This week was my first full stretch as the new 6th, 7th, and 8th grade social studies teacher at St. Ursula Villa. With only three days on the books, I do not have the time or space to reflect on every class and every moment. Instead, I am going to highlight some lessons that stood out. Not because it was the best, but because it captured what I want this year to feel like.
Building More Than Community
On the very first day, I leaned on a few familiar tools: Sketch and Tell-o, Thin Slides, and Frayers to build community and get to know my students. The funny thing is, Villa already has an incredibly strong community. Many of these kids have been together for years, and each grade only has 30 to 40 students. So yes, the “Frayer a Friend” activity was a little redundant, but I wanted to give them practice with these frames we will use all year.
The next day, I put those same tools to work for something bigger: creating a class mission statement.
From Sketches to Statements
We started with a Sketch and Tell-o. I asked students to visualize what they feel is most important in a classroom environment. Four minutes to sketch, a quick explanation, then each student narrowed their ideas to a single word. They shared those words with a partner, and together we pulled out the common threads.
Next came the index card Thin Slide. On one side, students wrote three to four words that felt essential. On the back, they drafted a personal mission statement using those words. I modeled what that might look like first. Many students had already written personal mission statements before, so the leap to classroom mission came naturally.
Then came my favorite part. We took those mission statements into ShortAnswer. Students typed them in, and we ran a battle royale. They read, debated, and narrowed them down round by round until one statement stood at the top. That collective ownership mattered.
We closed with a Frayer Model of the chosen mission statement, thinking through what it looks like student to student, teacher to student, student to teacher, and student to classroom. By the end, the words were theirs, the mission was theirs, and the expectations were theirs.
Why It Mattered
Was the lesson perfect? No. But it checked the box I care about most right now: students shaping the environment they want to learn in. The protocols gave them structure, and the process gave them voice.
This year was tough. No sugarcoating it. I don’t know if it was being new at a school, trying to make the best out of a textbook that felt like a brick, or being told to follow it even when I knew it wasn’t right for the students. Structure? Absolutely. But textbook structure? Not it. The chapters were overloaded, the pacing felt artificial, and truth be told the cognitive load was off the charts.
A colleague reminded me of something simple: if students don’t know 95% of the vocabulary in a passage, comprehension will fall dramatically. That was us. All year. I watched kids stumble not just over words, but phrases and meanings we take for granted. For example, so many kids didn’t know the meaning of “conflict.” And it made everything feel harder, every reading, every discussion, every attempt to stretch thinking.
Still, I tried to keep showing up the only way I know how: with EduProtocols, lessons built on the science of learning, attention to cognitive load, and creativity. Some days? They worked. Some days? They didn’t. And honestly? The “not so great” days started to feel like they were outweighing the good ones.
But here’s what I can point to: these kids wrote. More than they ever had. I was told writing in social studies wasn’t part of their experience before this year. But we stuck with it Class Companion, Short Answer reps, writing routines, and honest feedback loops. It took time, it took struggle, but I watched growth happen on the page. That matters. That’s something.
I tried to raise the rigor, tried to stretch into DOK 2 and DOK 3 all year. But the climb was steep. I don’t know if I made an impact. Some days I really wonder. But then I hear my good friend and coauthor Dr. Scott Petri in my ear:
“Moler, you worry too damn much. Your worst day of teaching is probably someone’s best day.”
So here’s to holding onto that.
Here’s to writing gains, honest effort, and showing up—especially on the hard days.
And now: I’m onto new things. More to come on that in the future.
This week’s theme was “A Nation Prepares for War,” and I’ll be honest—I ran out of time. I really wanted to get into Reconstruction, but I refuse to gloss over material just to say I “covered” it. If I’m going to teach something, I’m going to do a thorough, intentional job. Otherwise, what’s the point?
It’s been a tough week. So I started Monday with something easy. Low prep. Low stress. But still effective.
We kicked off with a Gimkit that I ran twice—once for warm-up and once after feedback. It was packed with vocab and content-based questions: secession, sectionalism, Lincoln’s election, states’ rights, etc. A quick way to reactivate prior knowledge and see what stuck from last week.
Next, we jumped into a Thin Slide activity on Padlet. The prompt: Why did the South secede? I gave them a short reading to skim and told them to pick one word or phrase and one image that represented the core reason. But what made this one different was how we used AI.
Instead of finding an image, students used Padlet’s AI image generator. They entered a short phrase, made it their caption, and used the body of the post to explain what their image represented. That move—credit to the students—was gold. It made the captions matter. It made the explanations more thoughtful. And it gave them a creative outlet that still demanded analysis.
We wrapped the day with a blank map—labeling Union, Confederate, and Border States. I’ll admit, I don’t usually like blank maps. But sometimes the brain just needs a break. This was the break. A little coloring. A little labeling. Still purposeful, but low cognitive load to help everyone ease back in.
Tuesday – Sides of the Civil War
Tuesday’s lesson focused on understanding the advantages of each side heading into the Civil War. I kept it simple and familiar because I’m a big believer in reusing quality material when it works.
We started by running the same Gimkit again—this time as a Fast and Curious. The repetition wasn’t just for review—it was to reinforce accuracy and let students feel some early success. Their scores went up, and they felt it.
After that, students completed a Number Mania based on a short reading about Union advantages. The prompt was direct: Why did the Union have an advantage over the Confederacy in the Civil War?
Their task:
Include 4 numbers from the reading with paraphrased explanations
Add icons or images that helped visualize the data
Give it a title
Keep it clean, clear, and creative
This was a solid way to push students beyond just copying facts. They had to decide what numbers mattered and explain why.
We wrapped the day with a short EdPuzzle covering the four major battles: Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Appomattox Courthouse. It was a simple close to the day, but effective. The video reinforced the bigger picture—how the war escalated, where it turned, and how it ended.
Wednesday & Thursday – Why Did People Fight?
This was the heart of the week, and it spanned two days. We started both days with a Quizizz for retrieval practice—Fast and Curious format again.
Then came the layered lesson. Students read a series of primary and secondary sources about different groups in the war: Union soldiers, Confederate soldiers, Black soldiers, and women. Afterward, they submitted four reasons for fighting through a Google Form.
Here’s where AI came in: I fed their responses into ChatGPT and asked it to create six categories based on student submissions. These included things like defending homeland, fighting for freedom, or protecting rights. I shared these categories back with the class.
From there, students completed a Divide the Pie activity:
Choose 5 of the 6 motivations
Assign each a percentage based on how influential they believed it was
Justify their thinking with specific details
It was reflective. It was writing-heavy. It worked.
Students weren’t just reciting facts—they were categorizing, weighing, and defending ideas. This is exactly what we need more of.
Friday – Wrapping Up the Theme with Netflix and Retrieval
Friday’s goal was simple: wrap up our “A Nation Prepares for War” theme and give students a creative outlet to show what they’d learned. We started with one last round of our Quizizz fast and curious—same questions from earlier in the week, but now serving as a final review. The ALL-class average was 85%, which was awesome, especially considering the quiz covered three weeks’ worth of content.
Next up: the Netflix template. I used an old template I’d saved (no idea where it originally came from), but it always works because it looks like an actual Netflix series layout. That visual hook alone helps students lock in.
The success criteria came straight from the yellow arrows in the template:
Slide 1: Series title, image, and a 3–4 sentence summary. They had to explain the division of states, why the South seceded, Fort Sumter, and reasons people were willing to fight.
Slide 2: Three creative episode titles—each tied to a big idea from our unit. Each episode needed a 2–4 sentence summary explaining the problem, the response, and the result.
To finish, I created a Magic School classroom for writing feedback. Students uploaded screenshots of their slides and received quick AI feedback. We had great conversations about the suggestions—what to take, what to ignore, and why. It’s not about AI replacing thinking; it’s about helping students reflect and revise.
