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October 2024: History as Storytelling
Teacher article: "Building Content Knowledge Through Narrative"
Lesson idea: A Story of Triumph: Rationing during WWII
Featured feature: The Story Behind the Picture
September 2024: Rights and Responsibilities
Lesson ideas: Tennessee's 1796 Constitution; Fannie Lou Hamer & the MFDP; Tennessee Valley Authority & the New Deal; The Giver of Gifts?
August 2024: Staff Favorites, Vol. IV
Lesson ideas: Living in a Sod House; Close Reading Exercises; American Imperialism: A New Perspective; Confrontation at City Hall
July 2024: Our Favorite Exhibitions
Featured feature: TN Council for History Education
Lesson ideas: African American Odyssey; Chronicling Through Cartoons; World Treasures of the Library of Congress
June 2024: Our Favorite Library Collections
Featured Feature: Sanborn Maps
Lesson ideas: The Empire That Was Russia; Panoramic Maps; Let Their Voices Speak for Themselves
May 2024: Famous Mothers from History
Lesson ideas: Mothers as the Home Protectors; "The Child and the Law"; Hidden Labor: Wet Nursing and Motherhood in America
April 2024: The 1950s
Lesson ideas: The Beat Generation; Televising America: Cultural Shifts & 1950s Media; Civil Rights Congress & Cold War Politics; The Murder of Emmett Till
March 2024: The 1850s
Lesson ideas: The Gadsden Purchase; Caning on the Senate Floor; Digging for Gold & the Compromise of 1850; Manifesting a Southern Destiny
February 2024: Historical Argument
Lesson ideas: The Impact of the 14th Amendment; Was Truman Justified to Use Atomic Weapons?; Small Hands, Hard Work: Child Labor in the U.S.
January 2024: Teaching Historical Context
Feature article: What Is Context?
Lesson ideas: Women's Political Activism during the American Revolution; Pour Decisions

December 2023: Age of Jackson
Lesson ideas: Political Cartoons in Jacksonian Era; The Nullification Crisis; The Legacy of Chief Justice John Marshall; Appealing to the Common Man
November 2023: American Revolution, vol. II
Lesson ideas: Patriots in Petticoats: Revolutionary Women; Inspiring the Revolution; The Battle of Bunker Hill; The Tarring of John Malcom: a British Perspective
October 2023: Turning Points in U.S. History
Lesson ideas: FDR's Decision to Run for a Third Term; Confrontation at City Hall; Protecting Sites of Cultural Heritage
Featured feature: History Day
September 2023: Civic Holidays
Featured feature: Tennessee Council for History Education
Lesson ideas: Memorial Day vs. Veterans Day; Peace, War, & Thanksgiving; The Origins of Labor Day
August 2023: Media and Multiple Perspectives
Lesson ideas: Songs of the Revolution; Civil Rights Debated on Television; Newspapers & the Abolitionist Movement
Featured Feature: Chronicling America
July 2023: Rivers
Lesson ideas: Rivers & Civilizations, Tennessee's Cities & Their Rivers, The Saga of the Colorado River
June 2023: Hidden Histories
Lesson ideas: Dr. Mary Walker, Civil War Surgeon; Battle of Athens, 1946
May 2023: Field Trips
Lesson ideas: The Memphis Cotton Exchange; Cemeteries as Outdoor Museums; The Cumberland Gap; Virtual Visit to the Library of Congress
April 2023: Counterculture
Lesson ideas: Antebellum Utopias: Nashoba and Free Hill; The Generation Gap, Hippie Culture, and Woodstock '69; The Mormons' Zion
March 2023: Notable Firsts, Volume II
Lesson ideas: Gerald Ford & the 25th Amendment; World's First Transcontinental Railroad; Who Was Rabindranath Tagore?
Featured Feature: Technological Firsts
February 2023: the 1970s
Lesson ideas: The Vietnam War & the Silent Majority; Three Mile Island; The Camp David Accords
Featured Feature: The Environmental Movement
January 2023: Historical Thinking, Vol. IX
Lesson ideas: "Great Emancipator" (Changing Historical Accounts); TVA Water Control (Geographical Awareness); Native American Boarding Schools (Continuity & Change); WWII Women Workers (Historical Empathy)

