Dear Son,

On December 20, four days after his semester finished, my youngest son flew home for Christmas break. On December 29, he flew back—19 days before his new semester started.

New Beginnings: Born a Crime

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood is a memoir by Trevor Noah about his upbringing in South Africa and how he became a popular comedian in America as host of The Daily Show. 

Genocide, Holocaust, Racism in World History: Case Study, the Rwanda Genocide Comparative

The following lesson plan uses the historical thinking skills of comparative and cause and effect to analyze two historians' perspectives on the Rwandan genocide. Helen Epstein and Philip Gourevitch relate their perspectives about that African genocide and students are asked to analyze those points...

New Beginnings: Tokyo Ever After

Tokyo Ever After: A Novel by Emiko Jean has been climbing the charts as one of the most popular books right now for young adults. With Netflix’s “The Crown” and Katharine McGee’s American Royals being the rage, this book has emerged among them successfully. 

AP® Euro: The Age of Reformation

For well over a millennium, Western Europe was unified by religious orthodoxy to the Roman Catholic Church. Although the church had been challenged on numerous occasions, religious uniformity only began to collapse during the 16th century during the period known as the “Protestant Reformation.”    

New Beginnings: Let's Get Lost

Adi Alsaid has released many young adult books since his first title, Let’s Get Lost, but I can promise you, this one blazes through as just as good, if not better than the rest. A new beginning can start at any time, declared by the person who needs one. In this story, the main character, Leila,...

AP® Government: The Civic Engagement Project

I was pleasantly surprised with my students’ efforts and results on the Civic Engagement project in COVID spring 2021. The student-government connections were not what they might have been in a non-pandemic year, but with proper social distancing and a reliance on email and telephone calls, several...

New Beginnings: Some Girls Do

Many students endure the (not-so-fun) ritual of moving schools mid-year. In Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan, this is the reality of one of the two main characters, Morgan, as she is forced to transfer schools. Morgan is an elite track star at her Catholic private high school, but is kicked out...

APUSH: Start Small, Finish Strong—the SAQ

Early in a school year it can be a real challenge to know how to begin teaching students critical skills they need to score on the AP^® U.S. History Exam. I don’t think there is any one right way to begin approaching exam skills with our students, but, personally, I like to begin with something that...

Rhetorical Analysis: Letter from a Birmingham Jail

This resource will introduce students to each element of the rhetorical situation as it relates to a complex text, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr. While students will not have a multitude of supplemental links to help them navigate the rhetorical situation for every text...