Students will learn different elements of American holiday traditions in different time periods of history using the American Girl "Surprise" books as a reference.

Hi there! 
My name is Mrs. Rodenbeck and I am a middle school history teacher! I have taught 6th, 7th, and 8th, grade history for the past 5 years! Before that, I taught high school history. I absolutely LOVE learning about people from the past! I like understanding how people lived in different times in history. 

I studied anthropology in college. My goal as a kid was to be Indiana Jones! Archaeology and cultural anthropology are my favorite disciplines. I like to learn about what past peoples have built and how those things impact their culture. I’ve even done work for Chicago’s Field Museum since 2007. Now I work in the education department at the Field Museum with other teachers and bringing history topics into their classrooms. 

I love teaching about the American Girl books and their periods of time in history because I used to WORK at the American Girl store in Chicago. I worked there all throughout my college years. I loved American Girl when I was a kid and I loved it, even more, when I worked at the store in college! 

I hope that from this course, you can take some of my passion for history and for American Girl and get a little more excited about learning about other people. There are so many fun and exciting things to learn about! I can’t wait to share them with you!