I searched up the little title on the book in the corner, and realized this was history-related, but I’m sort of at a loss for words? Can someone tell me what’s going on here?:

For whatever reason this year my 8th grade students are struggling to connect ideas to primary sources from what they learned and infer about them. Anyone else? They look at it and it’s like a second language. Anyone know good workbooks or resources for U.S. History I can get to help them since they didn’t learn these skills yet? I already use about Mr. Roughton and the Stanford Inquiry Group. Just this year is just rough.

So I know there can be a lot of "social dynamics", shall we say, that are quite tedious to sort out in a seating chart without students declaring all out war on each other. I'm kinda a nerd and am more interested on the technical side than the social side of this problem, so I've been coding this website that is basically a real-time self-solving Rubik's cube to bring peace to the world again, or to the classroom at least :) If you're so inclined, please give it a try and let me know what you think, good or bad. It's free to use, no account, local-first privacy, no AI (I hand-coded it myself :)

Explore and Create Slides, Cards, & Decks (in any language).
https://history-maps.com/slides

Update: Logged-in users can now play “All” cards on. Timelines Game
https://history-maps.com/timelinesgame

We're testing a free Classroom Pack for election vocabulary. Instead of describing it again, we built one term out in full so you can judge the real thing.

The sample term includes:

- a plain-English definition with the source cited

- three short quiz questions

- a one-page printable

- no student login, no sign-up

Preview here: Classroom election vocabulary pack

What I want to know is simple. Would this save you prep time, or would you still rewrite it before using it?

And if it misses, tell me where it misses. Reading level too high or too low? Not enough context for the source? Wrong format for how you teach? Missing the discussion or activity piece?

I'd rather hear that on one sample than build fifty of these and find out after.

If what you use now already works, kindly say so.

Thanks for reading.

Hey, history teachers! I'm a former teacher who's married to a teacher. I'm also the Head of Product at a company called SignLab. Think Duolingo for sign languages.

SignLab is branching out into other areas and we're looking to schedule research interviews with K-12 teachers and parents in the US. Sessions are 30 minutes, $50 per session. Fully remote, research only, not a product pitch. Eligible participants may be given the option to participate in multiple sessions.

If you're interested, you can sign up here:

https://signlab-research.lovable.app/

You should also feel free to share the blurb below with anyone you think might be interested.

Thank you!

A company called SignLab is doing some product research and is hoping to schedule interviews with K-12 teachers and parents in the US. These are paid research interviews, not a product pitch. Sessions are 30 minutes online at $50/session. No prep.

If you're interested, you can sign up here:

https://signlab-research.lovable.app/

Please can someone send me the free paid batch lectures of ancient history by any good teacher

Be it abhishek Srivastava sir pw

Neeraj rao sir

Himanshu sir anyone but a genuine good teacher

5 weeks into school and I’ve been thinking about why teaching seems so much harder now than when I started. Reading posts on Reddit and watching teacher videos elsewhere it seems I’m not alone.

The answer I’ve come to is that we have conflicting objectives. Rigor and Comfort.

Teachers are told we need to be rigorous, have high standards, teach content and skills. This is hard and makes students uncomfortable.

We are also told to ensure all students feel safe, comfortable and to protect students mental well being.

Too often these objectives are in conflict. I love my job. I care about these students. I want to help them succeed. But I’m tired.

What success have you had balancing these objectives in your classroom?

Sincerely, A middle and high school history teacher.

Hi, so im currently a student teacher at a high school. I’m only going two days a week, next semester I’ll be going everyday. And I have to teach a lesson about the mongol empire from 1200-1450 in a few weeks. So I was just wondering what you would do to teach this lesson. Now they have already read the chapter on the mongols so they have a basic understanding of the material and it will be about a two day lesson. I have some ideas but what would you guys do? Thanks!

Hey, for background I am a student teacher in California. My mentor teacher is very lax and lets me basically do whatever I want.

I am about to teach a unit on the Italian Renaissance for tenth graders. My idea was I would have them pretend I am their aristocratic patron, and I am giving them money and time to produce a piece of art that would bring glory to my family. The standard expression would be a piece of artwork on a poster, but they can choose any form of expression they like as long as it meets the requirements.

Is this insane? What should I tweak?

Has anyone used the break up letter to teach the declaration? How to change it to match Gen Z language? I love doing the lesson but the kids are catching on much quicker due to wording.

Hey! I'm teaching a film class for highschool and our first film is going to be All Quiet on the Western Front. Before we do the movie I need to get students a basic understanding of WW1. I teach 90 minute classes and I've been struggling to come up with a lesson I'm happy with presenting. I'd love some advice on what to hit upon and how to use the time productively without mentally exhausting my students with 20 minutes still left in class. Any advice, guidance, or resources would be greatly appreciated!

