Friday Freebee: America, the Teachers’ Guide

Is the tired American history textbook you’ve been using not getting through to the imaginations of your students? The History Channel’s “America, The Story of Us” is a great way to get kids to absorb and understand American history and a rare opportunity to build a curriculum around a TV show. The network’s Classroom section has a variety of teaching materials.  There’s a 10-page set of lesson plans as well as an 8-page Classroom Activity Guide.

Between the two booklets, there are breakdowns of each episode, from the rise of the revolution against Britain to Barack Obama’s election as the first African-American president. There are activities to do with the class before viewing the show as well as multimedia activities along with links to online supplementary content. Too bad the online content doesn’t include the actual shows, which are available on DVDs. The History Channel is offering to give your school a set of the DVDs. All the principal has to do is register. Hurry, the offer expires during the summer.

Stay tuned because the History channel is putting together a Webcast with the Smithsonian Institution that will show and explain a variety of historical documents and artifacts. It will be broadcast on May 6th at noon, eastern time, and is a rare chance to see these objects and have experts explain them to you and your class.