History Bloggers I follow

At the start of 2015, I was inspired to start blogging, mainly because I couldn't find a good blog that was focused on the teaching of AP World (though there are many excellent blogs by APWH teachers for their students!)  I was hoping to post more often, but as usual, the hectic life of a teacher makes it difficult to post often.  That's just an excuse, and I've been re-invigorated by the #AprilBlogADay movement that is happening on Twitter. Although I can't keep up with blogging every day, I would count pushing out a couple blog posts as a success.  Here is encouragement from the moderator of #AprilBlogADay:

@mrshistorylee @cvarsalona Consuming is the first step! Then creating #satchat
— Chris Crouch (@the_explicator) April 18, 2015

So, in the interest of "consuming", I wanted to provide some great blogs to follow.  As internet resources and social media has exploded over the last decades, it's sometimes difficult to sift through all the resources out there that would help APWH teachers in particular.  I've tried to start a Twitter chat #WHAPchat with limited success, and the APWH History Teacher's Facebook Group is an amazing resource for anyone teaching the course, still I was hoping for some deeper interaction over the pedagogy and teaching of world history.

Here is a compilation of links and blogs that have helped me grow as an APWH teacher.  It's not exhaustive in the least, so please let me know if you have a great blog for me to add to my collection.


Blogs/Wikis I follow: **UPDATED**

Paperless History by Bram Hubbell @bramhubbell
http://paperlesshistory.com
A recognized leader in the circles of World History, Bram is a self-professed history geek.  I've gotten to know Bram through the AP World reading and he will be my go-to person when it comes to issues of teaching world history.   He just launched the Paperless History blog this year, and already I can tell that it will be a favorite of mine.

AP World History Teacher by Jonathan Henderson
http://apworldhistoryteacher.com/about-this-blog/
Long-time AP World History teacher who started a blog in the May of 2015 to help support and supplement the work that he does with AP World summer institute participants.  Jonathan is someone who has been on my radar for awhile, since he managed the two websites that were very useful to AP World History teachers: www.historyhaven.com and www.apworldipedia.com
 I'm glad to see another blog devoted to AP World history teaching!

On Top of the World History Podcast by Dave Eaton @dave_the_prof and Matt Drwenski @drwenski
http://www.ontopoftheworldhistory.com/
World History professor Dave Eaton and former secondary school teacher Matt Drwenski pair up to discuss various issues in teaching world history through their podcast, and accompanying materials.  They have a great energy on their podcast, dealing with relevant issues,  and provide and evaluate resources for the teaching of world history.

World History Educator's Blog by George Coe @ggcoe and Ken Halla @kenhalla http://worldhistoryeducatorsblog.blogspot.com/
I "discovered" this blog last year and signed up to get their email notifications last year.  I was excited to "meet" George through Twitter this winter and love all the great resources that he posts to his blog as he curates things off the web and off Twitter. 

Resources for History Teachers
http://resourcesforhistoryteachers.wikispaces.com/AP+World+History
This wiki was started by Prof. Bob Maloy from UMass/Amherst who had started this wiki many years ago, utilizing the work of his students to give them resources to start their career as history teachers.  A few years ago, he had also started one focused for APWH.  I have contributed (minimally) and it's a nice resources to have at hand for any history/SS educator.

Jay Harmon's APWH website:
He is the pioneer in putting together something for History teachers even before there was blogging, or internet even.  He was also the first moderator of the beloved AP World Listserve before our beloved Monty Armstrong -- of course, it's Jay Harmon.  Although this doesn't count as a blog, per se, it is updated and has links that cut through most of the junk that is out there:  http://harmonhistory.com/apwh.html

History ReWriter by Scott M. Petri @scottmpetri
http://historyrewriter.com/
I also "met" Scott online through Twitter, and his blog is dedicated to helping history teachers become writing teachers. He recognized that most history educators are not given the specific training to be writing teachers (that's usually given to ELA teachers).  Besides this site, he also ran a MOOC that focused on training history teachers to teach writing.

Time Traveling Teacher by Ben Brazeau @Braz74
http://timetravelingteach.weebly.com/
Ben is the moderator for #sstlap (Social Studies Teach Like A Pirate) chat that happens on Thursday evenings at 9 pm EST.  He is an innovative teacher that has a real passion for integrating technology and pedagogy. 

A History Teacher's Tool Belt @MSHistoryTeache
https://davidqua17.wordpress.com/about/
Although this is by a MS teacher, the organization of the blog and the discussions of pedagogy makes this a great blog to visit!

