Ahoy there, teachers! Are you ready to set sail on an exciting journey through history with your students? Then, look no further than the Titanic! One of the most famous maritime disasters in history, the story is a fantastic setting for research and inquiry. And now, with the help of two fantastic websites, you can bring this incredible story to life for your students!

• Encyclopedia Titanica
• R.M.S Titanic - History and Significance | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Find all of the tools we've discussed in the EdTech Directory:

https://smartinwi.com/edtech-directory/

Get in touch:

https://smartinwi.com

https://www.twitter.com/smartinwi

https://www.threads.net/@smartinwi

https://www.facebook.com/smartinwi

techtoolsforteacherpodcast@gmail.com

©2018-2023 Snoring Dog Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

Mentioned in this episode:

Education Podcast Network

Tech Tools for Teachers is part of the Education Podcast Network. https://www.edupodcastnetwork.com/

Shanna Martin 0:19

Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast, where each week we talk about a free piece of technology that you can use in your classroom. I'm your host, Shanna Martin. I'm a middle school teacher Technology and Instructional Coach for my district.

Fuzz Martin 0:32

And her producer and husband Fuzz Martin and podcast editing is just the tip of the iceberg. For my technical skills. Oh, yeah, it was

Shanna Martin 0:45

And your career just sunk.

Fuzz Martin 0:48

It's cold. It's colder than the Atlantic Ocean. And December What month was

Shanna Martin 0:55

April? April. Well, everybody, guess what? What? Week,

Fuzz Martin 1:05

what are we talking about today, Shanna,

Shanna Martin 1:07

it's Titanic week and the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast,

Fuzz Martin 1:10

you are a titanic nerd.

Shanna Martin 1:13

I enjoy it. Yeah, it's kind of fun. And actually, like I was that, it was always an interesting topic to me, because I think it's an interesting topic to a lot of people like it is a highly engaging topic in schools, libraries, because there's no books. But when I started teaching, especially history, then it turned into a whole nother beast, because it's not just teaching about a ship that sunk in the ocean. But I can tie it into, like, the class system, I can tie it into world history, I can tie it into law, I can tie it into, we tie it into science, and whether we tie it into so many different so many different topics can be taught using the Titanic as your like, North Star. I know. Yeah. Like what's gonna like how you get the content to the kids, because they are so interested in it. And like the people and the celebrities, and I mean, as I teach middle school in eighth grade, like, Can we watch the movie? I'm like, Absolutely not. But we can watch a documentary on it. And they're like, oh, but then they're really engaged in the engineering behind it. And like, we talked about the science of metals, like it's insane how many different topics you can actually tie into this one tragic event that happened in history. So we are talking about the ties

Fuzz Martin 2:32

Which everybody knows happened in April.

Shanna Martin 2:38

Yeah, so today will be a fun history lesson for you as well, while we talk about these goodness websites that we're going to talk about. So yeah, hi, everyone. So excited to talk.

Fuzz Martin 2:54

I knew you'd get fired up about this.

Shanna Martin 2:55

Fuzz Martin 4:41

it's all just jack on a door. Yes, no, that he wasn't on the door. He wasn't on the door. He was on the ocean roses on the door. Jack I can do your whole bit. Jack

Shanna Martin 4:56

That's the whistle on the back. I

Fuzz Martin 4:57

do that all the time. Whenever we bring up the Titanic A little thing.

Shanna Martin 5:01

So let's talk about some actual websites that have information about the Titanic on them. So besides searching and finding books, print books, too. There's a book that I use all the time. It's called Titanic voices from disaster. It is nonfiction. It is based on interviews of survivors of the book. It reads like fiction, though it reads like a story. But you hear about survivors, like quotes from survivors, and they actually tell their story of what they experienced. So I use that as a, like a chunk of teaching in my classroom. But the website that we probably use most often that I have my kids use the most often. And it is their favorite website to use. Because it is all things Titanic in one spot. It is called encyclopedia. ti—, like dash titanica.org.

Fuzz Martin 5:51

Okay, so kinda like Encyclopedia Britannica. And it's Titanica. Nice, clever. Yes. Extra points to them.

Shanna Martin 5:59

So encyclopedia-titanica.org. Nice. And it has everything you could possibly ever want or need or need to know or research the Titanic with. So let's talk about the site. It does have ads, just be aware. Yep. But homepage. General Questions and Answers about the Titanic. What do you want to know? We'll give you some general like people pose questions. Okay. Not your best set of information, but they do have a question answer section on this day. You can click on it and see like events from today. And you can see specific things that were going on with newspapers with people who were on the Titanic and like random things. So there's a random information about to encyclopedia Titanica and some background information. Okay, so the real things that you're going to want to look at across the top we've got Titanic people deck plans features are probably the best pieces to start with. You have facts about the RMS Titanic. Do you know without googling it? What RMS stands for

Fuzz Martin 7:10

Royal Majesty's Ship, (wrong). Okay. Royal majestic. No. is the first word royal Yes. All right. Marine. No. Mommy.

Shanna Martin 7:21

Something that ship does.

Fuzz Martin 7:23

Oh, maiden. No.

Shanna Martin 7:25

There are other RMS ships out there. Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay.

Fuzz Martin 7:29

What is the shipping Moor

Shanna Martin 7:32

know? What does the ship do? The ship particular and I rms ship does merchantile delivers?

