Using Artifacts for Unit Discovery
September 21, 2026
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Artifact Examination: Using Objects to Unlock Ideas Put a list of vocabulary words on the board and you get glazed eyes. Set a box on
Using Images for Pre Reading
September 17, 2026
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They Look at the Image First. They Always Do. Put a photograph and a paragraph on the same page and watch what happens. The eye
Reading Strategies for Social Studies
August 3, 2026
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They Read It. They Still Can’t Tell You What It Said. You assigned the reading. You gave them highlighters. You walked the room and saw
Building Your Engagement Toolkit
July 29, 2026
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Building Your Engagement Toolkit Why Your Best Strategies Stay in the Binder You have been to the training. Maybe several. You came home with a
Learning About the Interactive Student Notebook
July 23, 2026
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It Isn’t About the Glue: Understanding the Interactive Student Notebook If you have ever walked past a classroom and seen students cutting, folding, and taping
Thinking Like an Historian – A Back to School Activity
July 23, 2026
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A First-Week Lesson That Sets Up Your Whole Year Somewhere in the first week of school, a student is going to ask you why they
The Social Studies Success™ Framework
July 23, 2026
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The Philosophy Behind Every Lesson I Create If you’ve ever downloaded one of my lessons, sat through one of my workshops, or read a post
The Stagnant STAAR – Why Your Test Scores Aren’t Moving
June 22, 2026
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Why Our 8th-Grade Social Studies Scores Won’t Budge — and Two Things That Would Actually Move Them If you’ve been watching the 8th-grade Social Studies
The Dangers of AI in a History Classroom
June 22, 2026
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The Machine That Knows Everything and Understands Nothing: AI, History Class, and the Damage We Keep Refusing to Measure There’s a seductive logic to putting
History Where You Live
September 26, 2025
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History Where You Live: Connecting Students to the Past Through Local Archives. Guest post by Vicki Tobias Imagine your students gently flipping through a century-old