what's new

Ten years old, and we're still kickin'
August 29, 2011

New and Improved teacher tools
March 16, 2011

New Items:
- Plagiarism Prevention Package. click here
- World Regions simulation. click here
- Five-Paragraph essay format. click here
- Hammurabi Code source analysis. click here
- Music lessons from teacher Joel Allen. click here
- History mini-posters. click here
- Introductory exercise for World History Part 2. click here

Improved Items:
- Research Paper Package: this updated version includes a plagiarism notice and other changes. click here
- Christopher Columbus source analysis, now with two additional primary sources. click here
- Timeline Projects, updated to be consistent with version 3 of the Student's Friend.
.....-Illustrated Timeline Projects for Part 1 and Part 2.
....-Triple Timeline activity. click here
....-Overlapping Timeline activity. click here
....-Dates used in Part 1 timeline activities. click here

"Arab freedom uprisings"
new topic added to the Student's Friend
February 12, 2011

We are watching world history unfold in Tunisia and Egypt. Perhaps this is the dawn of a new and better era for the Middle East. Today the Student's Friend concise world history added a new topic to the Current Issues unit: "Arab freedom uprisings." It is the first item (#185) on page 48, the last page of Unit 12, Part 2. It replaces the topic on "Biotechnology," a field that has not developed as rapidly as some had been predicting. see it here The Study Questions for page 48 have been modified accordingly. click here Page 48 also now includes a reference to the recession of 2009 and its relationship to Keynesian economics.  It's under the topic of "Capitalism." To download the Student's Friend in MS Word or pdf formats click here.

Latest revision of the Student's Friend
February 1, 2011

Now available is the latest revision of the concise historical narrative we call the Student's Friend, which many teachers use as an alternative to traditional textbooks. Most of the changes occur in Part 2, Units 11 and 12.  These final two units deal with world history's most recent events and are consequently most often in need of updating. The newest version of the Student's Friend may be viewed online, or downloaded in pdf and Microsoft Word formats. As always, it's free. click here

Unit 11: 1950 to the Present
Unit 12: Current Issues

New unit study guides
Updated quizzes and study questions
January 21, 2011

We have added new learning materials for teachers who use the Student's Friend in place of a traditional textbook. The Student's Friend is available free on this website. click here

We are now offering Study Guides to accompany each unit of the Student's Friend. Guides include an introduction to the unit, map locations, and open-ended questions meant to stimulate thought and discussion. These guides feature eight "essential questions" that overlay the entire course of study from Unit 1 through Unit 12. Also, check out the three "Basic writing guidelines for students." click here

We have also updated our sets of Quizzes and Study Questions that teachers can use as reading/writing/comprehension activities to help students learn the historical content contained in the Student's Friend. click here

Search and advertising added to website
December 12, 2010

At least for the present, I have retired from classroom teaching and will have more time to devote to the studentsfriend.com website, which has always been a labor of love -- not of profit. The online world is much changed since I launched this site nearly ten years ago, and the technicians at Google have made it possible for small-scale web publishers to add search and content-related advertising. Our new search function is limited to results from within the studentsfriend.com website.

I am hoping the ads, combined with referrals from our online store, will generate enough income to cover the expenses of operating this website. As is evident at the right of this page, our layout and color scheme choices are designed to clearly differentiate advertising from educational content so as to maintain a quality visitor experience. I hope our friends won't mind the change.
-Mike Maxwell

Student's Friend 2008/09 update completed
July 19, 2008

The annual revision of the Student's Friend outline of world history & geograpy has been posted on the website for the 2008/09 school year. click here ..As always, please let us know if you have any corrections or other suggestions.

History and the survival of our species
November 14, 2007

Could knowledge of world history provide the long-range view that humans will need in order to survive their selfish drive to destruction? Possibly, according to studentsfriend creator Mike Maxwell in his book review/essay in World History Connected, the online journal of world history education. click here

Student's Friend 2007/08 update completed
August 13, 2007

The annual revision of the Student's Friend outline of world history & geograpy has been posted on the website for the 2007/08 school year. click here ..As always, please let us know if you have any corrections or other suggestions.

