Sometimes, teaching history means peeling back the layers. Literally. It was late in the year, and I just wanted to mix things up. We'd been hitting heavy content, and I needed something different—not easier, just... different. So I asked AI to help. We were covering the Lincoln-Douglas debates—a pivotal moment tied to the expansion of slavery and the rise of the Republican Party.

It was late in the year. We had a new textbook series, and I was opening our Civil War unit with what the book called a “geography challenge.” Blank map. Labeling instructions. A few basic questions. I passed it out like I had all year—going through the motions, hoping something would click. Then a student stood up and asked the question I hadn’t said out loud, but had been carrying with me for months:

This week in 234, we stacked a lot of learning into five days—Fast & Curious, Frayer Models, Mini Reports, Short Answer Battle Royales, and even a Netflix-themed summative. We used Thin Slides and AI tools like MagicSchool to keep thinking sharp and feedback immediate. Students worked through compromises, created empathy maps, asked hard questions, and wrapped it all up with creative final products.

This week wasn’t about cramming in new content or racing toward a test—it was about building something that lasted. We used a layered mix of retrieval, reading, analysis, structured writing, and re…

Monday We came back from spring break, and I knew better than to pretend everything would pick up right where we left off. After 10 days off, kids needed a ramp—but that didn’t mean the day had to be a throwaway. I wanted to build back some content momentum while still reinforcing writing skills. So I stacked the lesson around a clear essential question and layered the tasks with a mix of retrieval, source analysis, and structured writing.

This week was all about variety, structure, and student voice—anchored by a solid lineup of EduProtocols. I leaned on Fast & Curious for foundational vocab, layered in Annotate & Tell to br…

Today, I ran a new Rack and Stack using some familiar EduProtocols but with a fresh flow. The whole lesson was built around this opening statement: “The Lowell Mill Girls had an extraordinary oppor…

This year, one of the biggest challenges in my classroom has been students’ limited knowledge of Tier 1, Tier 2, and, no surprise, Tier 3 vocabulary. It’s had a major impact on their ability to lea…