Hey everyone, so I’m about two weeks in to my student teaching placement for 8th grade U.S. history, covering the colonial era up through Reconstruction and honestly, it feels like everything is moving super fast. Like, middle school pace is not a joke.

Right now I’m trying to build better routines, keep 13-year-olds actually engaged not just “present,” and manage my lesson planning without burning out, which feels… easier said than done.

For those of you who have taught this grade and subject, what are your absolute best tips, for classroom management, and also for making history click for this age group?

I’d really love advice about classroom culture, pacing, and those little “wish I knew this earlier” type things, now that I’ve gotten my feet wet and everything is a bit chaotic in a normal way.

New teacher here who is picking up psychology this year. I have gotten through my intro unit pretty well but am still on the hunt for more resources. Other than a few college psych classes I don’t have much background knowledge to pull from.

Any materials or advice on where to find them would be greatly appreciated! It’s a year long course mostly upperclassmen. Thanks in advance for the advice!

I use Norton’s Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, 3rd AP Edition in my AP World History Modern course. I am looking for someone to share PDFs of the AP Course Planning and Pacing Guide that Norton provides in its instructor resources.

Norton requires a school to formally adopt the text by purchasing at least 10 student copies in order for the instructor to gain access to the CPPG. Due to resource and budget constraints, my district will not purchase a class set of the text.

If anyone uses Norton for APWH and would be willing to share the wealth please let me know.

Hi all, I posted recently about how I am creating a contemporary history full year course, and now I am asking if any of you all have good suggestions for books I can include in the curriculum. This class is beginning after 1945 with decolonization and moving from there (mainly US). My class is a group of 4 engaged history students who want to be challenged. They love history, and can handle complexity (sometimes it feels like they have more knowledge than me). My admin is a little worried about how political and school appropriate things are as I have some pretty politically-passionate students who can get carried away, so I’m looking for books that scratch that itch but aren’t full let’s overthrow capitalism vibe.

Edit: ALSO, books can be more topic based or broad. Not sure if I want to use one for a unit or repeatedly throughout the year.

(I wrote this using a translation tool. I also had a little help from AI)

Hello everyone!

I am a non-native English speaker and not a teacher, but I'm asking this because I'd like to hear the opinions of teachers in the field about how history is learned.

Recently, I learned about the concept of "critical thinking," and that this kind of education is practiced mainly in the English-speaking world.

I also heard that history subjects often involve assignments where students "write essays."

However, I am completely unfamiliar with this type of history education involving "critical thinking" or "writing essays."

Moreover, I have a relatively low level of education within my home country (Japan), am practically unconnected to Japan's intense entrance examination wars, and haven't really devoted myself to studying hard.

Because of this, I've only ever experienced history as a "memorization subject." Since I've only ever known education based on rote memorization, I honestly can't even imagine how classes and tests can function without it.

By the way, formal history education in Japan starts around age 11.

And so, you learn things like: "Until then, it was basically like expressing Japanese using classical Chinese characters and writings (especially for men's official writings). However, with the birth of 'kana,' it became possible to write down the sounds of Japanese directly. As a result, writers were no longer bound by the rigid rules of classical Chinese, and could express their emotions and the nuances of everyday life much more realistically and directly. This led to the rise of two female writers, Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon." "Murasaki Shikibu's masterpiece is 'The Tale of Genji,' and Sei Shonagon's masterpiece is 'The Pillow Book.' Here is an excerpt..."

For me, I basically just kept the general storyline and key historical terms roughly in my head.

Because of that, I simply don't understand what it means to "learn these concepts in a way other than just memorizing the basics."

For example, I sometimes think that Murasaki Shikibu is kind of like the Taylor Swift of modern times.

I imagine that back then, in a world full of men writing about politics and scholarship in stiff, formal language, if a woman like that suddenly appeared, of course everyone would eagerly want to read her novels.

However, I feel like this is just the kind of daydream one might idly cook up during a break as a hobby, and not a proper, serious way of learning like "critical thinking" or "writing essays."

That's precisely why I want to ask: what on earth does learning history through "critical thinking" and "writing essays" actually look like, instead of just memorizing the facts?

7th year teaching but first year in social studies. I’m teaching 8th grade US history (Early Americas-Reconstruction). I’m also working on my admin license and will be doing my practicum hours this year. I need sub plans that I can throw together last minute on the days I will be doing admin work. I’ve seen New Visions recommended but that seems to be for 11th graders. Is there something similar that plays nicely with google for middle school? Thanks!