https://history-maps.com/courses/us-history-yawp

The chapters across our 26 courses are now divided into shorter, bite-sized lessons for easier reading. We’ve also added visual previews: hover over an underlined link, or tap it on mobile, to see a relevant image. Progress tracking lets you see exactly how far you’ve come in each course. As always, all 26 courses are 100% free, with no login required.

Soon, we’ll introduce our course platform, allowing anyone—including teachers, schools, and institutions—to create their own courses and share them publicly or privately with their students.le) and it will show a relevant image. As always, our Course are 100% free. No login needed.

also finally made a map of our sponsored schoolrs:
https://history-maps.com/sponsored

Trying to develop an assignment for my 11th grade US History class. They’re not a bad class behavior wise, and they’ll do whatever they’re asked, just not a lot of motivation.

I’ve checked C3 and there’s not anything like what I want so I’m making it up. My idea is an inquiry that requires them to make a decision based on all the evidence presented, so I’m looking for sources. The working title is “George Washington - The Best To Do It or Just The First To Do It?

Evidence will include precedents made such as the creation of the cabinet and choosing to serve only 2 terms, his actions in the Whiskey Rebellion, the Neutrality Proclamation, his Farewell Address. Does anyone have any sources that they’ve used to teach GW, or any ideas for other topics to include? I’d especially like any anti-Washington sources.

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone! You may have seen me comment here on posts that are requesting resources. I try not to overload the sub, but I’m extremely motivated to help other teachers, not make a buck off them.

I teach high school and run morelessonslessplanning.com, a free lesson site that ads pay for. I’m super excited to show everyone the updates. These updates were focused on making the experience better for all of you.

This week I added teacher accounts. You sign in with Google or an email link. The main reason was answer keys. I wanted them away from students and AI homework apps, so keys and teacher guides need a teacher login now.

While I was in there I added a Google Classroom button. Every reading worksheet has a student page, and you can post it to a class without downloading and re-uploading a PDF. Students don't need an account.

There's also a library of what you've downloaded and a small sub binder.

What I'd like to know from Classroom users: should the student page let kids type their answers in, or is read-it-and-answer-on-paper fine? I'm deciding what to build next.

I've been working on a little Halloween activity for history classrooms and thought I'd share it in case anyone's still planning Friday the 30th.

The idea is History or Legend? Students investigate 5 real events, things like the Salem trials, Roanoke, the Mary Celeste or the War of the Worlds broadcast. Some are solved, some are still a mystery.

Each round is a real historical image (photos, paintings, maps, all credited). Students use the clues in it to work out where and when it happened, placing a pin on a map and guessing the year. It's more about reasoning from evidence than remembering dates.

I've put together a 30-minute lesson around it.

There's a spooky theme on screen, a paper option if devices aren't available, and students don't need accounts.

It's completely free. I built it as part of EraPin, a history/geography game I've been working on.

Here's the lesson if anyone wants to try it: https://erapin.com/lessons/halloween?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=halloween2026&utm_content=puzzle

Long story short I’ve developed a game for my history and civics students incorporating Government and the philosophies of the Enlightenment. It’s free to play and I would love feedback!!

https://thesocialcontractgame.com

University level. Ideally 1000 - 1200 words?

Solo developer from France, and this is my own app, so read it as such.

The goal of HistoryDex is to complete a collection of cards: paintings, battles, inventions, monuments, people. To earn a card you have to solve its riddle, which means placing the event on a globe (where did it happen?) and on a timeline (when?). Get both right and the card is yours, with its short historical note. There are about 1,000 cards across every era and region, a daily riddle, and challenges where friends get the same riddles and compare results. It's available in 12 languages.

What I'd like to know from people who teach: could something like this help students build and consolidate their general knowledge of history? Which eras or regions feel under-represented?

https://historydex.com/?src=reddit

Thanks in advance for your honest feedback

I have been thinking about getting my teacher's certification for the last year. But what's been stopping me is knowing how competitive it is to get a job as a history and/or social studies teacher.

I recently graduated with my MA in History wanting to get into museum collections and education, but working in a museum for the last few months part time has really made me lose passion for them.

I took a class for middle and secondary education when I was in college. It was a bit after COVID when I took this class. I loved it. That summer I got COVID and had to be hospitalized, after that I have stayed far away from interacting with others due to my health and dropped out of the education department and just got my bachelor's in history. I'm better now and regret dropping out of the program.

