Tag: Primary Sources

Teaching Advice from Experienced Educators

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Hey y’all! Welcome back to another post, today we are going to talk about some advice that experienced educators would give first year educators. I began teaching in August 2021 and reached out to my online community on Facebook and Instagram asking teacher friends to give me their best advice. I have posted the wisdom they shared below.

If you have other advice that you would give to a first year teacher, please feel free to send me a message and I will add it to the list of advice. I hope this post continues to grow!

Facebook Community

“The very first thing every baby teacher must not just know, but internalize as holy writ, is that the support staff in the office can make or break you. Be kind, polite, and thankful to them, seek their advice, and remember that it is they and their friends at central administration who have the ears of the bosses and control what goes in those bosses’ inboxes.” -Jack K.

“So, I think that for me, I started out trying so hard to be lenient and “cool” that I made things harder on myself…I also spent too much time trying to perfect everything I did. All I did was stress out and have anxiety. Eventually I learned what was the most important and necessary for my classes, and I learned to go into a class with the skeleton of lesson plans and let the class evolve naturally. I also believe that whenever possible, spend the shortest amount of time lecturing as possible and use more time to workshop assignments in class where you are there one on one to help students as needed. You’ll get better quality work, they will learn better, and less homework is better for everyone.” – Felicia P.

“Relax and go easy on yourself. It’s common to want to be perfect but teaching is a lot of trial and error. Every new lesson takes twice as long as you think to execute so give yourself some wiggle room. Before creating the class, write down your top 3-5 goals for the class and then design the course around those goals. Too much homework is bad for everyone. There is no award or extra pay for giving yourself extra grading. So when you think about homework think about how this fits within the goals for the class. Are your goals to help them improve their written communication skills? Is it to provide them with diverse viewpoints throughout history? Is it to help them find value in the subject of study? In my own teaching feedback I have found that a clear and well organized class makes everyone happier regardless of major. I also share with them why I assigned the homework I did. Don’t take it personally if a math major just wants to make a C in your course to get the credit and move on. Sometimes these students get the most out of your course because they walk away realizing they don’t hate history class. Some of us coming out of graduate school are used to being high achievers so we can assume everyone wants an A+. Also reach out to the failing students every once in awhile and try to help them along. We never really know what’s going on with them and some will rise to the occasion if they think someone cares. But remember you cannot save them all from themselves or whatever is preventing them from succeeding. Lastly, seek out the guidance of seasoned teachers as much as you can. More often than not, they have had similar experiences and can help reassure or guide you through the rocky weeks.” -Amanda J.

Instagram Community

“Have grace for both yourself and your students. No one’s perfect. Also, honesty is super important 👍” -Miachael L.

“Don’t stress about trying to develop your own curriculum. Your first year is the year to get into a rhythm for how you teach and manage your classroom. The last thing you need to to stress yourself about having 100% original lessons.” -@runningtohistoryclass

“Whenever I would go to my favorite mentor teacher for advice/input, he would always ask “what do your students need?” In the fury of everything we need and want to accomplish as teachers, knowing our students and what they need should come before everything else! You’ll never regret building those relationships. 💛” -S. Baker

“Establish your rules and your tone early and often. Save all of your assigned work to students they will come back and challenge you on this. Have fun when you can.” -@hist10950

Concluding Thoughts

I am so thankful to be surrounded by awesome educators who were willing to share their advice. I hope you learned something from this post and will share it with other teachers!

Good luck friend and thank you for all that you do! The world wouldn’t be the same without teachers like you 🙂

How I Use Old Newspapers in the Classroom

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Hey friend! Welcome back to another post! Today, I am going to talk about how I use old newspapers in my classroom lectures. But first, let’s take a step back and talk about why I do this!

Right after I finished my master’s program I began my Active Historian blog and instagram. I had an awesome opportunity to work with the Remedial Herstory Project for a few months and was doing some research for them and stumbled across a JSTOR article that talked about how a teacher utilized newspapers in the classroom. So, I took the idea from the article and modified it to fit my own classroom needs. I will put the article name and title below! You should be able to make a free account on JSTOR to read the article 🙂

Erica A. Morin. “Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: Structuring the U.S. History Survey Around the Motif of the Newspaper.” The History Teacher 46, no. 2 (2013): 283–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43265165.