Coming next will be a new addition to the website: study guides for each of the 12 units of the Student's Friend.

Website facelift
July 25, 2007

After six years, we thought it might be time to update the look of the studentsfriend.com website. We hope the new look is eye-catching and easier to navigate than our old site design.

Who are those two guys anyway?

Maps for Part 2 of the Student's Friend
October 8, 2006

Like Part 1 of the Student's Friend, Part 2 now has maps to accompany online views of each unit. If you're not sure of a map location listed at the beginning of a unit, you can see it in the online view.

Part 2 Student's Friend revision is complete
September 25, 2006

Weeeee're back!
As may be surmised from the entry below, it's been over two years since we last made significant changes to the studentsfriend.com website. During this time we focused on completing a major revision to Part 2 of the Student's Friend . Part 1 underwent a similar revision three years ago. These revisions are meant to give the Student's Friend a more global perspective that places somewhat less emphasis on Western Civilization.

Next, we plan to prepare maps to accompany each of the new units in the online view of Part 2 of the Student's Friend . Then we want to give this website a facelift along with other updates. We hope to see you again down the road.

Student's Friend updated for new school year
August 29, 2004

In time for the beginning of the new school year, we have posted updates to Parts 1 and 2 of the Student's Friend, our online textbook alternative. .Changes include corrections and clarifications to the revised version of Part 1 (Prehistory to 1500) and updates reflecting new developments in the world since the last revision of Part 2 (1500 to the present). Many thanks to Jason, a social studies specialist in Florida, who offered several suggestions for improving the Early Middle Ages Unit of Part 1.

Customized outline maps
December 27, 2003

We have developed three outline maps to accompany Part 1 and Part 2 of the Student's Friend (a concise outline of world history and geography available free on this website).
Two maps to be used with Part 1 are:
- a map of the world without political boundaries and
- a map of the Eastern Hemisphere without boundaries. The Eastern Hemisphere map shows rivers associated with major ancient civilizations.

The map to be used with Part 2 of the Student's Friend is an outline map of the world with political boundaries. Also available are three new maps from the University of Texas. click here.

More teacher tools
September 20, 2003

CHANGE AND COMPARISON CHART - new
This chart helps students analyze civilizations by tracking the development of eight major aspects of civilization: geography, economy, technology, political, artistic, religion/philosophy, interaction, and society. These charts can provide the basis for answering essay questions about change over time or comparison across cultures. click here

SEMINAR, INNER AND OUTER CIRCLE FORMAT - new
In many respects this activity resembles a Socratic seminar, but students manage the seminar by taking turns discussing prepared questions. This package includes guidelines with student instructions and a scoring sheet for recording student participation. click here

SOURCE ANALYSIS FORM - updated
Students use this form to analyze primary and secondary source documents. click here

RESEARCH PAPER PACKAGE - updated
An alternative (and shorter) grading rubric has been added to this 16-page package. The explanation of references has been improved. click here

Improvements to Student's Friend Part 1 and 4 Eras Timeline
August 24, 2003
After only two days of classes, my students are finding typos in the revised version of the Student's Friend Part 1. Corrections have been made, and new cover pages have been added to the revised Part 1. For the pdf version: click here. For the Microsoft Word version: click here.

Also, our 4 Eras of history timeline has been updated to better reflect the revised Part 1 and "the new world history." click here

Part 1 of the Student's Friend revised
August 19, 2003
Part 1 of the Student's Friend has been revised to make it more consistent with the "new world history." The first draft of the new version is now available in pdf and Microsoft Word formats. click here

A hundred-thousand website visits
February 23, 2003
During the week of February 16, we reached the milestone of 100,000 visits since the studentsfriend.com website went online July 24, 2001. We are currently averaging about 2,500 visits per week.