December 2022: History Through Songs
Lesson ideas: The Pill & the Birth Control Movement; "The Battle of New Orleans"; The Murder of Medgar Evers
Featured Feature: The Library of Congress Celebrates the Songs of America
November 2022: Teaching with Artifacts, Vol. II
Featured Feature: What Is NAGPRA?
Lesson Ideas: Lizzo and the Crystal Flute; Mansion of Happiness; The Bayeux Tapestry
October 2022: World Religions
Lesson ideas: Using Place to Teach the Reconquista; The Church of England; The Mormons
Featured Feature: Religion in America Webinar
September 2022: World War II, vol. II
Featured Feature: WWII Home Front in TN
Lesson Ideas: Play-by-Play of the Battle of the Bulge; The Accounts of Navajo Code Talkers
August 2022: Staff Favorites, Vol. III
Lesson ideas: Teaching the "War on Drugs"; Bass Street, Reconstruction, and Memory; Music and the Civil War Soldier; One-Room Schoolhouses
July 2022: Children's Literature, Vol. II
Lesson ideas: Children's Object Books; The Wizard of Oz; Rosa by Nikki Giovanni; How Do I Make Something Good out of This?
June 2022: Video Resources from the Library
Lesson ideas: Folkways on Film; Encouraging Creativity & Writing; African American Participation in World War II; Progressivism through Videos
May 2022: Using Prints and Photographs
Lesson ideas: Travel Pictures and Postcards; Showing Black Dignity: W.E.B. Du Bois Paris Exposition; Using Prints in the Elementary Classroom
Featured Feature: What Happened to the World Digital Library?
April 2022: Founding Fathers
Lesson ideas: Father of the Constitution, Ben Franklin and the Albany Plan of Union, George Washington's Farewell Address
Featured Feature: "Separation between Church and State"
March 2022: The New Deal, vol. II
Lesson ideas: The Impact of Social Security; FDIC: Building Trust in Banking
Featured Feature: Frances Perkins in the Media
February 2022: Music, Vol. II
Lesson ideas: Stax Records; Eliza Jane and Women Cyclists; Music & Protest: Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”
Featured Feature: New Lesson Plan: “This Land Is Your Land”
January 2022: Historical Thinking, Vol. VIII
Lesson ideas: Women's Rights (Continuity & Change); The Legacy of U.S. Grant (Change Over Time); Path to Prohibition (Historical Empathy); American Entry into WWI (Contextualization)

December 2021: Teaching with Artifacts
Lesson ideas: Civil War Portraits; Black History in Murals; What Was in Lincoln's Pockets When He Died?; The Edison Light Bulb: Then & Now
November 2021: Landmark Supreme Court Cases
Lesson ideas: Tinker v. Des Moines (1969); Marbury v. Madison (1803); Korematsu v. United States (1944); Schenck v. United States (1919)
October 2021: First Industrial Revolution
Lesson ideas: Black Inventors during the Industrial Revolution; Cotton's Role in the US Economy; Inventions and Innovations: Change over Time; European Route of Industrial Heritage
September 2021: Labor, vol. II
Lesson ideas: Migrant Farm Workers & the UFW; Seattle General Strike of 1919; Fraterville Mining Disaster; Medieval Labor in Feudal Europe
August 2021: Staff Favorites, vol. II
Lesson Ideas: Harlem Rent Parties; A Young W.E.B. DuBois in Rural Tennessee; Political Cartoons
Featured Feature: Guest Scholar Articles
July 2021: Social Studies Practices, vol. II
Lesson ideas: Analyzing Sources; Evaluating Sources; Continuity and Change: Teaching Thematically; Historical Argument
June 2021: How Religion Shaped America
Lesson ideas: Social Reform & the Second Great Awakening; Religious Dissent Part 1: Roger Williams; Richard Allen & the African Methodist Episcopal Church; Religious Dissent Part 2: William Penn & the Quakers
May 2021: Native American Removal and Resistance
Lesson ideas: Potawatomi Trail of Death; The Second Seminole War in Art; Muscogee (Creek) Nation; Wounded Knee
April 2021: Tennessee Literature
Featured Feature: Nashville Sites
Lesson ideas: "Knoxville: Summer of 1915"; The Poetry of Nikki Giovanni
March 2021: Scientific Advancements
Lesson ideas: Gutenberg & the Printing Press; Nikola Tesla & Electricity; The Forgotten History of the Smallpox Vaccine; Textile Production Goes Industrial
February 2021: Teaching Black History Month
Featured Feature: Teaching Black History Month
Lesson Ideas: Highlighting Local Voices and Stories; Teaching about Black Abolitionists
January 2021: Historical Thinking, vol. VII
Lesson ideas: Nathan Bedford Forrest (Change Over Time); Gangs of Chicago (Geographical Awareness); Tent City (Historical Empathy); The Korean War (Contextualization)