Musings on History and Education by Michael Milton @42ThinkDeep
http://michaelkmilton.com/

The Bridge Project:  
https://historybridgeproject.wordpress.com/
Bringing high school and college history teachers together to talk shop -- what a great idea!  I get to do that every year when I go to the APWH reading.

Histocrats Bookshelf for history enthusiasts and educators @histocrats
http://thehistocratsbookshelf.blogspot.com/
Some great resources posted. 

Sokoscart by Dave Sokoloff @davesokoloff
https://sokoscart.wordpress.com/
A fellow APWH teacher that reflects on different approaches to content and pegagogy in his APWH classroom. 

Conceptual Framework of the APWH course

I met with an old family friend for coffee tonight. He had graduated from high school in 2001, so it was before AP World was offered.  Since he majored in history in college, he was interested in what I'm teaching now (it's been since 2002).

I explained how AP World, which covers 10,000 years of history, is virtually impossible to do without focusing on broader concepts and themes.  I shared with him the Curriculum Framework (2012) as it stands now, as well as the Curriculum Framework going into effect in 2016-2017.  And the shift to the new exam as one that seems to focus more on the larger concepts than what they do now.  It's trying to streamline years of discussions and committee meetings of historians and teachers of history of the why students should be studying history.  

It intrigued him that AP World provides more of a conceptual framework of history, and since the overhaul of all three AP histories, there is also a shift to Historical Thinking Skills and an exam that streamlines these skills.  We don't know how this will look since the APUSH course is rolling out this new curriculum and exam format this academic year. However, I can see how the changes to APWH will be positive, and being able to articulate the advantages of the course to someone who isn't immersed in the details was refreshing.

My friend's response is that history would have been so much more interesting to study had he been able to approach it conceptually.  As a young man who has recently joined the US foreign service corps, he would have found learning the global, historical patterns, understanding how to contextualize historical events and being able to synthesize what one knows of the most value.  He is already fairly proficient at all of these skills as a young adult, but had wished for a jump start on those skills earlier in life.

So, my question is how do we better approach this course conceptually?  What kind of foundation do you set for your students that provides them a better conceptual framework of their understanding of history in general?  What are some strategies that are better for framing the course?  I have more questions than answers at this point, and would love to get some dialogue going for this!

Globalizing WWI - Articles and Thoughts

Currently, I am still working through my Period 5 (1750 - 1900) unit, but I am already thinking ahead.  In my constant push to make my APWH curriculum more global, I've been working on re-envisioning my lessons on WWI.  I have tended to follow the generic narrative on WWI, so it's been very Euro-centric.    I am thinking of taking excerpts of these articles, some of the images, and the video and making station activities out of them for students to explore and gain understanding of the global impact of WWI.  Thanks to Bram Hubbell for starting the conversation on the APWH Teacher's FB Group.   Thanks especially to Jeremy Greene in sharing his Delicious bookmarks -- many of the links here are also on his bookmark bundle (last link!).  Would love to hear thoughts of how you approach WWI, or ideas of how you would use these links. 

*NEW* Here is the Primary Source Webinar on "WWI as a Global Phenomena" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmQQzejPIzo

Smithsonian Article:  "Why it Matters Whether or Not Students Learn about WWI in American History or world history class"
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-should-world-war-i-be-taught-american-schools-180962761/

WWI Globally:
A Global Guide to the First World War: http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/jul/23/a-global-guide-to-the-first-world-war-interactive-documentary

Race, Empire and Colonial Troops: http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/themes/race-empire-and-colonial-troops 

Remember the World as Well as the War:  http://www.britishcouncil.org/organisation/publications/remember-the-world

The Rhyme of History:  Lessons from the Great War:  http://www.brookings.edu/research/essays/2013/rhyme-of-history#

Viewpoint: Why the Shadow of WWI and 1989 hangs over world events, by Jeffrey Sachs:  http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30483873

Legacies of WWI from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/15/firstworldwar

NPR's links to WWI: http://www.npr.org/tags/242938215/world-war-i

WWI in Africa:
Misremembered History:  First World War in East Africa:  http://www.britishcouncil.org/blog/misremembered-history-first-world-war-east-africa

The African Roots of War, by W.E.B. DuBois:  http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/08/the-african-roots-of-war/373403/ 

WWI in Asia:

