If we do not invest more of our school time and resources in creating well educated citizens, there will be dire consequences. Educators Shawn McCusker and Tom Driscoll offer educators five steps to make civic education more meaningful and help contribute to a healthy democracy.
Want a fun way to turn student talk into deeper learning? Teacher Kelly Owens serves up tips and resources for Café Conversations, showing how students’ need to talk can become on-task, productive, and reflective when they encounter this welcoming cross-curricular strategy.
To address the variables and obstacles that hinder equal education for all students, school leader DeAnna Miller recommends Teaching for Racial Equity: Becoming Interrupters by Perry, Zemelman and Smith as a tool to support critical conversations in schools and communities.
Teacher educator Curtis Chandler guides us through Global Pandemics, a “fantastic” free Chrome app that transports teachers and students back in time to the lives, choices, and dilemmas faced by individuals during some of the most severe plagues and pandemics in history.
Close Reading the Media / Factchecking
by Frank Baker · Published 05/11/2022 · Last modified 05/12/2022
How do we help students question and verify what they read? It’s not that hard to check things out, writes media literacy expert Frank Baker, but teachers tell him many students today “won’t take the time to do even a cursory investigation.” Baker offers some teaching ideas.
Some students may not have school work high on their priority list after two years of watching their normal adolescent world fall apart. Right now they may be focused on surviving, writes school psychologist Katelyn Oellerich. “We need to be focused on helping them do that.”
Close Reading the Media / Teaching the Holocaust
by Frank Baker · Published 04/13/2022 · Last modified 01/25/2023
What we do as educators to help our students better understand the reality of the Holocaust is crucial in a time of lies, half-truths and misinformation, writes media literacy expert Frank Baker. “It is my hope that the ideas, suggestions and resources offered here will be helpful.”
As Ukrainian children flee Russia’s attacks, many will come to the USA, writes EL/ML teacher Dina Strasser. What do we need to know to welcome them? Here is Dina’s suggested reading list, from understanding the war and Ukrainian culture to learning how to help traumatized students.
As Russia begins its invasion of Ukraine, many adults turn to the news to stay informed. Our students do too. Expert Frank Baker considers where kids get their news these days and shares resources to help them follow current events in an era of sensationalism and disinformation.
Boost learning and fun this spring with quirky calendar celebrations collected by ed consultant Anne Anderson. Whether it’s observing National Optimism Month in March or Paper Airplane Day in May, adding exclamation points to the arrival of spring is a win for everyone!
