I let the Ides of March pass without posting about one of my favorite social studies apps and one of my favorite history topics. I loved teaching ancient world history.

One of my favorite tools for summarizing key content was the Breaking News Generator from classtools.net. It was an easy exit ticket and a simple way to make history content more engaging. My students loved creating these. It was as simple as uploading an image and giving the news slide a headline and description. My students also loved making up names for their news agencies!

I never used these in other subject areas, but I am sure they could easily be created across the curriculum to summarize key details from a text or to support vocabulary instruction. Students could also create their own image to use. We never got that far in my classroom, but it is something I would love to explore if I am ever back in the classroom.