By Megan Schultz, OER Project Teacher In the spring, I feel renewed and reenergized and ready to start planning my next school year. I know, I know—I’m not done with this one yet, how could I possibly start thinking about the next year? B...

By Rachel Phillips, OER Project Learning Scientist Vince Lombardi has been credited with saying, “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” This is hard to argue with, but it does beg the question, what do...

By the OER Project Team We know that understanding geography and maps is something students often struggle with (let’s face it: many adults do too!). That’s why each flavor of the World History Project (WHP) course, a standards-aligned wo...

By Eman M. Elshaikh, OER Project Team In our social studies classrooms, we ask students to make comparisons all the time. Almost every student has filled out a compare and contrast graphic organizer at some point. Yet many students struggle with comp...

By Rachel Phillips, OER Project Learning Scientist Theodore Roosevelt is credited with saying that “comparison is the thief of joy,” and in many ways, he’s right—the grass does often seem greener on the other side. However, if...

By Monica H. Green, Guest Expert As the world moves into the third year of the present COVID-19 pandemic, many governments—out of fatigue or for other reasons—are now declaring the pandemic “over.” What we’re seeing in r...

By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor, OER Project Team At this point in the school year, you and your students may be about to embark on the history of the world wars or maybe even the Cold War. Both are pertinent topics this year, providing valuable bac...

By Eman M. Elshaikh, OER Project Team For many decades, researchers have done an experiment called the “Draw-a-Scientist” test, in which children are prompted to illustrate what they think a scientist looks like. More often than not, stud...

By Trevor Getz, OER Project TeamCalifornia, USA There are many great debates about what makes someone a historian. I have my own opinion. (No, it’s not owning a tweed jacket with elbow patches!) I’m sure you have an opinion too! In fact, ...

By the OER Project Team We asked the OER Project Teacher Community for some “first car” stories, and you did not disappoint. Although it’s been 114 years since the Model T went into mass production—fundamentally altering ...

By Rachel Phillips, OER Project Team Of all the historical thinking skills we want our students to develop, causation is one of the most important. But the past is messy and complex, and it’s easy for students to get lost or oversimplify as the...

By Bennett Sherry, OER Project Team Reading the title of this blog, you might wonder whether someone accidentally typed their WebMD search into the wrong place. But don’t worry, this blog is, in fact, about a disease you've no doubt heard of: t...

By Eman Elshaikh, OER Project Team The past does not exist—or at least not any longer. And yet, the past is everywhere: in movies, family recipes, architecture, even the clothes we wear. We can access the past in many ways, but history is one i...

By Rachel Phillips, OER Project Learning Scientist When you think back to your own experiences in school, what are the things that stand out? For many, they’re likely related to experiential learning. It’s easy to remember doing the schoo...

By the OER Project Team The OER Project Teacher Community usually reveals a lot about what our fantastic teachers are putting out there—great lesson ideas, engaging games, and edu-hacks that serve students well. But this month we’re learn...

By Bennett Sherry, OER Project Team Each year around November 1, hundreds of thousands of people gather in Mexico City for a huge parade in celebration of Día de los Muertos—the Day of the Dead. Or at least, they have every year since 20...

By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor, OER Project Team If you happen to have a TikTok account to keep tabs on your kids (I can’t be the only one, right?) or maybe to spend some time zoning out after grading essays, then you may have stumbled upon c...

By Rachel Phillips and Bennett Sherry, OER Project Team The 2020/21 school year was bad. It was chaotic, unpredictable, scary, exhausting, shocking, and epically frustrating. But there were also some unexpected silver linings: 2020/21 saw amazing adv...

By Rachel Phillips, OER Project Learning Scientist Every summer, researchers at OER Project spend time deeply evaluating our courses and offerings, examining a variety of outcomes related to student learning and teacher perceptions and satisfact...

By the OER Project Team One of the coolest things about being a teacher is that you always have the chance to get your nerd on and dress up for Halloween. To get into the spirit this year, we asked OER Project teachers to show off some of their favor...

By Bennett Sherry, OER Project TeamMaine, USA  Note: This article is  available as a printable PDF should you want to download it and use in class. If you teach in most states, you probably get a day off on October 11 for Columbus Da...

By Trevor R. Getz, Bridgette Byrd O’Conner, and Bennett Sherry OER Project Team Writing is a tool of immense power. It allows us to pass our knowledge to descendants. It has sparked wars, enshrined peace, and allowed us to harness the powe...

By Rachel Phillips,OER Project Learning Scientist OK, so the title of this blog is a bit oxymoronic…but let me explain. Have you ever heard of the concept of reading to write? The idea of reading to write has been...

By the OER Project Team Remember classrooms? Those places where you didn’t need a video-conferencing setup to see your students all at the same time? For some of us, it’s been so long we've forgotten what dry erase markers smell like, how...

By Trevor R. Getz, OER Project TeamCalifornia, USA Is the world getting more democratic? Or is democracy in trouble? That’s an important question today. Big History Project and World History Project are meant to help students build a usabl...