This episode is all about NCSS, National Council for Social Studies, and how joining NCSS or your state organization can be so helpful in your growth as an educator by connecting you with other amazing educators and organizations!

Dan & Caitlin were just back from the national NCSS conference in Nashville when they recorded this and spoke about their experiences there including both of their presentations.

Dan presented on "History Labs: Bridging Historical Thinking with 21st Century Literacy Skills" and spoke about the importance of elevating skill development in our classrooms so that students are able to navigate today's ever challenging media landscape. Participants got to experience a mini-history lab on "What happened to Rosie after the war?"

Caitlin presented on "Symbol Slam: A Revolutionary Spiraling Activity" and how this foundational strategy helps her students both master the content knowledge in her classroom and how it helps them develop skills as well. Partipants got to experience how Symbol Slam uses note-taking, call and response, time-lines, mapping, writing, and games to spiral knowledge and skills all year long!

Dan & Caitlin also shared how the NCSS conference can introduce educators to so many organizations, networks, and other teachers in order to build an inspiring community that can elevate your career and life!

If you have any questions or want to book Dan and/or Caitlin to lead professional development at your school or for your district, you can go to our site, www.historyteachersclub.com or email us at [email protected] 

Keep making magic,
Dan & Caitlin

We are relaunching one of our favorite episodes jam packed with creative and fun activities you can try out this Halloween season!

In this episode Dan and Caitlin share some fun things they have done for US and world history for Halloween and even some local history things you could do as well. From learning about the history of Halloween, 'haunted geography', slimy sources (thats a winner!), and making tombstone epitaphs and graveyards for historical figures, we tried to include as many fun and engaging but still content rich activities you could do for Halloween.

Also check out our fall fashion line on our site.  We got new t-shirts you are going to want to rock out with all Autumn long!

To get the "History of Halloween" video lesson go to our History Teachers Club site. 

Have fun and happy haunted teaching!
-dan and caitlin

Get ready for many more great ways to start class, no matter what course you teach!

In this episode, we pick up right where we left off in the last episode and share fun activities to do with historical images like "Meme Mondays" to kick start curiosity, wall and desk graffiti, spiraling & skill building tasks to help students review previous lessons, and much more.

We also share some grading hacks for bellwork so you don't have to spend your precious time grading bellwork while still giving students credit for their efforts and keeping them accountable!

Make sure to check out our website www.historyteachersclub.com for resources including Caitlin's "Skill-Building Bellworks" for US history, great graphic organizers for social studies, Presidential Decision Simulations, Dan's US History video curriculum, and much more!

And please, if you enjoyed this episode, leave us a quick review! It really helps!

The most important three minutes of class are those first three minutes!

In this episode, Dan and Caitlin share their favorite ways to start class in order to transition students effectively, get them interested and excited, and kick-start their curiosity!

Sharing very practical strategies on how to set up an effective 'start of class' routine, bellringers that will not just get students focused but also get them to 'lean into the lesson', and how to make sure 100% of students start with a win!

You are going to love Caitlin's Dice Breakers to gamify bellwork!

These strategies will ensure all students are ready to move foward with you into the bulk of the lesson! And, its just part I!

Make sure to listen to the follow-up, part II, episode where Dan & Caitlin share fun ways to use historical images to start class, grading hacks for bellwork (oh, did we wish we knew this when we started teaching!), and how to build skills those first few minutes!

Check out our site- www.historyteachersclub.com to grab Caitlin's "Skill-Building US History Bellringers", Dan's video curriculum, Symbol Slam, Presidential Decision Simulations, and much, much more to engage and excite your students!

And signup for our newsletter when you're there for more tips and tricks, discounts for our site, and occasional freebies!

Happy teaching,
Dan & Caitlin

100% or Nothing Quizzes, a historical thinking Get-to-Know-the-Teacher activity, gamifying routines and procedures and much more! 🤩

This episode picks up right where we left off as we go over how we create a community of passionate learners in the first week or two of school! We talk about being your authentic self, how we carefully teach procedures & routines and how you can gamify it to help students master it, how to set high expectations for students so they know learning is serious business in your room, a lunch room fight activity to build historical thinking skills, and other stuff!

If you haven't make sure to listen to part 1 first.

To grab some of our first week goodies head to www.historyteachersclub.com and check out all our great resources!