This was a great way to end the theme. Students retrieved information, created something meaningful, and got instant feedback to grow their thinking. Simple. Structured. Creative. The way learning should be.
This week was all about pulling the thread—tracing how specific events pulled the country apart and pushed us toward war. I built everything around one central theme: A Nation Divides Over Slavery. From court cases to debates, from compromises to elections, we kept the structure tight: retrieval, repetition, and real thinking. The protocols stayed familiar, the tasks stayed purposeful, and students had a chance to connect the dots, not just memorize them.
Monday – Kicking Off “A Nation Divides Over Slavery”
We kicked off our new theme this week: A Nation Divides Over Slavery. The idea behind this theme is to help students connect key events and legal decisions that drove the wedge deeper between North and South – like the Dred Scott case, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, and the Election of 1860.
We started with a Quizizz set that previewed these four topics – both vocabulary and content. I told the students upfront: this isn’t just about getting right answers. This is about seeing where we are before diving in and building context all week.
From there, we went straight into a Thick Slide on Dred Scott. I gave students four guiding questions:
Who was Dred Scott?
What did the court decide?
What impact did it have on the country?
Why does it matter today?
They added a powerful quote, one or two relevant images, and a title that helped summarize the case’s importance. I’ve used Thick Slides a lot this year, but I liked this one because it helped students pull together multiple layers of information on a tough topic and create something visual that forced them to organize their thinking.
To add a local lens, we wrapped up class with a short reading about The Case of Henry Poindexter – a lesser known but powerful Ohio case that challenged the logic of Dred Scott. Poindexter was ruled free when he entered Ohio, even though the Dred Scott ruling said enslaved people weren’t citizens. That contrast hit home for students. It was a great way to help them see that not all courts agreed—and that the debate over slavery and citizenship wasn’t as cut and dry as some textbooks make it seem.
Why this lesson worked:
Quizizz built background and gave us data
Thick Slide gave students a structure to produce and reflect
The Poindexter case grounded the learning in local history and made it real
Tuesday – A Twist on the Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Tuesday was one of those days where I wanted to keep the content heavy, but the delivery light. We were building off of Monday’s work with Dred Scott, and I needed a way to connect to the Lincoln-Douglas debates without it feeling like just another block of text.
We started with an EdPuzzle, a solid recap of the Dred Scott case that also dropped in mentions of Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. It served two purposes: review Monday’s learning, and plant seeds for what was coming next. No extra slides. No extra talking. Just a well-placed video.
The the twist – instead of reading straight from the textbook, I decided to rework the passage on the Lincoln-Douglas debates. But I didn’t rework it myself—I asked AI to do it. Specifically, I asked ChatGPT to take the reading and embed five hidden clues to a mystery object. The object? An orange.
The clues: wedge, sections, bitter, peel, squeeze.
The students didn’t know this at first. They just read the modified version, answered the reading questions, and moved on. Until I dropped the twist.
I shared a Padlet and told them: “Based on what you read, I was thinking of an object. It’s hidden in the clues. Guess what it is, and explain how it connects to a country being pulled apart by the issue of slavery.”
I changed the Padlet settings to manual approval so no one could copy answers. Kids were rereading, piecing together metaphors, trying to figure it out.
The guesses ranged from “lemon zest” to “an instrument” but when a few landed on “orange” and explained it like this…
“The country was in wedges, pulling away from the center.”
“There were different sections that couldn’t stay together.”
“Everyone was getting squeezed from both sides.”
This wasn’t about right answers. This was about interpretation.
It was late in the year. Attention spans were slipping. But curiosity still works.
Why This Worked
The EdPuzzle grounded us in prior knowledge without slowing momentum.
The AI-rewritten reading kept all the important facts but added a playful puzzle.
The mystery object metaphor gave kids a reason to reread and think differently.
The Padlet added a layer of mystery and ownership—students weren’t just responding, they were interpreting.
We talk a lot about curiosity in learning, but sometimes it’s as simple as hiding a metaphor in plain sight.
Wednesday – Number Mania and Division Over Slavery
I decided to build the day around a lesson adapted from Retro Report, focused on how the Fugitive Slave Act further divided the nation and fractured the Democratic Party. We’d touched on the law last week, but this time we went deeper, analyzing its consequences more intentionally.
We opened class with a quick discussion about how a single law could force citizens to choose between their conscience and the law. Then we moved into a Number Mania. I provided students with a short, impactful reading on the Fugitive Slave Act that was rich in context and included some powerful data: $1,000 fines, $40,000 to return one man, over 300 people returned to slavery, and more. Students had to use three numbers to prove this quote true:
“The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 deepened the divide between the North and South by punishing citizens who helped runaways, rewarding biased decisions, and sparking costly conflicts over slavery.”
They added visuals, a title, and paraphrased facts supported by numbers. It was more than just pulling data, it was about making meaning with that data. This protocol always helps students see the weight that numbers can carry in understanding a moment in history.
We ended with a Fast and Curious Quizizz, looping back to the same content vocabulary and themes from Monday. Every time we run that loop, accuracy improves. It’s low stakes, high impact, and it sets kids up for deeper thinking in the next lesson.
Why it worked:
Number Mania turned data into narrative and helped students visualize division.
The reading provided the foundation, and the task forced synthesis.
Quizizz helped reinforce essential vocabulary and context.
Thursday: Election of 1860 and the Nation Splits
Thursday we wrapped up the second part of our Retro Report lesson on the road to the Civil War—this one focused on the Election of 1860. After covering the Fugitive Slave Act earlier in the week, this was a natural next step. It helped students see how deep the divisions were not just in laws, but in politics.
We started with an EdPuzzle on the Election of 1860. Just a four-minute video with a good breakdown of the four major candidates and how their platforms represented the different regions of the country. It was a great primer, quick, clear, and helped set up the rest of the lesson.
After the video, students read short excerpts from each of the party platforms. We didn’t go overboard here, I just wanted them to pull out the core ideas: What did each party believe about slavery? About federal power? About the territories?
We wrapped it up with a Short Answer Battle Royale using the platform. The question was simple:
How did the results of the 1860 presidential election show that the United States was becoming more and more divided?
There was candy on the line, so they wrote like it actually mattered. Some of the answers were solid—claims, evidence, explanations. Some still needed guidance. But that’s the beauty of ShortAnswer. Students saw each other’s responses in real time. They adjusted, they improved, and they learned from one another.
It wasn’t a loud or flashy lesson, but it worked. The video gave them context. The reading gave them specifics. The writing gave them purpose. And the candy didn’t hurt, either.
Friday – Choice and Review to Close the Theme
We wrapped up the week and our “A Nation Divides Over Slavery” theme with a final round of Quizizz. This was our retrieval layer to see what stuck after hitting the Dred Scott case, the Fugitive Slave Act, Lincoln Douglas Debates, and the Election of 1860. The class averages were solid: 94%, 85%, 90%, and 86%. That tells me this themed structure is working. The repetition, the chunking, the protocols—it all adds up.
But what I liked even more was the choice students had in their assessment.
Option 1 was “Divide the Pie”—a visual breakdown of how much each event contributed to the growing division between North and South. Students had to assign a percentage to each of the four events and then justify those numbers with specific evidence. Not just pulling numbers out of thin air—but actually defending them based on class work and content we’ve layered all week. It wasn’t just about what they remembered. It was about what they understood.
Option 2 was the Sega Genesis Game template from EMC² Learning. This one let students reimagine the week’s events as a vintage video game. Their job? Turn historical conflict into gameplay. What would the levels be? What obstacles would the player face? What’s the story arc? It’s creative, but it still demands content knowledge. I built out some success criteria so they weren’t just designing for fun—they had to make their game tie back to each event.
