In 2016, I decided that I wanted to help my students understand the election process a bit better. Often times, my student’s questions made me realize that they had very little understanding or knowledge about the U.S. process for picking a president. I wanted them to know more about this process, and I needed them […]
How I Made a VIP Section Work in My Classroom
This post contains affiliate links. If I earn anything, I’ll use it to buy more prizes for my VIP section. They say thanks! I created a V.I.P. section for my classroom two years ago. It was a simple idea, for a simple reason, and it was one of my best ideas in my years as […]
Teaching History from an Anti-Racist Lens
When I was first approached to contribute to this blog series, I was a bit intimidated. I love teaching American history and encouraging critical thinking skills in my students. I like to think I’ve been doing the work to my lessons more anti-racist – still, I know that I’m not an expert. Also, I’m white […]
Developing an Efficient and Effective Grading System
As a teacher, creating an efficient grading system is one of the most important tasks you can do to help you manage your time and your teaching practice. Still, despite its importance, the process of developing an efficient grading system isn’t discussed much in college teacher courses. The amount of grading responsibility might not even […]
4 Fun Websites for Teaching Geography Interactively
There are so many fun interactive geography websites available for practicing and teaching students about the world, Below, I’ve curated a list of my favorite websites to utilize with your students. Even though I don’t teach geography specifically as a course, I’ve found that my students really like to play these in their spare time. […]
3 Easy Ways to Incorporate Hexagonal Thinking in Social Studies
I’ve always admired Lea Hansen’s Instagram stream. When she started posting about hexagonal thinking in middle school, it got me thinking about all the ways this process incorporated critical thinking. Read on to see how she utilizes this thinking strategy in her Social Studies classroom. I’m a little addicted to hexagonal thinking activities. After attending […]
A Critical Thinking One Pager Assessment
If you exist on the internet at all as a teacher, you know that one-pagers are all the rage right now. It makes sense. They’re easy to differentiate, they’re fairly easy for students to understand, and they’re fairly easy for the teacher to grade also. I’ve see many examples online, and I’ve used them on […]
How to Talk to Your Students About War
If you’ve been teaching history long enough, you’ve probably had some students in your classroom that seemed a little too excited about war. Gross wartime injuries are “awesome!” Students think that the solution to any confrontation is to just, “drop a giant bomb on them.” When I first started teaching, these comments were too common, […]
Black History Month Isn’t Enough
This month (February) is Black History Month in the United States. Therefore, I’ve seen many posts around the internet that highlight the stories of individuals who had previously been written out of the narrative. I applaud this effort. I love seeing these stories utilized more in classrooms, and I think it’s great that educators are […]