With Thanksgiving just around the corner, you have a splendid opportunity to teach your students historical, social, and cultural lessons that surround this celebrated holiday. However, before you reach into your trusty lesson book, could those historical "facts" really be myths? Learn more about the five most prevalent Thanksgiving myths, which your students will love dispelling at the dinner table with their family.

Myth #1: The Pilgrims Started Thanksgiving

Nearly all students, regardless of their age, generally envision our nation's first Thanksgiving as a gathering of Pilgrims and Native Americans. While this is a common belief, the Pilgrims were not the first groups of Americans to host this holiday! According to historical reports, the citizens of San Elizario, Texas held the very first Thanksgiving in the year of 1598 - three decades before the pilgrims hosted their Thanksgiving dinner! The Texans beat Pilgrims to this tradition by hosting the first Thanksgiving in honor of Juan de Onate. Known for leading hundreds of settlers across hundreds of miles in the Mexican Desert, Juan de Onate was a celebrated "hero," inspiring the very first gathering over 400 years ago!

Myth # 2: The Pilgrims Feasted on Turkey

While many children and adults refer to Thanksgiving as "Turkey Day," the pilgrims may have been confused by this holiday nickname. According to reports, once the Pilgrims began celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday, their menu for the event was far different from what most Americans believe. Unlike modern Thanksgivings, full of corn on the cob, turkey, and cranberry sauce, there is no clear evidence to neither support nor refute whether or not Pilgrims even ate turkey! In fact, evidence only proves that the Pilgrims ate deer for this annual meal.

Myth #3: Thanksgiving is Always on a Thursday in November

Modern families enjoy a day away from school or work on the third Thursday of each November to celebrate Thanksgiving. However, our nation once celebrated two different Thanksgiving holidays! In 1863, President Lincoln ordered that Thanksgiving should be celebrated in both August and November. Before this proclamation, most Americans outside of the New England regions never even celebrated the holiday!

Myth #4: Pilgrims Only Wore Black Outfits, Buckled Shoes, and Hats

Ask your students to imagine pilgrim attire, and most will describe black outfits with white cuffs topped with hats and accented with buckle shoes. Contrary to common belief, the Pilgrims did not dress entirely in black. Instead, Pilgrims did wear an abundance of solid colors, including red, violet, green, and blue. They also did not wear the quintessential "Pilgrim hat" often displayed in Thanksgiving images, nor did they wear distinct buckled shoes. In fact, this type of apparel did not even appear on the fashion scene until 1632. The wardrobe misconceptions have been perpetuated by illustrations of Pilgrims published over time. The earliest pictures of Pilgrims were created in this type of dress to reveal the Pilgrims' devotion to more simplistic habits and lifestyles - but this does not mean they dressed in the attire we imagine today.

Myth #5: Pilgrims and Puritans are the Same People

When studying history, Pilgrims and Puritans are often confused. However, Pilgrims and Puritans are two very distinct groups. Pilgrims, the group that landed in Plymouth onboard the Mayflower, arrived nearly 10 years before Puritans settled in Boston. Not only do these two groups of settlers differ in location and in date of arrival, but components of their cultural values, goals, and ideals are different as well. The largest difference between the Pilgrims and the Puritans is that the latter did not hold the intention of breaking away from the Anglican Church. There are certainly many history lessons that surround Thanksgiving, but this holiday, excite your students by dispelling the myths!

Today's teachers are no longer limited to writing on the blackboard and sending home paper notes. As educators embrace the benefits of technology, more and more teachers are capitalizing on blogs to stimulate learning and effectively communicate with parents and students outside of the classroom walls. Teachers use blogs in a variety of ways, from updating parents to clarifying lessons. Some teachers also invite their students to contribute their thoughts and ideas in blog form, either for the purpose of discussing specific topics or to share their ideas and areas of interest. The opportunities to use blogs in education are infinite, and you may find that your students may actually enjoy blogging! Not only is blogging a creative way to encourage your students to write, but it will also help them learn more about using information technology simultaneously.