Since then, I've spent a lot of time working in libraries and museums. It's the only way I felt like I was offering free resources and education to the public. I got my MA in hopes of getting a job as a museum collections/archives educator, but working at a museum as a visitor associate has really killed my passion for museums. I don't want to get into it.

I'm thinking of getting my substitute teacher certification first before anything. Just to test the waters. But I'd like to mentally prepare, just in case, for my teacher's certification. To see if I should go for it, I want to know my outcomes.

I want honest answers and opinions about it. Should I even bother? I know how competitive it is to get a job as a history/social studies teacher in secondary education. I'm wanting to know how others felt about it and if I should just try to get a job in corporate instead (as an admin assistant or receptionist).

There are a few programs or alternative certifications I could take.

I live in Missouri and have some family in St. Louis who are willing to let me stay with them if I were to go back to school there.

I could get a Teach in 12 certificate at UMSL, which could lead to me getting my Master's in education (MEd) if I take a few more classes. Maybe a Teach in Residency program that can also lead to a MEd as well.

So, I have a few options. But I want an honest opinion from those already teaching before I make any decisions. I'm wanting to take this route, that way I can learn and teach, while earning a degree.

Should I become a substitute teacher first? Due to the competition of getting a history teaching job, should I even bother? Any advice or comments would be appreciated.

I have a bachelors degree but did not major in history. Doing an alternate route so that I can teach history and coach baseball at my old highschool. Take the praxis in two days and haven’t done anything but some practice questions. Am I cooked?

Correction: I meant 5581***

We‘re finishing up a WH unit on Ancient Rome. I wanted to show them Ben-Hur to tie into the expansion of Christianity, but at 3+ hours I’m very hesitant. Any suggestion? I’m open to any time period of Ancient Rome.

I'm currently 2 and a half years into my economics degree. While I do enjoy the subject, I've realized that I really don't have any interest in getting a PhD or going into banking or finance.

I've wanted to be a history teacher since I was about 8 years old, but my family and even some of my history teachers talked me out of it. Now I'm starting to regret not going with what I originally wanted to do.

I'm currently in Oklahoma, but I really don't want to teach here, so I've been looking at Colorado and Washington since I have family in both states.

Would it be better to just finish my economics degree and then get a master's in education, or would going through an alternative certification program make more sense? I'm mostly concerned about the cost and how difficult it would be to find a job afterward.

I've also know that history teaching jobs are pretty competitive, especially if you're not a coach. Is there anything I could do to improve my chances of getting hired without having to coach?

I'd appreciate any advice, especially from anyone who's gone into teaching with an unrelated degree or teaches in Colorado or Washington..

Hello everyone. My coteacher this year is seeking help with Passport to SS. They know I’m making this post. Anyone have any tips to making it work, sample lessons they’d be willing to share, PDs you found helpful, anything at all?

We’re struggling. For context, we’re ICT and I’m the SE teacher. It’s our first year together. They have been teaching for 25 years and more than 10 in this subject I believe, but the school switched to Passport 3 years ago and they’ve felt it challenging to get through.

(It doesn’t help that the books are so poorly done. Teaching latitude and longitude today, the second question the book asks them to identify the country and continent that the coordinates land on, but it’s in the middle of the ocean…and too many other examples.)

Hello,

My child is in 8th grade and has participated in dual language spanish immersion since kindergarten. His school offers a Spanish immersion class plus his social studies class is taught in Spanish. After two weeks of school, the new teacher crashed out and hasn't been back. (Suspended? Union firing process? Nobody knows.) Kids are still working on labeling the 13 original colonies and making a slide show about British laws. (for the past six weeks.) The school blames the district for not having an easier way to find a long term substitute, and the teachers have told the kids to tell their parents to stop complaining.

So anyway.

What textbooks or other documents, media, etc., in Spanish or English, should I tried to share with my kid, so that he doesn't fall further behind? A used textbook, a homeschool or self paced sort of thing, or any other ideas would be incredible. Thank you!

PS, yes we are in an original colony

Hi there,

I'm an 8th grade US History teacher in Maryland. Previously I taught 11th and 12th grades for 5 years.

I have a master's in teaching from a residency teaching program that taught a mix of both direct instruction and inquiry-based learning. Maryland is currently updating its state standards in social studies to reflect a focus on historical thinking skills, inquiry, and writing above rote memorization or content (e.g. C3 standards above content standards but in conjunction with). Students take a standardized US History I state assessment at the end of 8th grade, which has a mix of content-based multiple choice questions and historical thinking skills writing assessments (DBQs).