Daily Newspaper Readings

Alright, let’s talk about how I implement newspapers in my daily lessons and for a special projects. I think one important thing as educators is relating to the students in terms they understand and one thing students understand today is social media. Newspapers were considered to be the social media of the day!

Newspapers were the social media of the day!

I asked my students on the first day how many of them use social media of any kind and they all raised their hands. I had their attention and they were interested in hearing more. I explained to them how newspapers were essentially the social media of the day. That’s how people spread news quickly – kind of like a tweet on twitter or a viral tik-tok video!

At the beginning of every class, I put a slide on the screen that has actual headlines clipped from real newspapers about events I plan to discuss in class that day. I ask my students to read the headlines out loud – we don’t continue until all the headlines have been read aloud. Having my students read the headlines aloud gives them a chance to participate in the class.

Then, I ask the students what they think we’ll be talking about that day. Somedays they answer with the events that were read aloud and other days they put together the big picture and are able to connect all of the concepts to a movement or larger ideology.

Below is an example of one of the newspaper slides that I begin class with every day.

This is an example of one of the slides I use in my US History class.
*I don’t own the copyright to any of the newspaper articles and clipped them from a database.

I asked my students whether they like this activity or not and most students have responded positively. They like that they can come into class and read the headlines to themselves before class even begins. One student said they liked this because they knew what class would be about that day and it wasn’t necessarily a surprise.

Newspaper Project

My students liked the newspaper headlines at the beginning of class so I wanted another way to introduce more primary source materials into my lecture. For one class, I decided to have my students use the free newspaper database – Chronicling America – to look at old newspapers.

I divided the class into four groups. I gave each group a topic to research and had them prepare a “5 o’clock new broadcast” about the topic using actual headlines from the period. I had the students look up topics like the Vietnam War and the Red Scare. The topics need to be broad to give the students room to talk about topics which interest them. I did this activity at the end of class after lecturing so the students also used information from the lecture in their presentations.

Each group designed their own “news anchor” who read the group’s “news story” to the entire class. It was a fun way for students to engage with primary sources, work together, and grapple with the topics we discussed that week. Most students seemed to like the activity!

Concluding Thoughts

Hey friend, I hope this article gives you some inspiration to try using old newspapers in your classroom! If you use newspapers in another way in your classroom – let me know! I am always looking to try new activities! Also, if you give the newspaper slide a try drop me a message too – I’d love to hear about it! You can also tag me on Instagram (@the_active_historian) or on Twitter (@ActiveHistorian).

I’ll talk to ya soon! 🙂

Where to Find Digitized Secondary Sources

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Hey there, Friend! Welcome! Today we’re talking about where to find Digitized Secondary Sources for research papers, projects, and more. If you need primary sources for your project – I encourage you to check out this article next: The Best Places to Find Digitized Primary Sources.

Now you might be wondering what a secondary source is, well, it’s secondhand account of an event, person, movement, or thing. Secondary sources include articles, books, encyclopedias, etc. They are useful in summarizing events and for broad learning! Personally, I love reading secondary sources to see how other historians have written about certain topics. Let’s get started!

JSTOR

JSTOR is a great platform for research articles. You can make a free account and read 100 articles per month. If you are a college/university student or faculty member you will have access to more articles.

Bonus Tip: Make sure to check out what other databases your institution has access to! There are a lot of cool databases for all kinds of degrees!

Public Library Systems

The public library is one of the most under-utilized community assets in my opinion. Many public libraries now have digital and audio book platforms where you can rent books for FREE.

Seriously, go check out the public library! It’s also a great place to work on your project because they’re usually quiet.

Scribd or Audible

Scribd and Audible are both apps that you will have to pay for. Personally, I use Scribd and love it! There are hundreds of books, articles, audiobooks, PDFs, and more on a number of topics. I love listening to the audiobooks during workouts or while cleaning the house.

