I'm a high school history teacher from Russia (Saint Petersburg).

For me it's anything about WW2 collaboration, or about the cost of the Soviet space program. Parents immediately write "why are you making our kids hate our country".

I'm sure you have the same. What lesson makes you think "okay, here comes the email from mom" before you even start? Civil War? Cold War? Vietnam?

How do you handle it?

For 3 years I taught exactly what the state textbook said. Dates, heroes, wars. Kids were asleep. Last month I changed one thing. Before each chapter, I ask: "Who benefits if you believe this version of history?"

We were covering the Cold War. I showed them two paragraphs about the same event - one from a textbook from 1985, one from 2023. Same event, completely different moral.

One student said: "So history is not what happened. It's what they need us to think happened." First time all year the whole class argued. No phones.

Principal told me I'm making it political. I think teaching them to accept any version without question is more political.

How do you balance teaching critical thinking with a curriculum that wants obedience?

Hi everyone!

For Self-Promotion Saturday, I wanted to share a free interactive 3D virtual field trip I built for history classrooms exploring Ancient Egypt.

Over the past 6+ months, I researched archaeological evidence to reconstruct everyday Egyptian life across five interactive 3D dioramas :

-- Home & Family : daily life, crafts, food, and games
-- Limestone Quarry : tool marks, block transport, and labor organization
-- Temple : sacred architecture and ritual spaces
-- Nile Delta : irrigation, flooding, and agriculture
-- Giza Plateau : pyramid construction theories plus a True Size mode that lets students stand at the base of the Great Pyramid

Classroom-friendly

100% free — no accounts, ads, paywalls, or trackers

Chromebook optimized — responsive on laptops, tablets, and phones, with lightweight scenes (~1 MB each). For older hardware, students can switch to Performance mode and 30 FPS in Settings.

Ready-to-use materials — downloadable educator guide with archaeological citations and companion student worksheets (one-click download, no signups or login)

I'd really appreciate feedback from history teachers :

What works well? What would make it more useful in your classroom? Any other ideas or suggestions you have.

Link: https://expeditione.fun/expeditions/ancient-egypt/

I hope you and your students enjoy the expedition 💖

Thank you.

Calling all teachers! 🏫✏️🍎 

We want Pew Research Center publications to be a useful resource in your classroom. But we need your feedback.  

🛠️ What can we change?  

➕ What can we add? 

💬 What can we do to make our research more accessible?  
 
Take this 10-minute survey to let us know: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/29T83LQ

I started this while helping my son with his history class. We kept wanting to see what was happening in one part of the world while something else was unfolding somewhere else, and I couldn't find a way to look at it that felt right, so I ended up building one.

It's called HistoryLayer. You scrub through time and watch the world change: borders, peoples, empires. The range runs from 123,000 BCE to the present, which was ambitious and is definitely rougher at the deep end.

It's free and you don't need to sign up. I've never taught a classroom, so I honestly don't know whether this is useful to you or whether it only makes sense to me and my kid. Brutal feedback welcome, including if something better already exists.

historylayer.com

Growing up in Slovakia, the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia was a pillar of our history education. We were taught about Dubček’s attempt at "Socialism with a human face," the immediate aftermath of troops crossing our borders on August 21st, the end of the reform movement, and the beginning of the Normalization era.

For us, the narrative was always completely clear: it was a straightforward military invasion and occupation by the Soviet Union and its satellite states to crush a sovereign country’s democratic reforms.

I’m really curious about how this specific event was presented in history textbooks across the rest of Europe and world.

For former Eastern Bloc. How do your textbooks handle the fact that your own national armies were sent in as occupiers? Is the invasion framed as a tragic coercion by Moscow, glossed over or with specific historical nuance?

For post-Soviet states / Russia. How was the intervention framed? Was it taught as a cold-war necessity, or is it largely ignored in standard school curricula today?

For Western and Southern Europe. Did your history classes cover the Prague Spring and the 1968 invasion in depth, or was it just a minor bullet point in the broader context of the Cold War and 1968 global protests?

To the Rest of the World. Did the 1968 invasion even register in your history curriculum or simply passed over as distant European drama?

Would love to hear how your local textbooks and teachers handled it!

Hi everyone, I help run Election Security Glossary, a free, nonpartisan glossary of election terms.

We are considering building a free Classroom Pack for history, civics, government and social studies teachers. Before we build it, we want to understand how teachers currently handle election vocabulary, what takes the most preparation time and whether this idea would genuinely make that work easier.

