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
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.
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…
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