December 2020: Graphic Media
Lesson ideas: Graphic Arts in the Middle Ages; Workplace Communication; Log Cabin Symbolism; Women in the Great War
November 2020: The Free Press / Fourth Estate
Lesson ideas: The Free Press in Early America; The Press and Japanese Internment; The Fairness Doctrine; Reporting World Events
October 2020: Modern America
Lesson ideas: Remembering the Notorious RBG, Watergate Scandal, The "War on Drugs"
Featured Feature: September 11, 2001, Documentary Project
September 2020: Fads in History
Lesson ideas: Zoot Suits, Bloomers, Minstrel Shows
Featured Feature: Tennis in the "Free to Use and Reuse" Sets
August 2020: Tennessee State Parks
Lesson ideas: T.O. Fuller State Park, State Archaeological Parks, Reelfoot Lake
Featured Feature: A History of Tennessee State Parks
July 2020: Using Maps
Lesson ideas: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps; The Fourth Part of the World; The Transcontinental Railroad
Featured Feature: Mapmaking on Horseback
June 2020: Tennessee Music
Lesson ideas: Bessie Smith; The Appalachian Roots of Dolly Parton; Rock and Roll Influences
Featured Feature: TPS Teachers Network
May 2020: Historic Epidemics, vol. II
Lesson ideas: The Black Death, Influenza Pandemic of 1918, Typhoid Mary, The White Plague
April 2020: Online Resources from the Library of Congress
Featured Features: Hidden Treasures Videos, The Technicolor Adventures of Catalina Neon, Science: Everyday Mysteries, Today in History
March 2020: History Through Architecture
Lesson ideas: Gilded Age Architecture; Lincoln's Log Cabin; The Three Branches of Government
Featured Feature: The National Register of Historic Places
February 2020: Migration
Lesson ideas: African American Migration; Impacts of an Agricultural Economy; The Santa Fe Trail
Featured Feature: Migration Resources
January 2020: Historical Thinking, Vol. VI
Lesson ideas: The Phonograph (Change Over Time); Tulsa Massacre (Contextualization); African American Voting Rights (Continuity & Change); Confederate Secession (Historical Empathy)

December 2019: Technology & Entertainment
Lesson ideas: Evolution of the Movie Theater, Early Music Recording, Route 66 and the Coming of the Interstate
Featured Feature: National Film Registry
November 2019: Cold War, vol. 2
Lesson ideas: Berlin Airlift, Domino Theory, Mutual(ly) Assured Destruction, Differing Perspectives on the Marshall Plan
John J. Helble oral history transcript
Mutual Assured Destruction - political cartoons
October 2019: Food, vol. 2
Lesson ideas: Coffee in the New World, FDA Regulations and Literature, Potatoes - a Staple of Western Civilization
Featured feature: TPS Civil Rights Fellowship
September 2019: The Enlightenment
Lesson ideas: Man's "State of Nature," Images of an Enlightened King, Enlightenment Ideas and Documents
Featured Feature: Teaching History Today
Enlightenment Thinkers
August 2019: Social Studies Practices
Lesson ideas: Organizing Data; Collecting Data: Choosing Sources; Source Examination; Constructing an Argument: The Stamp Act 1765
July 2019: Out of the Classroom Learning
Feature article: "Out of the Classroom Learning"
Lesson ideas: Place-Based Learning, Field Trip Practices and Protocols
June 2019: Dawn of the Modern Civil Rights Movememnt
Lesson Ideas: Freedom Rides, Tennessee in the Movement, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Strategies to Win the Movement
Freedom Rides News Story
Freedom Rides Map
C.T. Vivian Oral History Excerpt
May 2019: History in the Movies, vol. 3
Lesson ideas: Henry V & the Hundred Years' War, Wonder Woman & No Man's Land, They Came from Outer Space, Comparing Suffrage Movements across Continents
April 2019: Tennessee Landmarks
Lesson ideas: The Mississippi River, Rhea County Courthouse, Tennessee's Musical Landmarks, Wynnewood State Historic Site
March 2019: Women's History
Lesson ideas: Madam C.J. Walker, Entrepreneur; Dolly Parton, Entertainer; "He Was Struck Dumb": Women in Agriculture"
Featured Feature: 2019 Summer Institute
February 2019: Staff Favorites
Lesson Ideas: Creative Writing & Music, Chronicling America: Newspaper Research, Johnson's Impeachment, Be an Archaeologist of Ancient Egypt
January 2019: Historical Thinking, vol. V
Lesson ideas: Contextualization: Teddy Roosevelt and American Conservation, Chronological Thinking: Hitler's Rise to Power, Multiple Perspectives on the Revolutionary War, A Close Reading of Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony letter close reading worksheet

