Last week I participated in the "Back to School with Achieve" webinar to learn about new tools available for students and faculty through Achieve as well as share my experience using the Achieve "Goal Setting & Reflection Surveys." The webinar, linked above, includes suggestions about how to start the semester off strong by gauging students' concerns about their academic performance, particularly the challenges they anticipate as they start a new semester. Learning more about the students through the Achieve surveys can help faculty to better plan for student support throughout the semester.  Please watch the webinar and share questions/thoughts/concerns for the new academic year here in Macmillan Community!  ... View more

No matter who wins the Presidential Election in November, there is no doubt the events of July 2024 will be discussed and debated by historians and political pundits for decades to come. If the 2024 election ended tomorrow it would already be memorable.    I started writing this blog shortly after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump took place on July 13th. In the two weeks since the horrific events in Butler, Pennsylvania, we have witnessed a sitting president drop out of the presidential race and the emergence of the vice president, a woman of color, as the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party. Threads of sexism and racism have, predictably,  begun to infect the political discourse.   My reluctance to entertain any discussion of current events has only increased since 2016 and is firmly rooted in both the divisive nature of politics in the US today and social media’s role in worsening that divide. In the classroom political discussions can be civil, or they can devolve into anger and frustration that can carry over week to week as the students continue to meet in the classroom.    As future historians study the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections they will comb through volumes of video and print materials evidencing an unprecedented level of hate speech. When a Republican congressman called VP Kamala Harris a “DEI hire” earlier this week it appeared that the calls for a softening of rhetoric that followed the assassination attempt have been forgotten in favor of racially-charged politically divisive speech.    Barring total avoidance of conversation, how do we counter the chaos of the 2024 election in our classrooms? Here are three (simple) guiding principles to use in the next three months until Election Day.    Keep Discussion Brief – Taking 5 to 10 minutes at the start or end of class to discuss students’ observations of the political rhetoric can lead to greater understanding. Planning a start and end to the discussion is also helpful. I preface all political discussions with a simple: “let’s share observations rather than expressing personal viewpoints.” I ask the students what they’ve noticed: what is the rhetoric, what kinds of sources are they consulting, are they watching/listening to the news or has it become background in their daily lives as part of their social media feeds?    Explore Concepts and Ideas – Ask students if they understand the political conversations that are happening on television news, in print sources, and/or social media. As familiar as college faculty and administrators are with the acronym “DEI,” for example, many students do not know what the acronym stands for. When politicians use it as a slur the terminology only becomes more confusing. It’s up to us as teachers and historians to create an atmosphere in which students feel comfortable asking questions without being made to feel intellectually inferior or out of touch with current events.   Encourage Continuing Dialogue – Follow up with students at subsequent classes to provide an opportunity to offer new reflections that may have been percolating but were not expressed. This strategy is especially helpful for students who require more time to digest class discussion. Offering students the opportunity to submit questions about current events anonymously before class can also be a useful way to engage those who don’t feel comfortable speaking up in class.   As much as I would love to avoid all in-class political conversation for the next three months, it’s an impossible pursuit. My goal, instead, is to create a model for civil dialogue in the classroom that students can take with them into the rest of their daily experiences.   Suggestions? Please share!  ... View more

This week I'm sharing a presentation by Professor Erika Martinez about using artificial intelligence (AI) in the economic classroom, which has practical applications for history classes as well.   Recently I blogged about my need to come to terms with concerns about AI (see “Facing My Fears about AI”). Previously my worries about academic dishonesty have guided nearly all of my decision-making about AI. Professor Martinez’s presentation at Macmillan's TechEd has helped me to open my thinking to some new angles of consideration.   Tell me what you think!  AI for Educators_ Practical AI Applications (macmillanlearning.com) ... View more

