Teacher-student teams are invited to apply to this program from National History Day in partnership with Carpenters’ Hall. Selected teams will explore the founding of the United States and how the ideals of that era have been debated, discussed, and refined over the course of history through participation in online learning during the winter and spring and an in-person program July 13-19 in Philadelphia, PA. Teams must include one student in tenth or eleventh grade this academic year and one educator, including school librarians and teachers of grades 4-12. | Program information & application deadline: November 1 | Contact: Krista Grensavitch

The article “Migrant Mothers” by George Dillard explores the story behind Dorothea Lange’s iconic photograph “Migrant Mother,” featuring Florence Thompson. It delves into Thompson’s life during the Great Depression and her mixed feelings about the photograph’s legacy. The piece highlights the role of Depression-era photography in shaping public perception and its engineered nature to evoke specific emotions. Teachers may find this article valuable for discussing the intersection of art, history, and social commentary, while encouraging students to critically analyze historical sources.

Why It’s Interesting:

• Includes photos of other "migrant mothers" taken by Lange
• Connects historical context with visual storytelling.
• Encourages critical thinking about documentary photography.
• Offers a personal narrative that humanizes historical events.
• All images available at LOC

I recently discovered HistoryMaps. It's a beautifully designed resource and available for free in 58 languages.

You can find it here: https://history-maps.com/

There are three main components of HistoryMaps: the Story Map, the Timeline, and the homepage’s global map. Each presents historical events in a different mode - either as immersive guided narratives, across time, or across geography. 

Here's more from the creator: 

Learn History Visually
When you show a map or a timeline, you know where things fit, both in time and place. Adding images and videos brings these stories to life; Visual Learning is intuitive, retentive and engaging!

Comparative History
History is frequently taught as separate modules, like the history of Europe or the history of Asia, making it difficult to see how these different histories intersect and influence each other. With features like World History Timeline, you see events on a global timeline map. What events were unfolding in Japan when the Ottoman tribes were conquering Anatolia? Did you know that when the Romans invaded Britain in 43 CE, the Trung Sisters were establishing independence for Northern Vietnam from the Han Dynasty of China? Some of these events have no causal links, but some do.

Connect the Dots
Exploring history is like being a detective where you connect the dots between events, trace their causes and effects, and find patterns to uncover a story larger than the sum of its parts. Histograph is an AI-powered tool that helps you understand how historical events are interconnected, revealing how they can be both causes and effects of each other. For example, did the Battle of Varna have anything to do with the Partition of Poland? Or is the Haitian Revolution connected to the Louisiana Purchase?

History for All
The site is available for free in 58 languages to make it accessible to as many people as possible. It's satisfying to see the content read in languages such as Uzbek, Vietnamese, and even Amharic (Ethiopia). Additionally, the site accommodates for the blind and visually-impaired users.

  maps    geography    timeline  

Great to see all you new pre-service teachers here in the "The Student as Historian" group

When I'm not posting as a TPS Mentor, I have another project at Substack called "The Forgotten Files" Each week I publish fascinating historical images drawn from a wide variety of archives - including the LOC. All artifacts are in the public domain and have a link back to sources.

The subject matter varies and sadly Substack does not include any tagging tools. But the search engine works well. Subscriptions are free - you can get new docs directly to your mailbox

If you're looking for a quick lesson builder to use with the images use something from this flexible set of Historical Thinking Prompts from TPS Connect. (See below)

Engaging visual artifact + thinking prompt = a quick mini-lesson.