Archive.org

Archive.org is another one of those websites that is a treasure trove! There are primary and secondary sources here. All you have to do is create an account and you can access books for free! You have different options for how long you can rent the book, but if you run out of time and don’t get it all read then all you have to do is check the book out again (This can be done instantly).

Bonus Tip: I was able to find some of the books I needed for graduate seminars on this website which saved me $$$.

Google Play

Google Play has several books that you can read! You can read some of them for free, but there are also others that you have to pay for. It’s worth checking out!

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a great place to find scholarly articles in hundreds of fields! Check it out!

Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is a website full of public domain material. There are lots of books!

Hathi Trust – Digital Library

Hathi Trust is great for finding out of print and public domain books! Check it out!

Concluding Thoughts

Hey friend, thank you so much for reading. I hope you found a secondary source database that will help you complete that research paper or project. Good luck and happy reading/writing!

I’ll talk to ya soon! 🙂

How to Write Your Family History

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I was sitting at my Nana and Papa’s house one day and they were telling me stories like usual, but something changed. I wanted to know more about the people in these stories because they had passed away before I was born. At the time, I was a graduate student studying history so I thought to myself, “Could I take the skills I use to do my thesis research and apply them to my own family’s history?” The answer is… yes, absolutely yes! I was shocked by how much information came up on my first search.

Hey there, friend! Welcome back to another article! Today we are talking about how to write your personal family history. I LOVE this topic because this is something that I have done for my family over the past year. There has never been a better time to undertake this kind of a project with so many archives, libraries, and repositories making their collections digitally available online! This article will give you some ideas of places to look for sources, practical steps for capturing audio/video from elderly family members, and how to compile it all into one single file. Let’s get started! 

Places to Look for Sources

There are many different places to find sources concerning your family history. There are free and subscription services that you can utilize. For my personal family history project, I used the following sources: Ancestry (not affiliated), newspapers.com (not affiliated), Find a Grave (not affiliated), Chronicling America (not affiliated), my State Historical Society, local newspapers, oral histories, old photo albums, general history textbooks, and more. 

Here are some ideas of the collections you can look through: Federal Census Records, State Census Records, Military Records, School Records, Marriage Records, Birth Records, Death Records, Land Records, Newspapers, and more!

Be patient when digging for sources, sometimes it can take time, but it is so rewarding. One evening, I found a picture of one of the great grandparents many generations back in my family and my Papa loved seeing the picture. Just keep digging! 

For more information on finding primary sources see: The Best Places to Find Digitized Primary Sources and Where to Find Public Domain Sources for Your Next Project 

Practical Steps for Capturing Audio/Video Interviews

After you have consulted the documentary evidence about your family history, you can begin to capture oral histories of people in your family. I recommend doing the background research first so you can ask relevant questions to the things your interviewees are talking about.

You can either go into an interview with a set of questions or you can let your family member talk about whatever they feel comfortable talking about. I have tried both methods and they both worked. Though, for a more professional interview, you will want to have questions for your interviewee. This makes the interview process much smoother. 

To capture the audio or video of your interviewee, make sure that your equipment works before the interview. Personally, I use an iPhone XR for capturing the audio/video of my interviewees. I also use a Tonor USB microphone (Amazon) plugged to my computer to capture an additional audio file. I like to have both options in case one didn’t work. I connect the microphone to the Garage Band software on my computer and record a narration track! The audio is always crisp and clear. (This is not affiliated with Amazon).

Additionally, I like to use a tripod when recording a video file so that the camera isn’t shaky. If you don’t have a tripod try stacking books or something to create a flat surface to place the camera on. Personally, I use a smartphone tripod from Amazon. (This is not affiliated with Amazon).

Make sure to thank your interviewees for their time and willingness to share their stories for the future generations of your family. 

For more information on oral histories see: How to Conduct an Oral History 

How to Compile Your Family History into 1 File

Once you have compiled all of the information, you can put it in a single file. Personally, I chose to write mini-biographies of my family members using the documents, newspaper articles, census records, and military service records I found. 

