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United States History Club! (Ongoing)

Welcome to a Comedian's History of the United States! In this ongoing Middle School & High School class, students will learn historical events that took place during that week and month. Games, trivia, prizes and lots of comedy!
Erik, Professor, J.D, MS, BS
Average rating:
4.9
Number of reviews:
(1,116)
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Class

What's included

1 live meeting
1 in-class hours per week
Homework
1-2 hours per week. Students should come to class with a brief historical topic, question or event to share and practice public speaking and presentation skills.
Assessment
1. History Trivia: We start and end each class with Trivia and Games 2. Student Presentations

Class Experience

US Grade 5 - 8
If you love history, you will love Middle School History Club!  Dozens of United States historical topics each week! Trivia Games! Rap Songs! Jeopardy! Prizes! Debates! Public Speaking! and More! This class is great for middle school as well as high school students. 

Each class covers major United States topics that occurred during that week in history. So topics are always relevant, endless, and students have the opportunity to participate in numerous historical game celebrating these events.  Since each class covers the different historical topics of that week, students can join the class at anytime! 

While studying the various historical topics - we have a lot of fun with history! From trivia and Jeopardy Games to our classroom magazine - this class will be like no history class you have ever taken! 

But most importantly, everyone should be a Historian. Historian George Santayana stated, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Indeed, history is one of the most critical subjects for all youth and adults. It is our past. It is our present. It is our future. The more we learn about it, the more we can make the world a better place. And that is the ultimate goal of this class - to empower every student with the skills and passion of history... to make history....

NEW TO OUTSCHOOL COUPON CODE: 

If this is your first class on Outschool, you can use this code on checkout "ERIK2020" for a $20 discount.  Feel free to share with others too if it is their first time signing up on Outschool! 

PREREQUISITES AND RECOMMENDATIONS: 
1. Sense of Humor! We use a lot of comedy and my corny jokes! 
2. Introduction to Debate and Speech. This class introduces students to all our class activities, Apps, Games, current events, and public speaking. This class is a prerequisite for any students enrolling in History Club. Or alternatively enrolling in another "Camp Class" - Law and Model UN.  See below for all classes:

MIDDLE SCHOOL CLASSES: 

Speech and Debate Camp Level I (Beginners)
Great introduction to public speaking and debate skills! We will be focusing on the importance and history of debate, lots of public speaking skills, speechwriting skills, debate skills, the different events in speech and debate and a debate practice and speech practice at the end. 
https://outschool.com/classes/middle-school-speech-and-debate-camp-edkFYUzZ?usid=j2iJky1O&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link

Speech and Debate Camp Level II (Debate Skills)
This class is a continuation of Level #1 and focuses mostly on debate. Topics include: Evidence and Research, Fallacies, Strategy and Tactics, Philosophy, and several Practice Debates. 
https://outschool.com/classes/middle-school-speech-and-debate-camp-level-ii-TeSFoFwy?usid=j2iJky1O&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link

Speech and Debate Camp Level III: Speech Events, Speechwriting, and Rhetoric
In this camp we will focus on the speech events and advanced public speaking skills. Highly recommended for debaters as well, since public speaking and audience adaptation is the #1 debate skill.  8 Classes! 8 Speech Events! 8 Mini Tournaments! 8 Games! 8 Prizes! 80 Great Public Speakers! ... and ... 80 Public Speaking Skills!  
https://outschool.com/classes/middle-school-speech-and-debate-camp-level-ii-the-speech-events-8AJXuexH?usid=j2iJky1O&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link

Law and Moot Court Debate Club (Monthly, year round class)
Half of the class is legal debate class and an introduction to Moot Court Debate! The other half of the class is learning about legal cases, legal history, legal skills, legal advocates and legal current events. This is a good class for students interested in learning a different debate format (Moot Court) and also interested in legal careers. 
https://outschool.com/classes/law-school-club-yUxEwpCT?usid=j2iJky1O&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link

US History Club (Weekly, Ongoing)
If you like history - and want to learn about things you never learned in History, then try out this class!  In this challenging class, we tackle over a dozen historical topics each week while also having fun with lots of trivia, prizes, comedy and more! 
https://outschool.com/classes/history-club-lH2VzJzC?usid=j2iJky1O&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link

Current Events Club (Weekly, Ongoing). “Ongoing” - This means you can try one class, and if it is not the right fit, you can drop out of the class after one session or take it as many times as you want! 
https://outschool.com/classes/current-events-club-2QgX0MtZ?usid=j2iJky1O&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link

Model United Nations Club & International Current Events (Monthly)
https://outschool.com/classes/model-united-nations-club-and-conference-6J6E8cjx?usid=j2iJky1O&signup=true&utm_campaign=share_activity_link

Other Classes and Follow my Outschool Profile for any new classes & updates! 
https://outschool.com/teachers/eriktheteacher

SAMPLE CLASS SCHEDULE AND STRUCTURE  (*Class structure may change)
1. NewsCurrents Game on current events, geography, history and general social studies
2. Share Your Historical Event (5 minutes)
3. Review of Last Week's Lesson (5 minutes)
4. This Week in History: Interactive Lecture and Discussion (40 minutes)
5.  Historical Games (10 minutes)
5. Concluding Remarks and Contest Results! 