That’s the point. We’re giving students tools to own their thinking. Whether it’s defending a pie chart with historical evidence or turning a political crisis into pixelated gameplay, they’re showing what they know in ways that stick.
This week in 234, we stacked a lot of learning into five days—Fast & Curious, Frayer Models, Mini Reports, Short Answer Battle Royales, and even a Netflix-themed summative. We used Thin Slides and AI tools like MagicSchool to keep thinking sharp and feedback immediate. Students worked through compromises, created empathy maps, asked hard questions, and wrapped it all up with creative final products. Every day had a clear task, a familiar structure, and a chance to show what they knew in a new way.
I wasn’t at school Monday, but I still wanted the lesson to move thinking forward. This was the day to bridge the gap between our work on reform—especially abolitionism—and the new unit on the causes of the Civil War. I didn’t want it to feel like two separate things. I wanted students to start seeing the threads.
I started them with an EdPuzzle on the causes of the Civil War. This was more of a primer than anything—just to introduce key ideas like sectionalism, states’ rights, and slavery as a cause, not a side detail. From there, they jumped into a vocabulary Quizizz to build some retrieval around terms like secession, abolitionist, compromise, and conflict. The goal was to give them some anchors before diving deeper later in the week.
Next, students read a short piece on the Abolitionist Movement. The reading focused on how individuals and laws pushed against slavery in different ways—through writing, escape networks, and protest. They answered four questions in complete sentences, which gave structure without overloading them. This is always a key decision I think about when I’m not there: clarity over complexity.
Finally, they went to a Padlet where they shared two things they learned and responded to the big question: “What was the cause of the Civil War?” That question, in one form or another, is going to guide us the next couple weeks. And I wanted them thinking about it early—even if their answer was rough.
None of it was flashy, but it had purpose. It helped me set up our three guiding themes for the unit:
Compromises Can’t Solve Slavery
A Nation Divides
Getting Ready for War
The best part is it gave them space to revisit old knowledge and preview new ideas—and when I returned Tuesday, they were ready to build.
Tuesday/Wednesday: The Missouri Compromise
Our theme this week was “Compromises Can’t Solve Slavery,” and this lesson focused on the Missouri Compromise.
We opened with a Quizizz for vocabulary and retrieval—terms like “compromise,” “balance,” and “slave vs. free states.” I originally planned to use a Frayer Model for the word “compromise,” but students already demonstrated understanding on Quizizz, so I cut it. Real-time data helps guide what stays and what goes.
Then we jumped into Upside Down Learning (from EMC2Learning), scaffolded with three categories: Cause, Conflict, and Compromise. Above the line, students charted accurate info from the Missouri Compromise reading. Below the line, they created an alternate reality—what if Missouri hadn’t joined as a slave state? What if no compromise had happened? It’s a quick way to push thinking to higher levels of Bloom’s—synthesis and evaluation.
Next came a task I call Fray-I. I wanted students to ask a question that the reading didn’t answer. Then, using MagicSchool’s Raina AI, they typed in their question and completed a Frayer-style evaluation:
What was the main idea of the AI’s response?
Did it use evidence?
Was anything missing?
Would you trust this response?
We ended with an Empathy Map based on two primary sources—one from a Northerner and one from a Southerner debating slavery in the West. After reading, students chose one voice and filled out an empathy map to process their perspective.
Why this worked: It hit different levels—retrieval, evaluation, synthesis. The tasks built on each other and helped students understand compromise not just as a definition, but as a broken fix in a broken system.
And AI wasn’t just an “add-on”—it was a skill. Ask. Analyze. Evaluate.
Thursday – Caption Crunch
Thursday was all about keeping the cognitive load low—but not the learning. I’m running out of days before testing hits, and I knew I had to get both the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act into one lesson. Normally, I’d spread those out. But I’ve learned that reducing the number of tasks while still keeping the thinking high is one way to keep the load manageable. It’s not just about what content you include—it’s also about how you deliver it.
We started with a Fast and Curious on Quizizz. Same core theme questions we’ve been hitting: compromise, slavery, and failure. It got them thinking quickly and primed for the day’s work.
Then we jumped into our Mini-Report. The layout was intentional—students had to compare both compromises side-by-side, using two half-page readings. I’ve found that the Mini-Report structure helps students stay focused, especially when they’ve seen it before. Familiarity builds confidence, and confidence keeps engagement up.
Before we read, I ran an EdPuzzle—some classes did it live, others on their own. I had them write down just one detail from the video to get them warmed up. That’s it. Just one. No overkill, no worksheet—just purposeful priming.
After that, we read and filled in the Mini-Report. No full sentences. Just paraphrased notes to get them processing.
Once they had their facts, we jumped into Short Answer for a Battle Royale. The question: “How did the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act try to solve the issue of slavery, and why didn’t they work?” Students competed for a donut. It sounds silly, but they wrote their asses off. Because there was structure. Because it mattered.
We wrapped up with something new I called Caption Crunch. I set up a Padlet with columns and gave students captions that connected to one of the three compromises we’ve studied. Their task: take the caption, add keywords, and plug it into Padlet’s AI image generator. Then, they posted their AI-generated image and explained in 2–3 sentences which compromise it represented and how the image reflected what happened. The captions were generated by AI, but the decisions and connections were all theirs.
I think Caption Crunch has potential to be an EduProtocol. It pushed students to think symbolically, creatively, and critically about each compromise. And it added another layer of retrieval and review without feeling like “just more reading.” It can be used across all grade levels and content areas.
It was one of those days that felt packed, but purposeful. Everything flowed. Everything clicked. And the kids were into it. That’s what matters.
Friday
Friday was all about wrapping up our first theme—“Compromises Can’t Solve Slavery”—and giving students a chance to pull everything together in a creative way. We kicked off with one final round of the same Quizizz we’d been using all week. And yes, I had to play the game. I told them: If your class average is below 80%, you’re creating more work for yourselves. If it’s above 90%, everyone gets a 100%. It’s ridiculous that I have to do that, but here we are.
One class came in at 70%. Honestly? Unbelievable. We’ve been doing this same Quizizz set every day. So that class had to do a three-way Venn diagram comparing the Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, and Kansas-Nebraska Act. The other classes finished at 87%, 83%, and 80%—so they moved on to the main activity: the Netflix Template.
This is one of my favorite creative assessments. I’ve had this template forever—I can’t even remember where I got it—but it’s sharp. Looks like a real Netflix series and pushes students to synthesize in a unique way. Here was the success criteria:
Slide 1:
Series Title
A 3–4 sentence summary connecting the compromises and showing how they represent failure
Slide 2:
Creative episode titles (one per compromise)
A short summary that explains:
What the compromise tried to fix
What actually happened
Any relevant key terms (Fugitive Slave Act, Bleeding Kansas, etc.)
A thumbnail image, cast list (Henry Clay as “The Great Compromiser”), and a content warning
I also created a MagicSchool classroom where students could attach their Netflix slides and get writing feedback. I like that part because it’s easy to set up and it lets students take some ownership. Some kids were tweaking titles, some were improving explanations, and some were learning how to actually use Google Slides better.
That part is underrated. I had students asking, “How do I layer these images?” or “How do I crop this picture into a shape?” and I got to teach them real tech skills while they were working through content. So yeah, it wasn’t just about summarizing compromises—it was about learning how to design, write, and revise creatively.
This week was about layering, connecting, and getting students to own the content—not just memorize it. Every protocol, every sequence was designed to move students from basic retrieval to deeper understanding without overwhelming them.
Nothing fancy. Nothing over the top. Just intentional teaching.
Monday kicked off our Abolitionist Movement work. I always try to bring in local figures like Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Rankin, and James G. Birney alongside Frederick Douglass, Sarah Grimké, and William Lloyd Garrison. Students need to see the local connection—that history didn’t just happen “out there.”