It’s time to confront my fear of student use of artificial intelligence (AI). I realized this reality the first week of June while attending Macmillan’s 2024 TechEd where I heard from fellow Peer Advocates about their experiences bringing AI into the college classroom.   I have been admittedly reluctant to allow any student use of AI for the obvious reason: cheating. At the same time, I’ve avoided a zero-tolerance policy by reasoning that if students are going to use AI I want them to know how to properly cite it. My approach to AI has been to create assignments that require so many variants that AI use is exceedingly complicated and therefore, I reason, less attractive to students. As a result I’ve had only one case (that I’m sure of) in the last year where a student used AI instead of submitting their own original work.    Listening to my Peer Advocate colleagues at TechEd, however, made me question whether my approach has been short-sighted. If, for example, I am trying to help my students to be work-force ready, am I doing them a disservice by not allowing them some use of AI so that in an academic environment we can grapple with questions about appropriate and ethical uses? The history classroom, after all, is one of the best academic spaces in which to talk about sources. Do I need to start looking at AI as simply one more media source for consideration?    Part of my struggle with the use of AI in student writing has been my concern that a large percentage of my students do not have a strong grasp on basic grammar and writing skills. This reality is painfully obvious to me at the start of each semester when I ask students to introduce themselves in our class discussion board. Asking the students to write about themselves not only provides me information such as preferred pronouns, majors, and career goals, but also a sample of their skill level in regards to writing. I’ve had several students come across as articulate in class only to present significant academic deficits in their writing assignments. These no-stakes introductions alert me to students who require extra support for their writing assignments during the semester.    So what comes next? I have two plans for the summer to help move me from a place of fear and loathing of AI to one in which I better understand the role that the new technology may have in higher education.   First, along with more than 100 faculty at my college I will be participating in a summer read of Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024). My college’s Center for Teaching Excellence supplied copies of the book at no charge to faculty interested in engaging in discussion of AI-related education during the 2024-25 academic year and I’m excited to hear my colleagues’ perspectives on the ideas presented by the authors when we return to campus in the fall.   Second, I plan to develop one low stakes AI-based assignment for my upper-level history students who undertake research projects during the semester. What that project will look like remains to be seen. Suggestions welcome! Drop a comment below or email me at: suzannekmccormack@gmail.com ... View more

My father passed away on May 1st. This blog will, therefore, be a bit indulgent as I want to share some stories about the most influential historian in my life.    My dad, Thomas Kelley, grew up just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, in a large Irish-Catholic family. His parents raised eight sons, all of whom served as altar boys at some point in their young lives. He studied history at Boston College in the early 1960s. I keep his History of Civilization textbooks in my office at home. Even before he passed away, I enjoyed thumbing through the texts and reading his hand-written notes in the margins – tiny windows into his life as a college student.   My dad enlisted in the Air Force upon graduation in 1966 – a choice that would keep him out of the draft and off the frontlines of combat but not immune to the long-term devastation of the war in Vietnam. As an air weapons controller he was unknowingly exposed to Agent Orange. Many, many years after his military deployments ended, the physical consequences of that service appeared, as it has for many Vietnam War-era veterans, in the form of Parkinson’s Disease, which he fought for the final twenty years of his life.    When I was a child my Dad taught history at a high school and continued to serve part-time in the military, which brought us as a family to Washington, DC, in the summers. We spent countless hours at the museums of the Smithsonian Institute and my favorite quickly became the National Museum of American History. I can’t remember any of the exhibits, just a general sense of enjoyment in learning the stories the museum shared with us, and listening to my Dad explain the historical events that were foreign to me as an elementary school student.   It wasn’t until I was in graduate school that I began to understand the role my Dad had played in the war in Vietnam and the impact the experience had on his life. Going through old boxes in the basement one weekend my Dad showed me a remnant of his time overseas – a small booklet he used for keeping track of his pay while stationed in Thailand. The year was 1970 and at the back of the book, in tiny letters, my Dad – then 26 years old – had written “Richard Nixon is a liar.” He shared with me that his unit conducted secret air operations over Laos, a neighboring nation of Vietnam that President Nixon swore was not being brought into the conflict. The short sentence, he said, was a reminder of the disconnect between his military orders and the president’s words – and a way to maintain some semblance of reality for himself through the difficult experience.   Two weeks after my Dad passed away we started summer session at my college. It was the first time in my career that I did not talk to my Dad before classes started about what I am teaching. That realization hit me hard as I entered the building on a gorgeous New England spring morning in May.    My Dad and I did not always agree on politics or our interpretations of historical events, but we always had lively conversations that pushed me to sharpen my arguments. When I started to teach I relied on his decades of secondary classroom experiences to help me find effective ways to deal with the challenges I faced. And, most importantly, I learned from my father that in a truly successful classroom the personal connection between the students and their teacher – including feelings of affirmation and belonging that can be cemented as academic content is transferred from teacher to student – are more significant and long-lasting than even the knowledge being taught. For this lesson, and many many others, I’m grateful.    ... View more