Forgotten Soldiers of WWI: http://wilsonquarterly.com/quarterly/fall-2014-the-great-wars/forgotten-soldiers-india-in-great-war/ 

Why Indian Soldiers were Forgotten: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33317368

The Forgotton Army of the First World War: How Chinese Labourers helped shape Europe
http://multimedia.scmp.com/ww1-china/?utm_source&utm_medium&utm_campaign=SCMPSocialNewsfeed

WWI in Middle East:
The Fall of the Ottomans review – an absorbing history of the impact of the first world war on the Middle East from The Guardian http://t.co/XoX5fsim3j

What World War I Did to the Middle East: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/world-war-i-led-to-a-century-of-violence-in-the-middle-east-a-946052.html

Baghdad after WWI: http://www.businessinsider.com/baghdad-after-world-war-i-2015-1

WWI: The Famine of Mount Lebanon:  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-29719542

Lesson Plan -  Power and Promises: Redrawing the Boundaries of the Middle East: http://historyproject.ucdavis.edu/lessons/bestofyolo/documents/Power_Promise_2011.pdf

WWI in Oceania:

TED Talk:  Forgotten Grandfathers: Maori Men of WWI:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62EarHyXUa8&app=desktop

BBC "The Forgotten Men of Anzac: The Indigenous Army" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-32281865

Teaching WWI:

Teaching WWI in the 21st Century, from NHD:  http://www.nhd.org/WWI.htm

Remembering WWI: http://www.rowlandblogs.org/sandbox/groups/studentdata/wiki/9f228/attachments/4ee94/Remembering_War_Grade10.pdf 

A New/Not-so-new Approach to Essay Writing in WHAP?

This week was the launching of the #WHAPchat Twitter chat for AP World teachers.  As I was building the Storify, I realized that the conversation was asynchronous, so it wasn't always easy to follow the conversation.  I wanted the flow of the conversation to be more like a thread, so as some of the more astute of you may see, or if you look at the flow of the #whapchat hashtag in Twitter itself, the timing of some Tweets may be somewhat out of order. Hopefully, this doesn't take away from the experience.

 My preliminary thoughts are that this was an interesting experiment to see if having a in-depth Twitter chat is helpful to grow our approach to teaching some specific skills. I learned a few things about Essay Writing that I hope to try on my students.  What do you think?

The Launching of #WHAPchat

Thank you for your responses to the Google survey and the support that you have given for this new #WHAPchat Twitter launch!

Results from the survey indicate that using the Slow Chat format is most attractive to APWH teachers who responded. This will allow those in different time zones to join in the discussion and for busy teachers to participate when they can.  If there is more interest in live chats in the future, we can keep that in mind.

If you are still unsure about joining #WHAPchat, please take a look at some of the resources I have listed in my previous post: Twitterverse for WHAP'pers. 
 

The overarching response for the request on topics of interest was teaching essay formats, so that's where we will start!

Finally, I appreciate those who have started using the #whapchat hashtag to share resources and links.   This will definitely help as we continue to grow this particular PLN.

At the end of the week, I will be collecting Tweets that utilize the #WHAPchat hashtag.  Below is an compilation of those who are starting to use the #whapchat hashtag, which collects all the resources and responses for those who cannot join or want to review what has been discussed.

https://storify.com/mrshistorylee/whapchat-new-tweets-2015

Twitterverse for WHAP'pers

I recently discovered the great use of Twitter for personalized, focused professional development.  As someone who is usually curious of all things tech, I had signed on to Twitter for the first time in 2009 because I did NOT go to the AP Reading and had "extra" time on my hands.  It was just as Twitter was on the rise, and Time magazine had done a cover story.

June 15, 2009 Issue of Time Magazine: http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20090615,00.html

Coincidentally, my first tweet was on June 16, 2009 because I was suffering from some insomnia.   I was excited and brought the magazine to school to announce to my students -- "I'm on Twitter -- let's do something fun with it!"   One student audibly groaned, "Mrs. Lee, Twitter is for OLD people."  Well, that response deflated my enthusiasm, so after a few more tweets, and occasional ones over the next few years, and since I received no responses, I stopped.   There were a lot more things to take up my time, like my children and students, and other social media outlets like Facebook.

A few months ago, my Assistant Superintendent sent me an email saying that she saw that I had met the Boston Public School's Director of History & Social Studies.  What?  A picture of me floating in Twitterverse?  How did my Asst Super know?  Apparently, she's on Twitter, and connected to many great educators from the Boston area, and from those I started growing my own network.

