Every year I check out the Pulitzer Prize winners in non-fiction as well as those from the National Book Award.  No matter what the subject, these books usually have two things in common that I love.  First, they are incredibly well researched.  The endnotes themselves tell a story about an author sitting in basements, sorting [...]

Welcome back to all new and former students.  This year I’ll teach 2 sections of AP US History and 1 section of US History 2.  I’ll also coach the Debate Team and the Chess Team, as well as chair the school’s Restructuring Committee.  If you want to know more about any of these programs, classes [...]

As the school year begins, there will be more and more changes to the site you are viewing.  I plan on adding more to the Podcast page, providing a source of great historical reviews as well as interesting news stories.  I also plan on updating and adding information to the Wiki page.  In the last [...]

One book leads to another.  That’s the way it goes.  Since I was a child, I allowed myself no gaps between the end of one book and the beginning of another.  In many cases, there would be direct causal connections to the choices.  Sometimes there would be jumps and starts, but overall, themes would build [...]

Cell phones.  As a tech-geek teacher, I strongly believe that using cell phones as teaching devices is a perfectly acceptable use of technology in the classroom.  But, the reality is that cell phones have become more of a distraction in the classroom under the existing school policy than something that could benefit teachers.  This is [...]

Today, Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to 18 months of home imprisonment.  She is the leader of a non-violent, democracy movement in one of the most brutal dictatorships still left on the planet in Mynamar (formerly Burma).  You can read about the her personal history here and visit her webpage here for [...]

Anathem, by Neal Stephenson, is an incredible book.  It examines an alternate world in which two societies have developed coexisting, but apart from, one another.  In one society – the Saecular – politics and culture is very similar to our own.  In the other – the Avout – live in seclusion and division from the [...]

Anyone can learn about events, issues and people in history by reading on their own. The true essence of studying history, however, comes not from gathering historical knowledge but from gaining understanding from that knowledge. US History II is a course that covers American history from the Reconstruction era to the 21st century. The course [...]

Ayla is a very interesting and assertive dog.  This is sample text added to a sample image to test the Featured Content Gallery plugin.