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.
Historical Thinking Skills
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.
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.
Negotiating History: A Classroom Simulation of the Treaty of Westphalia
Simulations bring history alive, even if students don’t always land on the “right” outcome. My Treaty of Westphalia simulation in AP European History pushed students to negotiate, compromise, and reflect, skills as valuable as the history itself.
Teaching Responsible Use of AI Tools in the Social Sciences
From fabricated speeches in ancient history to AI-generated fake sources today, the challenges of exaggeration, bias, and distortion aren’t new. Teaching students how to spot and overcome these pitfalls builds stronger thinkers than banning AI ever could.
Bridging Math and History: Eratosthenes and the Flat-Earth Myth
Blending math and history, I used flat earth debates to show students how interpretation, sources, and myth-making shape what we think we know.
Searching for Depth in AP World
This reflection explores strategies for deepening historical thinking in AP World History despite limited seat time. It highlights resources like Deadly Companions, Istanbul, and Gallagher’s “Imperialism of Free Trade,” while advocating for historiography, Harkness discussions, and thematic integration to enhance student engagement, critical thinking, and skill development across the course.
Teaching Continuity and Change: Engaging Classroom Strategies
Continuity and Change over Time tends to be more difficult for students to grasp than causation or comparison. It's also harder to practice because it requires a broader range of content knowledge. Students need to be able to get a sense of the "big picture" to engage in meaningful analysis that goes beyond assessing a single turning point.
Exploring China’s Historical and Geographical Contexts: C3 Inquiry
I am starting a new unit in Geographic Cultural Studies, this time focused on China and East Asia. The student readings are supplemented from several textbook and secondary sources as well as many primary sources that will align to the supporting questions.
European Intellectual Transformations: Reflections on a C3 Unit for 9th Grade
I recently completed the unit I recently posted about in my 9th-grade Geographic Cultural Studies course that covered the Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment. Unfortunately, it did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. This post is reflective, but also has many of the resources I used in the unit linked again.