Teaching United States History is excited to present Teach My Book, a series of posts where distinguished authors reflect on their work and how instructors might integrate their insights into the classroom. Our thoughts today come from William Sturkey, associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Sturkey is…
As teachers of the American History survey know—whether it ends in 1848, 1860, 1865, or 1877—the United States did not exist for the majority of the time period our courses cover. Therefore, I decided to teach the course as the history of Early Native North America, 1500–1848.
Teaching United States History is excited to present Teach My Book, a series of posts where distinguished authors reflect on their work and how instructors might integrate their insights into the classroom. Our thoughts today come from Carla Gardina Pestana, Professor and Joyce Appleby Endowed Chair of America in the World at UCLA. Dr. Pestana…
Wesley G. Phelps, Assistant Professor of History and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of North Texas Part 1 of a 3-part series In late August 2005, I walked into a conference room in the Humanities Building for my first graduate seminar at Rice University in Houston titled “Introduction to Doctoral Studies.” Expertly taught…
Today’s guest post comes from Kevin Mason, Chair of the Department of History at Waldorf University. College students crave structured autonomy. As students enter the classroom they often find themselves disappointed by a curriculum that exposes them to a broad variety of content, often in areas outside of their intended majors. Engaging these students serves…
I have struggled to finalize a topic to discuss this month. The chaos of the semester coupled with the state of our nation and the world, in general, has made it difficult to consider what teaching techniques I can share. As I scoured my mind to identify a topic that I feel is relevant, I…
This semester in my Literature and Composition Graphic Memoirs class I am having students do a creative final project. For this project, they will either create their own graphic memoir or do a “Call and Response” piece for Looking at Appalachia. Since this is a new assignment, I am making my own graphic memoir alongside…
Every day our social media threads and email inboxes are inundated with perspectives about the best way to deliver remote instruction. I have added my own two cents to the milieu of advice as well. However, what I have found is that the most effective way to adapt to my new teaching reality is to…
Teaching United States History is excited to present Teach My Book, a series of posts where distinguished authors reflect on their work and how instructors might integrate their insights into the classroom. Our thoughts today come from Lindsay Chervinsky, Historian at the White House Historical Association. Dr. Chervinsky is discussing her new book The Cabinet: George…
Based on feedback from my students, and guidance from my university, I have decided to make the rest of my survey course entirely asynchronous. I will hold optional collaborative discussions, but everything that is graded or otherwise required can be completed independently and with limited technological requirements. I am erring on the side of accessibility…
Over the past few weeks many universities and K-12 schools have shut down face-to-face meetings and turned to online classes and coursework. This move is substantial, and there are a lot of things to consider when thinking about how we, as educators and students, will approach this shift. As such, today, I want to take…
I, like most of you, will be teaching online for the rest of the semester. As part of my preparation, I read through the TUSH archive to steal ideas from some of our bloggers. Here’s a list of some of my favorite posts about teaching online. Teaching US History Online: Some Reflections by Kevin Gannon…
Super Tuesday’s results are in, making Bernie Sanders a leading candidate to battle Donald Trump for the White House. The fact that this previously “unelectable” Democratic socialist, along with his platform of universal healthcare, has moved into the mainstream should enlighten historians about how seemingly static cultural abstractions such as the zeitgeist actually change…
If you are teaching the second half of the U.S. survey this semester, you are probably about to cover the 1940s and 1950s. Do you plan to include the history of children and youth as you teach these decades? If not, here are a few ideas to get you started. First, there are various sources…
Throughout our lives, we create memories, then we reconstruct those memories, and they appear again and again within our mind. For me, one memory that always pops up concerns a time when I was a kid, riding a four-wheeler at my grandfather’s camp. I sat down on the seat, my dad sitting behind me, and…
