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
AP Comparative Government and Politics Resources
I’ve been teaching AP Comparative Government long enough now that I feel confident sharing my resources. This year, one of my focuses has been streamlining my slide decks with Claude so each unit has a more consistent design. Less time fighting with formatting, more time on content and enrichment resources. The tricky thing about this…
Finding AP World Primary Sources While Exploring Xi’an
I did not expect much from a museum famous for its 8,000 horse tethering posts. But tucked inside its relocated Ming and Qing buildings were a 1910 calligraphy piece criticizing the examination system and a wall of Cultural Revolution plaques quoting Mao, both with real potential for AP World lessons.
Proving the Earth Isn’t Flat: A 9th Grade DBQ Inquiry
I opened the school year by asking 9th graders to prove or disprove the flat earth myth. The hinge of the whole inquiry is a fabricated 1828 source that some textbooks still reference without knowing it’s fiction. Four days later, every student had a full DBQ, a writing sample, and (I hope) a little more…
Getting Interdisciplinary Help for History Day Topics
I asked my colleagues for topic ideas outside the usual History Day suspects. Here’s what they gave me, and how I turned it into posters for my students.
Reclaiming Inquiry and PBL with National History Day
Inquiry and PBL get thrown around so often they’ve lost meaning for a lot of teachers. This post digs into what these strategies actually require when done well, using National History Day as a working example. Resources are linked.
Unplugging Note-Taking in AP World
My strongest students have organized their notes on their own for years. Many of them were already using analog notebooks even though I provide everything digitally. That told me something.
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