History Class when you were in school.

[Danustouch]

Some of us may have to reach way back in our memories to answer THIS question...buttt...

When you were in school, what was the most interesting project you had to do, or most interesting topic you had to discuss?

When I was a Junior in Highschool, I had to take "American History, and Literature". It was a two period, team taught course. One half of it would be the history section, and one part would consist of literature ABOUT The time period we were discussing.

We had a lot of really cool discussions in that class, and a lot of great projects. We had to do our family tree for this class, which of course, I bombed on at the time, becuase I had such little info at the time. Now..I'd probably get an A + on it..lol.

But..I think one of the more interesting projects we had, was when we were studying the industrial era. One of our projects was to look in old biographies of famous citizens in our town (or at least prominent citezens), from that era, and write epitapths for them. This needed a good amount of research about the time period..the words often used, the ideals, the biographies, but it also took a great amount of imagination. One of the students in our class was lucky enough to draw the name PT Barnum....because the famed PT was actually a long time citezen of our town! Anyway, it was a really interesting project to do.

What cool projects did your History teachers give you to do?

[Theres]

when i was in school, history hadn't been invented yet!

my high school history teacher, Mr. Bedford, was the best teacher i ever had. i already liked history, but he made it come alive.
one project he gave us was to write a lengthy paper on an historical figure, but in the first person. i wrote about Hannibal, from the perspective of one of his generals. it was fun to do, and i got a great grade. he liked big, full papers, saying that he graded them by throwing them down his basement steps, and the one that went the furthest got the A!
so i went on for about 50+ pages, and got an A/A/B.
he was also my music appreciation teacher, and the guy that got me turned on to Jazz.
thanks alot Mr. B!

[Loon]

When you were in school, what was the most interesting project you had to do, or most interesting topic you had to discuss?

Oh, wow, this is hard. I think history is very interesting and my favorite teacher in high school was the social studies teacher I had for three subjects (world history, psych, and govt). She was very creative and we were always doing interesting things. But the history project that first comes to mind was assigned by another teacher in U.S. History my Junior year. We had to do an independent reading unit and got to pick our own topics. I chose to read The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan. I liked just being in control of what I was learning for the first time. :)

[Danustouch]

Yeah..I think that teachers who let you have some control over the topics that you study, or the books that you read which are connected with the topic the class is studying, are the best sort of teachers.

For a couple of segments in my American history and lit class, I remember that they gave us lists of several books we could choose from. Which is a really good thing. I'd choose reading the Great Gatsby, over reading "The Jungle" any day of the week ;)

[Mnemosyne]

Me too, Danustouch; I would read the Great Gatsby way before I would read the Jungle. Come on, I'm still scared of the meat industry after reading the Jungle.

My teachers in school really did not assign interesting history projects. In fact, they were pretty lousy teachers. They would tell us to read parts of the book and go into the back room to drink coffee. That is no joke. Nevertheless, I fell love in history. I love history so much that I teach sixth graders ancient history. I've given my students a lot of intereting projects. Usually, when we are studying a time period, I give them about five or six project ideas to choose from. The students' favorite activity is usually to make models and write about what they built. Since I have been teaching, I have had students make me ziggurats, pyramids, agoras, and even coliseums..etc. Students also like to pretend that they live a particular time period.

[Danustouch]

I used to like making diorama's (sp) when I was in elementary school :)

And yes....I still get the creeps from "The Jungle", too! Blech!

[Garnet]

The Jungle...ugh. I didn't eat meat for months after I read that.
I loved history. In my junior year, I took U.S. history (a requirement) & World History (an elective course).
In World History, we had to present a bio of a famous person each semester. The first time I did Cleopatra (& found out there were several queens named that). The other one was on John Paul Jones, because I had read a really intersting story about how he died & was 'lost' in France & how the US had to find him to bring him home.
In US history, we were given a family tree project, but a. had to base it on diaries, talking to relatives, etc. & b. it had to go back as long as our families had been in this country. He wanted us to find out why our ancestors came to the US, why they settled in Wisconsin, how they were affected by wars, etc. The one who did well was the girl who's parents immigrated to the US after WWII.
No-one else did well, because few had the kind of sources the teacher wanted. I tried to base it on my maternal grandfather who had come from Poland, but Mr. Schwartz insisted that I do it on my dad's side, which came here in 1630. There was a family tree but no diaries & my parents wouldn't let me call older relatives long-distance (& my dad was never interested in his family's history & knew nothing) so I didn't do well. But few in the class did well so Mr. Schwartz didn't fail us, especially after some of us pointed out that our ancestors were thinking of putting food on their tables & fighting off bears, etc. not about the history homework of descendants.
But I still love history & I like to wander through old cemetaries...often the best way to learn anything.