ABOUT APUSHSLIDES
Hi, I’m Bruno Morlan, the teacher behind APUSHslides.
I’m currently in my 15th year of teaching, and I’ve spent 13 of those years teaching Advanced Placement courses. Over the course of my career, I’ve taught AP U.S. History, AP World History, AP U.S. Government, AP Comparative Government, and AP African American Studies.
I created APUSHslides to share resources that grew out of my own classroom and an approach to teaching AP history that has evolved considerably over the years.
Why I Created APUSHslides
About six years ago, I began moving most of my lectures outside of class.
Like a lot of history teachers, I had always felt that there was more material worth teaching than there was time available to teach it. I also noticed that my students couldn’t always sustain their attention through long classroom lectures. Most importantly, every day spent primarily delivering content was a day when I had less time to work directly with students.
Moving lectures outside of class changed that balance. Students could work through the content using structured notes and lecture videos, while class time could increasingly be devoted to the parts of history instruction that benefit most from having a teacher and classmates in the room: analyzing primary and secondary sources, discussing historical questions, practicing historical thinking, and developing the writing skills required in AP courses.
The resources on APUSHslides developed out of that system.
Classroom-Tested Resources
The materials on this site weren’t originally created as commercial curriculum. They were created for my own students.
The notes, slides, activities, source analysis, writing practice, and review materials have been used in my classroom and refined over time based on what worked, what didn’t, and what my students needed.
My goal isn’t to prescribe a single way to teach AP history. Every teacher has a different classroom, teaching style, schedule, and group of students. Instead, I want to provide a strong foundation that teachers can use as-is or adapt to meet the needs of their own classes.
That’s also why the materials available for purchase are editable.
Why So Much of APUSHslides Is Free
I know how much time it takes to prepare to teach an AP course—especially for a teacher teaching it for the first time.
That’s one reason I want APUSHslides to remain useful even if you never purchase anything.
Students and teachers can access PDF versions of the student notes and corresponding lecture videos for free. The site also includes source-based activities, writing resources, review materials, and other resources developed for my classes.
Teachers who find the materials useful and want to incorporate them more fully into their own courses can purchase the editable student notes and lecture slides by individual unit, semester, or full year.
My hope is that the free materials give you a chance to see exactly how the curriculum works before deciding whether the editable resources would be useful in your own classroom.
My Approach to Teaching History
I believe students learn history best when learning content is the beginning of the process rather than the end of it.
Students need a strong foundation of historical knowledge, particularly in an AP course. But they also need opportunities to do something with that knowledge: evaluate evidence, make connections across periods, recognize historical patterns, consider competing interpretations, construct arguments, and support those arguments with evidence.
That philosophy shapes the resources on APUSHslides. The lectures and notes provide students with the content foundation they need, while class time can be used for primary and secondary sources, discussion, historical analysis, and writing.
About Me
I currently teach AP African American Studies and AP US History at a public high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to teaching I coach cross country and track.
My educational background includes a BA in History from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in American History from Pace University.
While I’m not teaching I get fulfillment from running, cycling, and spending time with my family.
Thanks for visiting APUSHslides—and I hope something here makes planning your next class a little easier.