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Author Archives: JRM
Increasing Commercialization of Knowledge
I teach AP Research. An incredible class that forces high school students to do a lot of interesting work, particularly write a “lit review”. This may be the single most difficult thing I have ever tried to teach students. Seriously. … Continue reading
Posted in History, Uncategorized
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Revisiting the Box
I spent the last week with our 11th Grade AP Seminar students discussing their ideas, thoughts, concerns, and questions about AP Research. The entire time was a privilege and incredible opportunity. I posed the following question to them: I’ve taught … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Propose Different Interpretations
The AP World History exam is next week. I love this test. It’s so hard and assesses really interesting aspects of a student’s ability to think historically. Over the past year I’ve watched our tenth graders and their two incredible … Continue reading
Posted in APWH, Assessment, History, Teaching
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That Was Precious
Charles Mann posted a link to this excellent blog post addressing the ‘public’ response to the “largest single incident of mass child sacrifice in the Americas” as reported by National Geographic. Carl Feagans appropriately acknowledges the horrific nature of this … Continue reading
Posted in APWH
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An Office Had to Be Found
In the midst of an extended bout of “reader’s block”, I grabbed an old copy of Fahrenheit 451 off the shelf in an attempt to generate some “miles on the page” this week. I read it in high school and … Continue reading
Posted in Recently Read
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The Least They Can Do
I really, really wish I was spending my February break reading about history and teaching. Instead my Twitter feed and the front page of the NY Times are filled with stories about the ridiculous “idea” of arming teachers. Ironically, about … Continue reading
Posted in History, Teaching
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Scholarly in Their Approach
Michael Fordham offered up an interesting list of books for people beginning training as history teachers. Even though his audience is generally British school teachers, I always find his thoughts on teaching history helpful. I’ve added several of his suggestions … Continue reading
Inaccurate Factual Background
Both my personal education and teaching career include lessons on the Supreme Court’s distinction between de jure segregation and de facto segregation – it’s included in law school and mandated by many state standards in secondary education. Richard Rothstein’s important 2016 … Continue reading
Posted in APUSH, History, Recently Read, Uncategorized
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Teachers Weren’t Leveling With Us
There’s a lot I love about Elif Batuman’s The Idiot – an outsider in Cambridge, decline of the Ottoman Empire as a narrative device, first email addresses, 1995 – including a strangely unsolicited critique of modern theories of education in … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching
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Three of the Total of Eight Documents
If I won a Genius award (not going to happen), I would spend my time turning published academic history articles into high school lesson plans. The Stanford History Education Group is probably the closest project to this, but I am … Continue reading
