I grew up loving history. I can remember reading every history book in my middle school library. I had a teacher named Sister Vivian who told the most fascinating stories in her history class. I can still recall her story of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. When I decided to become a history teacher, I was determined to be like her. I was a Social Studies teacher for 39 years. I taught American History for over thirty years. From day one, I was committed to making history interesting for my students. I read many books of anecdotes and incorporated them into my lessons. I was always looking for a good story or trivia item, even in my last year of teaching. Unfortunately, many students pointed out later that all they remembered were the stories, but one of my goals had been to prove that history could be interesting. This site is designed to help History teachers make their classes more interesting. I have done the research for you. You don’t even have to give me the credit, just pass the stories on. Your students will be less bored and who knows, maybe you will be a Sister Vivian to a few of them.
I recently finished my first book – The Scipios in Spain. It is the story of Rome’s military actions in Spain during the Second Punic War. Scipio Africanus and his father and uncle fought there. The book also covers the history of the Roman army and it’s evolution in formation, weaponry, and tactics. There are plenty of great stories to share with students in the book. You can purchase it on Amazon.