We started with a Thin Slide: “Change begins when someone refuses to stay silent.” One picture. One word or phrase. Fast. Immediate. It set the tone for the day—thinking about voice, action, and courage.
Then we jumped into a short EdPuzzle. It wasn’t to “teach” the content—it was just to jog memories and fill in some quick context before they picked an abolitionist to dive deeper into.
The Thick Slide was the real meat of the day: Each student chose one abolitionist and built a slide that included:
A short background
Their motivations for ending slavery
The methods they used (writings, speeches, helping people escape, etc.)
One powerful quote or moment that showed who they were
This wasn’t just copying facts—it was asking students to curate what mattered.
After they shared, classmates used a Frayer Model to capture the background, methods, and motivations for four abolitionists.
Why I sequenced it this way:
Thin Slide to frame the emotional/critical thinking lens
EdPuzzle for quick retrieval
Thick Slide to produce and contribute
Frayer to actively listen, gather, and process others’ work
Every move had a purpose: students weren’t just learning about abolitionists—they were seeing patterns of activism.
Tuesday: Finishing Abolition With Superlatives
Tuesday was another strange day because of science OST testing.
We opened with a Fast and Curious on Quizizz. Nothing complicated—just another layer of retrieval on the same reform movement content:
Words like suffrage, reform, abolitionism, and goals of different movements
Then we finished Monday’s work with a Superlatives activity (shoutout to Kim Voge). Students had to pick 2–3 abolitionists and apply superlatives like Most Courageous, Most Determined, Most Visionary, etc.
At first, I had them tie it back to the Thin Slide quote from Monday…but after first period, I realized that overwhelmed them. So I pivoted and just let them focus on the superlatives.
After students completed the Superlatives, they used Magic School’s writing feedback tool to add in ideas. They took a screenshot, attached the screenshot to the feedback tool, and generated feedback. It led to discussions of evaluating feedback and choosing to pay attention to the feedback that matters.
Why this worked:
Fast and Curious warmed them up with retrieval
Superlatives required them to compare, judge, and defend choices
It wasn’t just recalling facts—it was applying understanding
The pivot mattered. Sometimes you have to drop something mid-day when you realize it’s not helping kids think better.
Wednesday: Thinking on My Feet With Real-World Skills
Wednesday was a little chaotic—still on the weird science testing schedule. Some classes finished their superlatives and quizzes early, and I knew I needed something meaningful that wasn’t just busy work.
I thought back to a Friday Check-In I ran months ago: “If I could teach you anything besides social studies, what would you want to learn?”
The most common answer? – Jobs. Taxes.How to get a job.
So I threw together a quick, no-internet-needed lesson:
Started with a Google Form:
What’s more important—skills or attitude?
Would you hire yourself right now?
Number Mania on Padlet:
What are two labor laws that surprised you?
I shared a quick story about my first job working clay tennis courts—how doing the little things no one asked for got me better hours and more money.
Why this worked:
It was personal.
It was relevant.
It used EduProtocols (Number Mania + fast reflection) in a real-world context.
The best moments come when you connect content to what actually matters for students’ futures.
Thursday: Connecting Abolition and Women’s Rights (with Purposeful AI)
Thursday was all about tying movements together—and introducing AI not as a shortcut, but as a thinking partner.
Our goal: Understand how the Abolitionist and Women’s Rights movements were connected—and why they eventually split apart.
The flow:
Opened with a Google Form to prime thinking: Where do you see connections? Where could you see division?
Annotate & Tell: Students read a short article and answered four guiding questions that helped them think about motivations, conflicts, and context.
Then came the AI part—and this was intentional:
Students used MagicSchool ChatBot Raina to ask a question about the reading. I did not preload the ChatBot with any extra information.
They had to paraphrase the AI response
Then they had to evaluate it:
Was it accurate?
Was anything missing?
How could it have been better?
This wasn’t just “use AI.” This wasn’t generate ideas and copy. It was: engage with AI, challenge it, think critically about it.
We closed it all with a Short Answer Battle Royale: Explain how the two movements were connected.
Why this worked:
The Google Form opened thinking.
Annotate & Tell slowed down reading.
AI added reflection, metacognition, and sourcing conversations.
Short Answer forced a full-sentence, evidence-based response.
AI wasn’t a crutch. It was a springboard for better thinking.
Friday: Wrapping Reform With Solo Iron Chef
Friday was about pulling everything together.
We started with a Fast and Curious on Quizizz (class averages were solid: 83%–90%) to hit key reform concepts one last time.
Then, students completed two Solo Iron Chef slides:
I set the timer for 15 minutes per slide. Students had to screenshot their work and use MagicSchool to get AI feedback on it. And again—the feedback conversations were the best part. A student said, “The AI said to change my title but I made mine rhyme and I like it.” I said, “Then why listen to it? It’s a tool—not the truth. You know your purpose better than the AI does.”
This week was all about keeping the momentum going—connecting reform movements, industrialization, and women’s rights in ways that actually made sense to students. Some lessons flowed just like I hoped. Others forced me to think on the fly (shoutout to the surprise Wi-Fi outage). But through it all, I leaned on purpose-driven protocols, reframing simple tasks to get kids thinking deeper, and using tools—whether AI or no-tech—intentionally.
I’ve really grown to love the way a well-structured Rack and Stack can turn a test review into something way more meaningful than just a study guide. The trick is keeping it fast, focused, and rooted in retrieval. Monday’s review hit all of those.
Each protocol I used was capped at 5 to 8 minutes. That time limit keeps the pace quick and the energy up. Shoutout to Dominic Helmstetter—this structure is 100% something I borrowed from him, and it just works.
Here’s how we ran it:
Annotate and Tell: A quick dive into industrialization sources. Students highlighted key sentences and had to explain what they meant in their own words.
Sketch and Tell: We processed key events and concepts visually—simple drawings, one-sentence blurbs. It forced kids to make connections and explain big ideas fast.
Frayer Model (Labor Unions): We broke down this concept in four parts—definition, facts, examples, and why it mattered. Took no more than 8 minutes.
Cause and Effect (Cotton Gin): Straightforward but powerful. Students made the link between inventions and unintended consequences. This also worked as a setup for Tuesday’s writing.
Parafly (Immigration): Students had three paragraphs and rewrote it using clearer language, and discussed how it could be improved. We did it fast, but it stuck.
We ended the day with a Quizizz practice test, and I threw in a little extra credit for any student who scored 100% on their first try. Four students pulled it off. That’s big.
To wrap up the period, I had students begin the Bento Box final—a creative, visual summary showing key differences between life in the North and South. The Bento Box is an Amanda Sandoval creation. They had to use symbols, captions, and organization to demonstrate understanding, not just spit out facts.
Tuesday
Tuesday was test day. No frills. No extras. Just students showing what they’ve learned—and the numbers speak for themselves.
When this unit started, my first-period class had a 35% average on the pretest. By the final test? 85%.
Second period? From 34% to 77%.
Fifth period? 35% to 81%.
Sixth period? 35% to 79%.
You can’t fake that kind of growth. It doesn’t happen by accident. That’s the result of layering protocols, keeping the tasks meaningful, and giving students multiple ways to engage with the content.
After the test, students finished up their Bento Boxes comparing life in the North and South. These were creative, visual, and packed with insight. It’s always a great way to reinforce what we’ve learned without just regurgitating facts.
And if there was still time? We rolled right into the next unit—the Second Great Awakening and Reform Movements. I had an Edpuzzle ready to go as a soft launch into that next wave of content. No wasted minutes.
The transitions were smooth, the growth was real, and the learning kept moving.
Wednesday
Wednesday kicked off the second half of our unit. The first part was focused on life in the North and South—slavery, the cotton gin, immigration, all of it. Now we’re pivoting into reform movements, and based on how heavy the content can feel, I knew I needed to chunk it.
