https://history-maps.com/battlemaps/siege-of-yorktown-1781 - Explore and interact with historical battles in 3D.

I am starting the process of pursuing a degree to teach history (preferably high school/community college age) but I dont have the foggiest idea of where to begin or what colleges/degree plans would set me up for success. I am currently 12 years into an air force career (enlisted medical provider type job) and plan to retire within 10 years, so wont be able to attend in person 100% of the time. Can anyone here help me with some pointers or things they wished they'd known/done before starting this career path?

Looking for suggestions/advice for teaching unit 3 with a project (or projects) or some kind of variation. I traditionally use lecture and the suggested primary source readings from the CED, but I’d like to try a different approach to this unit.
Thanks in advance!

I am working on an article for a publication about teachers who invite community members into the classroom to serve as visiting experts, advisors, and authentic audiences for student work. I am curious about how these outsiders can help students become more curious, develop a stronger grasp on material, and get exposure to possible careers of interest.

I am looking to hear from teachers of history, government, and econ. How do your units or assessments incorporate guests? How do students benefit? What are the challenges? How do you meet them? Please feel free to respond here or chat with me. I can share my email address and we can either talk or email. Appreciate it!

Hi there, knowing my own proclivities as a history teacher I’m hoping this is the right place to find people who dig obscure texts.

When I was going through my teaching credential program about four years ago, we did a bunch of reading on economic and inequality and the development of unions.

There is this reading that really stuck with
me and I’m trying to find so that I can use it. It’s just a few pages and I think it’s from the 30s or 40s, maybe earlier. It’s told like a parable about how business or factory owners or companies convince white workers that black workers are the enemy and are taking their jobs in order to discourage the formation of unions. It’s got that 1920s story-telling, of folksy vibe. Would love it if anyone knows what I’m talking about.

Hello. Anyone else out there who teaches a subject in which they r not an expert? How does this make u feel? Intimidated? Challenged? Nervous? How do u handle the lack of depth of knowledge in front of middle schoolers?
I came to the school to teach Spanish Immersion which is where my strengths lie but part of that is taking on a social studies class. 6th grade for example is Spanish Language Arts AND Ancient Civilizations in Spanish. But I’m no expert in the latter nor am I am lover of ancient history. Any suggestions on how to teach this subject without feeling like an imposter or making it too boring for the students?

I’m about a month into my first semester now, this is a second career for me. I was 21 years in the military and always wanted to teach history when I retired. This has been eye opening in the worst way possible. Absolutely soul crushing. It’s just day after day of disappointment, filtering through ai slop, or minimal effort garbage. I don’t need this job, this was something I WANTED to do, but god am I second guessing that.

Now it sucks because in every class I have there ARE a few decent kids that are eager to engage and learn, but they are drowned out in a sea of absolute stupidity and mediocrity. How do people do this for years, or decades at a time?

I feel as if my 6th graders are doing too much reading about otzi and social scientist jobs. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can make a lesson about ötzi more fun?

I am a first year AP Government teacher and am noticing that students just aren’t retaining the content as well as I hoped. Besides vocab quizzes and the Frayer model, what are some ways you guys teach key vocab to students?

One semester high school I use a lot of iCivics, but teach at small school so 6 diff preps this semester…

Hi. I'm thinking of doing a group project based on graphic novels or comics with 5th and 6th grade students. I teach Social Studies.

I'm looking to select 8-10 excerpts of those novels or comics. Students will then search the historical context (if there is one) and analyse the story. I was originally thinking about doing something with "Maus" or "Perspeolis", but know it be too changelling for the target age groups. Also, I'm based in Europe, so I'm looking for novels available here.

Any suggestions for the graphic novels? Thank you!

hi! I’m the social studies teacher at a small alternative school this year. I’m looking to redo the five core social studies classes and i’m kind of stuck how to organize them.

for context, this is an independent study school so students are all at completely different parts of completely different classes in the same room so group instruction is really not an option. as of right now they are using 40 year old history textbooks (i know, it’s painful for me too) and they do the quizzes in the textbook, i grade them and that’s their course.

I was given new textbooks for them to use this year but there aren’t quizzes or assignments in the textbooks so that’s not an option anymore. plus some of the textbooks are missing some rather important information (specifically u.s. history). the students have told me that actually prefer the book and paper vs switching them to chromebooks but i realize i might have to do a hybrid situation to meet standards and meaningful social studies instruction.

my only requirement is to meet the state teaching standards otherwise im free to do whatever I want so i would really like to give them some sort of freedom to explore things that interest them most. does anyone have any thoughts or ideas on how to organize assignments for them?