Step 1: Choose a Blogging Website

There are many blogging websites available for teachers to use. Most options are free, but some charge a monthly fee. Many services, such as Class Blogmeister and Edublogs, are specifically designed for educators, and these may offer more benefits for a teacher's blog. For example, Class Blogmeister employs safety precautions that filter content that is inappropriate for children accessing the blog platform. Some of the most popular blogging platforms include:

• Class Blogmeister (free and education based)
• EduBlogs (free and education based)
• Blogger (free)
• WordPress (free)
• MoveableType (free)
• TypePad (monthly fee)
• LiveJournal (free)

Step 2: Set Up Your Blog

All of the listed blog platforms allow you to choose a template style and formatting elements that suit your specific blogging needs. Thus, you have some control over the format of the title, sidebars, main body and footer sections of your blog. Consider playing around with the formatting of your blog to specifically suit your classroom's needs. For example, in the sidebar section, you can create different sub-sections of links. Some of these links may be for parents, while others are great research resources for your students. In addition to the design elements, you can also customize the administrative components of your blog. For example, do you wish for comments to be automatically published? Or would you like to read and approve the comments before they are published on the blog? Take a moment to scan the customization elements you have available in the blogging backend to create the right administrative controls.

Step 3: Write Your First Blog Post

Once you have finished creating the format of your blog, it is time to compose your very first post! Your first post sets the tone for the teacher's blog, and it can be a personal introduction, stimulate a topic discussion, or outline how you intend to use the blog. Be open to the different ways in which a blog can evolve. You may want to brainstorm some ideas about how you want to use the blog before you start, but open yourself up to the possibility that your blog may take on a life of its own. Your students may be very proactive and have great suggestions to incorporate into the blog, and by including their ideas, the teacher's blog will stimulate pride of ownership for your students.

Step 4: Include Images and Videos

Another fantastic feature of blogs is the ease with which you can upload images to illustrate a point or enhance a specific topic with visual imagery. You can also imbed video, so long as you aren't infringing on copyrighted material. The following short list of websites provide blogging teachers access to free services for creating slide shows, post cards, online presentations, forms, photos and more.

• Smilebox
• VoiceThread
• Bananr
• Gickr
• Wufoo

Step 5: Invite Students to Participate

It is, of course, a personal choice whether or not to invite your students to participate in your blog. You may find, however, that having your students participate enhances the blog and makes it more interesting for them and others to read. You will need to add students as team members or guest bloggers within your blog account settings. Blogging has the potential to connect people to the larger global community. However you choose to use your teacher blog, be creative and have fun with it! It is intended to enrich the education experience for both you and your students.

Looking for something fun to do with your students for Thanksgiving? Check out our sister site, free-bingo-cards.com, which has three printable Thanksgiving themed bingo card sets.

Thankgiving Turkey Bingo Cards

Thankgiving Pilgrim Bingo Cards

Thankgiving Native American Bingo Cards

Although only premium accounts can share their planbooks, anyone can view a shared planbook - you don't even need an account.

Sharing your planbook allows others to easily view your plans. Whether it's a colleague, principal or substitute, you can decide exactly what they can see and for how long. To get started you first need to click on "Share" in the main menu You will brought to a page showing all the shares that you've created. There are two options on this page: "Share Planbook" and "Planbooks Shared With You". We'll get to the second one in a moment. For now, clicking on "Share Planbook" allows you to setup the rules for sharing your planbook. Let's go through each of the options.

Which planbook do you want to share?

First you select which planbook you'd like to share. There may only be one in the list or you may have a bunch if you have a lot of planbooks.

What portion of your planbook do you want to share?

Next you select the date range you'd like to share. You can share your entire planbook (the default) or select a specific week or day. This is useful if you are sharing with a substitute and only want to share one day.

How long do you want your shared planbook to be accessible?

The next option allows you to set how long you want your shared plan to be accessible. You chose when it will be expire by selecting one of the options: "1 Day", "1 Week", "1 Month", "1 Year" and "Never". For example if you set it to "1 Month", they will not be able to see your planbook 1 month and 1 day for today.

