Presenting at a stimulating Minnesota Council for History Education workshop this week, I stressed the importance of establishing classroom routines around historical inquiry. I know this is important, because I have yet to do it fully and know the consequences. Students still find the task of critically approaching sources strange and opaque. Establishing a frequently […]
Author: Eric Beckman
I am a veteran high school history teacher interested in decolonizing history curricula, anti-racist pedagogy, and e-learning.
Recently, I spent a period (67 minutes) on the Zoot Suit Riots with four classes of regular level, 10th grade US History students, using SHEG thinking like a historian materials and clips from PBS American Experience documentary, available on youtube. The documentary used a lot of witnesses to and participants in the events around the […]
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Uncovering Apartheid
UPDATE: I have created a webpage with a lesson plan and links to specific resources for the activity described below. While looking for some primary sources to make a short unit on Modern Africa more student-centered I came across a trove of primary sources at the South African Government’s site for Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. […]
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Design Matters
As I get ready to start another e-learning course I’m thinking back to last fall’s online Politics and Law course. Beyond the communication and motivation issues, I am convinced that design of the moodle site was another barrier to student work completion. Any problems in design were exacerbated by a lower level of student tech […]
I just submitted a letter supporting the proposed 2011 standards. Guidelines for submitting are here. While the standards are not perfect, in my view, they are definitely an improvement over what we have now and what we would get if the process becomes politicized. Since there is organized opposition to the new standards I wanted […]
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What is World History?
The idea of “World History” is relatively new.
In preparation for some district curriculum writing I have been examining the new Minnesota State social studies standards. They still need to be formally adopted into law by Governor Dayton. A couple of state legislators have made some noise that they oppose the new standards, but there is no indication that Dayton will block them. […]
I’m continuing to reflect on how to better encouraging student work in online Politics and Law (guest access allowed) through better communication. All of my students passed the course in the recent finished trimester, but that may have been due to frequent reminders to students and parents. In a larger class I might have the time for so […]
This week I finished teaching my first online class, Politics and Law. I was lucky to work with 8 good-natured seniors, and enjoyed the experience. Throughout the class the greatest challenge that I faced was getting students to complete their assignments. In some ways this was nothing new, in most regular level classes that I […]
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TelePresence
I am nearing the end of my my first trimester teaching a blended Politics and Law class. The blend is two days a week in a Cisco TelePresence room with the other days online. The technology is truly impressive; interactions with students at three other remote sites became natural very quickly. The students seem to […]