SAMPLE CURRICULUM (*Class topics may change based on history and current events)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GWouSOi0nbjN0GbnPyiK-CqnrpI0hvLpfwBIeO95uS8/edit?usp=sharing
Learning Goals
1. Students will improve their understanding of United States History. Each week, dozens of topics will be addressed and constantly reviewed throughout the class. 

2. Independent Reading
Each week during the school year, students receive a reading on current and historical events, geography, vocabulary and more.  We will have a short 3 minute quiz on this at the beginning of each class. 

3. Vocabulary
Our reading has vocabulary lists, activities and assessments. Students can create their own dictionary of unfamiliar words; they can add to their log each day with each edition.
learning goal

Other Details

Parental Guidance
This is a middle school and high school level class. Topics are historical and so we will be also be discussing some sensitive issues of battles, wars, violence, discrimination, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and other controversial topics of US History. We will also examine how historical events relate to current events of today. While all ages are welcome to try the class, please note that we will be discussing middle school and high school age topics.
Supply List
We will be discussing numerous mature historical issues from the past to the present. Some of these issues will be controversial and mature in areas of politics, wars, discrimination, crime and prejudice (sexism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia). So students and families should be aware and prepared for mature content and mature issues.

Comedy! If not comfortable with Comedy Shows this is not the class for you! We will be using lots of mature comedy content from such shows as Saturday Night Live and other late night and daytime comedy shows! My goal is to engage students in current issues and build a lifetime commitment to current events by making it fun, humorous and to share good laugh. Smiling and laughing while learning is my goal! 

I understand that history can be controversial. I have been teaching debate for about twenty years, I was a debater for another ten years, and I have founded and directed the largest debate league in the nation! So I have substantial experience in speaking and debating on issues of controversy. My rule of thumb and one of the first things I say in class and our number one rule: RESPECT - we respect all viewpoints, politics and perspectives. As a teacher I am not focused on what the politics of students are but focused on HOW students express their opinions - public speaking skills, writing skills, reading skills, presentation skills, debate skills and social skills of respect towards all others. Additionally, for any issues of controversy we always discuss other viewpoints and arguments so that students learn and respect different perspectives.

External Resources Statement: We will be using a variety of classroom tools, readings, links and other external resources. Please review the Materials section before signing up for this class.  These resources are optional. No accounts have to be created. All these resources are free.  All these resources have been vetted and used widely by students, schools and teacher. But I do recommend that students read, listen or watch some sort of news and current events for the class.
External Resources
In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
Joined September, 2020
4.9
1116reviews
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Teacher expertise and credentials
Bachelor's Degree in History from University of California, Berkeley
I have been teaching US and Global History for over a decade as a History teacher at the middle school, high school and college levels. History has been my passion since middle school when I grabbed any book about US History, Global History, and Military History. 

I have been involved in speech and debate as a student and educator my entire life.  I learned more in my Speech and Debate Club than all my high school, college and law school classes combined. I joined the Speech and Debate Team at my middle school because I was very shy of public speaking. I have been hooked in speech and debate since! 

I received my B.A. from U.C Berkeley, Jurist Doctorate from Hastings College of Law, and Masters Degree in Education at Pace University.  In 2002 I was accepted to Teach for America and I have been teaching since. I have been a public school teacher for ten years with the New York City Department of Education and taught speech and debate classes for about ten years with thousands of NYC students. My debaters have gone on to win city, state and national champion titles. I currently serve as Professor at Baruch College in the Communications Studies Department. I teach Debate and Argumentation classes as well as Political Rhetoric. 

As a teacher I helped to co-found the Big Apple Debate League which is now the NY Debate League. In 2011, I founded our city's Debate League with the mission that every middle school and high school should have a debate team. I served as Founder and Executive Director from 2011-2019 building the league into the largest citywide debate league in the nation, serving thousands of students every year.  In 2020, I left the nonprofit world, and I returned to my passion as a full time teacher! 

I have received numerous awards in education including the United States Supreme Court Summer Institute for Teachers Fellowship, Fund for Teachers Fellowship, Plank Foundation Fellowship, and Teach for America Innovation Award Finalist.

I love teaching. My grandparents, parents and my brother are all educators. There is nothing more fun than sharing your passion with others. 

My philosophy of teaching is learning should be fun and challenging.  I always begin my classes with current events trivia.  My lectures are interactive with movie clips, songs, puzzles and other engaging tools.  We always practice our public speaking and debate skills. All my classes end with a fun and competitive speech and debate practice or tournament.  My mission is all students should have access to speech and debate.

Press. Below are some news articles about me and my debaters! I owe everything to my own debate teacher and coach and so everyday my mission is to support future debaters! 

1. Bronx debate team one of 12 school groups nationally to get visit with Michelle Obama
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/skilled-young-orators-heading-white-house-article-1.1203407

2. New York City Teacher Creates After School Debate League Lauded by the White House
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/11/prweb10156172.htm

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Live Group Class
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$15

weekly
1x per week
60 min

Completed by 123 learners
Live video meetings
Ages: 11-14
3-18 learners per class

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