Analyze your understanding of history. This may sound odd to someone with a degree in history, but a recent study conducted by Kaya Yilmaz at Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey, reveals that social-studies teachers tend to view and teach history from an outcome-based perspective. Rather than recognizing the nuances of historical development, they tend to understand and teach history primarily for testing purposes. By overcoming this tendency to view history purely as objective knowledge, you can teach your students to understand history on a more sophisticated level. Students often get inspired when the material they are learning challenges them to see the world in "shades of gray" rather than in "black and white."
Tell the story of history rather than telling the students what happened. This builds on the need to understand your own view of history. You may spend a great deal of time developing lecture material, but a great way to inspire your students is to include anecdotal stories woven into a larger narrative story. Have a starting point that grips the student quickly and always end your class with a cliffhanger that will bring them in the next day ready to learn what happened.
Use technology to your advantage. It is not always easy to tell the story yourself, so feel free to use video material in the form of a DVD or other recorded media to tell the story for you. Even if you do this only from time to time, it will break up the monotony of the class and keep your students engaged. PBS, A&E and the History Channel all have excellent videos available for public use in an educational setting.
Use the Socratic method at the end of every lesson to reinforce what you have already taught. In an honors class this will work especially well because students tend to be more engaged in the course material and it will open up interesting discussions. The Socratic method is a question-and-answer style format that you can use to quiz the students' retention of what you have taught. When the student provides an answer, be prepared for follow-up questions that will either move the discussion to a deeper level or move it in another direction. In any case, it is an excellent way to keep students interested because you are allowing them to give their input as well.
Teach historiography to your students as part of the natural course of learning history. Historiography is the study of the study of history--how it is learned, researched and constructed. By teaching students to go beyond rote memorization of the "facts," you will be helping them to understand how the mind of the historian works. This, in and of itself, will help them to learn history faster and at a level that will properly prepare them for college history courses. This is one of the primary goals of honors history in the first place.