I chose to leave the oral history videos and interviews separate from the written document. Each oral history has an individual index with key words and time stamps that act as a Finding Aid. 

Next, I took all of the pieces and put them on a single USB flash drive. (i.e. mini-biographies, photos, audio files, video files, index, and finding aids) Having all of the information in one place makes it easy to share and pass to the next generation. 

Bonus Tip: Make sure to keep the files updated as technology changes or there’s a risk that you could lose some files. (i.e. update the audio and video files) 

Concluding Thoughts

I hope this article was helpful in getting you started on your journey to writing your family’s history. Writing a family history is so valuable and you get to learn a lot about where you came from. Happy hunting!

I’ll talk to ya soon! 🙂 

Where to Find Primary Sources for Women’s History

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Hey there, friend! Today we’re talking about where to find primary sources for researching and teaching women’s history! 

Sometimes it can be hard to find primary sources that blatantly talk about women and women’s history. As historians and researchers, we are taught to look for certain voices in unique places and sources. This article will give you several ideas of places to look to find women’s voices. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it can be used as a starting point for your next project! Remember, representation matters in your research and curriculum so make sure to include multiple points of view and experiences! 

Here are several places to look for women’s voices in the primary sources!

Letters

Letters are a great place to look for women in the historical record. Many women corresponded with their family which can give an insight in to family histories. 

Diaries

Diaries are personal and intimate records of the writer and should be treated with respect. Women often kept detailed records of their day, family, and towns. Diaries are such a good source! 

Newspapers

Newspapers often tell stories of the prominent women in a city or town. It also important to remember newspaper stories can be sensationalized and should be read in the context of the time. 

Church Records

Churches and preachers often kept detailed records of their congregations and members. Some women also acted as missionaries and kept their own detailed concerning their daily activities and the people they were working with. 

Court Records

Court records sometimes contain records for women. It really depends on the time period you’re studying for this source, but I definitely recommend checking them out if possible!

School Records

School records are so valuable for researching women! Women were often teachers and they kept the school records. You can also look for records at the district or county levels to find more information. 

Books

The inside cover of books or old family Bibles sometimes have names or important dates written inside the covers! So always make sure to look inside the old books you find in the archive or when going through old things!

Photos

Old photo albums and records are a treasure trove for researching women. Sometimes women are the focal point of the photo, but other times they are in the background and that can help give the researcher a clue as to what women were doing at the time. 

Bonus Tip: Some photos even have words written along the bottom or on the back of the image. These hints are invaluable when researching a person or family. 

Physical Objects & Artifacts

Physical objects and artifacts allow you to tell a person’s story visually. These objects are great for presentations, museum exhibits, and classroom demonstrations. 

Magazines & Advice Literature

Magazines and advice literature for women help you see what was considered “proper” for a woman in the time period that you are studying. This kind of literature was extremely popular in the nineteenth century. 

Autobiographies

Autobiographies are awesome because they were often written by the person you are studying or by someone close to them. This source allows you to understand how this person wanted to be remembered and what parts of their life that they considered important. 

Interviews

Interviews are a great primary source because you have words spoken by the person you are studying. How cool is that! You have to be careful with this type of source though. Make sure that you do adequate background research on the events the person is talking about. 

Speeches

Again, speeches are great because they are words that were actually spoken by the person you are researching. Women’s speeches are much more rare, especially depending on the time period that you are looking at. 

Bonus Tip: Modern speeches have often been photographed or recorded as well so make sure to look for a visual to match the audio or text that you found! 

Concluding Thoughts

The primary sources above are just a few of the places you can look to find women’s voices. Many of these sources can be scaled to the appropriate age for your classroom or project. I hope this list is helpful and that you add more women to the dialogue. 

I’ll talk to ya soon! 🙂 

Where to Find Public Domain Images for Your Next Project

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Hey there friend! Have you ever needed a picture for your project, but not known where to find non-copyrighted images? Today, I am going to give you a list of places to find non-copyrighted images that are perfect for any project. I have personally used the websites in this post for my own projects and assignments. 