Thin Slide: The Second Great Awakening and Reform
We started class with a Thin Slide about the Second Great Awakening. I gave students a couple paragraphs with the keywords “religion” and “reform” highlighted, and asked them to think about how a religious revival could lead to social change. I also made a local connection to Utopia, Ohio—a small town just down the road from us that people literally named “Utopia” while trying to build a perfect society in the 1840s. That little story gave the kids something to anchor to and brought the big ideas a bit closer to home.
Reform Movement Frayers
Then we jumped into four reform movements: education, prison, temperance, and women’s rights. I gave them one-page readings for each. They had to pick two and fill out a Frayer Model—with prompts like:
What were the problems before the reform?
Who was involved?
How did people push for change?
What changed?
It was all about giving them enough structure to make sense of what they read without overwhelming them.
Designing a Reform Movement Cookie
The fun part came next. I had each student pick one reform movement and design a cookie that symbolized it—name, promotional language, and inspiration. Not because I think students should go into advertising, but because it gives them a creative outlet to synthesize what they’ve learned. I didn’t use a fancy template. I just gave them space and a task: connect what you learned to something that feels new and fun.
But I knew this would be a challenge. So I built a MagicSchool Idea Generator for them to use. That’s where the AI came in.
Some kids got it immediately. Others just hit “enter” and copied the first thing that popped up. That led to some awesome conversations about how to prompt AI and how to be more intentional with your thinking. One student said, “It said it couldn’t help me… then gave me a list anyway?” Welcome to AI. That’s how it works sometimes.
We talked about AI literacy without even planning to. We talked about responsible use. About editing. About pushing your thinking. It all came up naturally just by giving students a space to explore and test things out.
Why This Mattered
Some people might ask, “Why let kids use AI for something like this?” And honestly, this is exactly the kind of task where they should.
Because it’s not about copying. It’s about prompting, refining, questioning, and thinking through ideas in real time. These students are growing up in a world where AI isn’t going away. They need practice using it—not just to get an answer, but to develop a thought, build on it, and decide if it’s even worth using.
Watching students try to get the right response from the AI was the best part. Some had to reword their question three or four times before they got something useful. That’s the kind of persistence we want. That’s literacy—not just reading and writing, but digital reasoning, critical thinking, and adaptability.
It wasn’t perfect. But it was meaningful. And it was real.
Thursday
Thursday morning started with one of those classic curveballs—no Wi-Fi. Not ideal, but it forced me to think fast and strip things back to what mattered. I still wanted to build off the reform movement lesson from the day before, but I needed something fully offline that still had purpose.
I knew I wanted the lesson to focus on women’s rights—more specifically, the role suffrage played within that movement. So I kept it simple: what do I want students to understand by the end of class? I wrote that down—“Explain why suffrage was important to the women’s rights movement.”
First, I pulled a section from the textbook about the Seneca Falls Convention and the demands women were fighting for. Then I found a short, 4-minute History Channel video that gave the movement some faces and energy. I was able to play that from my desktop—no internet needed on the student end.
To process all of this, I created a Sketch and Tell-o with three textbook questions and a fourth space that asked: “Why was suffrage important to the women’s rights movement?”
But even as I was making the copies, I thought to myself—this feels basic. It felt like a worksheet. So I reframed the whole lesson with a challenge.
I started class with this statement: “Suffrage wasn’t that important to the women’s rights movement—it was just one of many demands.” Change my mind.
That one sentence shifted the tone. Suddenly they weren’t just answering questions—they were preparing a rebuttal. They watched the video, read the section, answered questions, and sketched visuals of what women were fighting for. And at the end, they had to change my mind.
It took some time to click. Some students didn’t totally get what I meant by “change my mind.” I ended up clarifying—I’m asking you to explain why voting was important. Convince me it wasn’t just another demand—it was the demand.
Once I shared an ideal response and modeled what a strong one might look like, the gears started turning. And honestly, the thinking that came out of it was way better than I expected for a no-tech day. The reframing really mattered.
We closed class with a quick Quizizz to check understanding of reform movements, suffrage, and the Seneca Falls Convention. Results were solid—and the engagement? Way better than if I’d just handed them a worksheet.
This week wasn’t about cramming in new content or racing toward a test—it was about building something that lasted. We used a layered mix of retrieval, reading, analysis, structured writing, and reflection, and each protocol helped us answer a bigger question. Coming off spring break, I knew students would need structure but also some momentum. So I stacked the lessons with intention.
We used Fast & Curious with Quizizz every day, not just to review terms, but to show how retrieval works when it’s spaced out and tied to deeper learning. We layered in Annotate & Tell for close reading and sourcing, and we used Graph & Tell to compare data with perspective. Students analyzed primary sources, revised flawed writing, and built arguments from multiple viewpoints.
We pulled in Archetype Four Square to reframe historical figures like Eli Whitney, then brought it full circle with Class Companion, Thick Slides, and a hands-on word wall review to tie everything together.
We came back from spring break, and I knew better than to pretend everything would pick up right where we left off. After 10 days off, kids needed a ramp—but that didn’t mean the day had to be a throwaway. I wanted to build back some content momentum while still reinforcing writing skills. So I stacked the lesson around a clear essential question and layered the tasks with a mix of retrieval, source analysis, and structured writing.
Quizizz:
We kicked things off with a Quizizz that blended review and preview questions from our industrialization unit. The idea was to warm up their brains without pressure. It gave me a quick read on what stuck over break, what needed refreshing, and where we could push forward.
Primary Source Pack: Framed by a Big Question
The textbook has a set of primary source lessons—usually I tweak or skip them, but this one had potential. The essential question was: How can changes in work and social life affect a society?
I ran all six sources through AI and had it reword them to be more accessible without losing meaning. I also had AI generate two basic questions per source to give kids a little guidance. After each source, students wrote a 6-word summary that directly tied back to the essential question. That’s what kept the focus. No wandering. Every source came back to that one big idea.
The sources included:
A Lowell Mill girl’s journal
An immigrant’s first letter home
A factory owner’s defense of conditions
A political cartoon from the time
A protest flyer
An anti-immigrant speech
Each gave students a different perspective, and the layering really helped them start to think critically about the intersection of work, immigration, and social change in the 1800s.
Short Answer: Revising a Bad Paragraph
Once we had enough content, I dropped them into a Short Answer task. I gave them a clearly incorrect paragraph that oversimplified everything. Their job was to revise it using evidence from the sources.
Here’s what they had to fix: Changes in work and population didn’t really affect anything. Most people stayed on farms and worked outside. Immigrants had an easy time finding jobs and were treated fairly. Factory workers only worked a few hours a day, and their jobs were fun and safe. No one complained, and the government made sure everything was perfect.
The responses were solid. Short Answer let them see peer examples and compare their thinking, which always boosts engagement. We weren’t writing full-blown essays—just clean, focused revisions with evidence and reasoning. That’s the kind of writing practice that sticks.
Fast and Curious Again:
To finish class, we went back to Quizizz with a Fast and Curious round. It was the same set as earlier, but now students had background knowledge from the readings and writing. I wanted to see if the scores improved, and they did. Retrieval practice works—especially when the content is layered.
Tuesday
This lesson was all about getting students to see the layers of impact behind Eli Whitney’s invention—not just the praise in textbooks, but the real, complicated ripple effects. We used a mix of protocols to help students analyze, compare, and respond to those consequences.
Quizizz Check – Fast and Curious
We started with a Fast & Curious Quizizz round. The goal was to preview key terms tied to the cotton gin: invention, economy, agriculture, slavery, unintended consequences. I saw right away where the gaps were. Some students had never really connected the cotton gin to slavery. That told me the rest of the lesson needed to go beyond “Eli Whitney invented something helpful.”
