Welcome to the Coffee House Historian!
This started as just a blog to reflect on my practice and is growing to include teaching strategies, resources, and curriculum. It will likely grow to include other topics as well until it finds a clear character.
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Most Recent Blog Posts
Yes, We’re Doing Historiography in High School
Historiography is often treated as a university-only exercise, but it belongs in the high school classroom. When taught intentionally, it helps students see history as an interpretive discipline, strengthens historical thinking and argumentation, and invites students to engage historians as participants in an ongoing conversation rather than distant authorities.
Games and Simulations in Social Studies
Games and simulations give students something traditional instruction can’t: the chance to step inside a system and make meaningful decisions with real consequences. When used intentionally, whether to model abstract concepts like legitimacy or to explore content-rich scenarios like diplomacy, state-building, or economic behavior, games transform learning from something students receive to something they actively…
National History Day Resources
This post highlights ongoing efforts to expand and improve National History Day (NHD) resources in China. From teacher workshops on historical thinking to new classroom tools and an upcoming resource booklet, it reflects a commitment to helping educators and students engage deeply with inquiry, research, and the process of doing history.
Simulating Legitimacy: Power, Agency, and the Fall of the Roman Republic
Students stepped into the chaos of Rome’s collapsing Republic, making decisions that balanced legitimacy between elites and commoners. Each crisis forced them to weigh tradition, charisma, and law, sometimes with a roll of the dice. The simulation brought Weber’s theories to life, turning abstract political concepts into lived experience and reflection.
Enhancing Historical Thinking: The Role of Agency
Teaching historical agency means helping students see history as a series of choices, not inevitabilities. Through primary sources on figures like Richelieu and Louis XIV, students explore how power, structure, and context shape what individuals and groups can—and cannot—do, revealing the complexity behind seemingly inevitable historical outcomes.
Choose Your Own Adventure: The English Civil War
Lectures have their place, but sometimes students need to step into history themselves. This Choose-Your-Own-Adventure activity on the English Civil War let my AP Euro students explore turning points through roleplay, choices, and consequences—making the conflict between Charles I and Parliament more engaging and memorable.
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