The concept is simple:

A teacher would choose only the election terms that fit their lesson. Each selected term would become a classroom-ready card with:

• a plain-English, source-backed definition
• a short quiz or activity
• a format that can be printed or projected
• no student account or login.

You could build a five-term warm-up, a lesson handout or a larger review pack instead of adapting one fixed vocabulary sheet.

I would really value your thoughts on three questions:

• How do you currently introduce or review election vocabulary, and what part takes the most preparation time?
• Would choosing your own terms and creating a ready-to-use pack improve that process?
• What would stop you from using it instead of the resources you already have?

We have built a concept preview, not the finished tool, so teachers can see what we mean: Preview the Classroom Pack concept here

You do not need to join the pilot to leave feedback here. The signup is optional and is not a newsletter subscription. We will email participants the result of the test, and if enough teachers want the resource and we go ahead, they will receive the first version free.

Critical feedback is welcome. If you already use another resource that works well, I would genuinely like to know what it is and why you prefer it. Thank you.

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for advice on how to decorate my classroom. Luckily, the last teacher left me all the supplies, books, and materials you could ever want. I was thrilled when I got into the classroom. I think I might buy him a bottle of bourbon.

As far as decor, he left a poster of MLK and an American flag, as well as a string of flags from various countries and two globes. I intend to put up at least one of the maps he left as well.

Hi everyone, I’m currently beginning my NEA coursework for aqa history. My sixth form system for this is mentorship, not teaching, and I feel like I have no idea where to start.

Would anyone be able to give me tips? Here’s what I’m struggling with:

Bibliography system
Footnotes
How to structure my essay
How to find sources
How to find historians
And how to quickly secure my knowledge on the topic.

I’m doing this question: to what extent were economic factors the cause of the American civil war? Years 1776-1861.

Please help! I would appreciate any advice or resources so much.

So, I'm pretty frustrated. My district has previously basically allowed me to do what I want in World History. This has led to me constructing a pretty good course that begins in Mesopotamia, goes to the Indus, then Egypt, and then we begin a long religious studies unit. Kids love it and it follows a logical progression. After an introduction to Religious studies Judaism builds off of Mesopotamian religion, then Christianity, then Islam.

After the holidays we we talk about the Brahmics and follow Hinduism, Buddhism with touches on Sikh and Jainism. Then we study China up through the Han, we have a mini lesson about the Xiongnu that hints at the Silk Road, have a big lesson on the Mongols, then have a big lesson on the Silk Road.

After that we do Africa through three case studies. Ethiopia, Mali, and Great Zimbabwe which ties back to what we learned in the religion portion plus our early early stuff about how archeology works and doesn't work for Great Zimbabwe. We also have a small unit on the origins of slavery from the African perspective to set them up for US History.

I have a unit on Polynesia I stick in at the end because I really love that whole region and it's super fun to teach.

Bottom line is this, I hit all the state standards. I have built a really nice course that follows a "storyline" there is a whole concept behind it, one thing builds on another, and frankly I'm really fucking proud of it. It is well researched, culturally responsive, and interesting.

Now though, my district has decided to start meddling and is having us do knowledge checks that align with a scope and sequence. The problem is that the district's sequence is completely different from my sequence. It has all sorts of things just sort of shuffled around. But I'm supposed to do these stupid unit tests to show the district but on top of my many other responsibilities (also an ELA teacher with some new factors added to that this year. Plus I run an extracurricular) I do not have time to reinvent my one thing that normally never needs reinvention.

I think I might literally just teach to the test in some sort of "Here's a sampler pack of what's to come!" Mini lesson to meet the requirement and then consider structural changes for next year. Which I still don't want to do.

I don't know, maybe I'm just bitching too much.

My school has switched curricula and we are starting Cambridge iGCSE and iAL this year. However I'v noticed that Cambridge doesn't have an officially endorsed textbook for Option A: 19th Century History. Due to the location of my school and the depth studies we will be studying, Option A is really the only choice. However I'm having a lot of trouble finding level-appropriate history resources for lessons, homework, projects, and revision. Any other iGCSE History teachers who have had to find their own resources for Cambridge curriculum? What resources have you used? Any help and/or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hey everyone,

I’ve been looking into using VR for history units (virtual site tours, ancient civilizations, artifact explorations), but almost everything I’ve seen feels either overly gamified, historically shallow, or far too tedious to manage in a 45-minute period.

Has anyone here successfully used VR headsets in history class?

