Our first-ever Teacherpreneur Spotlight with our friend Secondary Sara was so much fun, so we’re back again with another friend of ours…this time from the social studies world. Meet… 

What levels and subjects do you teach and what’s a little bit of your teaching journey?
I teach high school World and US History. Mostly to 10th and 11th graders but there’s a sprinkling of all HS grades thrown into most classes.  Previously I’ve taught history at the middle school level as well. I graduated with a degree in History from the University of Tampa  and started teaching at a beautiful school nearby (Hillsborough High) after a very brief stint at an educational publishing company. I moved up to the Northern Virginia area about 7 years ago where I’ve enjoyed teaching ever since.
How’d you get started on TeachersPayTeachers?
My mom actually told me about the site after she saw Deanna Jump featured on CNN when she became the “Million Dollar Teacher”. I initially thought there would not be a market for secondary level social studies resources. However I was starting to produce “flipped classroom” style instructional videos for US History and thought the site could make for good way to provide complementary resources. I ended up only producing 2 videos before I realized how much more potential TpT had.
What aspect of teaching really gets you fired up?
Right now I think I am most fired up about finding ways to diminish the impact standardized testing has on our students. The stress level that it places on our students is really frustrating, especially at the detriment of some really positive things we could be doing in the classroom instead.
What’s the funniest/weirdest memory you have from middle or high school?
My funniest memory from my own high school experience has to be the videos and news segments my friends and I made for our TV production class. We were very much inspired by the Naked Gun movies that had come out and threw that styles of ridiculous humor into every piece we did. Some of our “in the field” segments were so absurd I don’t know how our teacher put up with us all.
Which of your resources do you enjoy teaching the most?
I’m a very visual person so the resources that most capture me are Interactive Notebook pages that really capture what a topic is about. I’ve seen so many excellent ones for younger grades and tried to create pages for high school that challenge students while at the same time utilizing their creativity and capturing their attention.

Who are some other TpT teacher/authors you think people should know about and check out?
There are a lot of great to secondary sellers out there producing really innovative lessons. I’m always consistently impressed with the creativity that Mr. Educator puts into projects and interactive lessons. I actually just put together a free collaborative eBook of social studies resources for all grades that shows some amazing work teachers are doing at all grades. For ELA, The Superhero Teacher creates really engaging, visually-stunning resources that inspire me to try similar things for social studies.
What are some quirky details about yourself?
I don’t know if there’s too many quirky things about me but I think I’m a pretty laid-back guy who can get along with anyone and is great at keeping the stress levels low in my department.

Luke (a.k.a. Students of History), thanks so much for stopping by to let us get to know you better! Keep on being made of awesome!