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Getting to Know You- Digitally!
The return to school in September 2020 will be unique to say the least. For most of us in the United States, the way school will look in the fall is unpredictable. Will we be returning full-time? Will we be doing a hybrid version of school where some students are online and others are in…
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Distance Learning Resources Part 1
If your school is like mine, you are either preparing for or already are involved in distance learning for your students.
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Whose Independence?
I spent quite a lot of time thinking about independence this year. It isn’t that I hadn’t considered the Declaration of Independence through the lens of equality and inequality before, but a recent PD session at Academy for Teachers helped me think about independence in a historical way that I’d not really considered. The idea…
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Weighing the Pros & Cons of being part of the British Empire
I was bored with the usual lessons about the Causes of the American Revolution. For many years when teaching the Causes, I’ve talked about taxes, taxes, taxes with a smattering of protest and violence, and an ultimate break from the British Empire. I wanted to be more creative. I wanted my students to think about…
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Political Philosophy BEFORE the Revolution
In reading text books over the years, I’ve noticed that many mention that the colonists sought the “British rights” to which they were entitled as a cause of the American Revolution. Among other things, taxation without representation angered them and they were incensed by the Crown denying them trial by jury. However, in these same…
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Using Ancient Civilizations to Teach Citizenship
Besides learning a TON from fellow educators at the NCSS 2019 conference in Austin, Texas, I was also lucky enough to be able to give a presentation on Friday afternoon. The link below will direct you to a Google Drive folder with the lessons I presented in “Using Ancient Civilizations to Teach Citizenship.” A couple…
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Writing with Primary Sources in Middle School
Each year around this time my eighth graders and I are finishing up their research papers. The assignment asks students to write a thesis-driven paper about a topic of their choice as seen through a particular lens. (Want to find out more about lens questions? Check out this post!) One of the requirements for student…
