Educational Goals

The two goals at the forefront of my teaching are mastering the social studies standards using a variety of mediums and acquisition of critical-thinking skills to carry over into the real world. Not everyone will have a career in history or the social sciences; however, it is imperative that each student that takes my class(es) leaves with the skills necessary to think critically, research credibly, and express articulately. 

Class Learning Objectives

Montana History begins with the geologic forces that shaped Montana, continuing through topics such as westward expansion, trapping, mining, the Native American history, treaties, reservations, railroads, allotments, boarding schools, homesteading, workers movements and concluding with  “Living in a New Montana 1970-2007.”

World History focuses on the early civilization during the Neolithic-Agricultural revolution, through the rise of the great ancient empires, and the subsequent civilizations that developed. We will be covering a wide array of regions spanning across the globe. We analyze the roles that agriculture, language, economics, trade, disease, war, religion, culture, political theory and other themes play in development of human history.

Art History is a new elective course that will be a hybrid of both case-based approaches to Art History that follows a historical/survey timeline. Time permitting, we will study many different units such as; Global Prehistory, Ancient Mediterranean, Early Europe and the Colonial Americas, Later Europe and the Americas, Indigenous Americas, Africa, West, Central, and South East Asia, The Pacific and finally Global Contemporary/Street Art Movement.