Dan shares about SHEG's Lunchroom Fight activity that you can get here. Make sure to create your free acount- they have so much great stuff!

Spark joy in learning,
D&C

Building cardboard historical sites, being silly with Play-Doh, on day one, 'living' in a world without history, and many other crazy ideas for an amazing first couple of weeks of school are found in this episode!

In this episode, Dan & Caitlin share many strategies, activities, and policies that help them set up an amazing school year. They discuss great ways to get students excited about class with unique first-day activities (yes, we ditch the syllabus and get into some cool stuff right away) and how get students to start building skills that they'll need for history class, but in fun, low-stress ways.

To grab any of the lessons and resources we talked about in the episode, head to our site www.historyteachersclub.com

Also check out our Amazon Storefront to grab supplies for your new school year. Everything we have listed, we stand by!

If you're interested in the PD course, "Make History Engaging, Exciting, and Empowering" to get even your reluctant learners excited about history, go check out www.engaginghistory.com

Thanks for being awesome,
D&C

Summer is hard earned, y'all! And we owe it to ourselves to make the most of it!

In this episode, Dan and Caitlin share their best tips for really pouring back into yourself after a long school year! Because the best PD you can get this summer just might be rest, relaxation, and adventure!

If you are doing some planning and prep for back to school make sure to check out our site for some great first week activities for history class: www.historyteachersclub.com

And we would love it if you could leave us a quick review where ever you listen to podcasts :)

Thanks and gig 'em,
Dan & Caitlin

Follow us @historyteachersclub and @History_4_Humans and @TheGreatCateHistory on instagram and TikTok

So many students have test anxiety and we have some ideas to help them!

In this episode, Caitlin and Dan share a bunch of ways you can help students who suffer from test anxiety so they can perform at their best and develop more confidence in themselves.

Caitlin shares from her own experience and what has helped her and her students- with great reviews, making 'brain dump' videos, and rituals and routines like her 'positive affirmations' right before taking the test. (Yes, theres confetti and stars as well!)

Dan shares some Social Emotional Learning strategies he uses like gratitude journaling before testing, building the rigor on exams slowly over the course of the year to build students confidence, and of course, how to use dad jokes to break the tension and smile during a test!

Check out our website to check out our review materials and Caitlin's freebie "Pre-Test Positive Affirmations" video:
www.historyteachersclub.com

Happy teaching & learning😎,
Dan & Caitlin

Reviews can be fun, helpful, and even energizing for students and for us teachers if done correctly. And in this episode, we are talking all about review strategies and a framework for approaching reviews that will ensure students get a lot out of it and maybe even look forward to showing how much they learned on the test! 🤷‍♂️

Caitlin shares about how she transforms her terms and key concepts from her Symbol Slam into a massive timeline and a map to help students remember, recall, and make deep connections to everything they learned all year. She shares about "Glow" strategies to make review super fun and exciting (go figure!).  And a sorting hat activity (think Harry Potter meets history themes!)

Dan shares how he helps students move beyond trying to memorize terms to seeing all key concepts as puzzle pieces in the larger story of history. A matching terms to themes activity helps them understand the themes of AP US history. He shares about his "100% or Nothing" group quiz activity that helps students process their notes, deeply analyze questions, eliminate wrong answers, and master the content.

And few other things we think you'll enjoy as well!

Check out www.historyteachersclub.com for great resources and some review activities for AP US History and make sure to join our mailing list there as well.

Join our growing Facebook community as well to collaborate with other great history teachers! 

Thanks & Gig 'em,
Mr. Lewer

Get ready to be inspired to not just teach or highlight Black culture and Black leaders, but to really celebrate it! We were so luck to be joined by Deana Forbs, @socialstudiesscholar, who shared so many inspirational ideas and activities you and your school could do during Black History Month, sure, but also all year long!

Deana specializes in teaching and helping other educators teach Black Joy, an approach to teaching Black history and Black cultures that doesn't overly focus on slavery or the traumatic parts of their history, but highlights and celebrates Black leaders, resistance, and the beauty of their cultures all around the world.

She shares strategies that will empower all your students, not just students of color. She also shares about how to respond to any criticism or push back from parents, admin, or peers, during these times where history is wrapped up in so much controversy. 

You can connect with Deana on Instagram @socialstudiesscholar and her website www.socialstudiesscholar.com