1). Smithsonian Open Access 

The Smithsonian has released millions of their images into the Public Domain. This collection includes images and objects from across their museum holdings. The home page for this website is linked here. (https://www.si.edu/openaccess) 

2). Library of Congress 

This applies to some of their collections and images. Make sure to click on the image you want to use and double check that is says CC0 or Public Domain. 

The Library of Congress has curated several sets of free to use images. They can be found here. (https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/)

3). Flickr

Flickr is another cool platform to search for non copyrighted images. This website contains more stock photos than the previous two. 

There are several more websites out there that offer stock photos, but I haven’t used them so I don’t want to talk about them.

Bonus Tips & Ideas

Many archives will let you use their photos if you email them and ask for permission. You will want to email their contact person – make sure to be extra nice! Some archives will ask for citations, while other may ask you to pay a fee to use their image. Either way, make sure that you comply with their rules! 

Another good option is to take your own photos for your project! Many smart phones today have amazon cameras and you can capture lots of good footage. Make sure that you film in the orientation that is best for your project: portrait or landscape. You can then import the images into an app or download them to your computer to edit them! 

You can also create handwritten, drawn, or digital abstract designs for your project! There are a lot of apps out there so check them out and get creative! 

Concluding Thoughts

*It is important to note that CC0 and Public Domain images are the ones being discussed in this article. There are more copyright laws that get kind of messy, but I will let you look into that route!

Here is a list of places to find primary sources that you can check out next! I hope this helps for your next project!

I’ll talk to ya soon! 🙂 

The Best Places to Find Digitized Primary Sources

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Hello – welcome back to my blog! Today I am going to tell you about my favorite places to find digitized primary sources. This article will be helpful for professional researchers, historians, and students needing to find evidence for their projects. 

Finding primary sources can be hard to begin with, but now that most archives are either closed or restricted it has become even more difficult… I know this firsthand. I finished and defended my Master’s Thesis in Summer 2020 and couldn’t go anywhere. So these are some of the resources that I used and some that I have found working as a research assistant.

Feel free to email me with other sources that you use and I will add them to this list! 

*Disclaimer: There are no paid ads in this article. I am only talking about the sources I have personally used and/or paid to use myself. 

1. archive.org 

This website is free and has saved my life on multiple occasions. They have digitized hundreds of thousands of primary source documents that you can look at. All you have to do is sign up for a free account. Then you are able to look at documents or “check them out” for two weeks much like a public library. They have also digitized thousands of secondary sources that are great for literature reviews and historiographical essays.

2. JSTOR

JSTOR has a free version of their website – all you have to do is make an account. Then there’s a workspace where you can save articles in folders for different projects. Unfortunately, you can’t access JSTOR’s entire collection, but you can access a ton of stuff. Students or faculty at colleges/universities will have access to more articles than people with only the free account.

BONUS TIP: If you are a student or faculty member at a university and can’t find the article you need, email your library on campus. They will often have an interlibrary loan or request section where they can purchase the article for you and send it your way. Save yourself time and money by using the library resources! 

3. Research Library Databases

Library databases are so helpful. Many libraries have or are working on digitizing their primary sources which makes their special collections more readily available for research. If the collection itself hasn’t been digitized many libraries have at least made their Finding Aids available online. 

For example, the Newberry Library has digitized thousands of documents! (https://www.newberry.org)

4. Digital Archives

Digital archives were huge for me while I was finishing my thesis. Many state historical societies in the US have digitized their holdings or at least made the Finding Aids available online. 

Many state archives might be wiling to scan the pieces of the collection you need for a small fee. Check out their website to see the rate or email the archivist to ask! I’ve communicated with many kind archivists and they are so helpful! ALWAYS BE NICE to the archivist!!!

5. Museum Collections

Digital museum collections are another great place to find primary sources. You can look at the items in their collections or you can check out their online exhibits. Most museums only have enough space to display 10% of their physical collection so digital catalogs allow them to display more items!

