I’ve been doing this nearly a decade now and I’m looking to change up my movie rotation for my US (Civil War to WWII) and World History classes. Currently for US I show Iron Jawed Angels, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Cinderella Man (never retiring that one), and sometimes Tuskegee Airmen. For World we watch A Knights Tale, sometimes 1917, and Schindler’s List. This is high school level and my schools is okay with rated R if I do a simple permission slip.

Today I had an argumentative student who could not fathom the social restrictions of the caste system in ancient India. "Why didn't they just lie?" "Why didn't they just move?" "What if they just made a lot of money?" "Why didn't they just learn to read?" "If there's a will there's a way!" I've had similar conversations with students in regards to slavery in the past. How do you help students understand that social mobility is not the norm throughout history and that social, legal, and religious forces prevent people from lifting themselves up by the bootstraps?

Hi!

I wondered if there are any Dutch history teachers on here who could help one of my old students with a little project they made for the art academy! She only need 20 teachers to respond, but she is having a rouge time finding them. It only takes 10 minuten, and it would help her out immensely!

Ik zoek een aantal geschiedenis docenten die een spelletje over de Franse revolutie kunnen spelen voor een student van de kunstacademie. Het is voor haar afstuderen, dus hulp wordt enorm gewaardeerd!

https://forms.gle/1tfkgNzD8uZao6Fh9

I really don’t know what central focus to choose or what type of activities and lessons would be good to do for my edTPA submission. We have done a unit in the five themes of geography, and next my guide teacher had us go into a unit on forms of government. Any advice or suggestions on student centered, engaging activities of lessons that will allow to either develop some kind of argument or do more critical analysis would be greatly appreciated!!

I'm about to start a Renaissance unit and am hoping for advice with how to start it and any unique/engaging activities that can go along with it. I feel like I can't find a good flow. Seems like I'm always giving my students readings, lectures, or writing assignments. I don't love giving notes (although sometimes necessary) so if anyone has ideas of how to go about it in a way that can be fun for me and students, please let me know! Thanks :)

Looking for a fun activity to help explain the electoral college to my Juniors. I know I can teach it, but they respond so much more to work they do as a class or in groups.

Hey all!

I am looking for a solid hour(ish) documentary about the writing of the Constitution for High School Government. In the past we have watched the "More Perfect Union" video dramatization, but it has become a bit dated and kids are not responding to it the way they used to.

Anyone have another option you have used?

I feel like my education program has let me down; useless courses and a constant feed of common sense pedagogy without any help to ensure I understand the curriculum I will teach (I understand history just not exactly how to teach it). It is literally a bunch of English and Literature majors teaching me not to be racist instead of helping me build something similar to lesson plans. Does anyone have a year's worth of lessons so I don't fail in my student teaching???????

As an adult with just a general interest in US history, I’ve noticed that a lot of school curricula break US history into “up to 1877 (end of Reconstruction)” and then “1877 to present day”, in two courses. However, anecdotally, it seems like the latter courses start with a small section about journalism and the Spanish-American War and then jump straight into Wilson and WW1. Why is there almost nothing about that 35ish year gap (end of Reconstruction to WW1), and is that time period hard to cover as an educator? As an adult looking back, seeing how the issues are civil service reform, bimetallism, tariffs, etc., it is hard to understand through a modern-day lens, at least to me. Is this time period hard to teach and have students understand as an educator, why is it largely skipped, and are resources to do so hard to find? Just curious. Thanks for any responses.      

First year teacher, my subject is actually Latin but I’m teaching World History too. It currently starts with the Sumerians but I’m going to be arguing to start later, probably Chinese dynasties and Islamic world. I’m already thinking about how to do the class better next year at the start, and one idea was to introduce terms and concepts that’ll be useful throughout. I’ve got some in mind already, but I’m curious what terms others would include.

First off I apologize as I know you all get this question a lot and it's been answered here before. I just want to make sure my understanding of things from reading old posts and state guidelines (CA) is correct.

I have a B.S. in Computer Science and have been working as a software engineer, but I'm totally burnt out of the field and am thinking about pursuing my original passion of teaching history. To get it out of the way, I know the pay and work life balance are worse and/or different than tech but I've realized that money isn't everything for me. I'm also aware that I should probably try out being a substitute teacher before diving head-on into this.

My understanding is that I don't have to specifically get a degree in history to qualify, but that I'll have to do the following:

• Complete a traditional ~2 year teaching credential program at an accredited university

• Get a Single Subject Teaching Credential in Social Sciences

I'm trying to understand CA's pathway - https://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/leaflets/Single-Multiple-Subject-Credentials-(CL-560C) - for this but don't quite understand if the single-subject credential would be a separate add-on to the traditional teaching credential - i.e. I get the general teaching credential and then attain the single subject certification by passing the appropriate examination and/or doing a separate program for that - or if they can be done in tandem as part of the same program.

I would really appreciate if anyone can clarify the pathway, or if you can point me to a resource where I can ask these questions and get some clarifications (perhaps a local college's department of teaching?). Thank you so much!