December 2018: American Revolution
Lesson ideas: The Battle of King's Mountain, A Loyalist Perspective of the Revolution, George Washington: the Sword and the Pen
Featured Feature: How to Transcribe a Manuscript
George Washington on the Battle of Kings Mountain
November 2018: World War II
Lesson ideas: Reactions to the "Day of Infamy," The Soldier's Experience, Women's Impact on the War Effort
Featured Feature: The Battle of Stomachs: Food in WWII
October 2018: Diplomacy
Lesson ideas: Adams-Onis Treaty, The Treaty of Versailles and a League of Nations
Featured Feature: Bring Your Classroom to Life through Diplomatic Oral Histories
September 2018: Causes of the Great Depression
Lesson ideas: Farming and the Great Depression, Tracing the Roots of the Great Depression, Bank Runs of the 1930s
Featured Feature: "Using Economic Date to Connect to History" by Jackie Morgan and Dr. Maria Edlin King
August 2018: Maps
Lesson ideas: Problems of a Different Scale
Featured Feature: "Revisiting the Past: Maps as Primary Sources" guest article by Dr. Susan Knowles
July 2018: Fairs & Festivals
Lesson ideas: The 1982 World's Fair and Knoxville, TN, Learning Through County Fairs
Featured Feature: "Bright Lights, Big County (Fairs, That Is!)" guest article by Laura Stewart Holder
June 2018: Beginnings of a Movement
Lesson ideas: Before Brown v. Board of Education, The Movement & The Arts, The Double V Campaign
Featured Feature: Library of Congress exhibitions: African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship & NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom
May 2018: National Parks, vol. II
Lesson ideas: Enslaved Guides at Mammoth Cave, Creation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, The Natchez Trace
Featured Feature: Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site
April 2018: Material Culture
Lesson ideas: Mayan Artifacts, The Tractor, Kids and Consumerism
Featured Feature: "Beginnings of a Movement" Summer Institute
March 2018: Women's Suffrage, vol. II
Lesson ideas: Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Women's Rights and America's Founding Ideals, Tennessee's Perfect 36
Featured Feature: "Some Thoughts on Woman's Suffrage"
Wollstonecraft worksheet
Declaration of Sentiments excerpts
February 2018: The New Deal
Lesson ideas: Court-Packing Controversy, New Deal Programs, New Deal Critics
Featured Feature: The Living New Deal and the National Museum of American History: The New Deal
Fireside Chat worksheet
January 2018: Historical Thinking, vol. IV
Lesson ideas: Lincoln's Stance on Slavery, Turn Up the Heat: The Cold War, Effects of the Atomic Bomb, Multiple Perspectives on the Vietnam War
Multiple Perspectives on the Vietnam War

December 2017: Art, vol. II
Lesson ideas: "Roadside America" Photographs; Ansel Adams, Photographer; Early Twentieth Century Industry
Featured Feature: "My Experience in a Japanese Prison Camp" by Sam Mihara
November 2017: Local History
Lesson ideas: Tent Cities, Free Blacks in Antebellum TN, Choosing Oak Ridge
Featured Feature: Tennessee Encyclopedia
October 2017: Natural Disasters
Lesson ideas: The Devastation of a Hurricane, Great Chicago Fire of 1871, The 1937 Flood
Featured Feature: National Weather Service
September 2017: Immigration, vol. II
Lesson ideas: Immigration in 19th-Century America, Immigration Quotas in the 1920s, Sacco and Vanzetti Case
Featured Feature: Teaching History Today Videos
Immigration quotas - 5th grade
Immigration quotas - high school
August 2017: Communism
Lesson ideas: The Communist Manifesto, Korean War, The Palmer Raids and the Red Scare
Featured Feature: Vietnam War Primary Source Set & Links Guide
Communist Manifesto worksheet
July 2017: Historical Memory
Lesson ideas: The Roads Remember, Vietnam War Memorial Controversy, Remembering the Antebellum South
Maps of Nashville
Douglass excerpt
June 2017: The Jim Crow Era
Lesson ideas: Harlem Rent Parties, The Importance of Black Journalists, Marcus Garvey and the Back to Africa Movement
Feature: Trials, Triumphs, and Transformations
Harlem rent parties - excerpts
Class debate worksheet
May 2017: Working with Text-Based Primary Sources
Lesson ideas: Excerpting New Nationalism, Excerpting "The Starving Time," The Grimke Sisters
Feature: The Armenian Genocide & World War I
New Nationalism excerpts
April 2017: Notable Firsts
Lesson ideas: Leonard Bernstein, Constance Baker Motley, Whiskey Rebellion
Feature: The First World War
March 2017: Media Literacy
Lesson ideas: Evaluating Newspapers, George Orwell's 1984, What Sounds "True" or "False"?
Memphis Massacre newspaper articles
Media literary exercise - Devil Baby
February 2017: Civic Education
Lesson ideas: Checks and Balances, The Influence of Media, Federalism
Featured Feature: Congress.gov
Federalist No. 51 worksheet
January 2017: Historical Thinking, vol. III
Lesson ideas: Great Depression (Multiple Perspectives), Emancipation Proclamation (Sourcing), Women's Rights Parade, 1913 (Corroboration), Revolutionary Documents (Main Idea)
Women's rights parade sources
Revolutionary documents worksheet