Many museums have digitized more and more of their collections due to the pandemic. This has made museum exhibits more widely available to larger audiences which means more people can view and love the collections. How cool is that!

6. Public Library Databases

Public libraries are another great place to find primary sources. Public libraries often have subscriptions to online databases which allow you to do primary source research. You can also do interlibrary loans through the public library – this is where they order books from other library systems for you. 

ALWAYS BE KIND to the librarians you communicate with online or over the phone. They might find extra materials and send them your way. I remember one librarian doing this for me and it made a huge difference in my research paper. Thank your librarian today!

7. SCRIBD

SCRIBD is a paid subscription service that I personally use for my research. They have digitized several primary source documents that you can view after paying a monthly fee. SCRIBD also has digitized secondary sources as well. Some are PDFS, some are digitized books, and others are audiobooks. Listening to secondary sources while running or doing chores has saved me so much time 🙂

8. ancestry.com or other genealogical sites

Personally, I use ancestry.com for my research. This is another source that you have to pay to access, but they have different prices depending on what kind of sources you need. I always find cool things when I look on Ancestry. For example, there are census records, military records, pictures, draft cards, directories, yearbooks and more! Check it out!

9. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov

This database is run by the Library of Congress (another awesome database) and provides free access to newspaper across the United States. There are local, regional, and national newspapers in this databases. You can clip articles or see whole pages as PDFs. 

10. newspapers.com

This is another newspaper database, but it is a paid subscription. Personally, I think this is the easiest newspaper database to navigate. So it use this one the most! Most of my newspaper clippings on my instagram posts come from this website. 

Concluding Thoughts

This list will be updated as I find new databases! So I hope this becomes a resource that is really helpful for you! Thanks for reading!

I’ll talk to ya soon! 🙂

How to Write A Research Paper In 8 Easy Steps

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So you’ve been assigned a research paper for class… When I received the prompt for my first research paper I was so lost and didn’t know what to do. I began looking for resources (kind of like how you found this article!) and was hoping for some guidance. By the end of this article you will be ready to tackle that research paper with confidence! Grab your pencil and get ready to jot down a few notes! 

8 Steps to Writing a Great Research Paper

1). Read the prompt and pick out a topic that addresses all of the key points in the directions. 

2). Do a basic google search and see if there is information on this topic already out there. You can also search in the your school library’s databases. Make a list of the sources that you want to use to write your paper. Make sure to cite the information in the correct citation style for your class. Always include a bibliography at the end of the paper. 

DO NOT PLAGIARIZE EVER! You will get caught and you will be in big trouble. Please don’t ever take someone’s ideas and try to submit them as your own. ALWAYS include citations from where you got your materials. 

3). Create a thesis statement for your paper. What will you argue in the paper? A good thesis statement will be included in the introduction and conclusion of your research paper. 

4). Create an outline for your paper. I like to separate research papers into the following categories: introduction, body paragraph 1, body paragraph 2, body paragraph 3, and conclusion. This is the most basic outline you can create. There can be more body paragraphs or additional literature reviews if needed. Always write your thesis statement at the top of your outline. Connect all supporting paragraphs back to the thesis statement. 

5). Write a rough draft of your paper. Take all of the ideas you wrote in the outline and develop them into sentences. You can move the ideas and paragraphs around to make your argument stronger. 

Make sure that each paragraph has a topic sentence. The topic sentence will help organize the paper and give it structure. 

6). After writing a rough draft of your paper you can ask your professor or TA to look at it. You can then incorporate their feedback into your paper to make it stronger and get a better grade! 

BONUS TIP: Many universities have writing centers that you can visit as well. You schedule an appointment and they help you fix grammar, style, and clarity issues. The writing center at my university was so helpful – I took several papers there. 

7). Write a final draft of your paper incorporating all of the feedback you received from the professor and writing center. Read and reread the paper before submitting it! 

8). Upload your paper to the dropbox or turn it in to your professor! 

Concluding Thoughts

I hope these research writing paper tips were helpful! Stay tuned for more helpful tips!

Happy Writing! I’ll talk to ya soon! 🙂