One of the most fun challenges of travel abroad is the different languages that you encounter. For every country I travel to, I do some language study – if nothing else – so I have the ability to order food and exchange greetings in the local language. Nothing will help you to see the world …
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 …
We are looking at the Spanish Civil War in my 20th Century History Class and it still seems remarkable to me that Franco remained in power and pivoted to an internationally respected (or at least tolerated) status. Here is a conversation I had with an expert on Spain on the Hour of History Podcast:
It is always exciting to get an email from a publisher who wants to promote a new book. It wasn’t until about a year into the creation of the Hour of History Podcast that publishers started reaching out to me about new books. Before the pandemic, they would say that a book was in the …
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 …
Some days are busier than others, today was pretty busy. Here is what I’ve done so far: 4:00 AM – Wake up. I set an alarm for five, but rarely sleep-in until the alarm wakes me up. A quick cup of coffee. 4:30 – Out for a run. My phone said 35 degrees Fahrenheit, but …
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 …
This fall I started a virtual journey with teachers all around the world. We recorded our walks, runs, and steps and charted our progress on the 318 mile walk across Japan’s famous Tōkaidō, from Tokyo to Kyoto. The Tōkaidō was the Eastern Sea Route that millions of merchants, pilgrims, and travelers walked. We looked at art, …
In the fall of 2019, I was coming off a research fellowship at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, working as a PhD candidate at Temple University and loving life in DC. I still had funded years at Temple University, but when I got the letter asking me to return to Philadelphia as an underpaid …
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 …