Archetype Four Square: Who Was Eli Whitney?
Next, we moved into an Archetype Four Square. After reading a short bio of Eli Whitney, students picked an archetype they felt best represented him. Then we had them support it with evidence from the reading and make a historical or pop culture comparison. It sparked some great thinking. Was he a hero? A sage? A magician?
Annotate & Tell
From there, we jumped into an Annotate & Tell using two primary sources—newspaper articles from 1818 and 1825 celebrating the cotton gin. Students highlighted quotes that showed the invention’s impact: increased cotton production, land value, and Southern prosperity. Then we paused and asked the real question: What’s missing from this praise?
Graph & Tell
To bring in the other side, students examined a chart showing the rise of enslaved persons alongside the rise of cotton production. This was our Graph & Tell moment. They filled in a chart and wrote a short summary of what they noticed: a clear correlation between more cotton and more slavery. Then we pushed further—Does this data support or challenge what the primary sources said? That question changed everything.
Class Companion
To wrap things up, students went to Class Companion and wrote from a chosen point of view: Eli Whitney, a plantation owner, an enslaved person, or a Northern factory worker. Their task was to explain the consequences of the cotton gin from that lens, including both short- and long-term effects.
The AI feedback blew me away. It didn’t just give grammar tips—it recognized their POV and gave specific feedback tied to it. For example, students writing as enslaved people got suggestions on expressing emotion or explaining hardship more clearly. It was targeted, authentic, and helped them revise in real time.
Wednesday – Friday
Wednesday through Friday were choppy. State testing threw off our schedule, kids were in and out, and nothing was consistent. But in some ways, that made the lesson better. We had space to slow down and focus on the people most impacted by what we’d learned earlier in the week—enslaved individuals.
After exploring the unintended consequences of the cotton gin, we shifted into the question: What was life like for the people whose lives were changed by it? It wasn’t about moving on—it was about going deeper.
Starting with Language
We began with a short but important conversation about how we talk about people in history. I introduced person-first language:
“enslaved person” instead of “slave”
“enslaver” instead of “master”
“freedom seeker” instead of “runaway”
I told students these words don’t just sound better—they shift how we see people. They’re human first. Not property, not background characters in someone else’s story. The kids caught on quickly and started using the new terms without being reminded. That one shift helped everything else land better.
Quizizz
Next, we ran a Quizizz. I built it around key vocabulary like abolitionist, resistance, enslaver, overseer, and oppression. I also kept a few questions from earlier in the week to bring back some of the Eli Whitney and cotton gin context. The goal wasn’t a grade—it was to activate thinking, catch misconceptions, and see what needed clearing up before we hit the heavier stuff.
A lot of kids didn’t fully understand “resistance,” so that told me where to lean in next.
EdPuzzle
We watched a high school-level EdPuzzle on slavery and resistance. I picked the 9–12 version on purpose—it talked about the Underground Railroad as a metaphor instead of a literal train line. That helped break a common misconception right away.
More importantly, the video gave a broader definition of resistance. It wasn’t just running away—it was breaking tools, learning to read, preserving family bonds, working slowly on purpose, singing coded messages in songs. It gave them a new way to understand how enslaved people fought back.
Annotate & Tell
After that, we moved into Annotate and Tell with two powerful excerpts:
Solomon Northup from Twelve Years a Slave
Harriet Jacobs from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
We started with short background blurbs so students knew who these people were and why their stories mattered. Then we read each passage together, pausing to highlight key phrases and answer focused questions.
Northup described long days in the field, being forced to pick 200 pounds of cotton, being punished if you fell short, and chores that lasted well into the night. Jacobs described the cruelty and control that came with wealth—enslavers who tortured without consequence and normalized abuse.
Thick Slide: Be the Abolitionist
Then it was time to apply what they learned. Students created a Thick Slide from the point of view of an abolitionist trying to convince others that slavery must end. Their slide had to include:
Three quotes from the readings that exposed the reality of slavery
An explanation of why those quotes mattered
One form of resistance from the EdPuzzle and why it was important
A Human Spotlight featuring Harriet Jacobs, Solomon Northup, or someone from the video
A picture and a short caption telling that person’s story—what they saw, suffered, or stood for
Some students picked quotes that showed the physical brutality. Others focused on how people kept resisting anyway. Their captions were sharp, and a few were honestly emotional. They weren’t just checking boxes—they were making a case.
Teaching the AI Workflow
After they built their slides, I walked them through a quick Chromebook skill: Ctrl + Shift + Window Switcher = screenshot tool.
Then I showed them how to upload that screenshot into a MagicSchool chatbot I had set up. I modeled how to ask for specific feedback. As I always say, “If you give the AI tool crappy prompts, you’re going to get crap back.”
The whole point was to show them how to use AI after the thinking is done—to reflect, revise, and improve. Not to let AI do it all for them.
Word Wall Review
To wrap everything up, we did a drag-and-drop word wall. Students sorted terms and ideas between North and South—factory, agriculture, slavery, resistance, cotton, railroads, canals, unions, etc. It tied together everything we’ve covered the last two weeks in one quick review. Fast, visual, and a good reset after a deep few days.
Truth With Sprinkles
On Friday, I wanted something new for retrieval practice. I began class with a Class Companion – but with a twist!
I had AI create 2 paragraphs with 4 historical errors. Here is what AI came up with:
In the early 1800s, the United States began to shift from farming to factory work. Most industry grew in the South because of its strong transportation system and large population of factory workers. One major invention that helped speed up this progress was the cotton gin. Created by Eli Whitney, this machine made cotton easier to clean and reduced the need for enslaved labor in the South.
Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, young women flocked to places like Lowell Mills for clean and safe factory jobs. They worked short hours and were treated fairly under new labor laws. Many factory owners supported the rise of labor unions because they wanted to keep their workers happy. These early unions helped workers demand better conditions with the full support of the people in charge.
I called it “Truth with Sprinkles” – sprinkles of fiction, that is! I brought sprinkled donuts for my 1st period because they worked so damn hard on the state test. It was unbelievable. They wrote their hearts out and gave it everything they had – it was awesome.
So, as they were eating their donuts (some with chocolate frosting and sprinkles) they were finding the sprinkles of fiction in the paragraphs. They were historical detectives.
I set up the Class Companion for only 1 submission – I didn’t want them submitting right away and trying to get the answers. They were discussing, analyzing, and acting as historical detectives fixing the errors. This was an awesome retrieval practice. Class Companion gave them great feedback on each error they tried to correct – it worked out so well!
This week was all about variety, structure, and student voice—anchored by a solid lineup of EduProtocols. I leaned on Fast & Curious for foundational vocab, layered in Annotate & Tell to break down complex readings, used Number Mania to push students toward using evidence, and wrapped lessons with Short Answer and Nacho Paragraphs to bring writing and thinking together. We even threw in some creative fun with Thin Slides, Craft-a-Cola, and a few MagicSchool tools to help students prompt and produce in more engaging ways. It wasn’t just about covering content—it was about designing experiences that stuck.
We kicked off the week with a lesson on industrialization and how it changed the northern states—and I tried a Rack and Stack combo I was really happy with. It wasn’t flashy, but it had purpose at every step. Each EduProtocol built on the last, and everything came back to our guiding question: How did industrialization change the northern states?
Fast and Curious: Vocab First
We opened with a Gimkit Fast and Curious using vocabulary that kids were likely to struggle with—rivers, factories, mass production, loom, spinning, sewing machine. A lot of times I assume kids know basic words, but they don’t. After the first round, I gave feedback and cleared up confusion around things like loom and mass production. Then we ran it again. By the second round, scores had gone way up—evidence that repetition and feedback work.
Thin Slide: Why the North?
