Community Is the Curriculum
Annie Evans
June 1, 2026
If you’ve spent more than five minutes in a history classroom, you already know the secret that the rest of the world is slowly catching on to: teachers are masterful community builders.
Every single day, educators walk through their classroom doors and do something remarkable. They learn their students’ names (their preferred ones!). They show up at their games, recitals and concerts. They run morning check-ins that say, you matter before even opening a textbook. They notice who’s quiet, who needs a win, who came in carrying something heavy. Long before the lesson plan begins, teachers are doing the most human work there is: making sure every person in the room feels seen and safe.
That skill, that instinct, is not incidental to teaching history. It is history. Because the story of America has always been a story about who gets to belong.
I think about this every Friday morning when I join historian Joanne Freeman as moderator for History Matters (and so does coffee!). What began in the spring of 2020 as a small webcast to support teachers navigating a pandemic has grown into something none of us could have predicted. It is now a warm, lively, genuinely joyful community of educators, historians, and history lovers from across the country and around the world. Originally hosted in partnership with the National Council for History Education, HMASDC now lives on Dr. Freeman’s YouTube channel, and I hope you’ll join us on Fridays at 10 AM EDT. Bring your coffee. YOU belong there.
One of my favorite things that has grown from that community happened almost by accident. I mentioned on air that so many K-12 teachers simply don’t have access to the latest scholarship—often published in academic journals, behind a paywall, or the budget to buy scholars’ new books. The response was immediate: Tell us how we can help. And just like that, our Books for Teachers campaign was born. Members of the HMASDC community began donating books (SO many books!) crowdsourced from a list built by teachers, historians, and digital humanities scholars. As I travel the country in support of New American History offering free professional learning sessions, I pack books and put them directly into teachers’ hands in every zip code I visit. You can be part of it: resources.newamericanhistory.org/hmasdc-books-for-teachers
This is what NCHE, History Matters, and New American History all are at their core — communities of practice. A nationwide network of teachers working shoulder-to-shoulder with scholars, museums, and history organizations to strengthen their craft, practice History’s Habits of Mind, and help us build freely available inquiry-based learning resources so that every student, in every classroom, can see themselves in the story of US.
You (yes, YOU, you rock star history educators reading this….) already know how to build community. You do it every day. We are just grateful to be part of yours. As always, feel free to reach out to us via email or social media with your feedback or suggestions on how we might best support you.
Annie Evans, Director of Education and Outreach, New American History | 2025 NCHE Sarah Drake Brown Award Recipient
Every single day, educators walk through their classroom doors and do something remarkable. They learn their students’ names (their preferred ones!). They show up at their games, recitals and concerts. They run morning check-ins that say, you matter before even opening a textbook. They notice who’s quiet, who needs a win, who came in carrying something heavy. Long before the lesson plan begins, teachers are doing the most human work there is: making sure every person in the room feels seen and safe.
That skill, that instinct, is not incidental to teaching history. It is history. Because the story of America has always been a story about who gets to belong.
I think about this every Friday morning when I join historian Joanne Freeman as moderator for History Matters (and so does coffee!). What began in the spring of 2020 as a small webcast to support teachers navigating a pandemic has grown into something none of us could have predicted. It is now a warm, lively, genuinely joyful community of educators, historians, and history lovers from across the country and around the world. Originally hosted in partnership with the National Council for History Education, HMASDC now lives on Dr. Freeman’s YouTube channel, and I hope you’ll join us on Fridays at 10 AM EDT. Bring your coffee. YOU belong there.
One of my favorite things that has grown from that community happened almost by accident. I mentioned on air that so many K-12 teachers simply don’t have access to the latest scholarship—often published in academic journals, behind a paywall, or the budget to buy scholars’ new books. The response was immediate: Tell us how we can help. And just like that, our Books for Teachers campaign was born. Members of the HMASDC community began donating books (SO many books!) crowdsourced from a list built by teachers, historians, and digital humanities scholars. As I travel the country in support of New American History offering free professional learning sessions, I pack books and put them directly into teachers’ hands in every zip code I visit. You can be part of it: resources.newamericanhistory.org/hmasdc-books-for-teachers
This is what NCHE, History Matters, and New American History all are at their core — communities of practice. A nationwide network of teachers working shoulder-to-shoulder with scholars, museums, and history organizations to strengthen their craft, practice History’s Habits of Mind, and help us build freely available inquiry-based learning resources so that every student, in every classroom, can see themselves in the story of US.
You (yes, YOU, you rock star history educators reading this….) already know how to build community. You do it every day. We are just grateful to be part of yours. As always, feel free to reach out to us via email or social media with your feedback or suggestions on how we might best support you.