In March I had the good fortune to participate in this year’s American Association of Colleges & Universities Conference (AACU) on Diversity, Equity, and Student Success in Philadelphia, PA. Preparing for my roundtable discussion on “Diversifying the US History Survey” prodded me to think about what I’m currently doing in my courses, and encouraged some dialogue with students about what is/not working from their perspectives.   Often we as teachers are not the best judges of what our students require to be successful because we subconsciously lean on our own educational experiences when we develop expectations of our students’ needs. Thinking about diversity and inclusion in the college history classroom, therefore, requires us to reflect on our biases and open ourselves up to learning about topics that we might not have studied in graduate school to encourage our own growth, and our students'. In the United States history survey courses, inclusion demands that we expand the narrative beyond electoral wins and losses and look more deeply into how decision-making by leaders (local, state, and national) has impacted the diverse communities that together create our nation. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in history education necessitates consideration not just of race and gender, but also economics and social class, particularly the way in which those in political power often utilize their advantages to the detriment of others.    After hearing from colleagues in states with anti-DEI legislation either passed or pending it struck me that at the heart of the movement is fear of the unknown – of people and ideologies that are different from those who for so long have had political and economic control. Historically there is nothing new about this kind of resistance. While I feel fortunate to teach in a so-called “blue state,” the angry sentiments of DEI resistance exist in every community, though their voices and the power they wield are stronger in some than others. As I listened to presentations at the AACU conference it was reaffirmed for me that what my students need most is a broad knowledge of our national past so they can better understand the current debates about DEI and place those debates within historical context. In other words, a student who knows nothing about the movement for civil rights in the United States will fail to understand the detrimental impact of anti-DEI legislation.    Yesterday students in my US History since 1877 class watched a segment of the classic documentary “Eyes on the Prize” as part of a larger discussion of school desegregation efforts in the 1950s/1960s. The community college where I teach has approximately 11% students who identify as black and/or African American, and is a federally- designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Many of my students did not realize that segregated schools were a part of our national history. Having these conversations about the history of civil rights reminds us all that the playing field has never been equal and that there is considerable danger in political movements that seek to silence the very efforts that have moved us towards a more integrated society (with much work still left to do).   I would love to hear from Macmillan Community members about the challenges they are facing in their communities related to DEI. What kinds of resources are you as educators relying on to help students understand the centrality of diversity to our national history? And, what kinds of resources would be helpful as we navigate these challenging educational waters?    Please share by commenting here or emailing me at suzannekmccormack@gmail.com ... View more

Tagging on to my Macmillan Community colleague’s post “Recommendations for Black History Month” I’d like to share two web sites that I find particularly pertinent for educators in all disciplines as we continue to watch state legislatures and local school boards mercilessly target history education. No matter our politics, as educators we have a responsibility to our students to encourage critical thinking about both current events and historical topics. Here are two additional links for those who are seeking ideas, discussion, and resources. Both of these sites go beyond the scope of Black History Month to maintain up to date information year round:   Teaching History with Integrity – part of the American Historical Association’s multi-faceted efforts to counter-balance efforts against teaching all aspects of our national history. The site includes videos featuring historians describing the challenges educators are currently facing and why we as a society need to be honest with students even when the narrative is uncomfortable.   The Zinn Education Project provides lesson plans on topics not commonly found in textbooks, including this month’s focus on environmental racism. If you’re looking for resources to supplement discussions on race, gender, climate justice, imperialism and many other areas, this website is regularly updated and full of ideas for expanding conversation in your classrooms.   Other suggestions, please share!  ... View more

As Black History Month comes to a close, I think it's important that we remember that learning about Black history shouldn't be confined to the month of February; it is imperative that we continue to learn and understand the contributions Black Americans have made in the United States. Here is a list of great books and videos to learn more: Read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet A. Jacobs The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison Beloved, by Toni Morrison  Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison The 1619 Project, by The New York Times Chocolate Me!, by Taye Diggs  Becoming, by Michelle Obama Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston Chasing Space: An Astronaut's Story of Grit, Grace, and Second Chances by Leland Melvin I am Perfectly Designed, by Karamo Brown 28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World, by Charles R. Smith Jr.   The Dangers of Whitewashing Black History | David Ikard | TEDxNashville Talks to celebrate Black History Month BlacKkKlansman Freedom Riders Quincy ... View more

