Month: September 2019

Writing skills are central to a good social studies curriculum. Students need to be able to share their ideas through writing in order to impact their immediate communities, nation, and world. Many history educators struggle with writing assignments because they do not have a central and consistent writing approach. The writing approach that I used in my U.S. History classes was the RACE writing strategy. This strategy was also used by the Language Arts department …

A Writing Strategy For History Classes Read More »

The quality of online education is dependent on many of the same factors as in-person education. The teacher’s personality, willingness to form relationships, curriculum, and pedagogy are influential in both a physical and online space. Online teaching is not automatically bad, just as an educator being directly in front of their students does not always create a good teaching environment. An online teacher is still working with people, which means they still must stay respectful …

Can We Teach History Online? Read More »

With one-to-one technology, where each student has a school issued computer or Ipad, there are more opportunities to do flipped classroom. For example, once a week my students would watch a short video and respond to simple questions in a Google form. These videos would also be used for contexts when students answered bigger questions each week. How I Created The Videos I would find the videos on Youtube and use a Google Form to …

Video Lectures with Google Form Assessments Read More »

Over the last seven years as an educator, I have asked myself, and others; “why don’t teachers change their curriculum?” I was often frustrated with the slow progress of curriculum and pedagogical changes, and at times infuriated by teachers that I thought were blockading progress. My exasperations were not alone, many other teachers, administrators and graduates of education have shared their frustrations with me. I believe the main reason why teaching develops slowly or remains …

A Teachers Power Over Curriculum Read More »

Projects that allow students to choose their own topic are powerful. They allow students to discover new learning and challenge the official textbook narrative. Furthermore, students of color, of low-economic status, students with gender fluid identities, and female students do not often find narratives in a traditional textbook or curriculum that connect with them. Allowing students to choose their own topics will help them feel like their perspectives fit with American society. When allowing students …

Students Choosing Their Own Project Topics and Finding Resources for Contextualization Read More »