Pennsylvania. He was arrested by the Missouri State Highway Patrol in October 2016 after a warrant was issued when he failed to show in court for a misdemeanor offense. He paid a $200 bond, which he forfeited when he didn't show up in court for his next hearing in November. A guilty plea was entered on his behalf.

There is an active Missouri state warrant out for the arrest of Saipov, but he passed the Uber background check.

Uzbekistan ties

Saipov was a Muslim and a supporter of the hardline Islamic State. Saipov came to the US under the Obama administrations lax rules that considered Muslims a top priority to help come to America.

Authorities are sure to look at whether the suspect returned to Uzbekistan since he moved to the United States seven years ago, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said. "There has been a significant problem with jihadism in Uzbekistan," he said. According to Cruickshank there are two large jihadi groups in the country. One of them is the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is affiliated with the Islamic State.

In April, an Uzbeki Muslim immigrant to Sweden, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State, was arrested after an Islamic truck attack killed five people in Stockholm.

New York City’s annual Halloween parade Tuesday night was the scene of additional militarization, with the attack serving as a pretext for a massive police deployment. NYPD Chief of Department Carlos Gomez told a news conference: “We will proceed with the parade and certainly we’ve added more resources, more police officers, heavy weapons teams, blocker vehicles on the street leading to the route as well as more sand truck[s]. There’s also heavy weapons teams being deployed throughout the city at key, iconic locations.”

Eric Philips, de Blasio’s press secretary, tweeted, “The Halloween Parade will go on, with NYPD dramatically increasing presence (personnel, blocker trucks, long guns etc).”