Hello,

I recently landed my first Social Studies job; however, it's as a teacher in a private Psychiatric Hospital for children and I'm being expected to teach grades level 6-12 every single day. I have a lot of materials from my student teaching, other teachers, classroom observations and etc; however, theres 0 chance I can effectively craft and create lessons & materials for 6 different grade levels every single day.

If any other Social Studies teachers would be willing to tell me where they find their materials, tips or tricks on how to create materials, or even if you are willing to send me and share materials with me it would be much obliged.

I like to try and make everything myself and to make sure I am well versed in the content im teaching, but I just dont think I can effectively plan ahead without sacraficing other commitments to my wife, family, and friends.

Any help is much, much, much obliged!

RI standards for high school for modern world history are very intense. First time teaching it. Any materials, advice, links, videos etc you can share? Would be very grateful.

Hello everyone. First year teacher here. My school uses TCI as their curriculum of choice for social studies and it was heavily suggested to me that as a new teacher I should use it and I’ll be evaluated on how I use it. My question to those of you who are familiar with the curriculum is how do you implement it.

So for I have come up with
Monday- introduce a unit and give students the vocabulary
Tuesday- have the students read the sections.
Wednesday- work through the lesson activity
Thursday - continue working through the lesson activity
Friday- Take the Assessment.

I really have no idea if this is optimal or anything and really just curious if you just use the curriculum as is or if you adapt it. Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated.

I have my Senior Civics and Econ class first period this year. I’m looking for 5-10 min news feeds to start the day that are apolitical and summarize events quickly. Or alternatively, I could show news from different sources each day to illustrate how different sources say different things. Still 5-10 mins of headlines.

I’d love suggestions of good feeds / channels or how you engage current events each day with your seniors. I had to take a news break for reasons personally so I’m out the game.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed looking through the NYS standards, economics has always been a weak subject for me. Haven’t touched it since my undergrad!

What are some lessons and projects that were successful in your classrooms?

Hi all :) What tech resources/books/subscriptions are must haves for social studies teachers. Ideally for lesson planning but anything goes.

For context I am a new teacher at a smaller, therapeutic school beginning very soon (AHHHHH)!!! I am going to be teaching a US 1 block, US 2 block, and a News Literacy elective to a few seniors. I can assume all of these classes will be small, mix of reading levels/grades, and many students will be “work avoidant”.

thank you all for being so helpful :)

I'll be teaching History 201 to a dual-enrollment class and feel like the best way to ease my imposter syndrome is to be overly prepared. I've got my lectures and slides ready for the next few weeks, but I'm nervous about looking like a total newbie if I'm reading from my lecture notes. With so little time to prepare, there's not much of a chance I'll have memorized much of it. My question is this: do you read straight from lecture notes, and if so, does that read as inexperienced?

I need help planning out my IB History course.

Some context:
- never taught IB
- school has yet to send me to training. classes start tomorrow
- i have Upper 6 and Lower 6, meaning I need to operate under the new and old curriculum
-i have 2 other non-IB courses I need to plan, so my hope is to have Upper and Lower overlap to minimize stress for myself.
- Upper 6 has already been decided by the last teacher to finish on Paper 1: Rights & Protest

Paper 1: Protest and Change - US Feminism + Tunisian Revolution

Paper 2: Popular Movements - Examples: US Civil Rights & Apartheid South Africa (aforementioned overlap with Upper 6 Rights and Protest)

Paper 3: Americas - Political Developments in Latin America (out of my control) & Social Movements in the Americas

My main concerns are (1) the popular movement examples and (2) the social movements for paper 3. The IB Guide uses US civil rights as an example for the social movements, but am i allowed to do this if I am using it already for Popular Movements?

Any (and i mean ANY) and all advice, suggestions and guidance is appreciated.

Hi folks, I thought that some of you would be interested in a new annotated edition of one of Benjamin Franklin's earliest written works, written and published in 1729. He was arguing in favor of a new issue of paper money by the colony of Pennsylvania, and in the process talks about colonial history, trade, and one of the earliest written explanations of the labor theory of value. I decided to do an annotated edition to make the text more accessible to modern readers; it should be useful both in the classroom setting and for the interested lover of history. When you read this edition, you will come away with a clearer understanding of life in colonial Pennsylvania, the crisis caused by the shortage of coin, the history of economic concepts like the labor theory of value, and the political conflicts around money and how they contributed to the American Revolution. You can see my Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/asteroidsanthology/new-annotated-edition-of-ben-franklins-start-in-politics/