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  John Davenport

  Elaine Witkowski

HNN’s Teacher’s Edition: Grades 9-12 is a one-stop free resource of historically-grounded lesson plans and reading materials on current events for busy grade school teachers.

Our mission is to provide comprehensive packages of background material, readings, visual aids, and ready-to-use lesson plans to teachers and students. We believe that such comprehensiveness is essential to student success and lays the foundation for responsible citizenship.

Our volunteer team of teachers and researchers prepare news backgrounders on topics in the news, then create a suggested lesson plan that builds off of the material presented in the backgrounder.

Each lesson plan is prepared by teachers with extensive classroom experience and encourages the development of higher thinking skills, and conforms to Common Core Standards.

John Davenport

Bio

John Davenport holds a PhD from the University of Connecticut and is the author of several world histories and historical biographies. His most recent books include The French Revolution and D-Day and the Liberation of France. Davenport has been a middle school social studies teacher for 14 years, and currently teaches at Corte Madera School in Portola Valley, California. He lives in San Carlos, California, with his wife, Jennifer, and his sons, William and Andrew.

Anecdote

My love of history dates back to my boyhood. Besides being the son of a World War II veteran, who spoke often of his wartime experiences, I was an avid viewer of sword-and-sandals epics, cowboy shows, and war movies. In fact, I devoured anything on TV or in the theaters having to do with the past. As I matured, books became the staple of my history diet, especially books having to do with the rough and tumble of the American experience. But my heart still drifted back to those early formative moments sitting on the living room floor, in front of a small black-and-white TV, watching such shows as Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke, Combat, The Rat Patrol, and Twelve O’clock High that stimulated a consuming interest in the lives of those who had come before me. To this day, while reading across a wide range of history, I still keep a special bookshelf, devoted solely to books that carry me away to the frontier, the Old West, or the skies over Germany, a collection that allows me, for a brief time, to once again wear a coonskin cap or pilot a B-17. A boy and his historical imagination are not easily parted.

Elaine Witkowski

Bio

Elaine Witkowski holds a Master of Education of Curriculum and Instruction in Business and Marketing Education from North Carolina State University. As a technology facilitator, she earned her Middle School Social Studies license when she realized she enjoyed the Social Studies aspect more than the technology part of the lessons.

She was accepted for a Freeman grant after taking courses in Columbia University’s Asian for Educators program. For two weeks she lived, breathed and explored the history of China and Vietnam. From her travel journal “To walk on the Great Wall is to feel very mortal. You see where the stones have been worn smooth by 2000 years of soldiers’ footsteps. As you leave the Wall you realize there will another 1000 years of people experiencing it after you.”

Anecdote

History grabbed me by the hand while I researched a report about Cleopatra in middle school and has not let me go since. I could see the splendor of Alexandria, feel the heat of the burning sun while walking by the pink granite sphinx as I was totally transported to Egypt.

I enjoyed sharing my enthusiasm about Cleopatra when I participated in Duke University’s Adventures in Alice program. Teachers learn how to infuse core subjects with animation so students can create 3D images of their studies. My lesson plan had students creating their own pharaohs and learning about Egyptian culture.

It connected in my mind that looking back at the past is necessary to foresee the future, when as a teenager, I watched the Centennial television miniseries. The country’s narrative unfolded over several nights, starting with how Native Americans were pushed further West, trappers explored new lands, settlers braved harsh winters, each generation’s story started where the previous group’s tale ended.

Before that moment, history seemed to be a faraway thing, not something I was connected to in any way. It made me realize that we are creating history as we live our lives. While I love the saga of how America started, our actions now may be cherished by future generations of students as their history.