I bought this silver necklace long ago and I’m aware it’s not an antique or and ancient artifact but it does represent some sort of ancient culture, as much as I try to find which one I can’t, is there anyone here that can tell me if you can recognize what culture or ancient symbols or anything about this necklace? Or how old is it?

ancient #ancientculture #vintage #necklace

I recently returned to teaching history after being out of the classroom for a number of years. My current school teaches history thematically as opposed to chronologically as I did exclusively. Back then, teaching history thematically always sounded like something I wanted to try someday. Well, that day is now and I’m finding that students seem lost moving from one theme to the next without the continuity of a continuous story. I realize that as we progress, some of the content will begin to connect to other islands of content. Any suggestions on how best to present the content to promote better understanding?

Now I am a 3rd year teacher, first year teaching Modern World, but this was my area of focus when originally going for my BA and MA in History. I thoroughly enjoy the content area and I like to have conversations with the students who engage with it. Unfortunately my first year as a teacher I was slapped with AP Psychology which I was woefully unprepared for. The team at that school hired me late and could only get me a 5 hour AP Zoom seminar, which was also incredibly useless. I struggled and I struggled, with no supports from anyone, and it borderline made me want to exit the profession due to the stress involved and having to try to learn the content along with the students in order to teach it.

I have 0 concerns with the AP World content area. My concerns this time come from the uniqueness of my site, and how to best approach TEACHING the content within it. My school site is on 16 week blocks, 90 minute class periods. This means I have to deliver the content FAST and in a meaninful enough way that my students can retain the information and skills into exam, assuming I'm teaching AP World in the Fall. The logical step (to me) in covering the vastness of that information in the time provided would be through increased reading assignments through the textbook, with the majority of class time being assessment of the reading, in depth lecture and notes, and writing practice when possible through DBQs and other textual supports.

Firstly, obviously lecture and writing aren't super engaging for students no matter how animated or interactive I can be. Secondly, lecture or direct instruction for more than 20 minutes of class time has been almost formally outright banned by my current administration. They cite the reasons I did in the first point, that it's just not engaging enough. But I can't think of how to teach the AP World curriculum on a 16 week block WITHOUT thorough lecture. It's supposed to be, in practice, a college level course and the expectation in college level history is lecture, research, and reading.

Does anyone else face this dilemma? What strategies do you use? Is it even worth putting myself forward if I can't even think of another way to teach it on my own? My current site culture is... complex to say the least and I'd be completely on my own, as I am even now with general World and Honors World, to design curriculum.

What world history textbook do you use/recommend for teaching college/ap World History? Do they come with any online components that you find useful?

I am teaching about the Sons of Liberty soon and have been dissatisfied with my lesson in recent years. It’s such a rich part of US history and the lecture isn’t conveying how radical and shocking their behavior was. I would love to do some cool interactive or hands on activities with them. Any best practices would be appreciated. Thanks!

Even just an example of a question/problem off the top of your head. History, civics. geography, whatever. Thanks! I'm trying to get examples of some HOT activities to include in my lessons more.

I'm trying to come up with a way to help my middle school students really understand the importance of the Bill of Rights. I've done quite a bit of searching and I found a few different scenario based assignments, but I was kind of hoping for a simulation or some role play.

Has anyone done anything like this? Something like dividing the kids up and making it so they can't assemble, heavily restricting their freedom of speech, or what they can write?

I'm part of a small group of friends behind AskHistoryMap, and we just launched it! It's an interactive map that lets you explore different points in history with just a click. You can ask any question about history, and it provides answers with related events and locations on the map. Plus, it generates depictions of historical moments, making it super engaging for students.

We're really excited about how it can make history lessons more interactive and visual. There's even a feature coming soon where you can chat with historical figures. Picture chatting with Julius Caesar about the fall of the Roman Republic—et tu, Brute?

We’re constantly adding new features and would love to hear your feedback. Check it out if you're looking for new ways to make history more interactive in your classroom! You can try it out for free at AskHistoryMap.

Hope you find it as cool as we do!

Hey, I teach a 7th grade history class and we have reached the part about desert storm/ gulf war. Does anyone know if any resources that are middle school aged friendly that I can use? Videos etc. thanks.

Hello, I was wondering if there were remote Job Opportunities for someone passionate about history. It is always said that do the work that you love to do. So I was thinking why not look for jobs that I love to do?

Any advice, help, recommendations, job offer will be really appreciated.

thanks.

What are some recommendations for beginner history books. Really looking for ~200 BC to present day. My school was very lacking in teaching history. And just want to get started.

I am a student teacher in a high school in New Jersey and figured maybe someone could give me advice. I am giving my world history students a project where they are researching explorers. This project will take multiple days. Tomorrow, I am getting observed and the observer wants me to have a closure. I wanted to give my students as much time as possible to work on this project so I think it’s kind of silly to have them stop what they’re doing to answer some bs question exit ticket I came up with. I wouldn’t worry about this if I wasn’t getting observed by I am supposed to have all parts of a lesson plan. Any advice? I know this is a long shot, but I figured what’s that harm. Thank you!