r/historyteachers

Going into my 5th year of teaching social studies this fall, all in LAUSD. I’ve taught 3 years of 8th grade U.S. History, completed my first year of high school teaching 9/10th World History and an elective Ethnic studies course.

How manageable is it to teach AP courses? I’m either being given a AP U.S., a AP Gov/Econ, or potentially both.

I intend on starting my Masters in History in the fall as well and really would love some insight on the workload from a teachers standpoint. Is it possible? Will I burn out?

Thank you all in advance for any assistance.

For context, I'm an aspiring History teacher from Germany in her very final stretch towards graduating. I've been very depressed for some months and this has finally spread towards my degree choice. I wholeheartedly believe that students should learn the history of their home country and an outline of world history to get a grasp on today's political situation, but my degree (esp these last months) has entirely desillusioned me with the field. In short, it feels like teaching history is nothing but presenting students with info that they could have retrieved from wikipedia themselves and then telling them "that's how it was y'all". In the end, my five years of studies (standard amount for becoming a HS history teacher here) was nothing but that: reading lots of academic articles to write papers about entirely niche topics that were neither particularly relevant (yes let's compare the Athenian and Spartan constitution for the billionth time) nor challenged my critical thinking too deeply, because it always felt like I knew too little on any given subject to add anything new to the conversation.

With History being an overly saturated choice of subject, I'm just even more miserable about my current situation. I know that to a degree, all subjects in secondary education boil down to presenting students with information that they could retrieve online but need to even be made aware of first, but since I'm also studying ESL, that subject at least feels like I have some skills I can pass on to my students. I don't know. It all feels so useless.

ETA: Just wanted to emphasize that I posted this to gather arguments to convince myself that teaching History isn't as useless as it feels to me currently, hence why I prefaced that I'm currently very depressed (which isn't something this sub can fix in any way, I just wanted to be confronted with something other than my persistent negativity to not forget that my depressed mind is in fact not the authority on what is important in life.)

I highly appreciate everyone's takes on the importance of teaching history!

Hi, I teach high school U.S. History in KY, and I need some advice. I’m several years in now, and despite what the standards say, I’ve always started teaching chronologically at the Washington administration or earlier.

However, I always feel rushed and like I never have time to focus on skills or just enjoying the history. I’m tempted to start at the standards next year + an intro reconstruction unit, but I worry that the students won’t have enough context to start at 1866-1877. Also, if I do start post-civil war, what should my Unit 0 look like? What should be set-up so that the kids don’t feel completely lost starting in the “middle?”

Finally, how do I move past the feeling that I’m skipping all of this super important history that these kids will be missing?

Any helpful advice would be much appreciated.

Now that state testing is over, the rest of the year is really just projects to keep the students engaged and busy. What are some of your favorite/go-to projects for this time of year?

Here are some that I rotate through:

-Nation Builders- students create their own country from scratch. They have a 5x5 grid they have to fill in with various landscape tiles. They then develop an economy based off of their landscape choices. Then develop a history, political system, and society. Requires a lot of creativity but students usually love it.

-My Mt. Rushmore- students develop their own Mt. Rushmore using various categories of American history/society from my provided list of items. The catch- they’re working with a budget, the more “American” the item is (George Washington, Boston, Declaration of Independence) the more it will cost.

-Anchor charts- standard poster making. Having my students create anchor charts on their favorite unit from this year.

-Biographies- Students put together a biography of individuals that aren’t in the standards. A way to introduce little known, but significant, individuals.

What are some of your favorite/go-to projects for this time of year?

I’ve moved schools twice now, and I always lost my drive stuff even though I copy it to my personal drive. What am I doing wrong? Can you explain it to me like I’m stupid because I’m great with history but not tech lol

I’m about to get my AA in History, then I’m transferring to UW where if all goes according to plan, I will get my Bachelors in History then get into the STEP program which will give me a Masters in Teaching and my History Endorsement. My goal is to teach in Western WA, I know it’s a competitive position in a competitive location.

So is that enough? Should I shoot for a Dual Endorsement in Social Studies as well? I like to think the districts here are more focused on education, but should I start getting some coaching experience?

I’ve applied for a handful of para jobs in my area that start next semester, what should I do in those positions to set myself up well. I’ve been told that going into Special Ed might get you pigeon holed is that true. Would you be more likely to hire someone with SPED over someone otherwise identical experience the only difference being their Para experience wasn’t with SPED?

If you made it this far you can probably tell I’m a little bit nervous, I really think this job is for me and that I can make a difference with it and I just want to make sure I can get in the door.

hi everyone, i'm a third-year college student studying secondary social studies ed and someone who is very passionate about social justice and bipoc history/issues. that being said, i'm extremely nervous to go into this field especially as a woman of color, i'm afraid of admin and parent backlash, being accused of indoctrination. sometimes i question if i should go into this field and people in my life warn me. i live in a red conservative state but a majority blue city and plan on teaching in it. if anyone has any advice or had the same fears, i would love to hear your experiences

Through a series of unfortunate events outside my control, my whole schedule for the end of the year has been upended. I'm teaching 8th graders about the Civil War and need to condense my unit.

I have 3 days to intro the Civil War before we watch Glory next week (cannot move, it's in our curriculum). We just finished the causes of the War last week, so my kids do have a background.

Does anyone have any simple documentaries that do a good overview of the Civil War? Thinking no longer than 90 minutes to fit in. I have lots I love, but they're all uber specific to one small aspect of the war. I'm worried if I try to lecture, I'm going to want to tell all my stories and run out of time.