Who can see your shared planbook?

The "Access" option causes the most confusion. There are two choices: "Restricted" and "Open". If you set this to "Restricted" only people you chose will be allowed to see your planbook. You decide who sees it by entering their email in the next section. When that person attempts to see your planbook they will need to use the same email that you entered. Setting this option to "Open" allows anyone to see your planbook. This is useful if you plan on posting a link to your planbook on your website or blog.

How do I let people know I've shared my planbook?

There are two ways to do this. The first is to check the "Send notification email" checkbox. Then when you click "Save" an email will be sent to all the email addresses you entered in the "Emails" option. Note: Although we make every effort to deliver the email, because of various spam filters that may be running on the recipients email server we can not guarantee that it will reach them. If you set your shared planbook to be "Restricted" in the previous section you need to enter some email addresses, otherwise no one will be able to see it. If you set the previous option to "Open" you can use this option to send email notifications, but it won't have any affect on who can see your shared planbook.

Your shared planbooks

After clicking save you'll be brought back to the previous screen with your newly created shared planbook listed. You can make any changes by clicking "Edit" or remove the shared planbook by clicking "Delete". This will not delete your planbook, just the shared settings. The other important column is "Link". This is the web address that can be used to see your planbook. You can post the link on a website or blog, or send it in an email or IM. click to enlarge

Planbooks shared with you

If you already have a PlanbookEdu account you can view all the planbooks shared with you by clicking on "Share" in the menu and then "Planbooks Shared With You". You'll be brought to a page with a list of all the planbooks that have been shared with you. click to enlarge

That's It!

We hope you are enjoying the share feature! Let us know what your think by emailing us at feedback@planbookedu.com.

Using Twitter is a brilliant way for teachers to connect to their students, classroom parents, and the global community. If you are a teacher, you can use Twitter in a variety of ways, from staying updated on new trends in education to encouraging idea sharing in the classroom. The following list of tips can help you get the most out of your Twitter experience.

1. Create an Interesting Profile Use keyword rich language to describe your interests and your profession. This will help other like-minded users find and follow you more easily.

2. Choose a Professional Photo You have an opportunity to add an image of yourself to your profile. The advantage of adding a photo is that people tend to follow those to whom they can put a face. Choose a photo that represents your very best professional self.

3. Search for Others to Follow After you create your Twitter account, the next step is to find people with similar interests and goals to follow. Searching relevant keywords will make this task easier. Once you find a few people to follow, look at their followers and you will likely find more people to follow! And of course don't forget to follow @PlanbookEdu

4. Use Hashtags Hashtags are category codes used within the Twitter community to simplify the process of following posts on specific topics. Each hashtag begins with the # symbol. The #edtech tag is often used by educators and technology professionals to mark their Twitter posts.

5. Stay Professional As with all social networking communities, there is a degree of anonymity that may prompt some individuals to lower their professional standards. Rather than reply negatively to a post you don’t like, simply stop following the poster.

6. Get Ideas from Twitter Get the most out of Twitter by following other educators who are implementing cutting-edge teaching ideas in their classrooms.

7. Tweet and Retweet While it is great to Twitter about your own projects and ideas, it is also important to pass other good ideas along. Pass along posts that inspire you by using the RT code for retweet and giving credit to the original poster. You may just find that this increases your chances for getting retweets as well.

8. Invite Students to Tweet The ideas of how to engage students via Twitter are endless. Some teachers have started collaborative stories with their students via Twitter. Other teachers encourage students to express their thoughts and feelings about subject matters like poetry and literature via tweets.

9. Add Value through Links Share the goodness you find online by posting links to websites and news stories that may be of interest to those following you.

10. Be Careful What Information You Post Use good judgment when referring to students, and be certain not to accidentally give out sensitive, personal information within your tweets. Twitter is an intriguing social networking venue that can bring a medley of benefits to the educator. Whether you want to involve your students in a creative writing project or connect with other educators, Twitter is an excellent platform with endless possibilities!