History Teachers Club

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