Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Luke Rosa. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Luke, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

For decades, America’s classrooms have been controlled by testing companies and textbook publishers. These giant corporations fall woefully short in understanding the dynamics of today’s classrooms, particularly when it comes to personalized learning, differentiation, and engaging young people through interactive lesson plans that bring history alive.

When I first started teaching back in 2004, I was handed a textbook and wished good luck. I struggled to keep students’ attention. Like many young teachers, I considered quitting. However, I decided to try tossing aside the textbooks and worksheets that I was given and create my own style of lesson. I thought about my students’ needs and what captivated them. I made students the center of learning instead of them being taught at.

My strategy of personalizing learning and tailoring instruction to meet the kids’ needs and preferences was an immediate success. However, each lesson was now a TON of work. I was staying late and arriving early to craft each lesson. It was working, however, and I never wanted to go back to using traditional resources.

Over the next few years, I developed a library of engaging and interactive lessons that brought social studies alive for my students. They were personalized to the lives of my kids and easily differentiated for those who needed more help or more of a challenge.

I shared my resources with colleagues who raved about how much they helped. Then, in 2012 I discovered an opportunity to share them online. That year, Students of History was born as an educational curriculum company. My focus was to create resources that teachers and students would love. Unlike Corporate America’s focus on testing and lectures, students are at the focus of my lessons. They are interacting with primary sources, working in collaborative groups, and playing fun games to help them love history.

Luke, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Luke Rosa and I was a high school social studies teacher in Florida and then Virginia for about 16 years. I started my company Students of History to share teaching resources with educators across the globe in 2012. Since then, my company has grown into the largest teacher-owned Social Studies publisher in America. Thousands of teachers across the world base their classrooms on my curricula. I create and share interactive lessons that make history come alive for middle school and high school students. No longer do teachers need to stay up late planning their lessons. They can subscribe to Students of History and gain immediate access to interactive, rigorous lessons for every day of their school year. Teachers can then relax and focus on what matters most to them. At a time when teachers are feeling immense stress, Students of History is an invaluable resource for taking their largest stress off their plate.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Like nearly everyone else in the world, I had to pivot in the spring of 2020. Classrooms across the country switched from traditional classrooms to “Distance Learning”. As a curriculum leader with over 1,500 teacher subscribers to my online curriculum, I knew I had to provide them guidance on how to best serve their students.

I immediately rearranged my curriculum. I had a library of “flipped classroom” video lessons that could now ne shared with students at home as their main lesson. This saved teachers countless hours of recording their own video lessons. I then converted nearly every printable activity into an interactive Google Doc or Slides file. This way, students could experience the same activity at home online. Next, I began writing and publishing complete online textbooks for World and US History so students had access to simple, easy-to-access readings for their entire curriculum.

I then shared much of these with any teacher who needed who needed them to alleviate the terrible crisis facing so many teachers at that time.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I was learning to be a teacher in college, I often heard we needed to be strict and authoritarian. I remember being told not to smile until Christmas. The focus at that time was on standardized testing. Teachers at my first school almost always had students in strict rows of desks, taught directly from the textbook, and were constantly testing.

I quickly realized this was not to way to best help students learn. I embraced a naturally warm, empathetic, and approachable demeanor. This helped to foster a safe and supportive learning environment and help me make better connections with my students. Doing so helped me to learn the kinds of classroom activities that would best help them learn. That is now the bedrock of my success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.studentsofhistory.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studentsofhistory
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StudentsOfHistory
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-rosa-402119124/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/StudentsHistory
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9gJ7ilzYXjIQI04vGTtpCg

Image Credits
All pictures taken by me.