Teacher's Pick
An Ear for the Past: The National Jukebox
Catchy primary sources? You bet! With the Library of Congress’s National Jukebox, get your students humming history.
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K-2 Resources
View All →Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems
Learn about the experiences of immigrants detained at Angel Island and how this impacted their opinion of the US.
Bringing History Home’s SOCC Analysis Technique
Explore the SOCC analysis technique with this great website.
The Star-Spangled Banner
What does the flag mean in the terms of forging a cohesive U.S. identity?
History is All Around Us
Looking for history right where you are. You’d be surprised how inspiring local history can be.
Third Graders Analyzing Historical Sources
A 3rd-grade teacher leads her students through analysis of child labor photographs.
Comic Books in the History Classroom
Comic books as primary sources? Bring superheroes into the classroom with these six historical themes.
Vitamins in Chocolate Cake: Why Use Historical Fiction in the Classroom?
What’s one way of bringing delight to learning history? Historical fiction, says American Girl author Valerie Tripp.
Summarizing and Paraphrasing
Summarizing and paraphrasing is a useful practice for English Language Learners (ELLs) who struggle with understanding …
Locate Yourself on a Map of the Americas
Young students locate themselves on a map and explore spatial relationships among geographic features.
Teaching American History Program Invites 2011 Applications
The Department of Education invites applications for its Teaching American History Program in 2011.
Picturing the American Revolution
Looking for a creative way to teach the American Revolution to struggling readers? Check this out!
Meshing History and Montessori Method
In the Montessori philosophy, which prioritizes creativity, how can you best present history?
Jennifer Orr on Data Retrieval Charts
Young students absorb information fast. Help them make sense of everything they learn with data retrieval charts!
Electronic Schoolhouse / La Escuela Electronica
The Electronic Schoolhouse / La Escuela Electrónica is a bilingual educational resource of historical resources …
VoiceThread in a 1st-grade Classroom
Students are never too young for digital tools—watch first graders use VoiceThread.
Living New Deal Project
Live in California? Trying to find local New Deal projects?
Web Poster Wizard
Create a lesson, worksheet, or class page, and publish it online right away.
Joe Jelen on Google's Art Project
Budget cuts mean field trip cuts, right? Wrong! Check out high school teacher Joe Jelen’s summary of this impressive new …
History Explorer
The Smithsonian offers rich resources for teachers, but tracking them down can be difficult. Use History Explorer’s rich …
Organize Your Thinking to Critically Analyze Text
Discover the multiple strategies 5th-grade teacher Jennifer Brouhard uses in her classroom to promote student …
3-5 Resources
View All →Amy Trenkle on Glogging Class Greats
Posterboard and rubber cement may work for some projects, but students can also avoid the mess—and incorporate …
Stop and Source!
Students get more out of historical photographs when they take the time to explore who took them, where, and why.
Michael Yell's Strategies for Using Primary Sources in Your Classroom
Combine strategies to create new techniques! Mike Yell combines DBQs and Response Groups.
Mark Smith on Using Constructivist Video Production
Do you use video creation as a culminating activity? Teacher Mark Smith suggests trying it at the beginning of a unit.
Storytelling with Scrapbooks
Be a creative teacher—use scrapbooks in YOUR history classroom!
The Nation's Report Card: U.S. History, 2010
On June 14th, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released the Nation’s Report Card: U.S. History …
Jennifer Orr on Making Technology Work for Primary Students: Part One
Conventional applications of Web 2.0 tools expect students to read and write confidently. First-grade teacher Jennifer …
Surfing the Web Successfully
Online searching got you down? Try using these tips and tricks in your next search.
Virginia Memory
Are you a Virginia educator teaching VA state history? My your task easy! Explore the Library of Virginia’s 70 …
Upcoming Deadlines for Professional Development
February and March mark deadlines for several national professional development opportunities.
All Hands on Deck
Get classroom attention by using the “swashbuckling” history of the USS Constitution as a knowledge vehicle.
Google Maps
Discover a whole new world of mapping and geography with Google Maps!
Tackling Tough Topics
Race, ethics, stereotyping—all are thorny issues integral to our history. How can you encourage empathy?
Elizabeth Schaefer on a New Approach to President Lincoln
Summer is the time for professional development! Eighth-grade teacher Elizabeth Schaefer reports on her professional …
Introduction to Google Docs
In this official Google-created video, educators and other school personnel volunteer ways they’ve used Google Docs in …
Padlet
Facilitate dialogue in the history classroom with this online bulletin board maker.
Bridging the Language Barrier
Vocabulary legends, guiding questions, and teamwork are all good solutions.
Elementary Military History Resources
You don’t have to wait until middle school to teach military history.
Jennifer Orr on Teaching Failure
Use the lives of historical figures to teach students that failure isn’t a bad word.
Historical Agency in History Book Sets (HBS)
Looking for ways to use fiction in your elementary history curriculum? Read on for suggestions!
Classroom Tools
View All →Crafting Digital Stories
Don’t just test students, allow them to create! Discover digital tools that help students share history knowledge.
Creating Cartoons: Pixton & ToonDoo
Maximize student creativity with these tools that let students create their own cartoons.
Do I Have a Right?
Drill students on the constitutional amendments with this engaging game.
Google Forms
Collect information from your students and your peers with Google Forms.
Whiteboards and the Youngest Children
This video, from the Auburn Early Education Center, AL, shows examples of using digital tools, such as whiteboards, to …
Voki
Bring history to life and protect student identity with personalized speaking avatars.
DocsTeach
Find primary sources and the tools to present them to students—in one place.
Advanced Whiteboard Techniques
In this video, UK teacher Simon Botten demonstrates beyond-the-basics whiteboard techniques for use in history and …
Web Poster Wizard
Create a lesson, worksheet, or class page, and publish it online right away.
SurveyMonkey
Digitize class surveys and poll student knowledge with this tool.
Whiteboard Basics
In this video (14 min.), UK teacher Simon Botten looks at basics in whiteboard use, aimed at elementary-school teachers. …
myHistro
Combine maps and a timeline to tell the story of change over time and place with this visual tool!
Surfing the Web Successfully
Online searching got you down? Try using these tips and tricks in your next search.
VoiceThread in a 1st-grade Classroom
Students are never too young for digital tools—watch first graders use VoiceThread.
Kidblog
Set up and moderate an entire elementary class’s worth of blogs at once.
Google Maps
Discover a whole new world of mapping and geography with Google Maps!
Glogster
Glogster—a “posterboard” creator for the digital media age.
Mission US: For Crown or Colony
Immerse your students in the 1770s with this online game.
Zotero
Zotero makes gathering, annotating, organizing, and cross-referencing research simple.
Using Skype in the Classroom
In this video (20 min. 49 sec.), educator Silvia Tolisano narrates a comprehensive overview of Skype and its use and …