December 2016: Imperialism
Lesson ideas: Panama Canal, "The White Man's Burden," "School Begins"
Featured Feature: New Library Home Page
November 2016: Research Skills
Lesson ideas: Researching in Teams, The Art of Questioning, Chronicling America: Newspaper Research
Featured Feature:How to Conduct Research on Loc.gov
Hull House neighborhood
October 2016: Voting Rights
Lesson ideas: Voting Rights, According to Alexander Graham Bell; Citizenship for American Indians
Feature Article:"Forming a More Perfect Union Requires That We Vote," by Dr. Mary Evins, American Democracy Project
Alexander Graham Bell - letter
Alexander Graham Bell - worksheet
September 2016: American Literature, vol. II
Lesson ideas: The Deerslayer Series, Little Women, Lonesome Dove
Feature: To Kill a Mockingbird: Real Women of Alabama
August 2016: Author's Purpose
Lesson ideas: Uncovering the Purpose Behind Different Sources, Understanding the "Why" with the WPA
Feature: New Lesson Plans
July 2016: Civil Liberties
Lesson ideas: Civil Liberties During World War I, Japanese-American Internment
Featured Feature: The Bill of Rights and Its Impact on You
June 2016: The New South
Lesson ideas: The 1870 Constitutional Convention, Technology on Display, Henry Grady: The Father of the New South
Feature: DuBois in Rural Middle Tennessee
1870 TN constitutional convention - articles
May 2016: History in the Movies, vol. II
Lesson ideas: Hercules, The Tuskegee Airmen, Good Night and Good Luck, Lincoln
Lincoln's speeches - excerpts
Lincoln's speeches - ear-witnesses
April 2016: Teaching Difficult Topics in History
Lesson ideas: Memphis Massacre: Race Riots of 1866, The Eugenics Movement in America, Indentured Servitude & Chattel Slavery
Thirty Years a Slave - excerpt
Select Committee - Memphis Massacre
Indentured servitude vs. chattel slavery - primary sources
Indentured servitude vs. chattel slavery - timeline
March 2016: Biographies
Lesson ideas: Dian Fossey & Mountain Gorillas, Sitting Bull, Second Continental Congress Role Playing Game
Featured Feature: Meet Amazing Americans
Interview excerpt about Dian Fossey
February 2016: Oral Histories
Lesson ideas: Building a Lesson around an Oral History, Experiences of Segregation in World War II
Featured Feature: Oral History Projects: How-To Guide
Marshall Hill sources
WPA life histories - excerpts
Veterans History Project - interviews
January 2016: Historical Thinking, vol. II
Lesson ideas: Sourcing World War I, Using Evidence to Compare Diplomacies, Contextualizing Cold War Cartoons, The Boston Massacre & Corroboration
Boston Massacre - map
Boston Massacre - account of a late military massacre
Boston Massacre - deposition of Captain Thomas Preston

December 2015: Teaching with Exhibitions
Lesson ideas: The Evolution of Aviation, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Phenomenon of Entertainers in Politics
Featured Feature: Political Cartoons Mini-Exhibition
November 2015: The 1920s
Lesson ideas: Ads and Consumer Culture, The Rise and Fall of Warren Harding, Let's Go to the Movies!, The "Lost Generation" in American Lit
October 2015: Age of Exploration
Lesson ideas: Encounter with Columbus; De Soto's Trek Through the Southeast; God, Gold, and Glory; The Evolution of Cartography
Columbus journal - excerpt
September 2015: War of 1812, vol. II
Lesson ideas: The Capital in Flames!, Are You Impressed?, Andrew Jackson and the Volunteer State
Featured Feature: Star Spangled Banner Lesson Plan
James Madison letter - excerpt
August 2015: The Gilded Age
Lesson ideas: Washington Monument, Spanish-American War, Silver, or Cross of Gold?
Featured Feature: Gilded Age Lesson Plans
Cross of Gold - excerpts
July 2015: History Mysteries
Lesson ideas: The Bell Witch, Real vs. Fictional Pirates, Paul Revere's Ride, Amelia Earhart's Disappearance
June 2015: Reconstruction
Lesson ideas: The Early Ku Klux Klan, Johnson's Impeachment, Memphis Race Riots
Feature: Lesson Plan: The Hayes-Tilden Election
Forrest KKK interview
May 2015: Using Primary Sources at the Elementary Level
Lesson ideas: Healthy Living, Telling Time with Analog Clocks, How to Tackle Text Excerpts, Space Technology
Uncle Tom's Cabin for Children - excerpts
Uncle Tom's Cabin (original) - excerpts
April 2015: The Environment
Lesson ideas: Human Intervention, Earthquakes, Animal Habitats at Zoos and Aquariums, Conservation as "Patriotic Duty"
March 2015: Women Leaders
Lesson ideas: Louisa May Alcott, Women Who Changed the Landscape of Art
Feature: TPS Teachers Network
February 2015: African American Leaders
Crispus Attucks, Marian Anderson, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Art, Sojourner Truth & Harriet Tubman
January 2015: Mathematics
Calculating the Codex, History of Calculators, Math Around the World, The Statistics of World War I