What was it really like to travel as a Black American during the era of Jim Crow laws and segregation? Award-winning journalist Alvin Hall and social justice trainer Janée Woods Weber hit the road to find out on Driving the Green Book, a living history podcast from Macmillan Podcasts. Over the course of 12 days and 2,021 miles, the two drove from Detroit to New Orleans collecting personal stories from Black Americans who used the historic Negro Motorist Green Book travel guide to navigate trips safely and with dignity, patronize Black-owned businesses, and come together in the face of institutionalized racism. Driving the Green Book sheds light on what has (and hasn't) changed for Black travelers since segregation and honors the stories of those who lived through the era, supported and uplifted each other, and fought for equality.  Listeners can also gain a deeper appreciation of the historic, but often forgotten, locations that helped Black Americans to travel safely across the United States with Driving the Green Book's custom Apple Maps Guide. They can also enjoy a playlist on Apple Music highlighting the songs that came out of the era, many of which were written in response to the injustices faced by Black Americans all over the country.  Educators can use the podcast and additional resources as supplemental tools in a variety of history courses to explain how the Negro Motorist Green Book was a seminal publication in the ongoing fight for racial and social justice. ... View more

Last summer I instituted open-notebook exams in my introductory-level history courses. Previously I had relied on traditional practices: a mix of essays and objective questions for which students had to be well-versed in a half-semester’s worth of material. I was, however, increasingly concerned about the low grades that students, especially those in their first-year, were earning on exams that required memorization. The fact that many of our current first-year students had at least some period of remote learning during COVID, during which it's possible they were not required to prepare for closed book/notes exams further encouraged me to try some alternative practices aimed at improving student outcomes.   My goal was to focus my students’ attention on note taking with the idea that this skill is one that can and is used in virtually every professional career. As I was writing this blog, for example, I unscientifically polled friends – a banker, a sales professional, and two personal trainers – all of whom confirmed that they take notes every day while they work. Sometimes on paper, but more often using cell phones or even napkins. As professionals they have learned that there are key stats/terms/ideas that they need to be able to reference at a later time and they acknowledge that their memory is often flawed. Notes trigger memory and, in the case of my students, I hope that their notes connect them to the discussions we had in class days/weeks after, which would enable more success on exams. [FYI: For more on the topic of linking professional skills to open-note exams, see Carol E. Holstead’s piece “In Praise of Open-Note Exams” in The Chronicle of Higher Education (5 September 2023)]   I’m now in my second full semester of open notebook exams with my US History I and II students. Each week I distribute a handout to guide student note-taking: key terms, images/maps from lecture, and sometimes definitions or references to place in the textbook that I think are particularly helpful. I also invite a professional from our college Tutoring Center to meet with the class during the first two weeks to offer support for note-taking skills/guidance.    Admittedly I have not yet done any statistical analysis of students’ test results, though I have witnessed first hand the reduction in stress level as we get closer to exams. I have also discovered that the open-notebook exams policy created an avenue for me to regularly address the importance of taking notes in class. This past week, for example, during a particularly complicated discussion about politics in the Progressive Era I noticed several students not taking notes. I took a few moments at the end of class to discuss with the class what specific information they felt was important from my lecture and what they had written down. I pointed out some details that I hoped they had recorded, and suggested that they share their notes with a classmate after our meeting to ensure that they were not missing any key information. Several students stayed after class to ask me questions and to clarify their notes.    This change from memory-based to notes-based exams has been small but so far meaningful. The greatest challenge for me, however, has been determining what kinds of questions work best for open-note exams. Doing some basic internet searches on open-notes exams has shown me that, like everything else in the field of education, there is no consensus on what works best with students. I would love to hear from colleagues in the Macmillan Community about what kinds of questions have worked best in open-notes exams.    Please share! ... View more

Just before Valentine's Day, 1965, the Supremes released the breakaway-hit "Stop! In the Name of Love" after recording it a month prior. The song skyrocketed on the charts hitting Number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Top 100 and was also a Top 10 hit in the U.K. The Supremes consisted of Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard. Both the artists and the song's notoriety is often associated with the famous "traffic cop" dance style where the ladies sang the chorus and made the "stop" sign gesture with their hands in tune with the music. The Supremes went on to become one of Motown's leading female groups. ... View more

Over the past year I have transitioned all of my US history courses to either Achieve or Achieve Read & Practice. This week I've created a short (5 minute) video to show how easy it is to get started creating a course. In subsequent posts I will share some of my favorite Achieve-based content to use in history courses.   ... View more