Making new friends at #ncss14: Angela from Weston High! pic.twitter.com/hOzZO2wCjq
— Kerry Dunne (@dunneteach) November 22, 2014

Since then, I had discovered the excitement of being in the Educational Twitterverse -- the discovery of educational Twitter chats that are focused to my interests.  My favorites have been: #nt2t (new teachers to Twitter), #satchat (Saturday, general edu issues), #sschat (social studies chat), #tlap (teach like a pirate) and it's offshoot #sstlap (social studies teach like a pirate), #edchatma (ed chat for Massachusetts educators), slow chats with #asiaed, #africaed or #bookclubed, and my favorite which takes the place of coffee every morning, #BFC530 (Breakfast Club 5:30 am).  No, I don't do these weekly or I wouldn't have time for anything else, but in these social media circles I have found like-minded educators.  I started searching for other AP World teachers, and those who were on Twitter were primarily using it to tweet their classes.  Nothing wrong with that at all, but I wanted to share my enthusiasm for the other uses of Twitter that can connect teachers in a more global way. 

With this in mind, my WHAP friends, I bring you #whapchat that will be handled by @WhapchatTchr.   If you are interested at all, please visit some of the links below if you have never been involved in Twitterchats.  I still consider myself a newbie in this Twitterverse, but I'm learning new tidbits everyday, and feeling more and more comfortable with it.  I need to learn how to use Storify, for help in curating discussions once the new chat launches.

If you aren't interested at all, then you can stop here :)


1) Craig Kemp's quick guide to Twitter chats:  http://mrkempnz.com/2014/07/twitter-chats-the-ins-outs-and-my-top-8-chats.html

2) @Cybraryman has the best website on all things Twitter:
http://cybraryman.com/chats.html
He also curates a list of educational Twitter chats in a calendar that will organize by time zone within the continental US (it's not exhaustive, but couldn't find anything for APWH, thus the need for #whapchat):
https://sites.google.com/site/twittereducationchats/education-chat-calendar

3) Learning and Connecting through Twitterchats
http://teamingup4tech.blogspot.com/2014/09/learning-and-connecting-through.html?m=1

4) 10 Ways Teachers Can Make the Best of Twitter:
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/12/10-ways-teachers-can-make-best-of.html


And anything you want to learn about Twitter -- Follow @TweechmeApp <-- this is where I learned almost everything I know about how to use Twitter for a personalized PLN experience.

Please help make the Twitter Chat launch successful and answer this short (less than 5 min) Google Survey:

Something Pinteresting for AP World

Two years ago, my school librarian introduced me to PINTEREST, and I have been pretty hooked ever since.  There's something about the visual and social aspect of this digital bookmarking site that captured me in a way that Delicious and Diigo never did.  I hadn't really considered using it for curating teaching material, but then started to realize that I had quite a bit in my Board entitled "AP World," but it was overflowing in a way that made it difficult to utilize.  Finally, I decided to split the boards up into the 6 APWH Periods, and then had boards dedicated to Primary Sources (for DBQ building), CCOT and C&C.  I had built a small following, mostly of other history teachers, and even had someone come up to me at the AP Reading last year and tell me that they loved my boards. Wow, I did not know I could be a minor Pinterest celeb! 

This summer, while I spent almost the whole of it in Asia, we had very limited access to social media networks such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter due to The Great Firewall so most of my downtime on my phone was devoted to browsing and adding links to my Pinterest boards.   I also created a board entitled "Study Tips" that would be directed at my students, many who would enter my class with mediocre study habits, so this is the place I would point them when they meet with me about how to do better on exams.  You can follow them all, or just follow select ones.

Visit Angela's profile on Pinterest.
There are many other terrific Pinners out there devoted to AP World curation, all of whom I follow regularly to glean more links.  This is not at all exhaustive, and is in no particular order:
Sonya Sullivan: http://www.pinterest.com/sonyaann1974/
Annette Parker: http://www.pinterest.com/kachinacloud/
Pamela Hammond: http://www.pinterest.com/pamelahammond/
Beverly Bushell:  http://www.pinterest.com/mamabooshell/
Jennifer Mitchell:  http://www.pinterest.com/peabodyjen/
Maureen Landwehr: http://www.pinterest.com/maureenlandwehr/
Dawn Rohm: http://www.pinterest.com/dido227/ap-world/
Kevin Zahner:  https://www.pinterest.com/ZahnerHistory/