December 2014: Historical Thinking
Lesson ideas: Contextualizing the Gettysburg Address, Corroboration: Women's Suffrage, Evidence of African American Accomplishments, Sourcing the Dust Bowl
November 2014: Classic American Literature
Lesson ideas: The Great Gatsby (1925), Moby Dick (1851), Write Your Own Board Book
Feature: Books That Shaped America
October 2014: The Early Republic
Lesson ideas: Thoreau's Walden, The Dred Scott Decision, Nat Turner's Rebellion, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
September 2014: Tennessee Valley Authority
Lesson ideas: Roots of TVA, Benefits and Consequences of TVA, Making Art with WPA Posters, TVA and Eminent Domain
August 2014: Historic Epidemics
Lesson ideas: The Spanish Flu, The Black Death, Yellow Fever
Feature: Chronicling America
July 2014: World War I
Lesson ideas: Hoover & the Bonus Marchers, Heroic Expectations, Gas Attack
Feature: World War I Posters
June 2014: Civil War: A Soldier's Life
Lesson ideas: Sam Watkins and Co. Aytch, Letters Home, Music and the Civil War Soldier, Envisioning the Combat Experience
May 2014: Labor
Lesson ideas: Women's Labor and World War II, March on Washington, The Songs of Migrant Farm Workers, Triangle Factory Fire
April 2014: Folklife
Lesson ideas: Appalachian Folk Music Traditions, Interviews as Primary Sources, The Story-telling Rugs of Mary Sheppard Burton, Legends of the Railroads
March 2014: Tennessee History
Lesson ideas: Centennial Exposition, The Exodus from Tennessee, Coal Creek Convict Lease Wars, W.C. Handy and the Memphis Blues
Centennial Exposition - 30-page puzzle
February 2014: Founding Documents
Lesson ideas: Thomas Paine and Common Sense, The Magna Charta, The Federalist, The Articles of Confederation
January 2014: Mythbusters
Lesson ideas: First in Flight?, Rosa Parks & the Bus Boycott, Did Pocahontas Save John Smith?
Featured Feature: Mythbusting TPS-MTSU Lesson Plans
John Smith activity from Reading Like a Historian

December 2013: Thomas Jefferson
Lesson ideas: Thomas Jefferson as Slaveholder, The Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson's Macaroni Machine, The Man Behind the Curtain
Louisiana Purchase - excerpt
November 2013: Cold War
Lesson ideas: Culture and the Cold War, Cold War Cartoonists, Cultural Exchanges Between Two Superpowers
Featured Feature: Herblock Exhibitions
October 2013: Disabilities
Lesson ideas: Innovation & Training for WWI Veterans, Helen Keller & the Manual Alphabet
Featured Article: A Brief History of Disability in the United States
September 2013: Economics
Lesson ideas: Economy in the Landscape, The Story of Crisco, The Summer Camp Store
Feature: Transition to a Consumer Economy
Canteen account - sample
August 2013: Westward Migration
Lesson ideas: The Dakota War of 1862, Living in a Sod House, Drawing the Westward Migration
Feature: New Lesson Plan: Manifest Destiny
July 2013: Recreation & Leisure
Lesson ideas: Fun Food, Going to the Show, Take a Vacation in 1860
Feature: Summer Reading
June 2013: Emancipation
Lesson ideas: Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, Henry Box Brown, Songs of Slavery & Emancipation
Feature: Emancipation Resources
May 2013: Baseball
Lesson ideas: Casey at the Bat, Women in Baseball, Jackie Robinson in Popular Culture
Feature: Historic Baseball Resources
April 2013: Libraries
Lesson ideas: The Folger Library's Shakespeare in Stone, The Core of the Library of Congress, Carnegie Libraries
Feature:2013 TPS-MTSU Civil War Summer Institute
March 2013: Medieval History
Lesson ideas: The Power of the Pope, Castles of All Kinds, The Legend of King Arthur
Feature: World Digital Library
Glossary of medieval terms
February 2013: Poetry
Lesson ideas: Rhyme with Mother Goose, Poetry and Politics, Poetry of Wars' Survivors
Feature: Found Poetry Activities
January 2013: Medicine
Lesson ideas: Medical Advertising, Women Medical Pioneers, Military Medicine
Feature: National History Day Topics Sheet

