I'm an extremely non-sporty person thinking about getting a social studies teaching credential. I've heard that also being willing to coach a sport makes it much easier to potentially get a job.

I have no real aversion to coaching a sport in terms of the time commitment, or being outside, or having to hose down volleyballs or drive a 15-pass van or something. But... I don't play any sports. I know the rules of soccer and baseball, but I don't know that I could critique a talented student's batting technique or weigh in on the finer points of the off-sides rule.

Are schools looking for actual jocks, or teachers willing to make the time commitment, work with kids in a different way, and learn a bit about their chosen sport? If you coach and are not sporty, how did you learn how to coach? Are there certain sports that are better for a dweeb like me to learn how to coach?

Are there sports that are so in demand that it's worth developing specific skills in order to get hired more easily? As in, should I go actually learn to give a shit about football in order to get a history teaching job?

Hello!

I will be teaching AP World for the first time and am looking for additional resources to help. Any advice would be most welcome!

Afternoon everyone. I recently had a last minute move (getting married) and was hired at a small private school that is rebuilding itself. My background was teaching 2.5 years 6-8 in a public school followed by 10 years at a private school.

My new school basically has no history curriculum. I kept my old schools (fairly old) history books on pdf. Should I keep using my old history book via pdf and add supplements or create a curriculum on my own?

I currently hold a job within the school system as a school tech, I basically fix Chromebooks and other junk. I absolutely love the school system and everything about it, but I was told that there wasn’t much room for growth within my school district. I’m not the biggest fan of the help desk side of my job, but I’m doing it for now. I do truly history, every single aspect of it. I’d love to move into a teaching role at my school. I know the cards are already stacked against me, because most of the positions are filled with coaches. I do have a bachelors degree in business, but I was told that I could easily get my history certification and take my praxis test and move into a teaching role.

I’m just curious if anyone feels I’m making a mistake or going down the wrong path.

Thanks

I’m currently a third year student at LSU and lifelong Louisiana native. I’ve come to understand that Louisiana/Mississippi is quite literally the worst area I could be for my career. Any advice on adjacent or neighboring states that would be worth the move? I’ve heard Tennessee, Arkansas, and Georgia mostly with an interesting lack of Texas.

Also while I’m at it any tips on finding good districts/schools within typically lackluster states?

First things first no matter your feelings on this election it is safe to say that this is one that will absolutely go down in the history books. How are folks considering bringing it into their classroom unbiasedly? I think it's something that deserves to be talked about in every grade starting at least in the 5th grade...thoughts?

Hi! I am a first year history high school history teacher and I have had a few reach out about an Amazon wishlist. What should I add as a first year teacher?

Secondly, I love to read and want to have a classroom library I have thrifted some books and want some suggestions of history books that I should add!

Hey y’all,

In the past, I’ve taught enlightenment thinkers at the beginning of the semester to my sophomores and it’s been… dense and difficult. How do you all go about teaching Rousseau, Montesquieu, Voltaire? Do you have students read excerpts?

I like project based learning if anyone has any ideas on that front, but short writing assignments are always good, especially beginning of the year.

I also enjoyed reading Graeber/Wengrow earlier this summer and wonder how I can implement some of those notions, that enlightenment thinkers were inspired by indigenous peoples of North America. Welcoming all ideas!

Hi everyone! Hope you are enjoying the summer! Im a brand new teacher and have discovered I will be teaching 11th grade U.S. history (NYS regents level) and have absolutely no idea where to start. My school/district has not been helpful in figuring out my curriculum and resources. Anything anyone is willing to share is beyond helpful as I have absolutely nothing.

Good morning,

I have been teaching for a decade, but the last six years were basically very small class sizes, teach what I wanted, at the pace I wanted (rough school though).

Moving to a new school this fall teaching 8th grade and I was wondering how, when planning, you determine how long an assignment might take?

I am starting on my do-nows, for when they arrive, which I haven't had to worry about for a long time. My first one is to look up the definition of four words (laws, morals, customs, contract) and define them in their own words, followed by answering two questions, two sentences each. I have a timer on the slide and was thinking 8 minutes?

Thinking about it, I am concerned that this is a. to much for a do-now, and b. will take too long (45 min periods).

So my question is two-fold: is this too much for a do-now, and when lesson planning how do you come to some kind of understanding about just how long something will take. For most of my lessons it's never really bothered me because each class flows into the next, but for do-nows as I'd really like to have a better idea.

Thanks for any thoughts that you have.

Hello people of Reddit,

I am thinking about pivoting into a career as a social studies teacher from my current profession. I took a practice exam for the Praxis without studying to assess my content knowledge and scored 43%. Granted, I haven't taken an exam in 2 years, but holy moly, I didn't expect to score that poorly. Is it normal to score badly on the Praxis? Regardless of my current score, do you have any advice on studying for the Praxis?

I made these posters to help bring the past to life and make historical figures more relatable for students compared to the traditional black and photos in text books. This is one example from a civil war set I made.

https://preview.redd.it/s058u545xvdd1.jpg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7958d27b799994dc709ec8d9b99c70c28503fd92

Hey, y’all. First time posting here and I’m just looking for some advice/hope. I’m a social studies teacher in New York who finished their Masters and certification last year and getting a full time spot in a classroom has been so difficult. I was a building sub this past year and there was a teacher retiring so I thought I was for sure going to be able to slide into her spot, only to not make it past a screening interview. I’ve applied to so many positions and go interview after interview with negative results. It’s really discouraging and I’m just looking for some advice on how I can present myself best to potential employers/have some hope that it’s going to work out eventually.

