I decided I wanted to do something fun and new with my 6th graders this year when teaching about President Nixon. I found myself wondering what life would have been like for historical figures if they were to have cell phones and smart devices during his or her life time. Would their impact have been greater? Would they have been able to accomplish more? I searched the internet for a cell phone template that I wanted to use but could not find one that included everything I wanted to do. I decided to make the template for my students to use next week.
This week, I am beginning my unit on Nixon's foreign policy and geopolitics. I know, this doesn't sound interesting but trust me, it will be. Life is too short to not enjoy what I teach so it will be fun for the students and informative. Students already have some background knowledge of Nixon due to learning about the Vietnam War. However, this week, we will dig deeper into his foreign policy and his unfortunate scandal.
The plan is to teach the background knowledge and when students are finished learning about Nixon, they will design Nixon's smart phone. I plan to use the smart device template as a form of assessment in order to see what the students learned about Nixon. The template I created includes space for 9 apps, contacts, text messages, and a call log featuring missed, received, and sent phone calls. I am hoping this goes over well and can be used for other historical figures. The other template assignment I created last year, the Instagram template, worked very well and the students thoroughly enjoyed it.
If you'd like to check out the Smart Device template, you can do it by clicking here!
I have not yet taught this but I think it is going to go well and I am excited! I will report back after next week to see how it goes.
If you haven't checked out my Teachers Pay Teachers website, be sure to check it out. I am having a 10% off sale between now and Friday!