New for Spring 2024: Access the "best of Bedford" and American History with over 120 titles including survey texts, primary source modules, writing guides, Bedford Series books, and much more--all at an extremely affordable price! ... View more

This week I’m transitioning my US History I class from LaunchPad to Achieve   Summer session begins on Tuesday so I’m quickly educating myself on the differences between LaunchPad and Achieve, in preparation for working with students in the classroom. This week’s blog will share some of the materials I plan to use as we start Summer Session. I’ll follow up later in the month to share how things are going so far!    First things first: I use The American Promise (9th edition) for both sections of my US history survey classes. Summer Session One at my college is six weeks long. We meet in person twice per week for three hours and ten minutes each meeting.   I don't expect the transition from LaunchPad to Achieve to be an issue for the students as many of them are in my classroom for the first time and are not wedded to the LaunchPad system as I am! Nonetheless, to help us all with the technology I’ve requested a cart of laptops from our IT Department for our class meeting times so that each student will be able to complete these first assignments in our physical class space, getting help when necessary. This is something I hope to continue doing with future semester students – taking some of the “lecture” out of class time and replacing it with students completing work on their own or with a partner in class. This, I hope, will provide those who need additional support an opportunity to ask questions while we are sharing physical space.    Since our first meeting will be 3 hours long with the students not yet having access to their textbooks or any assignments beforehand, I plan to utilize two Achieve tools on the first day to help the students get to know the software and me to get to know the students.   Here are two short videos sharing the resources I will use on the first day of class: the Achieve Orientation Quiz and the Intro Survey. Bear with me as this is the first time I've added video to my blogs!     I'm excited to read the student surveys after our first meeting and hopeful that they will help guide me in the kinds of assignments I use with students during the semester.  Stay tuned!       ... View more

With so much focus this past year on COVID-19 I asked some of the young people in my life (high school and college-age students) to tell me which news stories from 2021 they wished they knew more about. While we have been necessarily hyper-focused on the pandemic as we live through it day-to-day, what do today's students think future generations will need to know about the year 2021 to fully understand its history?   Topping their list of lessons for students of the future is the removal of US troops from Afghanistan and the rebirth of the Taliban. Many young people have never known a time when the US military was not active in the Middle East. For those born after the year 2000, the “War on Terror” is to them what the Cold War was to children of the 1970s like me. While it’s likely that it will likely take decades before historians fully understand what went wrong with US policy in Afghanistan, I’m hopeful that future generations of students will have access to government and military documents that provide a more complete picture of our nation’s policies overseas.   The students I spoke with also emphasized the importance of future generations studying the environmental crises of 2021, both natural and man-made. From wildfires, hurricanes and tornadoes to oil spills and air pollution, today’s young people see climate change as a fundamentally important topic of study for their lifetimes. Perhaps more than any generation before, students in 2021 have been charged with generating tangible changes that will benefit the environment. Issues relating to sustainability are becoming part of the business school curriculums and today’s students see the socially active young people of today as critical to the future of our environment’s survival.    Finally, I was heartened to hear today’s students emphasize the changes in public discussion about mental health that have taken place around the pandemic and spread into nearly all aspects of American life as critical to understanding the year 2021. One student cited the Summer Olympics as a flashpoint in the way that we as a society talk about stress. US gymnast Simone Biles’s decision to withdraw from competition led to other athletes and nationally known figures publicly acknowledging the mental toll that anxiety, depression, and stress have taken on their lives. The measurable surge in demand for counseling services for people of all ages during the pandemic will add to the importance of future generations looking to 2021 as a time of significant challenges (and hopefully progress) in the field of mental health.    Without question, COVID-19 with all of its variants has remained the most talked-about news story of the year. As a nation we’ve debated vaccinations (Moderna v. Pfizer v. J&J) and boosters (which to choose and when). We’ve seen major economic challenges as a result of the virus – job losses and creation, career changes inspired by the pandemic, unemployment, and work-from-home have all been part of public discussion. It could be argued that not one single aspect of American life has been untouched by the pandemic. As the year comes to an end, many of us find ourselves again facing COVID-based restrictions and shutdowns and wondering when this chaos will finally dissipate – hopeful that in 2022 the pandemic will move from being a current event to a topic for the history books.    Happy New Year!   ... View more