Written by educators for educators, the OER Project blog holds a treasure trove of teaching materials, classroom insights, teaching strategies and the latest research to strengthen your practice. |
By the OER Project Team
While the majority of conversations in the OER Project Community center around all things teaching, it’s nice to get a glimpse into your nonteaching lives, and to learn about the kinds of things you love to do outside the classroom. We’ve learned about your favorite books, sports teams, and now, we’re talking music!
You shared with us an all-time favorite song or album, and thanks…
By Trevor Getz, OER Project Team
California, USA
Like most “world” historians, I was trained as an area studies specialist. In my case, I’m a historian of Africa. Although most of the courses I now offer are about the global past, history education, and comics, I still teach a course on modern African history pretty much every spring. For 20 years, however, I have struggled with how to end this course. Having spent 14…
By Bob Bain, OER Project Expert
Michigan, USA
“There are two questions you must ask your students to evaluate your courses,”or so Mortimer Adler, the philosopher and founder of the Great Books Program, told me as I drove him to the Cleveland airport in 1988.
The drive to the airport ended my 24 hours hosting Dr. Adler's visit to Cleveland and my high school. And it happened after he and I co-taught one of my…
As you start to ramp up for the final weeks of the school year, a great place to turn to for fresh ideas is the OER Project teacher community. Whether you’re a frequent flyer in this free online space or you’re just checking things out for the first time, these discussions are sure to give you some new ideas for your classroom. Take a look at these popular May discussions to help get you started:
Mentor …
By the OER Project Team
In the OER Project courses, students are presented with, and asked to make sense of, a lot of very big ideas. In the process, they’re doing a ton of reading and writing. Students read some pretty challenging texts from contemporary scholars, as well as older primary source material. They’re also asked to write. A lot. For many students, the OER Project courses provide a foundation of the skills…
By Bridgette Byrd O’Connor, OER Project Team
Louisiana, USA
Happy National Teacher Appreciation Week! In pre-COVID times, the teachers’ lounge would be filled with delicious treats from the parent club to say thanks for educating—and tolerating—their darling children. Most of us will miss the banners with words of encouragement and trays of mini-muffins, but not as much as we miss having students in our classrooms…
By Trevor Getz, OER Project Team
San Francisco, USA
In his keynote talk for the 2020 OC for SS conference, historian Dr. Yohuru Williams reminded an eager audience of educators about the importance of scale. He asked us to think about how our students encounter history, and how they learn to “think about how the past influences our family, our community, our nation, and our world.” Williams then gave an example of how…
By Bennett Sherry, OER Project Team
Maine, USA
Over the course of the past few decades, history has taken a global turn. World history, global history, Big History, oceanic history—the list goes on. More than any previous generation, today’s historians are writing about connections across the global human community. Why do we—from our vantage in the twenty-first century—seem so drawn to these…
The OER Project Team
Sports! Baseball, basketball, hockey—at OER Project, we love all of them! Whether you follow a particular player, have a favorite team, or are just there for the (excellent) snacks, sports offer a joyful reprieve from grading papers and planning lessons. Last week, you all came together in the OER Project Community to share your favorite teams. A fun conversation developed—and perhaps one or two new…
By the OER Project Team
With just a few months of the school year left, now is the perfect time to ask a question, post an answer, or discuss a new idea in the online teacher community. Check out some of the most popular conversations below!
Tech savvy or tech novice?
Teachers have had to adapt over the course of the pandemic. Read one teacher’s guide to the different digital teaching tools that they have tried in their…
By Bennett Sherry, OER Project Team
Maine, USA
In the 1990s, the US government invited a group of scientists, scholars, and futurists to solve a problem: How can we store nuclear waste so that people don’t dig it up tens of thousands of years in the future? The group decided that the method couldn’t include a written warning—future people might not be literate. And the warning needed to convey…
By Trevor Getz, OER Project Team
San Francisco, USA
Your students may not believe it, but historians are cool. Sure many of us spend hours alone in dusty archives, surrounded by reams of paper written by long-dead bureaucrats, but we also manage—from the smallest of details—to reconstruct the lives of some very interesting people and communities. Yet, among historians, there’s a category of historical method that has become…
By Michael Saxon, Principal, Liverpool Boys High School
Liverpool, Australia
Note: Recently, the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) has announced some changes to its School Developed Board Endorsed Course (SDBEC) program. We’ve received a number of questions from Big History teachers in New South Wales asking whether BHP will be affected. We turned to local high-school principal Michael Saxon to talk us through what…
By the OER Project Team
Here at the OER Project, we love diving into a new book and same goes for a good book recommendation—who doesn’t?! So, it’s been quite a joy to read your responses to this month’s community snapshot post! Thank you, teachers and community members, for sharing your current reads and recommendations. From books that offer exciting stories and escapes, to those that have expanded your understanding…
As we continue to march through the school year, here are some conversations you might find useful for your classroom. Now’s the perfect time to ask a question, share some wisdom, or just stop in and say hello!
How comics help humanize history
Join this discussion on how comics have allowed those not usually given a voice to be included in the historical narrative and how to incorporate graphic biographies in your…