High School History Recap

In this episode we conclude our series on Vietnam. We consider Richard Nixon's policy of Vietnamization (or "De-Americanization") and the events leading up to Nixon announcing the end of American involvement in Vietnam on 23 January 1973. Nixon was very focused on US foreign policy and we see him visit the Soviet Union and China. Did these visits help bring the war to an end? What about the years following the withdrawal of the United States? Nixon is replaced by Gerald Ford after the Watergate Scandal and we see North Vietnam conquering the South: effectively a victory for the Communist North. How did the South (and the US) lose the Vietnam War? We've drawn extensively on the work of Geoffrey C War and Ken Burns ("The Vietnam War"), as well as Jeremy Isaacs and Taylor Downing ("The Cold War"). We've also consulted Odd Arne Westad's book "The Cold War: A World History."

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In this episode we talk with Raoul Meyer about how we learn history. Raoul is a history teacher with 25 years experience and he has written many of the scripts of John Greene's Crash Course History series. I'm sure many history teachers are familiar with the Crash Course series (@TheCrashCourse)? Raoul has been thinking a lot about the best way to teach history. And this is important, because to teach history in the best way we need to understand how we learn history! We really cover a number of topics and do quite a bit of name dropping, e.g. Daniel Khaneman, David Christian, Hallie Rubenhold, Jill Lepore, Jonathan Haidt, Charles van Onselen, etc. This is really an exploration of the challenges history teachers face in the class. If History is a narrative, how do we negotiate the narratives that already exist in the minds of our learners. We also consider the contribution of history, historians and history teachers to society in a wider sense. Thanks @raoulmeyer!

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In this episode (the first of our #Q&A's), Colin poses some of our students' questions about the Vietnam War to Captain Nick Boire, who is an active member of the USMC (United States Marine Corps). We find out more about American perceptions of the war and the effect it had on the American society. Did the Vietnam War have an effect on later US military and diplomatic actions?

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In this episode we investigate why the very first farming civilizations did not appear in Africa which is considered to be the cradle of humankind. We then turn our attention to Mesopotamia and discuss how farming villages started there between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. We look at the  first big city of Uruk and then consider some of the reasons for the rise of states. What are states and how do they form? How does an empire differ from a state? We then briefly explore the very first empires: the Akkadian and Assyrian Empires. What were some of the reasons for the rise of these empires, but also what contributed to their collapse. We've drawn quite extensively on the excellent work of the World History Project at the website oerproject.com.   

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In these #Shorts we get our students to define important concepts from history. In this first #Short, Matthew Andrews explains the Domino Theory. 

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This is our first #StudentSpecial. In these episodes we'll discuss some special interest topics with some of our students. In this one, Mel van Deventer and Natasha Peters join me to talk about the world's oldest written story. It was found on clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia and tells the story of a famous king of Uruk. We lay out the different parts of the story and discuss some of the themes. We meet characters like Enkidu and Utnapishtim and consider the interesting twists in the story. We've drawn on the work of Professor Glenn S Holland @TheGreatCourses and Cynthia Stokes Brown at Oer Project.

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In this episode we have a discussion with a high school history teacher from Australia. Michael Cocks is the creator of the very helpful History Skills website. We find out what inspired him to become a history teacher. He gives us some background on how history as a subject is structured in his country. Michael introduces us to his history skills categories of historical knowledge, researching, source criticism and essay writing. The idea is to explore these categories in more depth in later podcasts. We also look at what makes history a valuable subject to learn. This is really the point of our podcast. To reach out to other history teachers to really create the best learning opportunities for our students. Also check out Michael's YouTube channel. Please chat to us @WilliamHPalk, @C_duPlessis and @HistorySkills.

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In this episode we continue the story of World War II. We briefly look at the Phony War and then continue with Germany's attack on Denmark and Norway. We then consider Germany's plan for the rest of Europe, specifically looking at the Maginot Line and Von Manstein's plan to invade France through the Ardennes. We look at the attacks on the Netherlands and Belgium and how the Germans managed to pin the Allied forces to the coast. We also discuss what happened at Dunkirk and how the Germans then set course for Paris. We end the discussion with the creation of the Vichy government. We've drawn on the work of historians Marvin Perry and Sir Basil Liddell Hart. as well as the excellent courses @TheGreatCourses.

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In this episode we investigate the working conditions in British textile factories during the Industrial Revolution. We base our investigation on four primary sources as a way to introduce our listeners to important history skills. We've based this discussion on Stanford History Education Group's historical thinking chart. We introduce the skills of sourcing, contextualization, corroboration and close reading. We've also provided some background knowledge on the start of cotton factories in Britain. Here we've drawn on the work of the historian Patrick Allitt. He teachers a very informative course on @TheGreatCourses.

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In this episode we discuss how to write a good discursive history essay according to IEB assessment criteria. Robyn is an assessment specialist with the IEB (Independent Examinations Board) in South Africa. We find out why we write essays in history. We discuss the types of essays written in the IEB. We look at all the important features of a good discursive essay. We try to establish how the discursive essay links to historical inquiry in general. We analyze the whole process of essay writing from selecting the right question, unpacking the question, doing your planning, writing a good introduction, the importance of proper paragraphs, and rounding it off with a suitable conclusion. How long should my essay be? What words are important when writing this type of essay? Finally, we scrutinize the rubric for the discursive essay. Please send us your questions and suggestions to the twitter handle @WilliamHPalk. 

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