Teaching the Harlem Renaissance is one of the most powerful ways to help students connect art, music, and literature to the broader story of American history and identity.

This period of US History saw a cultural rebirth of African American creativity and is one of the most important aspects of the Roaring 20s that your students need to learn about in either middle school or high school US History.

It can also be challenging, however, to cover all the artists, musicians, writers, and cultural aspects of this amazing movement into one lesson that engages students.

That’s where my Harlem Renaissance Stations Lesson comes in. This best-selling resource turns the Harlem Renaissance into a hands-on exploration of art, music, and literature through movement, creativity, and critical thinking.

What’s Inside the Lesson

The thorough lesson includes everything you need in one simple download for an immersive lesson:

• A teacher directions page explaining multiple setup options (3 or 6 stat
...

America's Constitution can feel abstract for students. It's full of difficult text, articles, and clauses that seem far removed from modern life. With the right lessons however, this cornerstone of American democracy becomes vivid, relatable, and even exciting to learn about.

Whether you teach middle school civics or high school U.S. government or U.S. history, these resources will help your students see the Constitution as a living document that shaped (and still shapes) our country.

Here are nine teacher-tested activities, projects, and lessons you can use to make your Constitution unit both meaningful and memorable.

9 Resources for Teaching the U.S. Constitution

1) Escape the Constitutional Convention Activity

Turn your classroom into Independence Hall! Students “escape” the Constitutional Convention by solving puzzles and decoding clues tied to each Article of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

It transforms a complex topic into a team-based experience that gets student...

Ancient Rome is one of my absolute favorite units to teach in World History! From gladiators and emperors to the rise of Christianity and the fall of an empire - it's definitely fun stuff to cover with middle or high school students.

To make the story of Rome truly come alive though, your kids are going to need more than just names and dates. They need visuals, primary sources, and hands-on activities that help them connect with Roman life and legacy.

Here are 10 teacher-approved resources that make your Ancient Rome unit interactive and easy to teach. Each links you to a resource you can download and implement right away with your students.

Use this as your go-to list for bringing the Roman world to life in your classroom!

10 Awesome Resources for Ancient Rome

1) Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius Reading

This dramatic reading takes students back to 79 CE when Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the town of Pompeii. Students read a first-person narrative and answer worksheet questions to te...

The Industrial Revolution is one of the most important units in your World History classroom. For a lot of students, it can also be one of the hardest to visualize though. Steam engines, textile mills, and assembly lines are new concepts for most kids and if you only lecture through them, it’s easy for students to tune out.

The key to making this unit engaging is to let students experience industrialization through interactive lessons, projects, and digital activities that show how innovation reshaped everyday life.

Here are some of my favorite hands-on resources and creative ideas to help bring the Industrial Revolution to life in your classroom.

 1. What's Your Horsepower Activity 

This classic, kinesthetic project lets students literally measure their own energy output! Using a stopwatch, stairs, and a simple formula, students calculate how much “horsepower” they can produce compared to a machine.

It’s a fun, inquiry-based way to introduce the concept of industrialization and h...

If you’re a middle or high school geography teacher planning a unit on South America, you know how important it is to go beyond maps and capitals. Students learn best when they explore the region’s landscapes, cultures, and current events in ways that are hands-on, visual, and thought-provoking.

Here are 10 teacher-approved resources that make teaching the geography of South America engaging and memorable for your kids. Each resource links to a ready-to-download lesson, activity, or project you can use in your classroom today.

Use this as your go-to list for bringing the Amazon, Andes, and beyond to life in your classroom.

Resources for Teaching South America's Geography

1. Amazon River & Rainforest Escape Room Lesson

Get your students excited to “escape” the Amazon! In this fun activity, students solve puzzles and decode clues to learn about the Amazon River, rainforest ecosystems, and the geography of the region.

For middle school kids, use the printable clues to guide groups t...

If you’re teaching about the Judicial Branch in your Civics or American Government class, you know it's important to go beyond memorizing the structure of the courts. Students learn best when they see how the judicial system actually works through real cases, interactive projects, and activities that bring the Constitution to life.

Here are 7 teacher-approved resources that build engagement, support critical thinking, and work perfectly in both middle and high school government or civics classrooms. Each one links directly to a ready-to-use activity you can download and teach right away.

Use this as your go-to list for ramping up your Judicial Branch instruction.

7 Activities for Teaching About the Judicial Branch

1. Judicial Branch Study Guide and Unit Packet

This thorough packet walks students through the structure and powers of the federal court system, including the Supreme Court, appeals courts, and district courts.

For middle school, I like to assign one page at a time as w...

If you’re a middle or high school teacher planning a unit on World War I, you know how important it is to move beyond just the dates and battles. Students benefit most when lessons are interactive, visually rich, and help them think like historians.

Here I want to share with you 10 teacher-approved resources that build engagement, support critical thinking, and fit both middle and high school history classrooms. Each one links directly to a ready-to-use activity you can download right away. 

Use this as your go-to list for ramping up your World War I instruction.

Top 10 WWI Teaching Resources

1. World War 1 Propaganda Analysis Activity

Analyzing propaganda helps students understand how governments mobilized citizens and shaped opinion during WWI. If you teach middle school, you can guide students through identifying message, audience, and techniques (thanks to media decoding frameworks. If you're a high school teacher, extend by asking students to compare propaganda from different...

If you’ve ever wanted to get your students thinking deeply about history — and talking about it, too — try adding a Tug of War Question to your next lesson.

This simple but powerful strategy helps students form opinions, back them up with evidence, and see how their classmates think about the same issue. It’s one of my favorite ways to make history come alive for middle and high school students.

A Tug-of-War question is an open-ended, opinion-based prompt that doesn’t have a “right” answer. Students are asked to take a stance along a continuum from one extreme to another such as:

What Is a Tug of War Question?

A Tug of War question is an open-ended prompt that students respond to by taking a stance along a line or scale — from one extreme to another.

For example:

“How important was pop culture in ending the Cold War?”
(Not important at all ↔ Very important)

Students write their names or initials on sticky notes and place them along the line on your whiteboard. After everyone’s po...

Students of History is proud to announce Max Nguyen, a graduating senior from Rancho Alamitos High School in Anaheim, California, as the recipient of the 2025 Students of History Scholarship.

This annual award honors a student who demonstrates a deep passion for history and a commitment to using their understanding of the past to create a better future.

Max impressed the scholarship committee with a thoughtful and inspiring video essay that explored how learning about imperialism and settler colonialism in AP U.S. History and AP World History transformed their view of the world and their place in it.

In Max's own words, "History has never been just about facts or dates to me. It's a powerful lens in understanding my identity, my activism, and my role in this ever-changing world."

Drawing from personal connections to the Vietnam War and their family’s roots, Max spoke passionately about the lasting legacies of historical events and how that awareness has fueled a life of civic engag...

If you’re a secondary teacher, you know how important student motivation is. It’s a long school year and often students more than have the ability to succeed but their motivation comes and goes. I never saw that more than in teaching vocabulary. Just mentioning the word “vocabulary” seemed to make my students’ eyes roll and glaze over. I’m a History teacher, though, and understanding vocabulary is essential to student learning.

When I thought about what most motivates my students, I immediately thought of competition. Any review game we played where students were competing was always intense. Football was also huge at my school, so I planned out a way to combine all of this – football, competition, and vocabulary – to create one of my students’ favorite activities: The Vocabulary Football League (VFL)!

The best part, is this can work for any subject!

At the beginning of the year, I place students on teams of 4 (3 or 5 also work depending on your class load) and assign them a team an...