December 2012: Children
Lesson ideas: Children of the Great Depression, Child Labor, One-Room Schoolhouses
Feature: America's Story from America's Library
November 2012: Women's Suffrage
Lesson ideas: A Letter and a Vote; Pickets, Arrests, and Hunger Strikes; A Constitutional Right As Citizens
Feature: Congress.Gov
October 2012: Aviation
Lesson ideas: Wright Brothers Illustrated Timeline, The Magic of First Flights
Feature: "Multidisciplinary Uses of Primary Sources in the Technology Engineering Classroom" by Perry Louden, Jr., Rockvale Middle School, Rutherford County
September 2012: Political Science
Lesson ideas: The Presidential Election of 1920, Constitutional Powers
Feature: "Politics and Primary Sources" by Dr. Mark Byrnes, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Professor of Political Science, MTSU
August 2012: Primary Sources in the K-2 Classroom
Lesson ideas: Classic Children's Stories, Summers of the Past, Zoo Animals, American Folk Lullabies
July 2012: Shakespeare
Lesson ideas: Shakespeare in Political Cartoons, President Lincoln and Shakespeare, Re-Imagining Shakespeare
Feature:The New Deal Stage
June 2012: Occupation in the Civil War
Lesson ideas: Oaths of Loyalty, The Fall of Fort Donelson, Occupied Norfolk, Virginia
Feature: Civil War Photos of African Americans
May 2012: History in the Movies
Lesson Ideas: Amistad, Titanic, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, To Kill a Mockingbird and Childhood
April 2012: Ethnic Celebrations
Lesson Ideas: Emancipation Day Celebrations, Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo
Feature: New Issue of TPS Journal
March 2012: War of 1812
Lesson Ideas: Mapping the War, News of Peace, The Death of Tecumseh
Feature: 2012 Civil War Summer Institute
February 2012: Performing Arts
Lesson Ideas: Zora Neale Hurston as Playwright, Dance and Early Film, Leonard Bernstein and Musical Appreciation
Feature: Performing Arts Encyclopedia
January 2012: Civil Rights
Lesson Ideas: Jackie Robinson & Civil Rights, "Separate but Equal" Education, Marian Anderson's 1939 Concert at the Lincoln Memorial
Feature: NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom

December 2011: Colonial America
Lesson Ideas:Female Patriots, Colonial Maps
Feature:"Early America Through Primary Documents" Article By Dr. Lynn A. Nelson, Associate Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University
November 2011: Electricity
Lesson Ideas: Tennessee Valley Authority - Hydroelectric Power, Electricity and Culture, Consuming Electricity
Feature: Edison's Films and Sound Recordings
October 2011: Armchair Travel
Lesson Ideas: Armchair Traveler, Creative Travel Writing, A Trip to Wonderland
Feature: Travel Narratives
September 2011: Progressive Era
Lesson Ideas: Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Progressive Presidents, Women’s Suffrage & the Progressive Movement
Feature: American Memory Timeline
August 2011: Children's Literature
Lesson Ideas: Teach Dear America, Form Your Own Book Club
Features: Writing Contests for Students @loc.gov, Read.gov & the Center for the Book
July 2011: Civil War - Divided Tennessee
Lesson Ideas: "A House Divided," Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs
Feature: "Divided Tennessee" article by Dr. Antoinette Van Zelm, Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area Historian
June 2011: National Parks
Lesson Ideas: Safety in the National Parks, National Parks Photography, Tennessee's Own National Park
Feature: Mapping the National Parks
May 2011: Art
Lesson Ideas: Art Around the World, Art as Propaganda, Art & Advertising
Feature: Online Exhibitions
April 2011: Inventors & Innovations
Lesson Ideas: Thomas Edison's Light Bulb, The Evolution of Flight, Civil War Communications
Feature: Ingenious Inventions Throughout History
March 2011: Native American History & Culture
Lesson Ideas: Indian Removal Perspectives, Analyzing Artwork: Historical Inaccuracies
Feature: 2011 Civil War Summer Institute, New Lesson Plans on the TPS-TN Web Site
February 2011: Presidents & First Ladies
Lesson Ideas:Cartoons & Controversies, "Modern" First Ladies, Tennessee Presidents
Feature: "I Do Solemnly Swear..."
January 2011: The Ancient World
Lesson Ideas: Examining Religious Texts & Artifacts, Be an Egyptian Archaeologist, The Parthenon and Neo-Classical Architecture
Feature: Lesson Plan on Minerva Mosaic