Hello everyone,

To day, I've been tasked with teaching a year long Current Events class at my high school. While I have a few ideas in mind, I currently lack a textbook or curriculum. I'm reaching out to the teachers of Reddit in the hopes that you might have resources, suggestions, or any helpful advice to share, whether it's websites, documents, projects, or just ideas.

My initial plan is to begin with Media Literacy, focusing on critical thinking and source evaluation. However, that's as far as I've gotten this afternoon.

Thank you for your time and hopefully for sharing your wisdom

Hi friends, I've recently received my MA degree and am looking to start a job at school. One of the schools has requested me to send them a 15-minute demo video of my lesson. Do you have any tips for how should I film it? Should it be whole 15 minutes of me plainly explaining the material, or should I try to imitate being in the classroom and ask questions to the "imaginary" students of mine?

Thanks in advance

Looking for a fun activity to do with your history class? Use AI to create a picture of a historical period with clear errors in it (both anachronisms and visual mistakes) and see how many they can find! A great lesson starter or team game. How many can you spot in this example?

https://preview.redd.it/z8iyviurc7dd1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=84661406cdc087ebd346a064c48e7f61262e23af

Anyone have any tips for this? Teaching the same subject to both honors and standard kids in the same class. So, same material, but I’m expected to give the honors kids…more work, I guess?

. . . or took kids on as a teacher!

I’m starting a new position in August teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grade social studies in Chicago. My new principal specified that one field trip per quarter should be the norm — and I’m STOKED. Chicago is so history rich and I have some good ideas, but I’m looking for more.

• Preferably no museums (although great, probably not super engaging for younger groups).

• 6th grade is ancient world civilizations, 7th grade is Indigenous and early American history, and 8th grade is civics and modern American history.

Second year of teaching Middle and High School. My school has an assembly and home room and I believe will be on a shortened schedule at least on day one, but possibly the first three days. Classes will be about 30 minutes each during those days. Do you recommend I start day one with procedures/rules/expectations or should I introduce a brief overview of myself/class the first day with procedures on day two and three?

Prefacing with I’m a Latin teacher who’s also going to be teaching World History. I have historical analysis skills up the wazoo but way less knowledge about teaching it, so was looking for a pacing guide. In the process I learned that most schools now seemingly split classical/middle ages and Renaissance/modern into different classes, because that’s all I can find in pacing guides. My school doesn’t do this.

Beyond using an old AP world guide, does anyone have links to pacing guides that go through classical to at least WW2? Or perhaps semester guides so first semester gets through middle ages and second hits WW2? It’s a high school class with sophomores.

My school presumably will provide me something but that’s not until a week before classes start, and I wanted to get ahead on thinking through when assessments would be and my goals for them.

I am just learning project base learning and am trying to get better at it. Any advice/suggestions?

Hello! I was just hired as a high school history teacher this year at a local Catholic school. One of the classes I will be teaching is World History. There are diocesan standards on what the students ought to learn, and it stretches essentially from the fall of Rome to the modern day. However, according to the middle school teacher, these incoming students didn't even learn about ancient Greece or Rome, nor any other civilization from that era forward (they learned about ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and China). I very much want my students to be educated on said topics, and I believe the high school diocesan standards presume that they have learned the essentials of history up until the fall of Rome. With this all being said, how would you recommend I go about crafting a syllabus/curriculum that not only catches them up with where they need to be, but also effectively teaches such a large swath of world history in one year?

Thank you!

Hi! I'm a PhD student working on my dissertation. Please see below for my recruitment materials. Feel free to ask any questions.

https://preview.redd.it/r7ulhpfmmjcd1.png?width=940&format=png&auto=webp&s=9cfae7e9668bcaea447214ee23b029b7fa79cbd3

Pretty self-explanatory, but I am teaching a current/contemporary issues class during the next school year. I am taking over for another guy who taught it for ages. I have complete control over topics and curriculum. How would you set it up? Any great projects or ideas you've done/have? I am really excited about this one!

What do you reckon of this email, from my school's principal?

Students are flouting repeated warnings that adducing https://History.StackExchange.com is inappropriate for academic work. From now on, any submission sourcing StackExchange shall be marked zero. Further citations of StackExchange shall be escalated as academic misconduct.

Kinda tried to sum it up with title. Looking for either others that have moved out of the USA with a history degree or something related. I'm interested in living outside of the USA after I finish my degree and I'm worried it may be worthless or that I'm not studying the right material that people in other countries care about. Is there any advice?

Edit: I don't think I explained my situation very well. I have the intentions of getting my doctorate degree. I just am currently working on my Bachelors. My degree is not in US history I am just getting my Bachelors degree from a US institution. I can focus on whatever kind of history I so choose hence the question. As I commented on other comments I do want to teach as a history teacher or professor.

Also it was not my intention to offend anyone, some of the comments were rather rude. I was just asking. I have a few years left before I can actually leave the US but I'm planning for my future when I am not very safe in my country. Forgive me for reaching out to a community that I thought would be encouraging.