Next, I used a Thin Slide variation I learned from Justin Unruh. Students were asked to answer the question: Why did industrialization occur more in the North? using the keywords rivers and factories. They found or created an image and gave a one-sentence explanation. They had 8 minutes total—then they shared live, 8 seconds per student. This was a great way to preview the bigger concepts without overwhelming them.
Annotate and Tell: 3 Phases of Industrialization
We moved on to an Annotate and Tell with a short reading on the three phases of industrialization. Students highlighted the three phases in yellow and highlighted any inventions or machines in blue. The reading wasn’t long, but it was packed with information. I asked them two big questions to process:
What are the three phases of industrialization, and how did each one change the way goods were made?
How did machines like looms and sewing machines change the way people worked in factories?
Kids worked in partners to discuss and respond, and I was impressed with how well they broke it down.
Sketch & Tell Comic Edition: Visualizing the Phases
After the reading, I had students create a 3-frame comic using the Sketch and Tell Comic Edition to show how the three phases changed life and work. I got this idea from Justin Unruh again, and it’s become one of my favorite go-to protocols for visual processing. Instead of just retelling, students visualized each stage and added one sentence of explanation. This helped students slow down and make sense of how the shift happened over time—from breaking down tasks, to building factories, to powering machines.
Padlet Thin Slide: Bringing It Back to the Big Question
To wrap it up, we returned to our original question—How did industrialization change the northern states?—with a final Thin Slide posted on Padlet. I gave them 5 minutes to respond using what they had just learned, and they had to include at least one piece of evidence from the comic or Annotate and Tell. This helped me see who really got it and who might need more support.
It was a solid Rack and Stack, and I loved how each piece of the lesson connected. The goal wasn’t to cover everything—it was to build background, layer the concepts, and give students multiple ways to process. That’s what makes EduProtocols work.
Tuesday
I’ll be honest—Monday didn’t go how I hoped. The engagement across all my classes hovered around 25%, and that’s not something I’m used to. It frustrated me, and it forced me to take a step back. I told the students on Tuesday that I intentionally design lessons to build on familiar ideas. I don’t want them to feel overwhelmed—but I also don’t want them to zone out.
So I had to flip the script.
Fast and Curious: Quizizz Rebound
We opened class with a Fast and Curious on Quizizz using questions tied directly to industrialization in the North. This wasn’t just vocab—it was context-based. Words like steamboat, reaper, plow, and telegraph were sprinkled in. I noticed how often students missed even basic terms. Sometimes we assume students know what words like “petition” or “shift” mean, but they don’t. The data from Quizizz told me exactly where to go next.
Frayer Models With a Twist
We jumped into a Frayer activity using the textbook reading on four major inventions of the 1800s: the steamboat, the mechanical reaper, the steel plow, and the telegraph. But this wasn’t just a regular Frayer. I added some chaos—two dice rolls per invention. The first determined how many bullet points they had to write, the second decided how many words each bullet needed. This created structure, accountability, and a layer of challenge.
Chatbot Collaboration: Magic School AI
Next, I had students select the invention they thought was the most revolutionary. Using Magic School’s chatbot, they prompted the AI to speak as if it were that invention. They asked follow-up questions and gathered more support. This was one of my favorite moments—watching students debate themselves through the screen, pushing AI for deeper evidence.
Short Answer: Writing With a Purpose
We wrapped up with a Quick Write on ShortAnswer. This tool has been a game-changer. I selected two rubric elements: clear use of evidence and strong conventions. The AI gave instant feedback and categorized responses as beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Then it added up class scores to see if we hit our class goal. Three of my four classes crushed it.
But the best part? I disabled copy and paste. The words they wrote were their own.
I told them if they hit the class goal, I’d wipe away their Monday mess. They locked in and crushed it. Students were writing. For real. Because the task had structure, purpose, and a chance to improve.
Wednesday
Today’s lesson was all about one sentence: “The Lowell Mill Girls had an extraordinary opportunity.” That was it. That was the line that carried us through the whole class. My goal? Get students to keep circling back to that claim—support it, refute it, challenge it, reframe it. Think about it, talk about it, write about it.
I used a Rack and Stack of familiar EduProtocols, but I tried to tweak the flow a little to hit a rhythm. And honestly, it worked.
Fast and Curious: Start with What They Don’t Know
We kicked things off with a Fast and Curious using Gimkit. Vocabulary was pulled straight from the lesson: boardinghouse, wage, petition, strike, shift. You’d be surprised how many students don’t know what a “shift” is. Or “petition.” Or “boardinghouse.” After one 3-minute round and some direct feedback, we ran it again—and it made a big difference. The repetition and immediate correction helped lock it in. And it gave us a foundation to move forward.
EdPuzzle + Thin Slide = Instant Reflection
Next, we watched a 4-minute EdPuzzle about the Lowell Mill Girls. I embedded a Thin Slide right in the middle and brought the original claim back: “Did this video support that statement or not?” Some said yes—they got paid, they had housing. Others said no—the pay was awful, the work was grueling, and the living conditions weren’t great either. It was cool to see students start forming opinions and backing them up with specific parts of the video. The Thin Slide forced them to pick a side and start thinking critically before we even got to the meat of the lesson.
Number Mania: Let the Numbers Talk
Then we moved into Number Mania. Originally, I had six stations planned, each with a short reading—some primary, some secondary. But after thinking about cognitive load (and remembering that part in Blake Harvard’s book), I cut it down to four. Best decision I made all week.
At each station, students had to pick a number from the reading that could be used to refute the original statement. Of course, we had to stop and break down what “refute” actually meant—another word straight off the state test that most students didn’t know.
To make it even more fun (and to fight copy-paste laziness), I rolled dice. The first die told them how many words they had to use. That forced them to be intentional and selective with their evidence. Every station, every round, they got better at it.
Short Answer x Nacho Paragraph: Final Hit
To bring it all together, we used the Nacho Paragraph protocol inside Short Answer. I told students to copy and paste the original statement and revise it. Fix it. Refute it. Use the numbers and facts they just found in the Number Mania.
We ran it Battle Royale style. They saw each other’s answers. They compared. They got feedback. And most importantly, they thought.
They were engaged. They weren’t writing because I told them to. They were writing because they had something to say.
Thursday
After a deep dive into the Lowell Mill Girls earlier in the week, I wanted to extend the conversation—this time with a focus on labor unions and how the legacy of early industrial labor still echoes today.
We kicked things off with a short, one-page reading about the Lowell Mill Girls and labor unions. The reading did a solid job tying the historical context to modern labor movements. Students answered five questions to check comprehension and pull key ideas.
Then we pivoted into something a little more creative: a template from EMC² Learning called Craft-a-Cola.
Here’s the setup: Students had to design a pop can inspired by the Lowell Mill Girls and the rise of labor unions. Their can needed:
A creative soda name
A slogan or promotional phrase
A short write-up explaining the historical inspiration behind their product
This was a fun twist, but I knew right away some students would struggle with generating ideas. So I built a Magic School classroom with a custom idea generator chatbot. Students used it to brainstorm potential pop names and promotional language.
Here’s what I learned: 8th graders don’t always know how to prompt clearly. At first, a lot of the results were pretty off—or the bot responded with something like “I can’t do that, but here’s a suggestion…” It turned into an unexpected mini-lesson on how to write better prompts.
We took a few minutes to break down what makes a good prompt, rewrote some together, and suddenly the ideas started flowing.
What I liked most about today’s lesson:
It gave students a new way to process content they’ve been learning about all week
It tied creative thinking to historical understanding
It sneakily taught them better AI prompting skills without me planning for that to happen
Some of their designs were pretty awesome. A few were flat-out hilarious. But all of them reflected some understanding of how labor unions began and why they mattered—proof that even a pop can can tell a powerful story.