December 2010: Photography
Lesson Ideas: Worth a Thousand Words, Photography & Animation, Child Labor in Tennessee
Feature: New Lesson Plans on the TPS-TN Web Site
November 2010: Agriculture
Lesson Ideas: Agriculture Around the World, Mapping the State with TN Century Farms
Feature: "Agriculture in Tennessee" article by Caneta S. Hankins, Director, TN Century Farms program
October 2010: Elections
Lesson Ideas: The Vote, The Wilmot Proviso and the Election of 1848
Features: THOMAS, Elections...the American Way
September 2010: Immigration
Lesson Ideas: Mother of Exiles, Immigration in Political Cartoons, Immigrant Culture
Feature: New Professional Development Modules
August 2010: Transportation
Lesson Ideas: Graphing the Automobile Boom, Railroads in Tennessee, Get Your Kicks on Route 66
Feature: Carol Highsmith Photographs
July 2010: Civil War
Lesson Ideas: Mapping Tennessee in the Civil War, Civil War Music, The Role of Photography in Wartime
Feature: Civil War 150th Anniversary
June 2010: Weather
Lesson Ideas: Weather & the Dust Bowl, Predicting the Weather, Comparing Weather Disasters
Feature: Library of Congress Webcasts
May 2010: Music
Lesson Ideas: Creative Writing & Music, Teaching with American Folk Music, Music & Culture
Feature: New Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
April 2010: Literature & Poetry
Lesson Ideas: Children's Illustrated Books, The Fugitives [Writing Club]
Feature: Exquisite Corpse Adventure
March 2010: Animals
Lesson Ideas: Animal Advertising, Identifying Animals, Animal Adaptationsce
Feature: Science Reference Services
February 2010: The Olympics
Lesson Ideas: Olympics: Peace or Politics?, Olympics and the Environment, Olympic Geography
Feature: Thumbnail images that do not expand (uncertain copyright)
January 2010: Politically Incorrect Primary Sources
Lesson Ideas: Political Cartoons, Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, The Ideal Consumer
Features: "Using Politically Incorrect Sources in the Classroom," "It's No Laughing Matter: Analyzing Political Cartoons"

December 2009: Food
Lesson Ideas: Nutrition through Graphic Design, Food Advertising, Food and Technology
Feature: American Folklife Center
November 2009: Veterans
Lesson Ideas: Navajo Code Talkers, World War I and Timelines, David Glasgow Farragut & the Battle for Mobile Bay
Feature: Veterans History Project
October 2009: Sports
Lesson Ideas: Sports Desegregation, Music and Baseball, Using Baseball Statistics to Teach Math
Feature: Taking the Mystery Out of Copyright
Baseball Statistics Worksheet
September 2009: World History & Cultures
Lesson Ideas: The Aztecs, Around the World in the 1890s
Features: Zoom into the World Digital Library!, Knowledge Quest from myLOC, "Huexotzinco Codex" lesson plan
August 2009: Architecture & Architectural Landscapes
Lesson Ideas: Living in the Suburbs, Be Your Own Architect, Bridges
Features: Architecture as Primary Source article, "Finding the Area and Volume of Buildings Using Architectural Drawings" lesson plan
July 2009: Symbols of Patriotism
Lesson Ideas: How the States Got Their Shapes, Declaration of Independence, John Bull and Uncle Sam, Statue of Liberty
Features: article on Level One workshops, Creating the United States word search
June 2009: Popular Culture & the Performing Arts
Lesson Ideas: The American Dream, Vaudeville, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Feature: Songs for Our Times
May 2009: Summer Vacations
Lesson Ideas: May Holidays, Local Legacies
Features: article on spring presentations, Branding of America
April 2009: Earth Day
Lesson Ideas: National Park Service, Environmental Science, Map Activity: Night Lights, Rachel Carson & Silent Spring
Feature: Everyday Mysteries
March 2009: Women's Accomplishments
Lesson Ideas: Achievements in journalism, civil rights, and the arts
Feature: “Women’s Achievements in Science” by Dr. Judith Iriarte-Gross, Department of Chemistry, Middle Tennessee State University
February 2009: African American Heritage
Lesson Ideas: Slave Narratives, Benjamin Banneker’s Almanac
January 2009: Presidential Inaugurations
Lesson Ideas: Jackson’s Inauguration