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.
National History Day
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.
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.
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.
Enriching Social Studies Curriculum with Local History
Incorporating local history into the curriculum adds significant value. It helps students develop a sense of connection and belonging to the place where they live, makes the study of history more tangible and relatable, and creates opportunities for hands-on learning and the application of historical thinking skills.
Designing a Social Studies Course with C3 Standards
Our department's 9th grade foundational course is interdisciplinary and uses the C3 Framework; its called Geographic Cultural Studies. Courses and curriculum are always works in progress. This course has been successful so far and I am very happy with the rigor it has added to our curriculum, however, there are some adjustments needed to make it better. Some of the adjustments were related to content, so that it aligns better with our 10th grade World History course, and others are related to prioritization of the C3 standards and unit structure to support a transition to standards-based / competency-based instruction and assessment.
National History Day Workshop Take Aways
The month of March was one of the busiest I have had in a long time. Despite my frenzied to-do list, one of the highlights of the month was a two-day workshop run by Lynne O'Hara and Kim Fortney from the National History Day organization. The workshop was filled with some great tools and insights about teaching historical thinking and helping students create stronger NHD projects.
Preparing for National History Day China 2024
NHD is the best social studies style program I have seen that gets students to apply their knowledge and skills to a real world question, and engage with the wider community about their research and passions.
The flexibility to design a new course is another reason I love international schools.
After a well needed summer respite another school year has started. One of the things I am most excited about is teaching our new 9th grade course. A major benefit of teaching at a private international school is curriculum flexibility. If our department sees a need to fill curriculum gaps or to make adjustments to … Continue reading The flexibility to design a new course is another reason I love international schools.
Classroom Questioning Strategies
As students grow older they ask fewer questions. How can teachers fight back against this trend, integrating questioning strategies into their pedagogy in order to encourage inquiry and analytical depth?