Who writes history and why does that matter?

I am supposed to start class with a daily warm up activity (never have done that in the past) so I have been trying to tie the questions to current events or using them as a way to start to get students to think critically. I asked them the following questions to get their brains going:

1. What does ‘discover’ mean?
2. Who discovered North America?
3. Who writes about history?

I had the students post them on their blog and then we had a class discussion about it (going to share/pair first). Some of my students understood the questioning sequence that I used and were able to figure out what I was trying to get them to think about. After the whole group discussion, most of my kids were able to leave class better prepared to think critically about history and historical context. I came up with this questioning sequence after I stumbled across the Stanford's Beyond the Bubble site and that  got me thinking about what I want my students to remember from this class. I will start to incorporate Stanford's Beyond the Bubble historically assessments as the year goes on to supplement my mandated multiple choice tests.

Why am I learning this!!!

Today I am showing my kids the following video from Bill Maher's "Real Time" about Civic Education:

   The question originally dealt with police brutality after Hurricane Katrina. Guest Tom Morello, guitarist for Rage Against The Machine, answered the question from a micro standpoint and Richard Dreyfus ,actor, looked at the question from a macro standpoint. I think that Dreyfus does a great job explaining why Civic education is imperative.
    I was taking this video and tying it to why my students are in this class and what I hope them to understand when they leave. History needs to be taught as an 'action' instead of 'theory'. Too often kids don't learn why they have their 3rd amendment right, they only learn what that right is. That is doing a disservice to them and also to the Constitution.
     The second point that I wanted them to take from the video would be that we need to never stop asking 'why':

• Why do we keep sticking our nose into other countries business?
• Why do we have a system of checks and balances?
• Why did George Washington warn the public about political parties? 
• Why didn't we listen to that advice? 

    I was lucky to have some great social studies teachers while in high school, they did a great job tieing the history of the US into current events. I hope to follow in my former teachers footsteps and create some interest and relevance in my US History class.