By Molly Sinnott and Judith Jeremie, OER Project Team Anyone who tracks their step count as fanatically as we do knows that teaching is not a profession for the idle. While not everyone may be as committed as we are to high-cushion soles, no one can ...

By Terry Haley, OER Project Team Stop me if I’m being sesquipedalian, but let’s face it: teaching and learning vocabulary is not always easy. How many times have you read past something like “she was unmoved by his fulsome reading o...

By Sharon Cohen, AP® World History TeacherMaryland, USA  As you plan to focus on the government theme in Unit 3, you might not be sure which case studies to use to introduce Learning Objective 3.1: “How and why various land-based ...

By Rachel Phillips, OER Project Learning Scientist Technology has helped ensure that our day-to-day lives are maximized for each of us as individuals. Your morning might start with an Alexa- or Siri-delivered weather report for your ZIP code, follow...

By David Sherrin, Social Studies TeacherScarsdale High School Why do we teach about the Paleolithic era? How much time should we spend engaging with the most ancient of human histories, and how do we convince students that this stuff matters? Many wo...

By Molly Sinnott, OER Project Team  It’s a tough time to be a social studies teacher, but this work has never been more valuable to your students, your community, and the world. None of the challenges facing this generation of students can...

By Trevor Getz, OER Project Team  One of the greatest challenges of teaching world history can also be an opportunity.    As teachers, we can help students identify the familiar in societies other than their own, and at the same t...

By Mike Zis and Trevor Getz  This week, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). While you wouldn’t know it from its name, this bill includes the largest package of climate-related policy in US history. Policy experts say ...

By Rachel Phillips, OER Project Learning Scientist   Calling all Big History Project teachers! Along with the new overview videos, graphic biographies, and claim-testing activities, we have one more very important update for you regarding I...

By Sharon Cohen, AP® World History Teacher, Maryland  Many AP® teachers, particularly those new to AP, think that they must cover every illustrative example listed in the College Board’s Course and Examination Description (CED). Th...

By Molly Sinnott, OER Project Team  Climate change is happening. But it’s such a huge problem that it can feel impossible to figure out what we can do about it. As a teacher, you face a particularly difficult challenge when it co...

By Bennett Sherry, OER Project Team  “What are we gonna learn this year?” As we stare into the abyss of a new school year, it can be a thrilling—and scary—question. One of the key learning objectives for Big History Proje...

By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor, OER Project Team  Take a moment to think back to what made you decide to become a social-studies teacher. Did a particular historical event pique your curiosity? Maybe you read a historical narrative that led yo...

By Bob Regan OER Project Director Ten years. It’s been 10 years since the first eight teachers rolled out the very first pilot of the Big History Project (BHP). Six of those teachers were in the US, two in Australia. Things have scaled a b...

By Mike Zis, OER Project Guest Contributor Most teachers want to address climate change. Our supplemental climate unit, developed specifically for civics and social studies classrooms, can help. If, like me, you went to school in the 1980s, you may ...

By the OER Project Team  Ice cream, beach days, hot weather, blockbuster movies, and OER Project updates. What do these things have in common? They’re all signs of summer! This year, we have some exciting new updates not only to our course...

By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor, OER Project Team  It’s here; it’s finally here—the complete launch of World History Project AP® (WHP AP)! As a former AP teacher, I know how difficult it is to find the right text for ...

By the OER Project Team While there is rarely a shortage of anticipation and excitement as the school year comes to a close, this year’s batch of summer reading recommendations has us waiting with particular enthusiasm for a bit of downtime. Wh...

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...