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History is an interpretative discipline.  And that’s not something that should worry us.  The recent controversy regarding the revisions to the AP US history exam by the College Board and the subsequent debate over those revisions in Jefferson County, Colorado have gained considerable coverage in the press and on social media.  It is unfortunate that the only time history seems to gain public interest is when it is contested.

The Hong Kong protests have resonance with students around the world.  Students here in the United States likely see connections to the Occupy movement that began in New York in 2011, and soon spread to states around the country. Young adults taking part in the Occupy movement protested America’s economic and social inequality. The most well-known event occurred on Wall Street, not unlike the protests taking place in the business district of Hong Kong.

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There is some good news on the drought front – Californians are on an upward trend for water conservation.  The State Water Board recently reported that in August the statewide water saving rate was 11.5% (based on comparison to August 2013 water usage rates), whereas July was a 7.5% increase, and June only 4%.  It appears that the seriousness of the drought has been brought home to most residents, and that they are responding accordingly.  California students are undoubtedly aware of the drought conditions, and engaged with water saving measures.  What do they know, how

With the anniversary of WWI upon us, it is useful for students to look at the connection between current events and the legacies of “the war to end all wars.” The violence unfolding in Iraq and Syria can be better understood with a historical perspective that takes into account the political divisions that occurred in the wake of this war. With the Ottoman Empire dismantled, regions that had for centuries existed under its mantle were suddenly under new configurations.

I had the good fortune to attend the American Historical Association (AHA) conference in Washington, DC, this week. Michelle Delgado, a 7th-grade teacher at Edward Harris Jr. Middle School in Elk Grove, and I presented one of the lessons from the Sites of Encounter in the Medieval World unit. If you’d like to see what we have so far for Lesson 6 – Calicut (soe-6-calicut-2.pdf). 

Building off a recent current context piece on Boko Haram and Nigeria, this post suggests ways to use Common Core-aligned strategies to discuss Nigeria’s current events in the classroom.  The goal is to help students understand Nigeria’s socio-economic conditions, thereby giving them the context to make sense of Boko Haram and its impact on Nigeria.

In a follow up to the Current Context pieces "Ukraine and Crimea" and "Ukrainian Conflict Update", here are a few ways for you to incorporate visual sources into the classroom in order to help students grasp the economic, social, and political complexities of the Ukrainian crisis.  And, as a bonus, using maps in the classroom addresses the Common Core Reading Standards for Literacy in History/So

This blog is a continuation from an earlier post. Read Part 1 here.

We’re all familiar with the geopolitical strands of the Cold War – the nuclear threats and positioning, decolonization, protests, battles, and wars – but what about what was happening not just on the ground, but in the ground?  How did the earth and air, water and creatures all respond to the unprecedented amount of development?  How did new and more numerous chemicals, nuclear waste, and exploration (and alteration) in space, polar regions, and undersea affect the planet?