Mike Williams is a 9th-year teacher in rural Iowa. Despite having to teach more than just social studies, history is a common thread that makes its way into most lessons, regardless of subject. A few years into his career, he started making History Battle Cards for his students and couldn't believe their response—they became obsessed! It was clear this was a way he could get students engaged. A little over 2 years ago, he made them available to the masses on Etsy to get them into more and more classrooms. You can find him on Instagram @HistoryBattleCards or visit his Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/HistoryBattleCards .
1. How and when did you get hooked on history?
This was tough to narrow down, but after some pondering I think I can identify 2 distinct times when history tightened its grasp upon my interest. The first was probably in elementary school/jr. high. For some reason (and this memory may feel more exaggerated than it truly was) it felt like we learned about the American Civil War 3 grades in a row. Like maybe 5th, 6th, and 7th grades all had units on the Civil War. Many of my classmates complained, but I loved it—I found it interesting especially because it was MY country, I could relate to that.
The second instance was a few years later in high school, probably 10th or 11th grade. I took an AP US History course and it was simply amazing. I had already liked to learn about the past, so it was fun to hit things more deeply like the Cold War and Civil Rights. But even more powerful was the way my teacher helped us to understand how tracing events from the past allowed us to see the evolution of our nation and how we arrived at current day. I was hooked for life.
2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
In my personal life history is always there in the passenger seat, ready to make an appearance if I run into another history nerd, or to help me decipher current events and relate them to the past. And of course with History Battle Cards being a big hobby of mine, I'm always pursuing more history in my free time to try to refine the collection.
3. How does history play a part in your professional life/career?
It's huge. Outside of making it into a card game, history is everywhere in my classroom. History genuinely excites me, so I try to bring that excitement into as many areas as I can. As teachers, you have to fake it here and there—starting a lesson but not very excited about grammar or math or whatever the subject is? Doesn't matter, still have to try to get the kids to buy in and feel its importance. History lets me do this. I try to incorporate history and that genuine excitement into as many topics as possible, so students can feel the impact and hopefully engage.
4. Why is studying/knowing history important?
Besides just being interesting and knowing about cool things that happened before our time, I think it's important to know where you came from. It's important to be able to look back and understand why things are the way they are, how fragments of our past are still embedded in the fabric of today.
5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
This is hard because every time I dive deeper into a topic I feel like it becomes my favorite! However, after thinking hard about question #1, I have to go with either the American Civil War or the Cold War. Those really stand out to me because they happened at such formative times in my life, and also because of how greatly they influenced the evolution of America.
6. How did you come up with the concept of History Battle Cards?
It was kind of lucky actually. It was 2016, I was teaching 4th grade, and the presidential campaign process was rolling. The Iowa caucuses were coming up which was all over local news, so my students were very curious. We did a few activities on the process and then a bit about how the actual presidential election works. After that, students were wondering about former presidents, so I started typing up short little snippets about each one that I was going to hand out. Like little cheat sheet things with basic facts. Well, shortly after I started working on that, there were projects hung in our hallway, one of which was a standard 8.5x11 inch piece of computer paper made into a giant playing card of George Washington complete with "moves" and HP. Golden light shone upon the paper as a heavenly chorus rang out and that was it—History Battle Cards were born. So really if it wasn't an election year and I hadn't seen that 3rd or 4th grader's project hanging in the hallway, who knows!
Anyway, I started just with presidents because that's who students were initially asking about, but when my kids went crazy over them I started plans for other figures beyond just American presidents. Since then, I've expanded the collection to over 170 cards and continued to refine their design—currently on their 6th iteration.
7. How can History Battle Cards be used?
As a teacher, there is no wrong way to use HBC in your classroom, but here are a few main pillars of what it looks like in mine. I put cards in packs for kids to earn or "purchase" with our school's currency. Never know what you'll get in a pack—think about baseball cards, could be a star or could be a scrub, who knows! This adds tremendously to the excitement of opening them up. Kids collect cards, trade with classmates (at designated times), then every other month we take a couple hours in the afternoon to hold an HBC tournament, where students build a team and battle each other.
Year in and year out I'm absolutely flabbergasted at the student response. They are so interested in collecting new figures, and even though there isn't a ton of information on each card, the amount of retention of those basic facts is shocking.
It's become such a fun and easy way to get kids excited about history, at this point I just can't imagine my classroom without it!
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