This week was all about using EduProtocols to deepen understanding and get students thinking critically about history. From Parafly for paraphrasing complex texts to Thick Slides for sequencing and comparing key events, we focused on meaningful engagement. ShortAnswer’s Quick Write gave students real-time AI feedback on their writing, while Map & Tell helped visualize territorial disputes. Sketch & Tell-O and Annotate & Tell made sure students weren’t just memorizing but actually processing history. Layering these protocols together made for a strong week of learning!
Monday was all about preparing for the Westward Expansion test. I originally planned a standard review, but a Sunday afternoon phone call with my friend Dominic Helmstetter changed that. He wanted to share with me what his understanding was of the the Great American Race. His idea—the Great American Race was a rapid-fire series of EduProtocols with Five-minute bursts of Parafly, Thin Slides, Annotate and Tell, and more, followed by a Quizizz mastery check where students had to get 100%. My response? That’s not how I’ve done the Great American Race before… but I love it.
So, I ran with it. I lined up five different EduProtocols, each tied to a major concept in the unit:
Parafly → Mormon migration
Annotate and Tell → Texas independence
Sketch and Tell-O → Oregon Trail
Frayer Model → Manifest Destiny
Cause & Effect Organizer → Mexican-American War
Each round lasted 6-8 minutes. I encouraged students to complete as much as they could from memory before checking resources. To support them, I had AI generate concise readings summarizing key points from our lessons. We wrapped up the period with a Quizizz practice test, and the class averages landed between 44% and 65%. Not great.
At first, it felt discouraging. But my friend Corbin Moore reminded me—it’s not about achievement, it’s about growth. That shifted my mindset.
Test Day
Tuesday was test day, and I kept my usual grading system:
Multiple-choice (content knowledge) → Taken on McGraw Hill’s site
Short answer/extended response (writing/critical thinking) → Completed on Class Companion
The results?
Multiple-choice averages: 89%, 74%, 85%, and 89%
Short answer growth: Huge improvement from the pre-test
It’s easy to get caught up in numbers, but seeing how much my students progressed from struggling with the concepts on Monday to confidently tackling the test on Tuesday was a win.
This version of the Great American Race might not have been the original, but it was an exciting, high-energy way to cycle through multiple ways of processing information—and it’s something I’ll definitely refine and try again.
Wednesday
Wednesday, I wanted to mix things up and bring in local history. There’s a tiny town in Clermont County called Utopia, OH—a place I’ve been fascinated with since I was a kid. It’s right on the river, barely noticeable, but packed with history. Why was it called Utopia? What made people think they could build a perfect society there?
I connected this lesson to westward expansion by framing it around the Panic of 1837. Many Americans were financially struggling and had to make tough choices—head west for a new start, scrape by where they were, or try to create a utopia, a so-called perfect society. That’s exactly what happened in Utopia, OH, where three different groups attempted (and failed) to build their ideal communities.
Thin Slides: Creating a Utopia
We kicked things off with a Thin Slide on Padlet, where I asked students:
What would your ideal utopia or perfect society look like?
They had to describe it and generate an AI image to represent their vision. The responses were fantastic—some created futuristic cities, others imagined peaceful rural communities, and of course, some just wanted an unlimited pizza society.
Video & Frayer Models: Learning the History of Utopia, OH
Next, we watched a video about Utopia, OH, which connected the town’s origins to the Declaration of Independence and the pursuit of happiness. The video broke down the three groups who tried (and failed) to build a perfect society in Utopia:
Communalists – A group who shared everything but fell apart due to financial struggles.
Spiritualists – Believed in connecting with spirits but were wiped out in a flood.
Anarchists – Tried to live without rules, but well… that didn’t work.
Students then read about these groups and took notes using a Frayer Model, categorizing each society’s beliefs, goals, struggles, and ultimate failure.
ShortAnswer Quick Write: Can a Perfect Society Exist?
To wrap up the lesson, I had students respond to the question:
Can a perfect society ever exist?
We used ShortAnswer’s Quick Write feature, which is currently in beta. This tool gives AI-generated feedback based on selected writing components—in this case, I chose “use of clear evidence and reasoning.”
Students submitted their responses.
AI provided instant feedback and a score (1 = Beginner, 2 = Intermediate, 3 = Advanced).
The class saw their combined goal score (though I still wish I knew how it was calculated or if I could set it myself).
At the end, students reflected on their feedback, making it a true learning experience rather than just another assignment.
I loved seeing how engaged students were with creating their own utopias, analyzing failed ones, and debating whether perfection is even possible. This lesson combined local history, critical thinking, and writing practice in a way that made students care about a little town they had never even heard of before.
Thursday
On Thursday, we kicked off our new unit on the differences between the North and South. I wanted to start with a local history story that powerfully illustrates these divisions—one that is both shocking and deeply revealing. That story was the case of Margaret Garner, an enslaved woman who escaped across the Ohio River to Cincinnati with her family in 1856. When slave catchers arrived to capture them, Margaret made the heartbreaking decision to end her daughter’s life rather than see her forced back into slavery.
This case wasn’t just about one woman—it reflected the moral and legal conflicts between the North and South. Abolitionists argued she should be put on trial for murder, as this would acknowledge her personhood, while pro-slavery forces demanded her return as property. In the end, the Ohio courts ruled in favor of the South, reinforcing how fragile “freedom” really was in free states.
Framing the Lesson
To get students thinking about the significance of this case, I opened with a quote from the story, prompting them to reflect on the thin line between freedom and slavery. I asked: What does Margaret Garner’s story tell us about the differences between North and South?
From there, we moved into a series of activities designed to break down this historical event in ways that encouraged deep thinking.
Thick Slide: Mapping the Story
Students read the Margaret Garner story and summarized the sequence of events using a Thick Slide with the Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then format. They added:
A title summarizing the event
Two images representing key aspects of the story
A comparison chart between the North and South, based on what they learned
This helped students visualize the story and understand how it reflected broader sectional tensions.
Annotate & Tell: Comparing Perspectives
We then examined two primary sources—one from an abolitionist newspaper and the other from a pro-slavery newspaper. Both presented vastly different takes on Margaret Garner’s actions.
Students highlighted:
Abolitionist Source: Phrases that framed Margaret as a victim of slavery, reinforcing how Northern abolitionists viewed her as proof of slavery’s horrors.
Pro-Slavery Source: Language that depicted her as a criminal, showing how Southerners justified slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act.
They answered the question: How does this case show that the North and South were no longer just two regions but two completely different societies?
Archetype Four Square: Margaret Garner’s Legacy
To wrap up, students engaged in an Archetype Four Square, deciding how Margaret Garner should be remembered. They had to choose an archetype—Martyr or Murderer—and justify their decision with historical evidence.
Short Answer: Bringing It All Together
Since we had time, students processed their thoughts using ShortAnswer’s Quick Write feature. The AI gave feedback on their use of conventions and explanation of content. This tool allowed students to refine their responses and see how small improvements could strengthen their arguments.
Friday
For Friday’s lesson, we focused on the economic, technological, and social differences that shaped the North and South before the Civil War.
EdPuzzle for Background Knowledge
We started with an EdPuzzle video on sectionalism to provide students with foundational knowledge. This helped set the stage for analyzing the growing divide between the two regions.
Close Read & Annotate and Tell
Students then moved into a Close Read & Annotate and Tell activity. They highlighted key words and phrases from the reading that helped answer questions about the U.S. economy, the expansion of slavery, and the Industrial Revolution. Using guiding questions, students made connections between economic changes and sectionalism.
Padlet Discussion
Next, we took the discussion to Padlet, where students answered the big question: How did economic growth, new technology, and slavery shape the early United States? This allowed them to see and build on each other’s responses, making their thinking more visible.
Moler's Musings 