Sources on the web

There are several websites with different types of primary sources but this is my favourite. Fordham University has published a "collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use". 

It has three main collections: Ancient, Medieval and Modern. In each collection you can find subsidiary sections such as Absolutism, Byzantium, Celtic states, and Egypt, to name a few. What I also like about this website is that categories are cross-referenced. So if you clicked on "Medieval" you will find the category "Renaissance" there as well as in "Modern". 

Subcategories are quite diverse. You will find groups of sources that may talk about Persian religions, Hunter-Gathering societies, Late Ancient Philosophy, Science and Technology in the Middle Ages, Women in the Middle Ages, Everyday life in Modern Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and Pop culture. 

It also holds other sourcebooks on topics such as women, Indian, Jewish, African, East Asian, Lesbian/Gay, Science, and Islamic history. Moreover, there is a list of special resources on Byzantium, Medieval times, and saints' lives.

I hope you find it useful!

Russia before 1917

I found it odd, ever since I was at school, that historical chunks had a beginning and and end but teachers always made reference to previous processes to explain the topic under study clearly. It bothered me that our topic was "the First World War" but we had to talk about two previous Balkan wars to understand the big picture and even travel back to 1870 to explain French resentment over Germany.

Source

If I ever became a teacher, I promised myself, I would never make that kind of mistakes.

When I had my chance to plan the secondary curriculum at one school, I remembered that promise. Therefore, I designed a quite dense syllabus for Year 9 so that when we got to Year 10 students knew what was communism, revolution, German Empire, Archduke and other concepts which GCSE text books take for granted.

Russia, however, is a different thing.

Dealing with Russia is quite challenging mainly because it is the least relevant place for our (Argentine) history. If Europe is quite abstract or young students, Russia is out of this world. Reading about it can't be fun. Since I wanted my students to really understand the 1917 revolution and its meaning, I made a summary of the introductory pages of Ben Walsh GCSE Modern World History so that students could concentrate on sources. It is not something that I would do a lot because I do not like my talking and students' listening. But it was worth the shot.

Find here the presentation from Prezi.

History & Technology

A fellow teacher of mine quit school because she accepted a post as head teacher in another one. She was telling us all about it and she mentioned that the owner of the school barely used e-mail. My friend was OK with it, she did not love it but she was OK I could not believe my ears.

Teaching in the 21st century using barely e-mail? Come on!

I am not a computer freak, but I do use technology. It is agreed that to be literate you have to know how to read, write and use a computer. The national government is giving out netbooks to state-supported schools (students and teachers), this has to give a hint. Technology is important, if you do not like it then do not teach. But do not condemn our children because of lack of acceptance of the future.

History and technology seems like an ironic couple as if the past could not mix with the present. But technology is doing history a great favour. I have seen in museums how they scan pieces of art to understand their making. Technology can also protect documents and can help their widespread.

Here you have an excellent website with ideas, lessons and webminars on how to use technology in the history classroom. Enjoy!

Taboo words extended

In year 7 I used Taboo Words as a starter, then we did some other activities, and finally, as a last task and plenary, students designed their own Taboo Words cards. This is a great opportunity to assess students thinking skills. It is great to observe what idea they connect to which event/person/place. 

In this case, the context is an introduction unit on the transition between Middle Ages and Early Modern times. Here are some examples of the cards they designed: 

As you can see, there are several concepts and several ideas connected to them. This activity helps them make that connection and, thus, learn that ideas/events/processes in history are not isolated from one another but rather linked by places/people/time/artifeacts/etc. It is very interesting, for example, how one student connect the Jews to the book they have read last year: Number the stars by Louis Lowry. This is not necessarily a historical connection but it suits the aim of the activity and it definitely suits the student.  

I believe it is of utter importance to let students make their own connections and organize their own study, without imposing any of our own. 

P.S.: Of course we played with these cards!

More activities that work, right here.

Taboo words

This is a great name to play in class both as a starter or a plenary. I always have a deck of cards I made myself because whenever you have 10 minutes to spare, they come in quite handy. Last year, when I started introducing this game to my lessons, I made a 'general' deck with taboo words such as Europe, New World, Reformation or Pope. You write the word that the rest of the class have to guess in bold and the words that the student cannot mention beneath it. For example:

NEW WORLD

Cristopher Columbus

America

Discovery

The student that describes the taboo word cannot mention the words beneath it. It is great to revise new concepts such as depotism because students have to use their own vocabulary to define it. Enjoy!

More activities that worked, here.

Cartoons on Napoleon

Looking for some sources to introduce the Napoleonic period (and the whole school year), I ran into this site. It is a digital collection of cartoons on the Napoleonic Era, some of French authors and some from other countries (especially England). There are 83 satirical cartoons or caricatures which you can zoom in. All of them have a transcript of all the captions (in original language and in English), a brief historical contextualization and a short explanation of the drawing, together with all the data (author, year, source, type). 

This website is based on the Universities Libraries - University of Washington. Take a look!