American History Resource - The Denver Post Photo Blog

As a social studies teacher I am always looking for new resources to to bring into the classroom. We can no longer rely on notes and a text book as our primary learning tools. The internet has provided teachers with new resources and new opportunities to change the way history is taught and learned. Every month I come across new sources of photographs, documents, and videos that help to enhance the learning experience.  One of my favorite recent discoveries has been the The Denver Post photo blog, or Plog as it is called. The Plog is a terrific resource of photographs and information about a wide variety of historical topics which I have covered here, here, and here in my other blog. From the Statue of Liberty, to the inauguration,then the Great Depression, and the Berlin Wall, the Denver Post's Photo Blog is one resource that I highly recommend you explore.

7th grade and back again.

American history has been a passion of mine since I was 12 years old. I was in 7th grade and I fondly remember my social studies teacher, Mrs. Riter. She was most likely in her fifties but she seemed old to me. She was kind and seemed to enjoy that my friend Mark and I would stay after school to talk about the history lesson we learned that day. It was then that I also started reading my history text book for pleasure. I would read ahead and on weekends I would also spend hours in the library devouring history reference books. I could not get enough.

My passion for history has never diminished. I still enjoy reading history books and I am a avid viewer of the History Channel. I have watched the entire Ken Burns Civil War series in a single day and I can watch virtually any documentary as long as it is history related. Looking back, it is no surprise that I ended up being a history teacher. I discovered my love for history in 7th grade and strangely, that's the grade I now teach. My passion for the subject is still as strong as ever, but now I get to share my love of history with my students.

I hope that I can share my love of history through this blog. Please join me on my new journey through history.