I just finished a great professional development with NCTA (National Consortium for Teaching about Asia) in which teachers from all over the US, who teach a number of different subjects and grades, got together (virtually) to read The Land of Big Numbers. It came at a time when I was extremely busy and it was …
When did World War II begin? Most people say September 1, 1939 with the Nazi invasion of Poland. Others say it was two days later when Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany. There are even more possibilities to consider if you think about Pearl Harbor, Czechia, Austria, Albania, Ethiopia, and China. I spoke …
I have often brought tea into the classroom discussions, especially during our unit on British Imperialism and the Opium Wars. Many students at my school take Chinese (I took two years in college myself before teaching English in China) and are interested to study the links between British tea drinking and the Opium Wars. Along …
When I was at Temple University I taught a class called the Global History of Soccer. It was mostly a class on globalization, a world history class, that focused on how one can see history through soccer. Students liked the course and it was a great primer for the 2018 World Cup. I still use …
In my US history class we are watching the film Harriet which brings up a lot of questions about slavery and the Underground Railroad. I had a couple great podcasts on the subject that remain relevant supplements to the heartbreaking story of people who fought hard for their freedom from slavery. You can hear my …
As we get closer to the beginning of a new school year I will share some of the resources that I have used to make interesting classes in the past. I will start with the recipe for pancakes written by John Locke. This was collected by Dr. Keith Korcz at the University of Louisiana, who …
One of my smaller projects was the Hour of History Cities Podcast. I recorded short informational lectures based on items that defined important cities in the world. The most popular, it seems, is my discussion of El Chino de la Charada in Havana. There are some cool sources on this out there, but I haven’t …
Growing up, I was a huge fan of James Clavell’s novel Tai-Pan. Although the novel might be a little outdated today, it serves as an excellent fictional introduction to the British perspective of the Opium Wars. When I teach the Opium Wars now, I use the Opium Wars essay written for MIT’s Visualizing Cultures series. …