Recently, I wrote about using FSA/OWI photographs in the classroom to help students visualize an historical moment or literary text. Today, I want to expand upon the ways that having students analyze photographs can lead to broader discussions of history and sites of memory. Last December, Time named Ruddy Roye (@ruddyroye) its Instagram photographer of…
I don’t know about your institution, but we have already gotten our first call for Spring term books. Every fall I find myself totally surprised by how early this call comes. I’ve cut back on assigning books in the survey for a number of reasons, but I’m always on the lookout for engaging, short(ish) reads…
I’ve long held fast to the idea of a multi-thematic course structure, in which the topics and readings all develop larger themes of the course. This, of course, is nothing new — my orals exams in graduate school largely had the effect of testing me on how I would construct courses around such themes. Textbooks…
As a classroom teacher, I would not be able to count the number of questions asked each day. Sometimes my high school students resembled my niece and nephews – each question followed with “but, why?” Over and over and over. Having taught courses at the high school and college level, people frequently ask what the…
Over the last couple of weeks, two things in particular have gotten me thinking about the ways in which I approach one of the most enduring themes of United States history in my classes. First, Hurricane Maria and its aftermath produced what’s become an absolute cataclysm in Puerto Rico. Second, as the awful news from…
What sort of an education prepares individuals for so volatile a run through the journey of life? How does a young person come to learn not only to listen and to communicate, but also to judge institutions, to see which technologies hold promise and which are doomed to fail, to think fluidly about state and…
Sometimes, in the face of long, complex sentences or really abstract arguments, even the most committed close reader can struggle to find a foothold. Lots of us use the “choose the most important word/phrase” exercise to get things going in such a situation, and I’m a big fan. But I also think we can use…
In 2015, I attended the MELUS conference in Athens, GA. At one of the panels, Maria Hebert-Leiter and Bryan Giezma presented some work on their upcoming book project. They introduced me to the Photogrammar site at Yale. The site contains 170,000 photographs taken by Farm Security Administration (FSA) and Office of War Information (OWI) workers between…
I’m back! After a semester of maternity leave, I was thrilled to get back in the classroom. Don’t get me wrong, my seven month old is cute and cuddly, but I really like college kids. Before the summer break, I contemplated on this blog about shedding content in favor of emphasizing analytical skills and modern…
One of my favorite scenes in 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High is when Mr. Hand, the crotchety U.S. history teacher, berates his students for their recent exam performances. “Three weeks we’ve been talking about the Platt Amendment,” he growls. “What are you people? On dope?” Alas, if your own students are likewise befuddled by…
This semester I’m teaching America in the Nuclear Era: 1945-1968 (syllabus linked). I recently divided my 1945-present elective into two halves to allow for better exploration of the moments in the years covered and develop a more thematic approach. As with all my courses, I include a significant amount of popular culture. For the previous…
When people hear that I am a social studies teacher, their responses typically fall into two camps: they either tell me how much they love history or hate it. The reason for any negativity towards the subject is typically because, “I’m not good at memorizing dates.” And indeed, students’ image of a social studies teacher…
It’s a new academic year, and optimism and energy are in abundant supply. There are new ideas for class, new ways to engage students, and great questions to wrestle with as the intersections between past and present have rarely been so obvious. And it all goes swimmingly, it seems, until the first time we actually…
One of the perks of working at my institution is a somewhat unusual academic calendar in which our graduation occurs the last Saturday in April. We may start our spring semester alarmingly soon after New Year’s, but it’s all worth it come May and nearly four months of open time beckons. This longer summer recess…
When I was a graduate student, one of the professors I TA’d for taught the survey like, well, a survey. We “visited” a variety of places examining not only the history but the ways in which the place had remembered that history. So, for example, we visited Santa Fe and thought critically about the Fiesta…
