If you’re a secondary teacher, you know how important student motivation is. It’s a long school year and often students more than have the ability to succeed but their motivation comes and goes. I never saw that more than in teaching vocabulary. Just mentioning the word “vocabulary” seemed to make my students’ eyes roll and glaze over. I’m a History teacher, though, and understanding vocabulary is essential to student learning. When I thought about what most motivates my students, I immediately thought of competition. Any review game we played where students were competing was always intense ..read more

We're excited to announce that Toyosi Dada, a graduating senior at Towson High School, has been awarded the 2024 Students of History Scholarship. This prestigious scholarship, which has been awarded each year since 2017, recognizes a college-bound senior who has excelled in history education. Toyosi will receive a $1,000 scholarship to support her studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she plans to further her education. This year marked the first time that applicants were required to submit video essays on their favorite history lessons, as opposed to traditional essays. Toyosi ..read more

History is a tapestry of interconnected events, people, and ideas. Helping students to make connections in your curriculum is a powerful way to deepen their understanding of history and to see its connection to the world today.  An awesome way to promote this understanding is through a fun and interactive classroom game called "Six Degrees of Separation." It's inspired by the old parlor game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" that you might have played in college. In that version, someone picks a random actor and you have to connect them through films and other actors who have appeared tog ..read more

Many teachers avoid bringing current events into the classroom and often for good reason. It's a politically fraught world these days and you don't want to be considered biased or bring up trouble. Some parents are ready to pounce on you for anything. It's understandable to want to stick to your standards. However, current events are a great way to connect your curriculum to the real world and work on social studies skills. Incorporating current events into your social studies lessons can also be a great way to engage students and help them see the relevance of the subject to their own li ..read more

It's the year 2023, and teaching social studies is more of a challenge than ever before. If you have been in the classroom the past few years, you know just how rough it has been. Between the students, administrators, parents, and the community, social studies teachers are feeling pressure from all directions.  There are, however, a few exciting trends, techniques, and resources that can help social studies teachers provide our students with the most engaging and effective lessons possible. One trend that has worked for many teachers is to go back to paper-pencil interactive not ..read more

One of the most time and energy-saving strategies I started using in my social studies classroom was to employ unit guide packets for students. These thorough 9-page packets were a huge help in a few ways: Printing the majority of student work at once each unit instead of each day. Students know exactly what they need to know for the test and have it in one place.  If I'm ever out sick, students can just work on their packets.  They took a long while to create, but I now have packets for every unit in Civics/Government, World History, and US History. That's 48 total packets an ..read more

For years, I ended my unit on Reconstruction by teaching about the controversial election of 1876 leading to the Compromise of 1877. The Democrats' "corrupt bargain" allowed Rutherford B. Hayes to be declared the winner in exchange for Union troops to be pulled out of the South.  This led directly to the Jim Crow Era of the South. The Jim Crow Era was when racial segregation was legalized, African Americans were disenfranchised, and white supremacists controlled governments across the South. I realized recently that a case study of how dramatic these changes were for people in t ..read more

The insurrection of January 6th, 2021 is something that will be taught in US History classrooms as long as American History is a part of high school. Of course, it can be difficult to maintain the right perspective when teaching events that are so recent. However, ignoring this tragic day does a disservice to our students and to what we do as social studies teachers.  I don't recall anyone saying not to talk about 9/11 immediately after it occurred or in the years since. No one demanded that teachers ignore the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Violent intruders breached what should b ..read more

If you're a US History teacher looking for PDF worksheets for your high school or middle school classroom, I have tons to share, including this 30+ page packet of free engaging assignments you can download and start using right away.  Our worksheets are perfect for helping students with reading comprehension, preparing for the Regents review or state assessment, pairing with a video like the Crash Course US History series, and with all your lesson plans throughout the school year.  While they're sometimes belittled, worksheets are an excellent tool for helping students ..read more

Are you curious about what's included with a Student of History subscription? Well, let's take a look! Here's a sneak peek of what your subscription will look like after you login. First, you'll be brought to your dashboard where you'll see the curriculum that you have. It could be Civics, World, or US History.   After clicking on your curriculum, you’ll see all the units that are included. You get immediate access to all of them immediately after signing up. So, no matter where in the curriculum your course begins, you can get started right away.  From there, just click on any ..read more