Fuzz Martin 7:40

Mattresses mail? Oh, okay. Royal Mail ship Royal Mail ship. Okay.

Shanna Martin 7:46

So couldn't deliver mail. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Officially, it has like, posts off on everything. All right. So RMS Titanic, you got all the background questions. White Star Line, which is the obviously the ship company that was part of

Fuzz Martin 7:59

it's like the Carnival of that of that day, right.

Shanna Martin 8:04

I went and looked at victims, and I just scrolled through and clicked on one random one and I got John Jacob Astor, who was the one of the richest men in the world who died on the Titanic, is it founder of The Astoria Hotel. And I read all that story running encyclopedia Titanica.

Look at that little background information. He's one of like, the well known people. Yep. Very cool. So encyclopedia titanica.org is a great place to start early student inquiry research, just random information. You want to learn more about the Titanic, everybody, the general information 18 That kind of set sail April 10. hit the iceberg on the 14th sank on the 15th. That's why we feel the need I feel the need to share this with everyone because it's coming up. So if you need a lesson for a day or two either coming to or from in the spring break or state six coming out right now. This is a cool way to just get students engaged in and some interesting discussion and it's coming up around the corner. So there you go. So on with that though, the second side I have is it has great information about the Titanic. But also the website is just really cool and you can use it for other oceanic thing. So the site is based on the national A Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and no, no, no. Yeah. So their site does have some specific information for RMS Titanic history and significance. And I have my students use this based on. Because we talk a lot about the weather, we make the connection in science class. So they actually learn about the weather in science class about the Titanic, and what it was like to have a cold weather mirage. What that is a talk about iceberg as they talk about Newton's law and how that connects with the Titanic hitting the iceberg. And all of those pieces to it. What's cool about this is this gives you Titanic specific information. But also, it's gonna give you all kinds of cool information about weather and science and things like that. So if you want to search it, specifically, it's NOAA.gov. And those really long after it ish, like international section, RMS Titanic history and significance, okay. But if you just type in NOAA.gov, and search Titanic, you'll get there, which is probably the faster way to do it. So what's cool is they have this giant, like the history and significance, they go behind it, then they have all these related links. So the maritime act of 1986, they talk about guidelines, they talked about the Titanic, they talked about documents, and references, and all kinds of stuff. But what else is cool about this website is on the left hand side, you have all kinds of other cool resources to use in your classroom that are not even Titanic related, even though I use it for Titanic related stuff. So you have weather. And again, it's like this little blue bar is gonna give you all kinds of information about the National Weather Service, and how they're building like a Weather Ready Nation. And you can find all kinds of specific articles on weather and forecasts and things like that. They have a whole section on climate, which then we'll go through shows you these really cool models and these cool coastal creatures and what these like satellite images are from space about like the Gulf of Mexico and all kinds of cool stuff. They have oceans and coasts, fisheries, which is really fun. If you go to the fisheries, provided science based conservation management, and they talk about fisheries and they give you all kinds of background information, again, articles information is great to use. In any class, you can tie these pieces in there like irrelevant, you can pull it if you're gonna do science in science class, great you but you can connect this to social class and writing and all kinds of things. Satellites, I love a good satellite image. They show all the different ways they use satellites. And what you can see from and again, more articles, information, research, marine and aviation charting, sanctuaries, and then more stuff on education. They have a whole education section. They have resources, they have opportunities, and they have news stories, student opportunities, educator opportunities, grants, all kinds of great information. Even if you're not teaching Titanic, this is a cool website to use in your classroom. Let your students explore it, you can explore it, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a fantastic website of resources. You can go into history, check other historical events, not just the Titanic, and all different types of information and resources for educators. So an O a noaa.gov.

Yeah, fun fact, if you ever hear of the National Weather Service, that's part of NOAA. So

there you go. Yep. So all kinds of super cool, fun things, not just about the Titanic, but if you want to search the Titanic, they have great resources for that. Yes.

Plenty of resources on that. Pretty cool. Yeah.

So we love a good Titanic resource. There's so many things. But Titanic is such an engaging topic for students. And it doesn't always just have to be like the history of what happened. But you can tie it into kind of any content area and connected between content areas as well. And hopefully, these fun little sites will engage your students and keep them plugging along here through end of third fourth quarter. And moving on in the school year. Getting closer. Yeah. I'm just starting fourth quarter now. Yeah. Oh, nine weeks, right.

It's another works.

Yeah. About that or so. Right? From Yeah. So thanks for tuning in. This has been, the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast. If you ever have any questions, you can find me on Twitter at smartinwi. And if you want to get more information on the links to the technology discussed in this episode, there's a smartinwi.com. If you'd like to support the show, please consider buying me a coffee or to visit buymeacoffee.com/smartwi or visit smartinwi.com and click on that cute little purple coffee cup. Your donations help keep the show going. New episodes each week. Thanks for listening, go educate and innovate.

The ideas and opinions expressed on this podcast and the smart in WI website are those of the author, Shanna Martin, and not of her employer prior to using any of the technologies discussed in this podcast, please consult with your employer regulations. This podcast offers no guarantee that these tools will work for you as described, but we sure hope they do. We'll talk to you next time right here on the Tech Tools for Teachers Podcast.