Category: teaching
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Build your Teaching Philosophy
My philosophy of teaching drives everything I do from daily lesson plans and interactions with students to unit plans and curriculum development. Taking the time to reflect on my teaching practice is something I’ve been doing from the very beginning, and seeing both places I glow and places I need to grow (and having others…
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Debunking the Thanksgiving Myth
The time around the Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year. I love fall colors, the smell of the fire, and fall foods. I also love the idea of gratitude and that this is a time of thankfulness and reflection. However, there are so many myths surrounding Thanksgiving, some of which are downright lies, that…
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To Begin the School Year, Turn Inward
Yesterday was the first time I’ve seen my colleagues in my school building since March. I can’t even begin to tell you how it fed my heart and soul to see them in person! But being together after a long quarantine summer also means that we continue our individual and collective work as anti-racist educators…
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Product Review: Emily Ley Simplified Teacher Planner
**Emily Ley does not sponsor me, nor will I receive any compensation if you choose to purchase. However, if you choose to use any of the links below, you’ll get $10 off and I’ll get rewards points.** Besides loving history and teaching, if you know me well you know that I also love shopping. Normally,…
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ISN Part II
In Part I of my post on Interactive Student Notebooks (ISN), I wrote about why the notebook is useful for personalizing history class for students and for preventing loss because of its unique cover made by the student. As most of you are well aware, a book is much more than its cover! The inside…
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The Interactive Student Notebook- Part I
Interactive Student Notebook- Part IA Brief Introduction Last year, my colleague, Ken, and I started using something called an Interactive Student Notebook (ISN) for all of our classes. We got the idea from a workshop at our school run by History Alive! The most basic definition of an ISN is this: A notebook in which…
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Happening History- Welcome
Each year when a fresh-faced, bright-eyed group of 8th graders walks into my classroom on the first day, I try to get a single point across that I hope they’ll carry with them throughout the school year and beyond:History is more than dates and dead guys. That being said, the question becomes, what is history?…