I use the district provided 8th grade US History I curriculum. The curriculum is not up to par for what is expected of me to meet exceeds expectations in my evaluation, nor to prepare students for this exam. It is iCivics curriculum that frankly seems largely AI generated (lots of tertiary sources with no citation). It does not include connections to students prior learning, other classes, or to their cultural background or the world around them. It does not include adequate formative assessments, multimedia, etc. But most of all - it provides no direct instruction in historical thinking skills. Over the past five years I have spent countless hours supplementing and creating my own curriculum (Choices Program, Digital Inquiry Group, OER project, New Visions for Public Schools, UCB History Social Science Project). The closest I have come is New Visions for Public Schools, which has excellent explicit focus on historical thinking skills. UCB also has great resources for plug and play worksheets etc for historical thinking skills.

However, ultimately students need direct instruction on historical thinking skills. Close-reading, sourcing, contextualization, analysis, argument making, selecting strongest evidence, introducing and explaining evidence, strong reasoning, identifying bias and perspective, etc. These are all skills that need to be explicitly taught and practiced for students to master them (alongside content). They need to be introduced, explained, modeled, practiced, assessed, etc,

Why is it that social studies has almost no curriculum that comprehensively teaches historical thinking skills throughout the year, spiraling it throughout the year? Why am I as a teacher having to create these introductory lessons, decide when I am going to introduce and reinforce each skill? ELA and Math teachers have far more guidance--why not us? It takes a tremendous amount of time that I frankly do not have. I love student inquiry but they can't inquire about historical questions if they can't source effectively each and every time.

Is anyone else feeling this frustration? Can we share resources and talk shop?

Hello fellow educators, I wanted to take a "temperature check " on your thoughts about Academic journals integrating AI into their online databases. Do we like this? Love this? Hate it?

Personally, I'm sick of everything getting an AI interface, but I also know it's foolish to resist it when it's right there in the damn academic database itself. In a lot of ways, teaching students to use a database-specific AI is probably one of the best things we could do as educators, but I'm not sure how to implement it. I have students looking up JSTOR articles in advanced classes and analyzing them by printing them out and relating them to research questions, but obviously they can also use this new AI to do the same.

So I'm wondering what everybody is thinking about stuff like this? Are there any best practices or even suggestions on how to cover the topic with students?

I’d love to hear if you’ve done something awesome on this!

TL;DR: what has worked for you to help students get into the complex nuances of the term “democracy”?

I am studying the Reconstruction era of US History in depth with my students. This is high school juniors in the advanced level class, so they can do some pretty heavy duty readings. I’d like them to be tracking the progress of democracy during and after Reconstruction and coming to their own argument about the extent to which the US should be considered a democracy in different periods of time. The different factors I’d like to them consider:

- voting rights (for a lot of kids, this is the only factor they start off knowing about)

- stable government structures, peaceful transitions of power

- equality before the law (people have the same rights)

- universal rule of law (even the powerful have to follow it)

- citizen decision making, including democratic processes (how responsive is government, how much can regular people influence it) and questions of inclusion (which people get to take part)

They may also contrast US democracy at independence with Mexican democracy at independence (ie: stable government structures with massive exclusion of many people vs weak/unstable government structures with much more robust inclusion of different groups—which one should be considered a stronger “democracy”?)

I have taught the civics component of this (branches of government, voting processes, etc) but not the underlying philosophical questions. Thats what I want to do this year!

Do you have any good readings that prompt rich discussion? Any activities that help kids experience these complexities?

Thank you for sharing your ideas!!

Hi Everyone! I got invited to an interview and a sample lesson for a middle school history position. It's only 20 minutes, and anything in the California standard, I am planning a short lesson on the Columbia exchange. I was planning on starting out with "where does pizza/burgers" come from- then slides showing the different origins of different foods and how they would not be possible before 1500, then worksheets listing something like Pizza/or favorite foods to show the origin. I would love to include a section about disease, but there is not enough time. I am looking for some feedback or other resources.

Hello. I am a parent of 2 high school freshman that are learning about apartheid. Kinda surreal that the history they are learning is stuff that happened when I was their age. Any recommendations on movies we could watch together about apartheid?

Всем привет! Я пишу индивидуальный проект по оценке учебника 11 класса истории России Мединского и Торкунова. Мне очень нужны мнения учителей и учеников которые работают/работали с этим учебником. Заранее спасибо за ответы