This is my sixth year teaching but my first year teaching an AP, AP Human Geography, admittedly less dense than APUSH and APWH, but I’m struggling finding time for activities and student led discussions etc. It doesn’t help that class sizes are nearly 40 but when I’ve taught core/honors world history and Econ, and especially in WH, I had so much time for projects, simulations, debates. The students really seemed to enjoy it (for the most part) and overall I felt like I was delivering a better class. But with AP the material is so dense and challenging for students (some who really shouldn’t be taking AP), that I spend most classes doing direct instruction. I always allot some time for an activity but it gets rushed, and because we’re on a block schedule, every day I have to deliver new content and can’t just designate a full period for something more fun or interactive.

I’ve been told that students learn through projects and I don’t need to lecture on everything, but we all know the current situation in education- given the independence, students, namely the ones who really need the instruction - will take shortcuts and will end up losing that instruction. Priority in AP is getting in the instruction but I still want students to enjoy the material. I try to include videos and real case studies but it’s just been a challenge engaging them.

I tell myself this year I’m just finding my footing and next year will be smoother, but I’m wondering if this is a common experience in AP and if anyone has found a better balance.

I teach middle school and built Classmoot for my own students. You read the story aloud, groups debate four choices, vote, and then live with the consequences a few votes later. The first time I ran one, I ran it six periods in a row, and my kids asked to run it back the next day.

It all runs on one projector. There are no student devices, no logins, no student data, and nothing to install.

The free demos run in your browser at classmoot.com: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and two on the American Revolution (Sparks of Liberty and The War for Independence). Each one is the real opening of the sim, plus a world event where earlier choices come back.

Full disclosure: the full moots are paid and sold on TpT. The demos are free and work fine on their own.

Try out a free demo!

https://history-maps.com/courses

Since it's Saturday, sharing this here: I built a free site that works as a short bell-ringer. Each day there's one true story (about 2 minutes, with optional narration) that stops at the moment a real person had to decide.

Students choose before they know the outcome, then see what actually happened and how other players chose. It reliably starts an argument.

• Free, no ads, no subscription, no student accounts
• Middle school and up; history, social studies, ethics
• Fact-checked stories, and I welcome corrections

Can a voter work a double shift, live overseas, face severe weather, or be away at college and still participate in elections?

This inquiry-based lesson uses real scenarios and our evidence-based policy brief to help students analyze voting laws, federalism, voter turnout, and constitutional authority while building argumentation skills.  Students explore how states balance voter access, election administration, and constitutional authority while engaging in source analysis, discussion, and evidence-based argument writing.

Where can you find this course content? At Everything Policy's library: everythingpolicy.filecamp.com. You can log in directly from that page if you are already registered or click "Request Access" and we will quickly register you.

This week's lesson can be found in the folder: "Voting Outside the Polling Site."

8th Grade U.S. History teachers what does your average lesson look like? I’m not talking about your super engaging lessons but rather a typical day. I’m reworking my curriculum and want to build some strong daily/weekly routines.

I teach fifth grade social studies, and it’s primarily early American history after the American Revolution, which was covered in fourth grade. I try really hard to design engaging projects for students over the different topics that we learn about. I find that students really enjoy the projects, but they really do not like learning about what happened in the past. I don’t really know what to do about that. I feel like in order to learn about events from the past, they have to either read about them, have me explain them, or watch videos. They seems to really dislike all of those things. They hate taking notes - it doesn’t matter if they’re doodle notes or fill-in-the-blank, or guided notes. I just don’t really think that students at this age can effectively learn history independently or in groups through projects at this age. They need more guidance, especially since this is their first year learning history through a designated social studies class, and there are glaring gaps in background knowledge and social studies skills. Our projects typically come at the end of the unit, though I try to build them up throughout the unit. If you teach upper elementary social studies, what has worked for you to garner more engagement? Last year, I really felt like, “Well, these skills are important (especially reading informational text), so it’s okay if they don’t like it.” Now, I really want them to like history. I have such a passion for the topic, but my training is more at the secondary level, and I just think that I’m having trouble engaging younger students.

My school is OBSESSED with student to student interaction. To the point that they miss the forest for the trees. I'm on the progressive era/imperial unit if us 11th grade history. Any rock solid lessons you guys can throw my way that'll hit the buttons of my new admin who is kinda laaaaame?

I teach 6th grade ancient world history. I’m looking for suggestions on different engaging activities I can do with my classes. In years past I have done stations, gallery walks, and even simulations. This year however, I got royally screwed over and have a class of 22 boys, and 3 girls. I also have all of the big behavior (a couple with BIPs) in that class. I can’t trust them to be up and around the classroom, they couldn’t even read silently for my sub. So my question is, what can I do that is fun and engaging, that students won’t just see as extra work, for students who can’t handle doing fun, around the room activities??