Is anyone in the sub read historical papers? I used to read so many back in college and as I progress in the career I feel more focused on teaching than staying up to date on historical papers. Is anyone keep up with and/or read history papers? If so, where are you doing that? And what specific topics?

Hello all,

I’m a 10th grade US history teacher in MA. I’m currently into our Civil Rights unit.

I’m seeking some guidance for two things really:

1. I don’t really full understand the Callais decision. I am hoping someone can explain it to me like I’m 5 so that I can

2. explain it to my students.

I think the civil rights movement is often viewed as “Jim Crow was really bad, these heroes defeated it, and eve try thing is better now.” From what I understand, the Callais decision and the the new map that just passed in TN today is really just Jim Crow 2.0. At least, that’s what I’ve read online, but I just don’t know enough to say if that’s huperbole or what the real consequences are. So I’m turning to all of you, the experts. Thanks in advance. I appreciate your time.

You suspect a student didn't write their essay, so you have to pull them aside, ask them to explain their work, maybe escalate it. But even when you're right, the whole process feels adversarial. And if you're wrong, you've just damaged trust with that student.

The core problem is that most approaches to this start with "did you write this?" this puts you in detective mode. I wanted to flip that to "do you understand what you turned in?" and make it something the whole class does together, not just the individual you're suspicious of. I call it Dubbel.

So I built a tool where:

1. Students upload their essay to your assignment
2. The app reads each submission and generates personalized quiz questions. Different for every student, based on their own writing (thesis choices, evidence, structure, content)
3. You launch a short timed session for the whole class. Everyone answers questions about their own work.

Because every student takes it, nobody is singled out. But if someone can't answer basic questions about their own paper, that's a clear signal, and it's a lot easier to have a conversation grounded in quiz results than a gut feeling. It also gives you documentation if things do need to escalate.

What I didn't expect is how engaging it is for both sides. Students end up reflecting on their own writing; explaining why they chose a piece of evidence, what they were trying to do with their structure, what their thesis actually means. It's basically commentary on their own thought process while they were writing. And for teachers, reading those responses is like getting a window into each student's thinking that you'd never get from the essay alone.

I've made it into a side-by-side experience: the essay and the student's own insights about it.

A few things worth noting:

• The app uses AI to generate the questions, so you'd need to be comfortable with that.
• You stay in control of how to interpret and act on results. It's a tool, not a verdict.
• Works for any written assignment: literary analysis, argumentative, research, creative writing.
• Requires an in-class proctor for the short timed portion to prevent recheating

I'm looking for a few teachers willing to try this out with a class so I can get honest feedback. If you're interested or have questions, comment or please message me! Join us at: dubbel.me

Good afternoon,

I am a 20 year civilian Air Force Counterintelligence Specialist with a BA in Criminal Justice and a MA in Military Operational Art & Science with a Joint Warfare concentration from the USAF Air Command and Staff College and a GWOT deployment to Afghanistan during the 2010 - 2011 Surge.

I'm burned out on Federal service and I'm looking for an exit ramp. Am I a viable candidate for a history teacher position? Especially looking for a position in rural Washington State or anywhere rural really, but I have family connections to Washington.

I am having a hard time getting hired as a History Teacher in my area and the surrounding areas. I have been applying for two years and am a substitute teacher to gain experience in my surrounding areas. I have my history teacher's license and a composite as my associate on my license. When I interview, I am told I do great, and in some cases, it's between one other teacher and me, but I cannot get the job. Usually, I am told that I need more experience. In some cases, if a school does a screening due to a high number of applicants, I can't get past the screening process. Does anyone have any advice to help?

I'm considering pushing for AP Human Geo as an offering alongside our 9th grade World History curriculum. How have teachers found the curriculum? Engaging, or a snooze?

A concern is that it will be filled with students who are not necessarily ready for the rigor or naturally curious, but rather with students of loud parents who just want the GPA bump. Does anyone give a sort of entrance exam to interested 8th graders? I don't want to have to teach basic writing and grammar like I do in my standard World class to this section; I'd rather focus on the content and test. Thanks!

I’ve been teaching honors history for 5 years grades 7-12 and have taught most subjects but I’m really hoping to eventually land in AP. I am finishing up my masters degree in American history but I’m wondering there’s anything else that might be beneficial in getting placed in AP. I am thinking about paying myself to attend an APSI program over the summer. I am also planning on moving districts after next year, is it impossible for a new transfer to get AP (or DE, AICE, etc)?

So I'm trying to write down some stuff I want to work on for next year and one of them is focusing on vocab work a bit more. For people who teach history classes, what do you consider "vocab" for your units? Are they people/place/things type stuff? Or like, more english class vocaby words? It's a little more simple for my Citizenship/Geography class with vocab. Thanks!

I am wanting to include a unit at the end of this year over Jim Jones and his kool-aid cult into South America. There are great but tough recordings on YouTube but wanting some ideas for a visual aid project or some EQs about this time in American and what made people turn to cults and communes...

Hello, I made a post about maybe 2 weeks ago interested in becoming a teacher and I think I might actually stick with the idea. I was originally choosing between high school history or being an elementary school teacher and I think I’d rather go with high school because I would love to teach history. So far I am working at a daycare kindergarten readiness school and all of my other jobs I have worked I’ve just been a summer counselor, summer teachers assistant for kindergarten, and a summer tutor for elementary to middle school. All 3 of those jobs I was employed through the city for a summer youth program for about 3 months though, the job I have now I plan on staying here but when I finally earn my degree and teaching license, will all this experience help me land a job? Or should my experience be in something different? Any advice is appreciated, thank you. :)