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Probably my favorite topic to discuss in my history classes is the political climate centered around the Cold War. Lesson plans for this particular segment are a cinch, since this is the part of the curriculum I enjoy teaching the most. My kids are always intrigued with the prospect of espionage and top secret intelligence activities in the U.S. The Cold War for me is simply fascinating, along with its lingering paranoia and conspiracy theories that continue to haunt many of us history buffs. When it comes to some of my other U.S. history lesson plans, I tend to lean more on other resources--books, videos, games, PowerPoint presentations, etc. Creating World War II lesson plans, for example, doesn't always come as naturally as do my beloved Cold War lesson plans. I'm truly of the school that believes the best U.S. history lesson plans are the ones that seem to just flow out of you when you're standing at the front of the classroom. When you get excited about history, you pass that excitement onto your students. And logically, the subjects that tend to excite you are usually the ones you know the most about. In this case, discussion should be effortless. Don't get me wrong, there needs to be at least a loose structure to the class so that everything is covered and there's time for testing, but for the most part, if you enjoy teaching the subject then your students will enjoy learning it. Teachers are humans, too, and we're simply not going to excel, much less give a crap, about some of the things the state requires us to cover in our classes. It is during these times that we have to learn how to "fake it" and pretend like the subject is of interest and convey the necessary points to the students regardless of whether we want to or not. After all, when you sign up for teaching, you're signing up for Monday through Friday, from approximately 7 am to 3 pm, not to mention the work you will inevitably take home with you just about every night. It's okay to not be completely thrilled off your rear end day in and day out. That's why, especially when I'm putting together U.S. history lesson plans for subjects that either I dislike or just aren't too adept in, I rely on secondary teaching aids that really do the trick. I've found packages online that have multimedia presentations-- complete with audio, video, charts, maps, artwork, photos, interactive games, etc. These things have really saved me in some of the more rigorous subjects the kids tend to dislike or have a hard time with--and usually when they aren't enjoying a topic, I'm not either. Kind of ironic seeing as how, before I came to my school, students had a history of bad grades in the Cold War units--and it's probably just because the teacher wasn't excited about her Cold War lesson plans!
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Written by Mel Bryson. MultiMedia Learning LLC provides us history lesson plans, cold war lesson plans and world war ii lesson plans through their unique PowerPointŪ Presentation software. Students learn history through classroom social studies games and engaging technology. Learn more at www.multimedialearning.org .
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