As part of our retrospective in looking back at the curriculum developed for this website, we’d like to thank the teachers who participated in the online course and a share a few comments about how the course changed their thinking about the way they teach American history.

“The Time Travelers Institute has altered my teaching methodology by incorporating many of the elements introduced (for a place-based approach to learning history) in the two years I have been a participant. I have utilized this course to enhance the scope of my AP class to get students to relate its national themes to regional issues.”

“I am excited by the opportunity to use material I made for a Geology class I was able to take in Glacier Park about ten years ago. I had always enjoyed presenting this in my Montana History class, but unfortunately our school has cut this class as it is not required.” Steve Gideon – Government, World & US History Teacher (Darby High School, Montana)

To check out an impressive array of Unit Plans developed by teachers who participated in this course (who now share the fruit of their hard work with others), and to find other educational resources, visit our Teacher Tab.

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In closing, we present three articles from the “Textbooks and Teachings” section of the March, 2008 Journal of American History. Although these are geared towards college teachers, their thoughts on how to understand students are relevant to all teachers of history, regardless of level.

In the first article, authors Sam Wineburg and Chauncey Monte-Sano asked high school juniors who the most famous Americans, excluding Presidents, are. You will probably be pleasantly surprised at these student’s responses, and at the authors’ analysis of what this survey means.

LINK TO ARTICLE (PDF):  "Famous Americans"

In the second article, historian David Wrobel, professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and author of Promised Lands: Promotion, Memory and the Creation of the American West (2002) and The End of American Exceptionalism: Frontier Anxiety from the Old West to the New Deal (1993), presents the results of his survey of his own stu-dents. He asked his students what the meaning of “region” was in their lives, and their answers inspired him to change the way he teaches.

LINK TO ARTICLE (PDF):  "A Place for Regions in the Modern U.S. Survey?"

In the last article, members of one department of history survey both professors and students to try to understand where the points of disconnect between the two happen, and how they can be fixed, so that more students can succeed in their history courses. This is a very revealing essay about how to approach the teaching of history as a proc-ess rather than a set of facts.

LINK TO ARTICLE (PDF):  "The History Learning Project: A Department 'Decodes' Its Students"